On Monday, I was feeling out of sorts and wanted a comfort book. I had been reminded of Sharon Lee and Steve Miller’s I Dare while poking around Meisha Merlin’s (annoying) web site trying to decide whether to buy their most recent book, The Tomorrow Log (which I did, discounted from Amazon; it’s up next). Also, I was curious to see if I still had the problems I did on the first read. So I gave it a really quick re-read on Monday.
Well, all the gripes I had last time still bother me (except the copyediting, which I was reading too fast to notice). In particular, I think it would have been better if the story in this and Plan B had been condensed into one book and proportioned more chronologically. But I just really like the people, so it served its purpose perfectly well. It was probably a mistake to re-read it close to the new one, which is not in the same series, but oh well.
More belated Lee&Miller comments:
Well, all the gripes I had last time still bother me (except the copyediting, which I was reading too fast to notice). In particular, I think it would have been better if the story in this and Plan B had been condensed into one book and proportioned more chronologically.
Sharon Lee once told me (via her LiveJournal) that Plan B and I Dare were originally interleaved correctly, with the Pat Rin subplot starting much earlier, but that the editor made them take all mention of Pat Rin out of Plan B in a misguided attempt to make that book more free-standing. As if.
In general, Lee & Miller have not been well-served by their editors.
I see that this comment is inconsistent with the one I just posted earlier, where I said it was Carpe Diem. I think this version here must be correct — it was supposed to be in Plan B, showing action going back to times concurrent with Carpe Diem, but the editors weren’t willing to do that.
Sorry for the confusion.
But I can show you where Lee and Miller say it was Carpe Diem that the publisher made them take “an ‘extra’ character’s subplot” out of, since the publisher planned to end their commitment to the series there and so wanted it to end more-or-less tidily.
…maybe it was both publishers, one after the other?
In further hindsight, I think it had to be Carpe Diem that suffered a PatRinectomy. The timing works — Pat Rin is starting a new life on Surebleak while Val Con and Miri are learning to speak Bentish. That gives Pat Rin enough time for all of the developments we see there — and we know that Plan B was declared long before the start of Plan B.