Chronicles of the Kencyrath/Headscratchers

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Morven: These things bug me as a fan of the series:

  • The Caineron cadet in Chap. 1 of "To Ride A Rathorn" deliberately pronouncing rathorn "rat-horn" and Min-drear "mind-rear". The insulting wordplay only works in English, but they're supposedly speaking Kens, not English. And it's not that Kens is actually English, either, given the odd Kens words we've been given here and there.
  • The continuity error where Kenan, Lord Randir, is Rawneth's grandson in "Seeker's Mask" and her son in "To Ride a Rathorn".
    • Given that Pat has a notorious dislike of rereading her own writing, and wrote the series over the course of a couple of decades, it's only a miracle that more such errors haven't slipped in. —Robotech_Master
    • Of course, it doesn't even necessarily have to be an error as such, given that we already know the Highborn have in the past practiced incest as a means of strengthening shanir traits. So perhaps Kenan is both Rawneth's son and her grandson. —Robotech_Master
  • The atrocious quality, in terms of editing, copyediting, presentation, and general publishing of To Ride a Rathorn. It was obvious, in retrospect, that Meisha Merlin was going under. The print quality of the maps—apparently taken from low-quality faxes—is even worse. To add insult to injury, Meisha Merlin folded having practically never having paid Pat a cent of what they owed her.
    • On the bright side, this at least led to the books migrating over to Baen, who has been treating them right. —Robotech_Master
  • What annoys me is how hard it is to find these books. It took 4 months of Ebay stalking to collect them. My book one is a first edition, two is a paperback, and the remaining belonged to a library in Tennessee. Well worth the effort, yes, but reprint these already!
    • Um, they did ... Baen has them as two collections (books 1+2 and 3+4) plus the new book 5. --Morven
    • They're all available on Amazon, as well. --User:Madrugada