Lois’s answer to “In Falling Free, the name of the pirated Earth holovid the quaddies watch in the clubhouse is "The …” > Likes and Comments
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I read "The Prisoner of Zenda" only after reading Simon Hawke's reworking of it as "The Zenda Vendetta". I found the original novel rather a disappointment, preferring the Hawke version, but I think it's an exaggeration to call the original "abysmally-terrible". I don't think you're missing much if you haven't read it, but there are surely plenty of worse novels in existence.
I liked the old fashioned romantic adventure when I read them in the late 50’s as a kid and read Prisoner of Zelda then. I missed the Zinda Vendetta though and will look for it. Thanks!
Diane: Not everyone will prefer Simon Hawke's "The Zenda Vendetta". It preserves the original plot and most of the original characters, but it adds a new science-fiction plot on top of it, with new characters that interact with the original ones. It's part of Hawke's Time Wars series of novels, in which he reworks a whole series of classic novels in the same kind of way. The first in the series is "The Ivanhoe Gambit", in which he reworks "Ivanhoe", adding his own plot and characters on top of the original story.
Not familiar with the series. Would you recommend one to start with? Or maybe I’ll pick the one based on the classic I most liked.
Diane: I think the first one is the best: "The Ivanhoe Gambit". On the whole, they're best read in order, so that you understand what's happening to the recurring characters. The later books in the series tend to be somewhat less good than the early ones. There is some discussion throughout of the theory of time travel; although what's going on is not exactly time travel, because the "time-travellers" travel into fictional scenarios.
I seem to remember that the second Flashman novel, "Royal Flash," also played with "The Prisoner of Zenda."
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Jonathan
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Aug 21, 2022 09:26AM
I read "The Prisoner of Zenda" only after reading Simon Hawke's reworking of it as "The Zenda Vendetta". I found the original novel rather a disappointment, preferring the Hawke version, but I think it's an exaggeration to call the original "abysmally-terrible". I don't think you're missing much if you haven't read it, but there are surely plenty of worse novels in existence.
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I liked the old fashioned romantic adventure when I read them in the late 50’s as a kid and read Prisoner of Zelda then. I missed the Zinda Vendetta though and will look for it. Thanks!
Diane: Not everyone will prefer Simon Hawke's "The Zenda Vendetta". It preserves the original plot and most of the original characters, but it adds a new science-fiction plot on top of it, with new characters that interact with the original ones. It's part of Hawke's Time Wars series of novels, in which he reworks a whole series of classic novels in the same kind of way. The first in the series is "The Ivanhoe Gambit", in which he reworks "Ivanhoe", adding his own plot and characters on top of the original story.
Not familiar with the series. Would you recommend one to start with? Or maybe I’ll pick the one based on the classic I most liked.
Diane: I think the first one is the best: "The Ivanhoe Gambit". On the whole, they're best read in order, so that you understand what's happening to the recurring characters. The later books in the series tend to be somewhat less good than the early ones. There is some discussion throughout of the theory of time travel; although what's going on is not exactly time travel, because the "time-travellers" travel into fictional scenarios.
I seem to remember that the second Flashman novel, "Royal Flash," also played with "The Prisoner of Zenda."
