Fantasy and sci-fi are particularly tough, I imagine. The ideal situation would be to have the author sitting right there interacting with the editing process. But the thing is, it's pretty obvious the editor in question wasn't really paying attention to the text, the story, the plot... I haven't read CJ Cherryh's work, but I'm willing to assume she builds worlds well, as she's so popular with so many readers. ^_^ Which inevitably leads me to wonder what exactly the editor was doing that he/she didn't bother giving that certain leeway in world building, especially in terms of an alien or fantastical world. Just imagine what Dune would have been like if the editor had started nixing strange words like "Fremen" and the misuse of "spice", or not trying to figure out why there was such a thing as a Bene Gesserit witch in a world that is clearly so unlike ours on the surface.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2012-05-21 06:24 pm (UTC)Fantasy and sci-fi are particularly tough, I imagine. The ideal situation would be to have the author sitting right there interacting with the editing process. But the thing is, it's pretty obvious the editor in question wasn't really paying attention to the text, the story, the plot... I haven't read CJ Cherryh's work, but I'm willing to assume she builds worlds well, as she's so popular with so many readers. ^_^ Which inevitably leads me to wonder what exactly the editor was doing that he/she didn't bother giving that certain leeway in world building, especially in terms of an alien or fantastical world. Just imagine what Dune would have been like if the editor had started nixing strange words like "Fremen" and the misuse of "spice", or not trying to figure out why there was such a thing as a Bene Gesserit witch in a world that is clearly so unlike ours on the surface.