Six for gold

[dolorosa_12]

I've got a cup of smokey black tea, I've got macarons, and I'm having a restful afternoon as the weekend wraps up. Other than my two daily trips out to the gym and pool, and a market wander during lunch today, I haven't been further than the bakery — where Matthias and spent an enjoyable time last night, drinking wine and eating a cheese platter with fresh slices of baguette for dinner. The bakery has been doing those wine nights for a couple of years now, but other than a flurry of visits when this was first starting out, I haven't really attended many. I should do it more — wine and cheese by candlelight: what's not to love?

My reading this week has consisted solely of a reread of Leigh Bardugo's Six of Crows duology. This was prompted in part by my knowledge that she has gone back in and re-edited the books for new editions, 'correcting' authorial choices that she had felt were flaws or weaknesses of the books. I'm of two minds about this sort of thing — Samantha Shannon did it with the first three books in her dystopian Bone Season series — I understand why authors are itching to get out the red pen and fix weaker writing from earlier in their careers, but I personally wish they would leave things be and have the courage to just view problems in their earlier books as signs of how far they've developed as writers.

One of the things I know Bardugo was planning to 'correct' was to age up her gang of criminal underworld crooks so that the underlying premise (gangleading criminal mastermind aged 17, with his crew of similarly aged misfits, each of whom have equally improbable achievements for characters of their youth) was less ridiculous. I know she received a lot of criticism for this, most of which I felt was misplaced: it's a fantasy YA adventure series, and teenagers in improbable and unlikely positions of leadership and achievement are kind of to be expected in that genre. The absolutely absurd situations in which Kaz Brekker and his gang of unlikely allies find themselves is part of the ridiculous charm of the duology for me, and I have no interest in reading a 'corrected' version with older characters (especially since I imagine all their interpersonal relationships will remain very adolescent in character). For all past rereads of the series, I've relied on library copies, but this was enough to make me bite the bullet and buy secondhand copies of the older editions.

It's been a couple of years since I last read the duology, and I'm pleased to report it remains as enjoyable as ever. The heists and sleights of hand are spectacular and over the top, the stakes are high, the gang of mismatched misfits — all dispossessed in one way or another, almost all refugees or immigrants, all traumatised in one way or another — start out at odds, and ultimately find a sense of resolution, home and healing in each other. The other parts of Bardugo's imagined world in the Grishaverse (fake fantasy Russia, fake fantasy China, fake fantasy Scandinavia) are laughably cartoonish thin caricatures, but her Ketterdam: fake fantasy Amsterdam, a mercantile city of canals, warehouses, schemers, scammers and commerce remains a delightful creation. It's a place where everyone comes to make their fortunes, or to outrun their pasts — where at once no one is at home, and therefore it can be home for anyone. I always love coming back to spend time there. Other than my longstanding quibble with one character death that feels cynically done in order to ensure readers know the story's stakes are high (and Bardugo then having to wildly cast around for the one character she could safely kill off without risking a massive reader backlash or her planned spinoff sequel), I loved it from start to finish, and felt the reread was very worth doing. I'm glad I made the effort to get my hands on those older editions.

My tea is getting cold, so I'll leave things here. I hope everyone's been having restful weekends.

Comments

[likeadeuce]

I do wonder if Bardugo had always wanted to make the characters older but was told at the time they have to be teenagers in order to market it as YA, in which case I have some sympathy in making the changes, esp as those market forces have probably changed a bit. Personally, these characters never read as teens to me + I kind of eyerolled it as something she was forced to do, so I grant that's my bias.

Either way, it makes sense to want your own original copies (the 'Star Wars' problem) and I'm glad you enjoyed the revisit

[dolorosa_12]

I suspect you're right. She strikes me as an author who always writes to the market (although I also feel that her Grishaverse books also kind of helped shape that market) rather than entirely from the heart, and the Six of Crows books were definitely at the tail end of the YA boom, so there's no way she could have written them with adult characters and achieved that level of publisher marketing support and success.

They read as teens to me in their interpersonal relationships (so much getting distracted by their love lives at inconvenient moments!) but not in their material circumstances (which are ridiculous for characters aged 15-17). For me, that absurdity is part of the series' charm.

[rekishi]

Hm, for a published author that gives me... Odd feelings. I mean, I'm considering some heavy edits to a fanfic (because it relies on people knowing reality context 15 years ago and...lol ehm... also, needs some SPaG editing that is driving me personally crazy) but that's...a fanfic.

With published books, I'd say leave them well enough alone. I'm very critical of children's books being edited for political correctness, too (and I don't mean Harry Potter or whatever, I mean the Astrid Lindgren books and I know they do have problems...but I also think it's a teachable moment for kids but I digress). An author editing themelves... Idk.

And as you say, the relationships between the people are unlikely to change unless she does a whole rewrite. Soooo. idk. No, seems wrong. And is probably the reason why a lot of authors don't go back to their books once published.

[dolorosa_12]

The closest personal equivalent I can think of is my PhD and the papers and articles I published during that time period — if I ever open one of them again and reread it, it makes me cringe. But I don't want to go back and redo any of those pieces of writing: they're done, they represent a particular period of my life, and I've moved on.

I agree with you about editing children's books — even more egregious are the instances where they're edited not just for political incorrectness, but just because the publisher doesn't think the context and references are comprehensible to current children. I find that particularly insulting — if the writing is good enough that a publisher feels it's worth keeping the book in print many decades later, it should be good enough that child readers can grapple with its supposedly confusing context.

I suspect most authors don't get the chance to do these kind of rewrites and new editions, but my feelings about those who do are decidedly mixed.

[rekishi]

Oh my god, I will never ever look at my PhD or any of my other theses again. Ever. Nope.

they're done, they represent a particular period of my life, and I've moved on

I feel that way too with most things and for example, I don't feel any urge to contexualize some of the other RPF I've written. Which is very funny and I've sat with that for a while, but I might still do it, because of how much I still like it. But also maybe because I'm not writing a lot right now and work is making me into a giant ball of stress and writing usually alleviates that.

Yeah, I'm with you on most authors not getting the chance. With other languages, it's a bit trickier. back when the LotR movies came out I wanted to read the books first but I wasn't reading English at the time (and anyway, I don't think I had the English reading level for that English at the time) and the new translations of the books had gotten bad reviews (Sam calls Frodo 'Chef' among other things), so I ended up only watching the movies/reading the books some 15 or so years later.

[yarnofariadne]

Huh, I didn't know this had happened with Six of Crows but I was thinking about this earlier; reflecting on my books, I know I could write better versions of them all now, particularly the older ones, but I wouldn't actually go back and edit them. I was perfectly happy with them at the time, and I think that's worth something, even if I'm not perfectly happy with them now. I like them as markers of time, I guess is what I mean. I get that someone writing more commercially has different things going on with the crafting of their books but. I just don't like it, lol.

[dolorosa_12]

I'm with you, especially in terms of leaving older pieces of writing alone as markers in time and signs of how far you've come.

[chestnut_pod]

It is an interesting question! I remember that Diane Duane redid the timelines of the Young Wizard books significantly, and they were a mess, so I felt grateful for that.

[dolorosa_12]

I suspect a lot of authors are secretly itching to go back and fix flaws in their earlier books that seem glaring as they develop their skills and gain more experience.

[singedsun]

I love to hear that the Six of Crows duology holds up, that makes me really happen to know.

[dolorosa_12]

I mean, the premise is still ludicrous, but the duology is close to perfect at doing what it's trying to do, which is all I really want from a work of fiction.

[alasse_irena]

Oh that age change in SoC is...an interesting choice. On the one hand, it's a bit of a weird move to go back 10 years later and age up your characters by a couple of years; but on the other hand, I was genuinely bothered when I originally read the book with trying to figure out how to fit all the things Kaz had supposedly done into the relatively short span of time he'd been in Ketterdam. I always wondered a little whether Bardugo had wanted to write them as adults but as an established YA author found that keeping it YA improved its publishability.

[dolorosa_12]

Kaz's backstory in particular is absolutely ludicrous (although Nina's and Matthias's are also close to it in sheer absurdity due to their ages), but for me the absolute gulf between their supposed ages and any sense of realism is part of the charm. I like the books because, and not in spite of it.

I always wondered a little whether Bardugo had wanted to write them as adults but as an established YA author found that keeping it YA improved its publishability.

I think you're right on the money here. The books were published at the tail end of the big YA-read-by-adults boom, whereas now the same people are reading romantasy, which usually has adult characters.

[lirazel]

I was one of those people who thought the ages of the original were ridiculous, but I also don't approve of this kind of retconning. I'm glad I have my original copies!

The other parts of Bardugo's imagined world in the Grishaverse (fake fantasy Russia, fake fantasy China, fake fantasy Scandinavia) are laughably cartoonish thin caricatures, but her Ketterdam: fake fantasy Amsterdam, a mercantile city of canals, warehouses, schemers, scammers and commerce remains a delightful creation.

Agreed! I have bounced very hard off of all of her other books, but she was cooking with gas when it came to this duology, these characters, and this setting.

Also strongly agreed regarding the character death. Completely unnecessary!

[rose_griffes]

I'm nodding along with your comment: didn't like the original ages, don't like the post-publication change. (Although I like the Grisha stories more than you did--a female chosen one character has a lot of appeal for me.)

[dolorosa_12]

I quite enjoyed her standalone book with the Sephardi converso character trying to fly under the radar during the Inquisition, and for sheer silly escapism the Grisha trilogy was quite good, but the Six of Crows is the only work of hers that I actually want to reread and return to.

[evewithanapple]

I mean, i know which authorial choice I think she should change . . .

[dolorosa_12]

I thought of you when I wrote that part of the post! And of course she would never change that part of the story, because it would retcon the sequel trilogy (which I only got as far as the first book before giving up in frustration) out of existence.

[windancer]

Unfortunately, or fortunately, 17-year-old thief king George Cooper was the template and will forever remain, so I'm a bad audience for determining whether teens in YA fantasy adventures should have resumes appropriate to their ages XD

[dolorosa_12]

I mean, for me the sheer ludicrous absurdity of their ages matched with their backstories was always part of the charm (hence buying the secondhand older editions now that there's a risk that version of the story will no longer exist), but it would seem those particular criticisms got under Leigh Bardugo's skin.

[windancer]

Since at the time of release I was running in big Bardugo fan circles, I don't think I saw ANY real criticism of the duology and definitely not anything related to the character ages being unrealistic, and I do kinda wonder what corners the critique was coming from. I wish authors would resist these revisits; my stance hasn't changed since the thing with Shannon you mention. The urge is understandable, but if you're a big enough name to get the chance, surely you have people to tell you why you shouldn't!

I think the person upthread who suspects an aging-down at the outset is probably right. Still like this duo as YA quite a bit.