Beth
asked
Michael J. Sullivan:
Well I would first like to gush about how much I love your books. I have read every single one. Royce and Hadrian have such a beautiful friendship and I reread the Riyria books every year. My question is - I love the cover art from the original books - The Crown Conspiracy, Avempartha. Nyphron Rising, etc- but I have only read the newer compiled sets (Theft of Swords, etc), is there any differences?
Michael J. Sullivan
Hey, Beth, I'm so glad you enjoy the tales. There are some differences between the originals and what Orbit released, but they are very few. Some examples:
- The entire series went through another round of copyediting so some there was some "cleanup" on that front.
- The Orbit version starts out a bit different than the original. When I first wrote the tale, I started it with Archie looking over his letters while waiting for Victor to arrive (so he could blackmail him). As the series began to sell, I realized this was a mistake. There were several people who thought that Victor was the main character (because that is who they saw first). There was a scene that was cut from Nyphron Rising (in both versions) where Royce and Hadrian are robbed while taking Arista to Sheridan. It was a "fun scene" but didn't "fit" with Nyphron Rising. I later made a revised version of that scene as a free short story to introduce Royce and Hadrian (called The Thieves), and it occurred to me that it would be a better "opening" so the Orbit version has that short story first and then we pick up where the original ones did.
- In the original version, Myron tries to run away during the capture of Alric and when one of the Baron's men goes after him, Myron kills that men in self-defense. As the years went on, I felt remorse for placing such a burden on Myron's head, so when Orbit picked up the series, I changed that scene suh that Royce does the killing, and therefore Myron has no blood on his hands. This reduced some of the "drama" of a follow-on scene where Myron speaks of "regrets" (because his regret in the original was taking a life and now that didn't happen), but I'm glad for removing that burden from my favorite little monk.
There might be other minor things, but those are the only things that come to mind.
P.S. FWIW - I like the covers of the originals better than the ones Oribt did. There are several reasons for this (a) I created them and (b) I don't really like depicting characters on the covers -- and I didn't think the "actors" selected fit Royce and Hadrian - as far as how I saw them.
- The entire series went through another round of copyediting so some there was some "cleanup" on that front.
- The Orbit version starts out a bit different than the original. When I first wrote the tale, I started it with Archie looking over his letters while waiting for Victor to arrive (so he could blackmail him). As the series began to sell, I realized this was a mistake. There were several people who thought that Victor was the main character (because that is who they saw first). There was a scene that was cut from Nyphron Rising (in both versions) where Royce and Hadrian are robbed while taking Arista to Sheridan. It was a "fun scene" but didn't "fit" with Nyphron Rising. I later made a revised version of that scene as a free short story to introduce Royce and Hadrian (called The Thieves), and it occurred to me that it would be a better "opening" so the Orbit version has that short story first and then we pick up where the original ones did.
- In the original version, Myron tries to run away during the capture of Alric and when one of the Baron's men goes after him, Myron kills that men in self-defense. As the years went on, I felt remorse for placing such a burden on Myron's head, so when Orbit picked up the series, I changed that scene suh that Royce does the killing, and therefore Myron has no blood on his hands. This reduced some of the "drama" of a follow-on scene where Myron speaks of "regrets" (because his regret in the original was taking a life and now that didn't happen), but I'm glad for removing that burden from my favorite little monk.
There might be other minor things, but those are the only things that come to mind.
P.S. FWIW - I like the covers of the originals better than the ones Oribt did. There are several reasons for this (a) I created them and (b) I don't really like depicting characters on the covers -- and I didn't think the "actors" selected fit Royce and Hadrian - as far as how I saw them.
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