Posted by Nat Bernstein
You know how some shows take a few episodes to find their legs? I initially gave up on Parks and Recreation, for example, disappointed in the early run of a program I had greatly anticipated, and returned a couple seasons later to what by then quickly became one of my favorite comedy sitcoms of all time. After seeing the show through its finale I went back to the beginning of the series and discovered the brilliance of the early episodes I had shunned: though the humor had evaded audiences at the start of Parks & Rec, the writers were subtly developing the comedic arteries of the show, laying the foundation for the rest of the sitcom’s seven-season run. Rewatching Season 1 with the full anticipation of what would follow made appreciate it on a whole new level.
The same can be true when it comes to books: an author’s debut flop transforms to treasure on the merit of their later works, prized for the early strains of the writer’s more popular books and progression it showcases.
Just such a phenomenon is promised with the re-release of Lev Grossman’s first book, originally published in the late ’90s. Tor Books revealed the cover for the September 2016 edition from St. Martin’s Griffin earlier this week, attesting that “this re-publication of Grossman’s debut novel shows the roots of his Magicians hero Quentin Coldwater.”
The author, for his own part, was a little more self-effacing: “St. Martin’s published my first novel WARP in 1998,” he announced this week on Facebook. “Unsatisfied with the amount of money they lost on it last time, they’re republishing it (with an introduction by me) in September. Here’s the new cover.”
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Nat Bernstein is the former Manager of Digital Content & Media, JBC Network Coordinator, and Contributing Editor at the Jewish Book Council and a graduate of Hampshire College.