apologies to jp brammer’s incredible prose as always but you all know what we’re thinking about with this one

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@emeryanden
apologies to jp brammer’s incredible prose as always but you all know what we’re thinking about with this one
leigh bardugo has massively edited and rewritten the six of crows books and no one has noticed
or has for some reason decided not to mention it at all or let anyone else know.
I just found out something insane today. in the new dregs editions that came out for the 10th anniversary, leigh bardugo has removed any and all mention of the crows being teenagers, cut out whole sentences and completely changed quotes that are classic and very well known by fans of the six of crows duology. she’s replaced any mention of words like ‘children’ ‘boy’ ‘girl’ and ‘kids’ with ‘man’ ‘woman’ ‘grown’ etc
this is concerning, bewildering and just feels wrong for so many reasons. but besides the obvious —which is that the six protagonists of the duology being young is essential to many aspects of the plot, seeing as their world weariness and competence is a result of their experiences as children and survivors who are victims of their environment—besides even that, editing a piece of literature that’s been published and on shelves for 10 years is objectively not a good idea at all, and doesn’t at all take into account the new contexts and connotations the new wording brings.
above is an example of the original scene we know verses the new version. lots of it has changed, namely their ages, but the sentence at the end in matthas' pov doesn't even sound like him at all. her writing quality has declined noticeably and she sounds like she wrote that sentence in a rush. it makes no sense, and it's not something matthias, who knows practically nothing about the barrel, would be thinking.
and not to mention the famous line 'brekker's eyes were ancient, but he couldn't be any older then matthias' — cut out of the book completely. I do wonder what impact, effect and influence these changes will have on new readers.
this is another example. such a classic line and they cut it completely.
the entire books are like this. inej saying kaz looking seventeen is changed to kaz looking like someone's apprentice. the boy of the barrel changed to man. criminal prodigy changed to just mastermind. inej described as a woman in place of a sixteen year old girl. wylan changed from boy to young man. full scenes cut. 'jesper is zemeni but don't hold it against him' changed to ‘don’t let him wax sentimental about it’ which sounds way worse then the original.
and I don't actually own the new copies of these books, my best friend was looking at them in a bookstore and that's when we first noticed all of the changes. so I truly have no idea what else could possibly be changed besides the things I noticed as I cannot look at them for reference - the crow's physical appearance, more of the plot, other famous scenes just being cut completely, etc. if nothing else has changed, then it’s still way too much and massively changes core aspects of the books. but I do wonder. if you own the dregs special editions, I suggest looking for similar differences. I might have to write examples to express how messed up the new connotations are.
leigh now implies that jesper, an adult black man, made the right choice by handing over his share from his job to his white father to keep for you, as he cannot control himself and isn't ready to receive his own funds, as he is a mindless gambler. this is extremely different to a reckless irresponsible teenager grieving his mother and making stupid mistakes, and then deciding to make better decisions in the future with help from his parent. I'm sure you can see without me spelling it out how awful, racist and problematic the new context of jesper being a grown man makes this situation sound.
another example is matthias' childhood centrally seeing him be groomed, manipulated and indoctrinated by a nazi coded witch hunting organisation that targets grisha, an oppressed community, with the intention of torturing, burning, hanging, raping and eradicating them from the world
matthias is just turning 18 when he meets nina. he has not yet done any of these terrible things himself. he is fresh out of training and still basically a child. his views are first challenged, and he eventually breaks out of the brainwashing and mental manipulation that has been taught and instilled in him with repetition. it's not an excuse, but it's more understandable. matthias, now a grown man apparently way older then 18, has no excuse for these bigoted views as he is way more mature, has way more experience, and would have had to have done these horrific things to grisha at some point.
it feels like some sort of fever dream that six of crows was edited and re published so that these famous teenage characters (who were first written so obviously— in dialogue, actions, pov, - as teenagers) and their criminal prodigy leader were made into poorly written adults. I can put into words how much this has deeply bothered and distressed me and many other readers I've spoken to.
it's such an odd choice and makes me think it was done to soften the backlash the shadow and bone adaption received from some fans for aging up the characters in the first place.
I cannot stress this enough- leigh bardugo would edit iconic lines and change core aspects of her characters that have been around for 10 years to justify a cancelled netflix adaption of these incredibly popular and well loved books. it's odd and uncomfortable.
now, these books mean the world to me, they have quite literally got me through physical, mental and emotional childhood abuse, suicide ideation and self harm, the everyday ableism and oppression, chronic pain and disability experience, severe depression and anxiety, absolute hopelessness, work and life, etc) but the sheer absurdity of this all just outmatches my distress that it happened. it feels like some sort of hallucination becasue it's lowkey just insane. she never even mentioned she was going to do something like this?
there is just no conceivable reason for leigh bardugo to have done this secretly and quietly other then to have stopped people negatively critiquing the show or some other deeply odd notion. and with all of these changes, the new books absolutely are not the 'dregs' editions— the heart of the dregs is the young blood, 'the kids like kaz who he had brought in a organised, who worked the hardest and took the worst jobs'
they are the bad netflix adaption editions. the sympathy for terrible adult cast editions. it's troubling, clearly not a well thought out decision, and deeply bizarre. tell me others agree.
Be yourself so ppl looking for u can find u
i read city of last chances off of your recomendation and loooooved it! tysm! what other similar type of books do you rec?
i'm glad you enjoyed it! i don't really have something really similar to recommend, but i have read some absolute bangers since that might go hard for you if we have similar taste:
between two fires - christopher buehlman: historical fiction/fantasy, set in france during the black death and avignon pacacy, a disgraced knight and a young girl who hears the voices of angels travel across plague ridden france to fulfil the young girl's visions. the book has been described as medieval horror, and i genuinely could not put it down. my favourite read of 2025 thus far. christopher buehlman has also written a more traditional fantasy (the blacktongue thief), which i think on paper resembles city of last chances more (excellent worldbuilding, vibrant characters, a fun jaunt through a hostile environment), but i liked it a little less than between two fires.
the left hand of darkness - ursula k le guin: science fiction, what is there even to say here. the book follows an envoy from a large federation of planets trying to convince a planet to join on. the planet he visits is one where the people of this world have no fixed sex, and is an exploration of society and sex/gender. my top read of 2024. a classic for a reason.
the traitor baru cormorant - seth dickinson: fantasy, thee book of all time. the whole (unfinished) series is excellent. high political fantasy, focused primarily on imperialism and how the tools of empire operate on the indigenous population. if you liked the revolution aspect of city of last chances, this one may be for you. dense as fuck.
the city and the city - china miévelle: crime fantasy/science fiction, this is a police procedural set across two cities who exist within each other. really really impactful exploration of borders and the inherent violence of their upkeep. i devoured this one in a couple of hours. if you like broken, haunted cities, this one is for you.
the fifth season - n k jemisin: apocalypse fantasy, we're straying further and further from recommendations that are similar to city of last chances, but i loved this book. three storylines are followed, all revolving around a world where magic users are able to impact the state of the earth around them. the continent of the world goes through cyclical massive natural disasters, and i don't want to say too much more because this book is best experienced as blindly as possible.
that's all i can think of for books tangentially related to city of last chances, but now i'll rattle off books i rated 4+ stars on goodreads over the past few years (fantasy/scifi bolded, non-fiction italicised):
matrix - lauren groff
metal from heaven - august clark
king leopold's ghost - adam hochschild
our wives under the sea - julia armfield
empire of pain - patrick radden keefe
wild seed - octavia e butler
solaris - stanisław lem
as meat loves salt - maria mccann
dune - frank herbert
invisible cities - italo calvino
piranesi - susanna clarke
untethered sky - fonda lee
elder race - adrian tchaikovsky
happy reading!
great blue heron in august
Ref Recs for Whump Writers
Violence: A Writer’s Guide: This is not about writing technique. It is an introduction to the world of violence. To the parts that people don’t understand. The parts that books and movies get wrong. Not just the mechanics, but how people who live in a violent world think and feel about what they do and what they see done.
Hurting Your Characters: HURTING YOUR CHARACTERS discusses the immediate effect of trauma on the body, its physiologic response, including the types of nerve fibers and the sensations they convey, and how injuries feel to the character. This book also presents a simplified overview of the expected recovery times for the injuries discussed in young, otherwise healthy individuals.
Body Trauma: A writer’s guide to wounds and injuries. Body Trauma explains what happens to body organs and bones maimed by accident or intent and the small window of opportunity for emergency treatment. Research what happens in a hospital operating room and the personnel who initiate treatment. Use these facts to bring added realism to your stories and novels.
10 B.S. Medical Tropes that Need to Die TODAY…and What to Do Instead: Written by a paramedic and writer with a decade of experience, 10 BS Medical Tropes covers exactly that: clichéd and inaccurate tropes that not only ruin books, they have the potential to hurt real people in the real world.
Maim Your Characters: How Injuries Work in Fiction: Increase Realism. Raise the Stakes. Tell Better Stories. Maim Your Characters is the definitive guide to using wounds and injuries to their greatest effect in your story. Learn not only the six critical parts of an injury plot, but more importantly, how to make sure that the injury you’re inflicting matters.
Blood on the Page: This handy resource is a must-have guide for writers whose characters live on the edge of danger. If you like easy-to-follow tools, expert opinions from someone with firsthand knowledge, and you don’t mind a bit of fictional bodily harm, then you’ll love Samantha Keel’s invaluable handbook
The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon
A great book spine design.
want to feel the way i did reading never let me go (kazuo Ishiguro) but too clueless about books to know what to look for
the way this could perfectly be jem's pov at the end of tid but it's the ending of a tale of two cities, tessas favorite book
i know it's early, but I'm going to be investing in vis "i find every man I meet handsome" telimus x indol "implied gay (not into belli, hates dad)" quiscil stock ahead of the release of the strength of the few
just think about the parallels... the orphaned son of suus royalty x the privileged son of the man who's occupying suus
Excerpt from Mary Karr - The Paris Review (2009)
Yanjin County, Yunnan, China also known as the narrowest city in the world built on the banks of the Heng River
Joy Sullivan, from "Late Bloomer", Instructions for Traveling West
me on my deathbed: why didn’t anden and lott make out
By Mary Ruefle
Do you read chinese classical poetry? Do you have any suggestions where to start?
These are some of my favorite poets:
Du Fu
T'ao Ch'ien
Li Bai
Li Qingzhao
Su Shi/Su Tung-p’o
Du Mu (II)
Li Po
You can also start with several collections:
Classic of Poetry/Odes (trans. Ezra Pound)
Nineteen Old Poems
Three Hundred Tang Poems
Songs of the South (this is one of my absolute favorites)
These are some anthology/reference books:
Classical Chinese Poetry: An Anthology, David Hinton
How to Read Chinese Poetry: A Guided Anthology, Zong-qi Cai
Autumn Willows: Poetry by Women of China’s Golden Age, Bannie Chow, Thomas Cleary
Mountain Home: The Wilderness Poetry of Ancient China, David Hinton
Li Po and Tu Fu: Poems, Arthur Cooper; Shui Chien-Tung
Three Chinese Poets: Translations of poems by Wang Wei, Li Bai, and Du Fu, Vikram Seth
Five T’ang Poets, David Young
Personally, I started with an anthology of Du Fu’s poetry (in Spanish, here - also several Tang poets), and then started reading the collections by David Hinton and Vikram Seth. Afterwards, I continued with Li Po, Li Qinzhao, Su Shi, and the classical Tang poetry collections.
The Wild Swans and Others Stories
1922
Artist : Elenore Abbott