The publication dates of the Emberverse novels get nearer to the present. Does the series approach its end or will it accompany us further into the twenty first century?
Wednesday, 18 October 2017
A Crossroads In Fictional Time
The publication dates of the Emberverse novels get nearer to the present. Does the series approach its end or will it accompany us further into the twenty first century?
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4 comments:
That's the sort of dilemma I like to have... 8-). We considered splitting THE DESERT AND THE BLADE because of the length, but there was no convenient point.
Dear Mr. Stirling,
And I used to regret how BRIEF some of Poul Anderson's best novels were. Works like, say, A CIRCUS OF HELLS and THE REBEL WORLDS. I used to wish such books were longer, till I realized how MUCH Anderson packed into his allegedly too short novels.
Not that PA was unable to write long novels, he could, when he chose or needed to. As we see in his THE KING OF YS and THE HARVEST OF STARS books.
Sean
There were marketing constraints. Once upon a time -- before the 1960's -- it was rare for SF novels to be much beyond 70K words, and the publishers preferred it that way. Then the norm expanded to the 100K-150K range, where it is now, with occasional huge doorstoppers, especially in fantasy. The three books of Tolkien's trilogy are each about 150K; but it was planned as a single volume, which the publisher objected to because of size constraints.
Dear Mr. Stirling,
Hmmm, "marketing constraints." Yes, I recall reading in various sources, such as Tolkien's letters, of the discussions he had Allen & Unwin about the LENGTH of THE LORD OF THE RINGS, and the best way of marketing the book. The publishers were willing to bring out the book, but they thought a single huge volume would be uneconomical.
And some of Anderson's earlier books went beyond that 70K words average, such as THE BROKEN SWORD. But that was fantasy, not hard SF.
Sean
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