Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Kind of Annoyed

Have you ever found a book that you utterly enjoyed? What do you do next? Well of course, you check the library, etc. to see if the author has written anything else!

I did that today. I found a copy of "Summers at Castle Auburn" by Sharon Shinn. My younger sister introduced me to this book and when I found it at my local library I thought it would be fun to reread it. I also decided to check the catalog to see if the author had written anything else and if they had it.

Well, she did! and they did! So I got them off the shelf. It was a little bit of a shock to realize that they were quite science fiction. I like some SCI FI, usually in the YA section. For me, if it gets to weird, its just to weird.

Anyway, I rejected 1 book and checked out the other book skeptically. The book I checked out was "Jenna Starborn". It looked pretty sci fi, but I thought I would give it a whirl.

I've been quite pleased with it. That is, I was quite pleased with it until I started recognizing the plot. Yes, it is a rewrite of Jane Eyre. They have changed a few things. For instance, she is not the ward's tutor, but a generator technician who lives in the house- but the storyline is the same.

Now I don't mind a rewrite. I'm looking forward to reading "Pride and Predjudice and Zombies" if I can ever find it on tape/CD. - BUT - Don't you think they should warn you somehow on the cover or on the back of the book that its a 'enjoyable revision' 'interesting rewrite' through an old storyline?

I'm just bugged. I was expecting a fresh storyline. That's what is bugging me. I don't think I will really enjoy this book until I get over that. Maybe I should put it down for a week or so...

What would you do?

(btw, the book isn't heavy on the sci fi and is well written. I may have to check out the other book "Archangel". But I don't know. The cover looks really STRANGE and the back cover says nothing about the story.)

***Edited to add that after careful scrutiny of the cover, I found a reference to Jane Eyre. But in my defense, it was half covered by a library sticker.