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News & ArtsTuesday, February 17, 2009
Books Speaking of Dicks
Posted by Paul Constant on Tue, Feb 17, 2009 at 11:13 AM
I think I might not review this one.
Philip K. Dick’s last wife has reworked the novel he was working on when he died in 1982 and is publishing the book herself, The Guardian reported. Tessa Dick, the fifth wife of the science-fiction legend, told Self-Publishing Review, an online magazine (selfpublishingreview.com), that her version of “The Owl in Daylight” seeks to express “the spirit” of the proposed book, about which little is known.
There's no reason why this sort of thing—author's last books, being reworked and finished—has to happen. There has never been a good one.
1
I sorta disagree, in that I thought Hemingway's "The Garden of Eden" was amazing when I read it in college.
2
Good point, NaFun.
I could see how something that was already laid out and mostly written should be "finished up", especially if it was outline and just missing a few fleshed out chapters. And the person doing it understood the body of work, as well as the editing process.
Frequently, the spouse tends to read things as they are finished and provides feedback, so this isn't quite as awful as it being ghosted by someone for quick bucks.
I could see how something that was already laid out and mostly written should be "finished up", especially if it was outline and just missing a few fleshed out chapters. And the person doing it understood the body of work, as well as the editing process.
Frequently, the spouse tends to read things as they are finished and provides feedback, so this isn't quite as awful as it being ghosted by someone for quick bucks.
3
I respectfully disagree as well. The fully unedited version of Stranger in a Strange Land that Heinlein's wife pushed through after his death is far superior to the original print. Over 60,000 words, almost a fourth of the novel was edited out back in 1961 as being "too sensational" for the time. Meaning sex and taboo subjects.
Widows can do well with their late-husband's work.
Widows can do well with their late-husband's work.
5
I'll put in a plug for the "Thrones, Dominations," begun by Dorothy Sayers and finished by Jill Paton Walsh. It's certainly not up there with the best of Sayers's mysteries, but I think it's far better than the worst (like that tedious one about the Scottish artists). Anyway, it's an entertaining read and quite true to the style of the originals.
But the sequel, "A Presumption of Death," which I think is mostly by Paton Walsh with little bits of Sayers, isn't very good at all.
If you don't like mysteries in general or Sayers in particular, then never mind, of course.
But the sequel, "A Presumption of Death," which I think is mostly by Paton Walsh with little bits of Sayers, isn't very good at all.
If you don't like mysteries in general or Sayers in particular, then never mind, of course.
6
The Salmon of Doubt, a compendium of Douglas Adams' final essays and the framework of his final book, while not exactly excellent, was certainly a decent send-off to a terrific author. But it didn't have a narrative, per se, so it might not count.
7
I hope Tessa is psychotic, because that's the only way this tomb raiding has any chance of "expressing the spirit" of Dick's work.
8
I remember PKD saying in one of his last interviews that The Owl in Daylight would be about aliens who make a pilgrimage to Earth in search of God-- because, having never had music of any kind, they start picking up our radio stations and getting divine experiences out of pop rock. For years I've yearned to read even the tiniest fragment of it. Too bad it doesn't sound like he kept to that premise. Still, my curiosity far outweighs my apprehension, personally speaking.
9
What about 2666? I'd call it good, but most people (who are no doubt smarter than me and understand why the hell they had to read 300 pages of violent police reports about rape and murder) say it's great. It sounds like it was "reworked and finished."
10
I bet most competent editors could knock Stranger In A Strange Land down to 200 pages, no more, and give us one Heinlein book that might be worth taking a look at.
11
And I've always liked Gottfried von Strassburg's Tristan & Isolt, which was finished for him by others.
Then again, I also liked the Dorothy Sayers book about the Scottish artists.
Then again, I also liked the Dorothy Sayers book about the Scottish artists.
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