Frankenstein

The Science Fiction Book Club had a great end of the year sale (who doesn’t?) and I picked up a few things. Among them was a copy of Frankenstein.

I’m always hesitant to pick up a classic, it seems inevitably I end up disappointed and wonder what the fuss is about. I’ve utterly failed to get anywhere in Lord of the Rings (yay Peter Jackson), Dracula put me to sleep and  Lancelot and Guinevere’s shenanigans in The Once and Future King made me toss it in disgust (I know, what did I expect).

Not to say I’m a completely uncultured hack, I’ve read A Christmas Carol, The Invisible Man and the mountain that is Stephen King’s The Stand.

Anyway, back to Frankenstein. Frankie’s in the public domain so anyone can publish and a quick google search will find options to read it online legally. The edition I got was published by Dark Horse Comics and is exceptionally high quality. It’s oversized, larger even than a strategy guide, cloth bound with a ribbon placeholder. The page quality is so high and thick I’ve repeatedly thought I’d turned more than one page. Finally, it’s illustrated. Look at he pretty pictures.

Now, I haven’t read it yet. I think The Belgariad is next on my list... maybe. Anyway, I did read the intro by Stephen King and he made me chuckle. King comments that Frankenstein is probably put down unfinished by the majority of people that ever try and read it ‘for fun’. He himself originally attempted the read at age 13 ad failed miserably. He finally was forced to read Frankenstein when it was part of a curriculum he was teaching. I think I was 15 when I turned in my high school library’s copy the next day. Still made me chuckle – imagine the modern master of horror not getting into Frankenstein.