Engrossing and original fantasy

Only once before have I encountered a fantasy novel.  I was offered the job of abridging the latest work of a prestigious science fiction writer and I readily accepted the opportunity of employment. 

It cannot have taken me more than an hour to realise my grave error in accepting this task. I couldn’t understand where the story was happening or indeed what was happening. Perhaps, above all, I was very confused about why it was happening: “Why was there a giant, intelligent ship flying through space to combat other ships, populated by creatures that spoke like humans but had wings or tails or special powers?” Call me literal-minded, but I was entirely flawed as to the point.

Faced by the prospect of abridging the book, I felt as though I’d been hurled into the black abyss along with all the flying ships.  Whilst my inclinations were to eradicate as many pages as possible (preferably the entire volume), my limited mastery of the plot made it risky to delete a single paragraph.