Confessor
CCF Mod Squad
Not Bucky O'Hare!
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Post by Confessor on Nov 30, 2022 3:59:38 GMT -5
All true, but let's be honest with ourselves for a moment: this is just a cynical cash grab tie-in with The Rings of Power TV series -- nothing more, nothing less. The timing of it alone makes that obvious. That said, I am kinda tempted to pick this book up, as I don't actually have all of Tolkien's various writings on the Second Age, only the stuff that is included in the LOTRs appendices and The Silmarillion. Also, Brian Sibley co-wrote the BBC Radio 4 adaptation of LOTRs, along with Michael Bakewell, and that might well be my favourite ever adaptation of it. Publishing is a for profit business. Many books don't turn a profit. I am not going to fault a publisher for putting out a sure thing in the holiday season. Some may call it a "cash grab" but it's simply a smart business decision if you are in business to make money. You can be cynical if you choose, but every product released in the entertainment industry by a for profit company is intended to generate as much revenue as possible. Criticizing them for doing so is like criticizing someone for taking a job to earn a paycheck. It's a necessity in the market that exists in our current civilization. If you don't, you're not in business for long. Spoken like a true capitalist!  It's not really an accurate analogy to compare it to someone taking a job to earn a pay check though. Tolkien is long dead, and so too are his direct descendants, so any profit generated by this new re-packaging of his writings is not benefiting the author, his wife or his children -- it's benefiting the Tolkien estate, which is now run by people who never knew the man. So, while I absolutely believe that creative people and their immediate families should get financially rewarded for their work and acknowledged that publishing is a for profit industry, this book only financially benefits Tolkien's Grandchildren and Great Grandchildren, Christopher Tolkien's second wife, and third party corporations like Amazon and Embracer, who now own the rights to JRR Tolkien's works. Like I say, I'm not disputing that it's not a useful book to have in the marketplace, or even necessarily saying that it shouldn't have been put out by the concerned parties -- they are profit making organisations, after all, as you say. And I put no fault on anyone who might want to buy this (as I say, I'm kinda tempted myself). But let's call it what it really is -- a cynical cash grab by the Tolkien Estate and Amazon -- and not attempt to paint it as just a poor honest author trying to make a buck. Further, publishers have always sought to maximize revenue from Tolkien's works, in fact the Lord of the Rings exists as a trilogy instead of as a single book as Tolkien wanted because Allen and Unwin wanted to maximize sales and revenue on it, so it being a trilogy, and not a single book could be characterized as a ash grab by the publishers, as they wanted sales of 3 books instead of one for their investment in Tolkien. That's the publishing business, like it or not. This is partially incorrect insofar as Allen & Unwin's primary reason for splitting the book into three was because paper was in short supply in the post-War years and therefore rather expensive. So, splitting it into three volumes kept the price of each book down, while also allowing customers 18 months or so to spread out the cost of purchasing the whole story. They were concerned that a single hefty volume would be prohibitively expensive and would put people off of buying it. I'm sure there were other commercial reasons designed to increase profits behind the decision too, but again, any extra revenue generated by packaging it as three books instead of one directly benefited the author and his family, as well as Allen & Unwin, not Amazon or descendants who never knew Tolkien himself. |
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Dec 2, 2022 16:11:47 GMT -5
"That's a recognizable name!"
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Post by dbutler69 on Dec 21, 2022 19:21:21 GMT -5
From wikipedia's write up of the book: So it compiled everything Tolkien wrote relevant to the Second Age into one volume, rather than having to own multiple volumes and sift through them. Kind of like a greatest hits album for a musical artist or one of those year's best collections for a genre (sci-fi, fantasy, horror, detective, etc.) which has been a practice in entertainment industries since the mid-20th century, especially around holiday time. It gives them a solid, recent product to sell to consumers who want the convenience of having it all in one place and not have to track down or own several different volumes (or magazines, or albums) to get the stuff they are interested in. Might not appeal to someone who owns it all already, but these volumes sell well, often outselling the sources the collect material from and putting in front of readers who would never spend the time or money to track down all the individual sources. All true, but let's be honest with ourselves for a moment: this is just a cynical cash grab tie-in with The Rings of Power TV series -- nothing more, nothing less. The timing of it alone makes that obvious. That said, I am kinda tempted to pick this book up, as I don't actually have all of Tolkien's various writings on the Second Age, only the stuff that is included in the LOTRs appendices and The Silmarillion. Also, Brian Sibley co-wrote the BBC Radio 4 adaptation of LOTRs, along with Michael Bakewell, and that might well be my favourite ever adaptation of it. Yeah, I'm considering picking this up, too. I know they're cashing in on the Rings of Power, but oh well. I too don't have all of the works that this compiles. |
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Post by berkley on Dec 21, 2022 22:55:53 GMT -5
All true, but let's be honest with ourselves for a moment: this is just a cynical cash grab tie-in with The Rings of Power TV series -- nothing more, nothing less. The timing of it alone makes that obvious. That said, I am kinda tempted to pick this book up, as I don't actually have all of Tolkien's various writings on the Second Age, only the stuff that is included in the LOTRs appendices and The Silmarillion. Also, Brian Sibley co-wrote the BBC Radio 4 adaptation of LOTRs, along with Michael Bakewell, and that might well be my favourite ever adaptation of it. Yeah, I'm considering picking this up, too. I know they're cashing in on the Rings of Power, but oh well. I too don't have all of the works that this compiles.
Next time I'm in the local bookstore I'll try to have a look at it. But the last few years I've started picking up some of the other posthumous Tolkien books so if I can figure out which ones contain the material collected in this new release I might just go that route. The Alan Lee illustrations might be a deal-breaker for me: I think he's a good artist and I even like his style in some ways - but I don't find it a good fit for Tolkien, even though he's more or less made that his specialty.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 29, 2022 7:34:04 GMT -5
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Post by dbutler69 on Dec 30, 2022 19:44:04 GMT -5
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Dec 30, 2022 20:05:20 GMT -5
Looks gorgeous. I was thinking of getting a copy of the Silmarillion cut from the same cloth. As for Lord of the rings, I bought a facsimile edition of the original edition a few years back... I think I'll stop there! (If I didn't show a little discipline, I'd keep getting every nice-looking edition that comes along!) |
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Post by berkley on Dec 30, 2022 22:42:19 GMT -5
Tempting. As usual, I'd like to have a look at it. The Tolkien illustrations are definitely an attraction, though I might have them already in the few Tolkien art books I've managed to find.
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Post by berkley on Dec 30, 2022 22:42:50 GMT -5
Looks gorgeous. I was thinking of getting a copy of the Silmarillion cut from the same cloth. As for Lord of the rings, I bought a facsimile edition of the original edition a few years back... I think I'll stop there! (If I didn't show a little discipline, I'd keep getting every nice-looking edition that comes along!)
A facsimile of the first edition, I'd like to see that.
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Confessor
CCF Mod Squad
Not Bucky O'Hare!
Posts: 10,199
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Post by Confessor on Dec 31, 2022 11:01:42 GMT -5
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Post by dbutler69 on Dec 31, 2022 11:35:16 GMT -5
Tempting. As usual, I'd like to have a look at it. The Tolkien illustrations are definitely an attraction, though I might have them already in the few Tolkien art books I've managed to find. Yeah, the Tolkien illustrations and maps are a big part of the appeal to me. I agree about looking at it. I miss being able to walk into a book store and being able to actually thumb through the books. |
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Post by Deleted on Jan 3, 2023 12:31:45 GMT -5
Today would have been the professor's 131st birthday. I wonder if that's a special birthday for Hobbits like 111th is? Happy anniversary of Tolkien's birth day!  -M |
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Post by Deleted on Jan 5, 2023 13:27:37 GMT -5
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Confessor
CCF Mod Squad
Not Bucky O'Hare!
Posts: 10,199
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Post by Confessor on Jan 8, 2023 5:47:38 GMT -5
Today I learned that in Europe they got a three-volume comic adaptation of the Ralph Bakshi LOTRs animated movie in 1978. It was drawn by Luis Bermejo Rojo, a Spanish artist, who some of you may know from Warren’s Creepy magazine in the '70s. The adaptation wasn't published over here in the UK or in the USA due to copyright problems, but I reckon we really missed out. The interior artwork -- not to mention the covers -- look gorgeous. Somebody needs to put this out again in an English translation. These scans are of the Spanish edition...     |
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Jan 11, 2023 19:15:04 GMT -5
That looks amazing!
I want one, to quote Tony Stark!
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