Update on the rewritten Darkover news

[selenak]

After some of you told me that you had not discovered any changes in recent editions of the Darkover novels, contrary to what the German editor of same had claimed was going on, I asked my source at Droemer & Knaur again, this time requesting specific details. Here is his written reply:

"It started with The Bloody Sun; we even have seperate contracts for Bloody Sun and Bloody Sun - Rewrite. This novel has definitely already been published in the US with the changes - as I said, some names and the gender of some characters are switched, not storylines. We were told that it is planned to do the same for the novels which use Bloody Sun as a background - Forbidden Tower etc..."

_knots, muffinmonster, other Darkover fans? It seems it really happened. Darkover rewritten and censored. Zandru's hell.

Comments

[snarkel.livejournal.com]

That's just horrible. I can't recall any recent reprints here in the US, but I haven't exactly been looking, and they could have slipped it in with the old covers.

GRRR. Thank god for libraries and used bookstores.

[greenygal.livejournal.com]

What baffles me about this, actually, is that I don't remember any homosexuality in THE BLOODY SUN in the first place--there's a gay character with a walk-on role near the end, Dyan Ardais, but I don't recall his sexuality even being mentioned in that book. Everything else I remember in that book is heterosexual--granted, I haven't read it recently and I'm open to corrections, but...

Hmmm. Maybe it *is* Dyan, and he's being changed to a she in preparation for HERITAGE OF HASTUR--but damned if I can imagine making that character work as a female in the massively sexist Darkovan culture. Then again, I guess they're stuck with that problem regardless--I don't see how you can switch the genders of either Regis or Danilo without totally altering the plot (or Darkovan views on What Women Do, I guess, but it's not like that's a minor change either), and it gets even worse with Magda and Camilla, for whom it is a critical part of their characters that they're female--you *cannot* genderswap those characters without having to rewrite the book from the ground up. It would be easier to just delete their relationship, actually, although even after that you've got a lot of censoring to do on the whole Free Amazon trilogy, given how often the subject comes up.

And changing genders in THE FORBIDDEN TOWER...doesn't seem as if it would help, somehow. Quite the opposite, given that the novel is based around two heterosexual couples. Although the idea of Andrea Carr the Terran and her Darkovan wife is sending me into a fit of giggles--oh, man, and Andrew thought *he* had troubles! Granted, same-sex themes are dealt with in that book, particularly at the end, but they aren't fixable by doing genderswaps. And anyone of puritanical bent trying to deal with THE FORBIDDEN TOWER is going to have much bigger problems, anyway--one of the leads goes through the entire novel trying to wake up her sex drive, two of the others commit societally-approved adultery, and the emotional climax is a four-way sexual experience in which two participants are twin sisters. Wonder if the censors will try to fix *that*?

It's not that I don't think this is appalling; I do. I'm just utterly baffled as well, and taking some malicious pleasure in how very difficult it'll turn out to be.

[illmantrim.livejournal.com]

Agreed on all points


*snickers at the thought of Andrea Carr* - good lord, what a can of worms that would open up...
In fact to change any of those relationships and genders would actually frell the whole story up. It is such a well-bal;anced story that altering anythign in it would make it all fall down.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. Maybe it *is* Dyan, and he's being changed to a she in preparation for HERITAGE OF HASTUR--but damned if I can imagine making that character work as a female in the massively sexist Darkovan culture. Then again, I guess they're stuck with that problem regardless--I don't see how you can switch the genders of either Regis or Danilo without totally altering the plot (or Darkovan views on What Women Do, I guess, but it's not like that's a minor change either),

Now I have the dark vision of Girl!Danilo being the first female Darkovan to serve with the cadets. In which case they'll probably keep Dyan male and just remove the backstory about him and the other cadet?

and the emotional climax is a four-way sexual experience in which two participants are twin sisters. Wonder if the censors will try to fix *that*?

I know! Perhaps they'll give up in frustration?

[muffinmonster.livejournal.com]

Stupid, stupid, stupid. I really can't think of anything else to say about this!

[illmantrim.livejournal.com]

Having first editions of both Forbidden Tower and Bloody Sun signed by Bradley herself and having taken a panel class by her on both at a Convention I can say that nothing was altered in the originals I have here. I have compared them to more recent editions and can find no differences. Which is not to say that there arent any ediotions floating around out there where there arent any such changes but... I havent yet found any such changes. If you can find out more info on editions can try to run down copies as I have several rare and current edition bookstores here I can chase down different editions at. I have opened several Darkover books of varying year-release and havent yet discovered any changes...

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Oh, I envy you the autographed books. When I was 15 I once wrote her a fan letter, taking care to get my English right, and she was kind enough to reply.

I'll ask Tim (editor guy fom the German publisher) whether the contract mentions more info about the American edition.

[illmantrim.livejournal.com]

groovy!

[artaxastra.livejournal.com]

Wow. That's simply terrible.

I have no words.

I'll have to look at a new copy and see if I see the differences!

[miladygrey.livejournal.com]

I've only read the older (Gregg's Science Fiction Library? Something like that) editions with forewords by MZB and endpapers that are maps of Darkover. But I know that all the books have been recently rereleased in new omnibus paperback editions--the Free Amazon trilogy in one gigantic volume, The Heritage of Hastur and Sharra's Exile in another, etc. I haven't read any of these, so I suppose it's conceivable that they might have been altered.

It's The World Wreckers they're going to have some trouble with, due to that chieri character that's androgynous until it falls in love. Poor MZB--somewhere, she's rolling over in her grave.

[greenygal.livejournal.com]

But I know that all the books have been recently rereleased in new omnibus paperback editions--the Free Amazon trilogy in one gigantic volume, The Heritage of Hastur and Sharra's Exile in another, etc. I haven't read any of these, so I suppose it's conceivable that they might have been altered.

I stopped by the bookstore after work today and took a look at the omnibus containing THE BLOODY SUN; a cursory check didn't reveal any changes. (Mind you, as I said above, I don't know what there is to change in that one, so I don't know what I would have been looking for...) That was released almost a year ago, though, so I'm guessing the hue and cry would have caught up to us by now if that was it, anyway. New editions?

It's The World Wreckers they're going to have some trouble with, due to that chieri character that's androgynous until it falls in love.

Depends on exactly what is seen as a problem. If genderbending is a bad thing, yeah, a large chunk of that book is gone, and changing names is not going to help! But if it's strictly same-sex pairings that are a problem--well, technically David and Keral aren't one. Although David thinking of Keral as male throughout the book would obviously have to go.

Poor MZB--somewhere, she's rolling over in her grave.

Oh yeah.

[coffeeandink.livejournal.com]

But there aren't any gay storylines in The Bloody Sun.

Bradley herself rewrote The Bloody Sun to bring into further into line with later Darkover continuity and to improve some of the writing--the edition I have has a double copyright date, 1964 and 1979.

I continue to think there would have been some mention of this among US fandom if the books had been censored and this way, and there hasn't been.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Lack of gay storylines: I know, which is why I was a bit surprised - I thought he would name one novel in which a same-sex relationship is really important and prominent, like Heritage of Hastur. I also know about the MZB continuity rewrites (similar to Sword of Aldones versus Sharra's Exile), but I doubt that is what he meant - Tim (editor guy in question) isn't ordinarily given to confusing stuff like this with rewrites by a third party.

Perhaps he still has a copy of the Bloody Sun rewrite he meant, then I could look it up myself, though if they pretended to have switched it with the original in order for the German edition to stay the same, he might not have. Anyway, I'll keep asking for more intel.