I was hoping to really like this new first novel, The Cold Between. A series of murders involves the cranky Captain of the Central Corps starship Galileo and his emotional crew. There’s a wormhole, a conspiracy, and a whole lot of lovin’ going on. In fact, I could classify The Cold Between as a science fiction romance novel. Lots of “relationship” issues. Yes, there’s action in this space opera. But it’s pretty spread out over the book’s 518 pages. Bonesteel’s first attempt at a novel has flaws that a good editor should have corrected. If there’s another Central Corps novel published, I might give it a try…or I might not. GRADE: C+
What is it with these doorstop books? It’s not as if writers today are being paid by the word as they were in the days of Dickens and Trollope. And where has editing gone? I’ve read so many books that meander all over the place and could easily have been cut by a fourth with no significant loss to stories and characters. I don’t mind reading a long book that needs to be long, but in this case, save something for your second effort, Elizabeth!
Deb, well said! I have a stack of large books (500+ pages or more) that I can’t read until Summer. It’s too hard to read long books while I’m working so I’m reduced to short story collections and non-fiction books. “Meander” is the perfect word for what happens in books like THE COOL BETWEEN. Subplots multiply and pages and pages of padding result. Maybe Elizabeth Bonesteel will learn from this effort.
I totally agree with both of you. When I get one of these 500+ page books my heart sinks. Unless it grabs me pretty quickly, or is by an author I know and trust to pull me in, it will more than likely go back to the library unread.
Sadly, editing seems to be an almost lost art these days.
Jeff, Deb is right about cutting 25% of the verbiage in these tomes. Editors used to perform that function. But in today’s world of publishing, editors are almost nonexistent. That’s why we have so many unnecessarily long, padded books.
P.S. – Deb, thanks to your many positive comments I am reading Sheila Weller’s GIRLS LIKE US now. I’m not sure why, but I’d have guessed that Carly Simon was more than a couple of years younger than Joni Mitchell and Carole King.
I hope you enjoy it. TAPESTRY, BLUE, and ANTICIPATION were touchstones of my teen years, so I went into the book predisposed to like it. The revelation to me was Carole King’s work ethic and can-do spirit. Nothing keeps her down!
King went to the same high school I did. Other alumni include Bernie Sanders, Chuck Schumer (who was a couple of years behind me, and was friends with my brother Ken, strange as that seems at this point), Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Judge Judy, “Cousin” Bruce Morrow, and Andrew Dice Clay!
She actually lived close to where Jackie grew up and attended the same junior high, but Sheepshead Bay High School wasn’t open until after she had graduated.
I will only read books that long for my book group. Because in my case it will take me two weeks to read them. I assumed if you had a publisher like Harper Collins you would get a real editor. But perhaps not.
Patti, the trend in science fiction and fantasy publishing is long books. Part of the blame goes to George R. R. Martin’s 1000-page doorstoppers.
If you’re going to blame Martin, then go back and blame Robert Jordan, and before that you can go quite a way back to other fantasy writers. Much of that is attributible to world building and huge casts, obviously not the case in the more recent (decade or so) trend to make ’em fat, sell ’em high thinking. I feel sorry for the people who shell out 25-30 bucks for a book like this and find they bought a stinker.
Rick, I’ve been burned numerous times by lengthy science fiction and fantasy novels. Now, I try to only buy such books when I’m familiar with the writer or the reviews are very positive. For a book like THE COLD BETWEEN, I used the Library.
In the good old times editors either helped to cut those monster books down – or divided them up.
Even better were those magazine days when a novel was “serialised” and had to be cut into manageable pieces.
I still remember reading the different volumes of Frank Herbert’s Dune saga piece by piece in ANALOG …
Buying that in Germany at one of the bookshops I passed on my way to university month by month still makes me proud – those US magazines and books were really expensive for a student!
Now maybe the whole Dune saga would appear as one monster volume …
Wolf, yet another volume of the DUNE series is due to be published here in the Fall. It’s titled NAVIGATORS OF DUNE.
Speaking of high schools, the one I attended boasts former NY governor George Pateki as a graduate. He was in my older sister’s class, two years ahead of me.
As for the featured book, there’s no way in hell I’d have it in the house. Not my meat at all.
Bob, I’m always open to giving a first novelist a shot.