2016 book 196

Elle Katharine White's Heartstone
I don't know why I keep trying to read these reworkings of classic texts--I always get distracted comparing the new version to the original (and usually finding the former wanting) and can't get caught up in the story. When I heard that a Pride-and-Prejudice-with-dragons had made the LibraryReads list, I thought maybe this would be good--maybe it would be more Jo Walton and less Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. But it is more in the mold of the latter--the characters are all themselves but with vaguely fantasy-ish names (Aliza and Leyda Bentaine instead of Elizabeth and Lydia Bennet, Darcy is Daired, etc), and the high-class people ride dragons and fight gryphons and whatnot. Maybe I would have liked this more if it used the source material somewhat subtly, but it sure didn't.  And White takes out all the funny parts! Things do pick up toward the end--but that's Austen's doing, not White's, who adds in a heap of dragon-battle-drama that I wasn't super interested in--though the Wickham-character stuff worked better in this than in some other versions I've read. Anyway, this is fine or whatever, but I'd recommend sticking to the original. B.


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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released in January.