Feb 2, 2003 Note: This was first posted in the Classic SF section of Baen's Bar around January 19, 2003.

I have compared Godwin's The Survivors with the original novella, "Too Soon to Die". Each can be viewed as having 3 sections, the beginning (Survivors' part 1), the middle (Survivors parts 2, 3, and 4), and the endgame (Survivors' part 5).

The approximate word counts for each section in The Survivors are 22700, 22200 (8600, 5600, 7000), and 9700. The page counts for these sections in "Too Soon to Die" are 16.5 pages, 7.5 pages, and 12 pages.

Looking at the text, I see that the first section of The Survivors was expanded somewhat from "TStD"; the capture and stranding of the Rejects is shown at some length (rather than being a 1 page summary) and the rest of the section is longer as well (for example, the Bemmon subplot was much shorter in "TStD"). The 2nd section was expanded greatly by adding additional subplots ("TStD" had only the construction of the first radio and brief vignettes for several generations). The 3rd section was revised because of the subplots (and lengthened in the process) and extended in time as well ("TStD" ended before they arrived at Athena) and the principal viewpoint character was changed (the Gern officer Narth was the principal viewpoint character in "TStD" endgame).