Ah, that old problem - the title change..... and what a weird one! I read this a LONG time ago so can't remember anything about it. I was (at least briefly) a huge fan of Mr Aldiss and have read quite a lot of his stuff.
Title changes are confusing. Sometimes I can see why the title was changed because it seems closer to the story than the old one was. At other times, the title change makes no sense. Then, there's the publisher's new title when a book, first published in another country now, for some inexplicable reason, gets a new title when it is published here.
@ Fred: Sometimes it might be for legal/contractual reasons. Other times.... Who knows? It's very confusing though - especially when you get British & American editions on the same shelf or (worse) appearing at different times. I've multi-bought a few books that way that turned out to be identical inside!
6 comments:
Don't know that novel. Perhaps it had another name when published in the US.
ah! just checked. _The Interpreter_ AKA _Bow Down to Nul_, which I had never heard of either.
i read "Bow Down to Null" a long time ago... i think i liked it...
Ah, that old problem - the title change..... and what a weird one! I read this a LONG time ago so can't remember anything about it. I was (at least briefly) a huge fan of Mr Aldiss and have read quite a lot of his stuff.
CyberKitten,
Title changes are confusing. Sometimes I can see why the title was changed because it seems closer to the story than the old one was. At other times, the title change makes no sense. Then, there's the publisher's new title when a book, first published in another country now, for some inexplicable reason, gets a new title when it is published here.
@ Fred: Sometimes it might be for legal/contractual reasons. Other times.... Who knows? It's very confusing though - especially when you get British & American editions on the same shelf or (worse) appearing at different times. I've multi-bought a few books that way that turned out to be identical inside!
CyberKitten,
I've done the same--too many times, in fact. The problem seems most prevalent with British and US editions.
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