I feel like reading this version of the book was a good call because I enjoyed it much more than the revised version. The revised version reminded me of the 'new' Star Wars, where you have scenes that aren't really necessary added in (like Han and Jabba...unnecessary). I was surprised to find that apart from the references to what happens later in the books, there were some other changes too. For instance, there is no 'threaded' meat as opposed to other meat; this little detail draws the reader's attention to the fact that there is something off with some of the available food products, which I think makes us assume that there has been some kind of nuclear (i.e., long-lasting) catastrophe.
There also wasn't so much about the number 19, which made more sense to me. This number comes back in the final books, but wasn't so prominent in the first books, so it felt weird for it to suddenly appear.
What I also found surprising is that Susan was mentioned, although mostly only in passing and not with the same detail as in the later book. I had one of the 1989 reprints, which ends with an afterword from SK. He said that he was looking forward to writing the next books, including the fact that he wanted to discover who this Susan was. Yay! This version of the book makes sense to me.
Certainly, the book in this format was less cohesive with the rest of the series, but I was okay with that. The revision felt too contrived, like SK was trying to tie everything together. That doesn't make sense to me, since the whole thing doesn't tie together and I don't think that it can. If you can get your hands on a copy of the early version, I would highly recommend it over the later one. That being said, it wasn't easy to find, so you may be stuck with the revision.
