Well, I’m sitting here with a copy of A Dance of Blades in front of me, so let’s do yet another catch up. As before, this is written for those who have already read ADoB prior to Orbit’s version, so spoilers aplenty. I’m going to do my best to list out any and all significant changes, so that if someone wants to skip this over, they won’t be lost or behind come A Dance of Ghosts. Soooo let’s start.
First up is the minor stuff, the tidying up of the writing, editing out little errors, things that I do want to point out are in there without actually, you know, pointing them out. Just know the book should read a bit cleaner. Also want to add that I’ve always viewed A Dance of Blades as the most solid of all the Shadowdance books (plus Blood of the Underworld). I think its narration was the tightest, its story the most even and the amount of characters the most balanced. So it didn’t surprise me, and shouldn’t surprise you all, that this book out of all of them underwent the fewest changes. So, onto the more real stuff.
Deathmask’s intro has been modified a bit. Nothing major, but the ploy that was used to bring Veliana to him I rewrote for two reasons. One, I made sure it all made sense in hindsight (the original plan was a bit…unbelievable in hindsight). Two, and more fun, I now get to drop in a reference to both Angelport and the Violet leaf, setting up a few things in book three. Stuff like this makes me happy.
Next up was the biggest addition, a lengthening of Haern’s first chapter in which he decides to leave Veldaren to pursue the stolen gold being smuggled into the city. I added a brand new character named Dashel, a master of mint that Haern goes to question involving the source of the gold coins. All of this was to help firmly establish why Haern’s going north, and what he’s hoping to achieve. The end of that chapter also involves a bit more introspection on Haern’s part, as well as a bit of establishing what role his father now plays in his new life. Fun stuff, nothing earth-shaking, but I do think it helps round out the book.
Sprinkled throughout the book are extra paragraphs here or there, usually involving Haern, and getting a bit more detail as to what’s going on with him and Delysia, and the rest of the Eschaton too. Nothing massive, but again, fine touches I enjoyed adding.
The last bit of significance is the final fight with Ghost. Because I couldn’t resist, I had Ghost survive Haern’s last barrage. Well, survive long enough for them to exchange words as Haern calms down, and they exchange a few more sentences. Ghost asks Haern to give him an honorable death, and Haern instead leaves him to bleed out and die painfully. Just putting in a bit of a harder edge into Haern, particularly to set up his conflict with the Wraith in book three.
And that’s basically it. Nothing too massive like with A Dance of Cloaks, nor with reworked themes and ending like I’ll get into with A Dance of Mirrors (which heck, even its title didn’t get to remain the same). Until then, I hope you all enjoy the time and effort I put into giving you the best possible story I know how.
David
