Book 53: Pandora's Star

Pandora's Star, by Peter F. Hamilton

The GHPal who pulled this book reports she just couldn't get into it. It's too dense–the paperback version is 988 pages. Too many characters, some matter later, some not. She stopped reading about page 300. She suggests it be read on an electronic book reader, so one can search for a character you can't remember but know was written about previously.

She raised a subject we're going to discuss at our next meeting–where are all the editors? There's no reason for a book to be 1,000 pages and have characters who don't contribute to the story in a meaningful way. A good editor helps with things like that, not just proofreading.

This morning I read an article in the Wall Street Journal about Lee Harper's new book. Apparently it's the original book Harper wrote, but an editor recommended she rewrite it to tell the story from Scout's POV. The result was To Kill a Mockingbird.