Fragus said:
Ghost said:
read the ending it's different to standard copies Terry didn't like the darker ending
and had it changed
Mr Gaiman is still a little sore about that
I too would love to know the different ending. I know they altered some of the text to suit the US reader. I have looked at all my copies, 1st Ed, BCA, US 1st Ed (Workman), the latest Gollancz Hardback and the paperback. They all look the same.
Please expand.
I have both the UK first edition and the US first edition. There were a few changes made for the US edition. The ending is not materially changed.
There is a footnote on p.81 in the UK h/c first edition. It is quite short, but it does say that Greasy Johnson was adopted and that he kept tropical fish, which alludes to the suggestion about tropical fish on page 20.
In the US h/c first edition, that footnote is on page 111, and it is greatly expanded, making Greasy Johnson rather more sympathetic, and specifying that he was Adam's age within a few hours and that the reader was correct about the babies; this implies that the suggestion on p.27 (US edition) did happen: Baby B is Greasy Johnson.
There is a longer section added near the end, between "Shadwell (retired) and "It was Sunday afternoon" that was not in the UK h/c first edition, but was added to all later editions. What I recall reading in the 1990s was that it was added at the insistence of the US editors. It tells us (p.349) that Warlock and his family returned to the United States, and (p.350) that Greasy Johnson found out about US football catching on in Europe, and that it would change his life. The section is in Adam's voice. In the UK h/c first edition it would have been on p.264, had it been there at all.
Sir Terry has said that Neil Gaiman wrote the "phone salesgirl swallowed by demon" and "real guns at the training exercise" parts, and he (pTerry) insisted on her return to life and the guns miraculously not killing anyone (and no doubt the return of the deliveryman) because "No one should die because Adam had lived."
