Same book?

annis · Post by **annis** » Mon March 12th, 2012, 1:35 am

It seems to me that Jack Whyte's forthcoming books Rebel and Forest Laird are in fact the same book with different titles (is this the US?UK thingy again?). Anyone know for sure? Synopses look pretty much identical..

sweetpotatoboy · Post by **sweetpotatoboy** » Mon March 12th, 2012, 7:09 am

Yes, it would so. At least according to Fantastic Fiction:
http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/w/jac ... -laird.htm

Vanessa · Post by **Vanessa** » Mon March 12th, 2012, 8:17 am

I wonder if it's one of those peculiar hardback/paperback oddities, when the paperback has a different title to the hardback. It looks like the hardback is The Forest Laird and the paperback is Rebel. There was something similar with Fiona Mountain's Lady of the Butterflies which became Rebel Heiress in paperback.

bevgray · Post by **bevgray** » Mon March 12th, 2012, 11:34 am

I've run into that before where a title in England is different for the U.S. version (Harry Potter and the Philospher's Stone/Sorceror's Stone is the most recent example). Drove me nuts a few years ago when I was buying Warwick Deeping's old novels. Apparently, many of them had different titles for each market and I ended up with some duplicates since a lot of the bookstores didn't provide synopses and I had to buy based on title alone.

Never saw it happen between hard cover and paperback though.

annis · Post by **annis** » Mon March 12th, 2012, 4:44 pm

Thanks, SPB. Yes, it can be a real trap for buyers- though I did originally read Fiona Mountain's Lady of the Butterflies in a trade paperback edition, so not sure about that one. Sometimes you do get different titles for different editions, though- like Sam Barone's Conflict of Empires, which later came out as Quest for Honour and Vanora Bennett's Figures in Silk which later became Queen of Silks. Perhaps a new editon is seen as a chance to change to a catchier or more appealing title. Didn't Elizabeth Chadwick's A Time of Singing later become For the King's Favor - or was that just the US title? No wonder we get confused

boswellbaxter · Post by **boswellbaxter** » Mon March 12th, 2012, 5:25 pm

[quote=""bevgray""]I've run into that before where a title in England is different for the U.S. version (Harry Potter and the Philospher's Stone/Sorceror's Stone is the most recent example). Drove me nuts a few years ago when I was buying Warwick Deeping's old novels. Apparently, many of them had different titles for each market and I ended up with some duplicates since a lot of the bookstores didn't provide synopses and I had to buy based on title alone.

Never saw it happen between hard cover and paperback though.[/quote]

I can't think of recent examples, but I have some old (1950's) mass market paperbacks where the title was different from the original hardcover, usually to make the paperback more sensational. Philip Lindsay's rather unsexy novel about Katherine Howard Here Comes the King, for instance, was given the title Royal Scandal in paperback (and a sexy cover).

SGM · Post by **SGM** » Mon March 12th, 2012, 7:00 pm

[quote=""annis""]Thanks, SPB. Yes, it can be a real trap for buyers- though I did originally read Fiona Mountain's Lady of the Butterflies in a trade paperback edition, so not sure about that one. [/quote]

My copy of Lady of the Butterflies was also a trade paperback. You can understand my annoyance when I also bought it as Rebel Heiress, particularly as the latter was more expensive because I bought the first book secondhand for £1.

However, if you look at the Amazon.co.uk page for Jack Whyte the publication dates seem to confuse the issue as Forest Laird has a publication date of 14th February 2012 where as Rebel has a publication date in May. However, the first appears to be a hardback and a paperback and the second a paperback and a Kindle edition. I am becoming very frustrated with Amazon's Kindle publication dates but at least you get your money back instantly if you bought the wrong Kindle book.

Vanessa · Post by **Vanessa** » Mon March 12th, 2012, 7:03 pm

There was a hardback which was entitled Lady of the Butterflies. I think they changed the title to try to attract more readers. Personally, I prefer Lady of the Butterflies.

Madeleine · Post by **Madeleine** » Mon March 12th, 2012, 8:20 pm

[quote=""Vanessa""]There was a hardback which was entitled Lady of the Butterflies. I think they changed the title to try to attract more readers. Personally, I prefer Lady of the Butterflies.[/quote]

I prefer the original title too, I think Rebel Heiress makes it sound like she's a battle queen or something!

Ariadne · Post by **Ariadne** » Mon March 12th, 2012, 10:14 pm

FWIW The Forest Laird was the original Canadian title, from 2010. Rebel isn't terribly descriptive, although from the cover & subtitle you can guess who it's about.

I have a copy of the US edition and will be reviewing it, though need to take a break first and read something that's not 450+ pages!