fantasy and science fiction book reviewsBeth asked me a question this week, so I’m going to post her email here and see if my faithful readers have an idea of how to answer this:

Have you noticed this sudden flood of books in fantasy that are classics rewritten with paranormal creatures? Like Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (and now apparently Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters and Mansfield Park and Mummies). Apparently it’s being done to Mark Twain’s work as well, and goodness only knows who else. Some of them are rewrites and similar, but some of them are also these… things. Where some writer adds in bits of monster action to someone else’s prose and says they wrote a book. As a reader they couldn’t interest me less, but as a writer I admit, I find them irritating. It’s not just the gimmick aspect… it’s insulting to work hard on a whole book and watch the shelves fill up with… these things.

I admit, I don’t have any idea what the appeal of these books are, or why a publishing company would back them.  So, dear readers, I’m turning to you to make sense of this new sub-genre.  Do you find them appealing?  Do you know someone who likes them? And to my writer readers, what are your reactions upon seeing these hybrids claim valuable shelf space?

Make sure to read Rebecca’s review of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

Post a comment and we’ll enter you in a drawing to win a copy of Jim Butcher’s new hit novel First Lord’s Fury. We’ll announce the winner Monday, so check back!

Author

  • Ruth Arnell

    RUTH ARNELL (on FanLit's staff January 2009 — August 2013) earned a Ph.D. in political science and is a college professor in Idaho. From a young age she has maxed out her library card the way some people do credit cards. Ruth started reading fantasy with A Wrinkle in Time and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe — books that still occupy an honored spot on her bookshelf today. Ruth and her husband have a young son, but their house is actually presided over by a flame-point Siamese who answers, sometimes, to the name of Griffon.