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Post by berkley on Dec 31, 2023 3:05:25 GMT -5
I might look for that myself one of these days, though I think I might wait for a cheap, pocket-size edition - assuming there will be one eventually, which I suppose isn't necessarily guaranteed to happen. But I have the impression that most of these posthumous collections have gone through a few editions of varying size and elaborateness. I wouldn't hold your breath. The Mass Market paperback really isn't a viable edition in the current market, and not a lot of books get released in it now. Not enough units move to make that format viable, so higher price point editions like trade paperbacks (book format not collected comic editions) and hardcovers are the norm, and many books only get a hardcover edition. If they go back to press to keep it in print, it's likely a fancier deluxe edition at a higher price point with new features to tempt those who bought the previous hardcover to rebuy it to get the extras. If you want a cheaper version, you'll likely have to settle for an ebook, as that is what has replaced the mass market paperback in the market for the most part. The customers who are still buying print editions are buying the higher scale versions and have been for some time which led to the decline in mass market paperback sales at a steady rate for the last decade and a half. There's a few newerish sword & sorcery editions out there I was hoping to wait fo get in a mass market paperback but I've been told by the authors themselves not to expect it, it's not even a format brought up in contract negotiations with most of the writers of genre fiction these days. Hardcover, if it does well a follow up trade sized paperback and if that does well, some kind of deluxe collectors edition (like those with gold foil, new illustrations, embossed covers etc. offered through online sellers not usually brick & mortar stores) could be possible. Could they make a come back some day, it's possible, but right now it's a format that doesn't have a large enough customer base to make it viable for publishers. Especially since libraries don't want them either, preferring the hardcovers and trade paperbacks not mass market paperbacks for circulation and libraries are the largest single buyers of print editions in the market. -M Edit to add, and those that do get release in that format are no longer a cheap alternative as economy of scale on the smaller print runs in that format works against that making per unit costs higher and raising msrp on that format.
So interesting, thanks for the info. I had no idea this was happening, especially with popular genres like fantasy, where the cheap, small-size paperback seemed to be the dominant format for so long.
I haven't yet got into much e-reading and the little I've done has mostly been because I haven't been able to find a print version that met my personal requirements of size, affordability, font, general appearance, etc. But I don't mind trade paperbacks, so that will probably be my next preferred format if the old pocket-books are no longer readily available. Probably all this should go in the general books thread but while we're on the subject, I have seen new pocket-book editions of some popular fiction things like Stephen King and so on - but they've made them taller while keeping the same width as the old ones, which I find an ugly and awkward shape so I've steered clear of them for the most part. Anyway, I'll put any further thoughts on the subject - we haven't touched onprint-on-demand, for example - in the books thread.
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Dec 31, 2023 3:26:30 GMT -5
berkley -- There is a large print version of The Fall of Numenor available in paperback already. I can't imagine that demand for large print books is as high as for regular paperbacks, so I'd still say there's plenty of hope for a paperback edition somewhere down the line. Also, the previous Tolkien book, The Nature of Middle-earth from 2021, came out in paperback in 2023. So, again, I'd say there is every possibility of a regular paperback edition of The Fall of Numenor too.
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Post by berkley on Dec 31, 2023 4:04:25 GMT -5
berkley -- There is a large print version of The Fall of Numenor available in paperback already. I can't imagine that demand for large print books is as high as for regular paperbacks, so I'd still say there's plenty of hope for a paperback edition somewhere down the line. Also, the previous Tolkien book, The Nature of Middle-earth from 2021, came out in paperback in 2023. So, again, I'd say there is every possibility of a regular paperback edition of The Fall of Numenor too.
Maybe I should just buy the large-print as an investment for the future: I haven't yet had any trouble reading small print in books but I have found myself squinting at the tiny print on bottle labels, etc the last few years.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Jan 3, 2024 9:03:23 GMT -5
It's apparently J.R.R. Tolkien Day, so... happy J.R.R. Tolkien Day!
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Post by berkley on Jan 3, 2024 18:30:57 GMT -5
I never heard about this War of the Rohirrim movie until earlier today - apparently it's to be an animated film about the guy Helm's Deep was named after. Haven't seen a preview yet so no idea how it looks.
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Feb 25, 2024 21:53:46 GMT -5
I wanted to share this lovely Roger Garland painting of Smaug. This was used as the front cover of the 50th Anniversary paperback edition of The Hobbit here in the UK. That particular edition was the first Tolkien I ever owned myself, though I'd read a friend's copy a year or two earlier. We all have a soft spot for our first though, right? Anyway, it's nice to see the painting in its natural state, unspoilt by the book's title and trade dress.  |
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Post by berkley on Feb 26, 2024 13:16:24 GMT -5
I wanted to share this lovely Roger Garland painting of Smaug. This was used as the front cover of the 50th Anniversary paperback edition of The Hobbit here in the UK. That particular edition was the first Tolkien I ever owned myself, though I'd read a friend's copy a year or two earlier. We all have a soft spot for our first though, right? Anyway, it's nice to see the painting in its natural state, unspoilt by the book's title and trade dress.
So this was from the 1980s? Interesting - I think I would have guessed a little later if I had seen it with no other information. The background especially might have made me think computer imaging of some kind.
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Feb 26, 2024 16:08:48 GMT -5
I wanted to share this lovely Roger Garland painting of Smaug. This was used as the front cover of the 50th Anniversary paperback edition of The Hobbit here in the UK. That particular edition was the first Tolkien I ever owned myself, though I'd read a friend's copy a year or two earlier. We all have a soft spot for our first though, right? Anyway, it's nice to see the painting in its natural state, unspoilt by the book's title and trade dress. So this was from the 1980s? Interesting - I think I would have guessed a little later if I had seen it with no other information. The background especially might have made me think computer imaging of some kind.
Yeah, I can kinda see what you mean. But no...this was painted in 1986 or thereabouts. Way before computer art could render stuff like that background. |
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Post by berkley on Feb 26, 2024 19:10:32 GMT -5
So this was from the 1980s? Interesting - I think I would have guessed a little later if I had seen it with no other information. The background especially might have made me think computer imaging of some kind.
Yeah, I can kinda see what you mean. But no...this was painted in 1986 or thereabouts. Way before computer art could render stuff like that background.
It's a nice effect however it was done, but I admit that the thought that it was painted instead of software-generated makes me warm to it a little more.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Mar 3, 2024 19:58:53 GMT -5
Currently reading The Silmarillion again... and boy! Do I dislike Turin still! He's a cross between an emo and a bully!
On the other hand, the story of Beren and Luthien is an absolute classic.
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Post by berkley on Mar 4, 2024 13:10:14 GMT -5
Currently reading The Silmarillion again... and boy! Do I dislike Turin still! He's a cross between an emo and a bully! On the other hand, the story of Beren and Luthien is an absolute classic.
I think I might add this to my re-read list soon, since I've decided to finally get back to some 20th-C fantasy and I don't remember The Silmarillion as well as I do LotR or The Hobbit.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Mar 4, 2024 14:04:17 GMT -5
It just struck me: Smaug being a winged dragon is a very big deal, as those critters were first seen only at the very end of the First Age. Winged dragons appeared when Morgoth was besieged by the armies of the Valar and let loose Ancalagon and his brethren. Ancalagon was so huge that when he fell down to Earth, he smashed the peaks of Thangorodrim!
Smaug was much smaller, but is still from a dreadful lineage; he's probably much more powerful than any balrog.
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Post by berkley on Mar 4, 2024 20:12:00 GMT -5
It just struck me: Smaug being a winged dragon is a very big deal, as those critters were first seen only at the very end of the First Age. Winged dragons appeared when Morgoth was besieged by the armies of the Valar and let loose Ancalagon and his brethren. Ancalagon was so huge that when he fell down to Earth, he smashed the peaks of Thangorodrim! Smaug was much smaller, but is still from a dreadful lineage; he's probably much more powerful than any balrog.
On a physical level, perhaps - but the Balrogs have that mystical aspect that's hard to gauge. The dragons are magical beings too, in a sense, but the threat they pose is mostly physical - destruction of lives and property - while the balrogs seem to represent some other, deeper kind of danger as well as the physical - though don't ask me what, specifically: I'm just trying to articulate whatever vague feelings have arisen in reaction to the point of comparison you raise, which never occurred to me before.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Mar 5, 2024 7:05:58 GMT -5
It just struck me: Smaug being a winged dragon is a very big deal, as those critters were first seen only at the very end of the First Age. Winged dragons appeared when Morgoth was besieged by the armies of the Valar and let loose Ancalagon and his brethren. Ancalagon was so huge that when he fell down to Earth, he smashed the peaks of Thangorodrim! Smaug was much smaller, but is still from a dreadful lineage; he's probably much more powerful than any balrog.
On a physical level, perhaps - but the Balrogs have that mystical aspect that's hard to gauge. The dragons are magical beings too, in a sense, but the threat they pose is mostly physical - destruction of lives and property - while the balrogs seem to represent some other, deeper kind of danger as well as the physical - though don't ask me what, specifically: I'm just trying to articulate whatever vague feelings have arisen in reaction to the point of comparison you raise, which never occurred to me before.
It's for the best, I think, that these creatures remain mysterious as to what they can actually do and how their powers compare to each other. If we had strict stats as we do in sports, it would make little sense for Ecthelion to cause the death of a balrog or for Fingolfin to fight Morgoth in single combat (maiming him forever, too). Luthien, on her own, was able lay Morgoth low (if only briefly) and the dog Huan almost killed Sauron, leading me to believe that magic doesn't work in a strictly quantitative way in these tales. I love it that way, too! It reminds me of how even gods could be hurt by mortals in The Iliad or how Jacob wrestled with God (or an angel) all through the night. |
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Mar 5, 2024 20:42:45 GMT -5
Smaug was much smaller, but is still from a dreadful lineage; he's probably much more powerful than any balrog.I got curious about this in a "who's stronger, Hulk or The Thing?" kind of way and started to dig around on the internet looking for an official answer. Apparently J.R.R. Tolkien wrote in The Book of Lost Tales Part II, "yet of all are they [dragons] the most powerful, save it be the Balrogs only." So, apparently Balrogs have the edge on Dragons in terms of power. |
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