A new book which J.R.R. Tolkien had been writing since 1918, before his death is going to be published next month. The book was picked up by his son Christopher, and was 30 years in the making.
http://www.yahoo.com/s/540898
QuoteArtist Alan Lee has provided 25 pencil sketches and eight paintings for the book.
Oh dear...
Anyway, here's the cover http://www.tolkienlibrary.com/press/children-of-hurin-cover.htm. Yeah, it's dutch, but so is Bilbo's twin sister ;)
Oh dear.. 30 years for 300 pages?
Better be GOOD.
Well it's by Tolkien, so I wouldn't bet on it. :=
OUCH.
I wonder who'll get the film righs for this? Are they included in whoever has the film rights for Hobbit?
Argh. The book's not even released yet and already we're talking about the movie. This is sad.
Quote from: Tuomas on Mon 26/03/2007 19:24:13
QuoteArtist Alan Lee has provided 25 pencil sketches and eight paintings for the book.
Oh dear...
What's wrong with Alan Lee? He's one of the best Tolkien artists around..
Rather than art and potential movies, maybe we should think about the actual books.
The obvious comparision is Frank Herbert's Dune books (brilliant), and the ones by his son Brian.
Oh, dear. Oh, VERY dear.(They weren't that good, is the point I'm making.)
That said, I'll probably read it anyway, like I am/will Hunters and Sandworms. Then I'll decide it was poo - not before.
Christopher Tolkien has always been a fairly good writer/editor of his father's books. Anything Tolkien wrote outside of Lord of The Rings/The Hobbit his son helped in some way.
I'd say the Herbert/Tolkien filial situations are quite different. First of all, Christopher Tolkien has had an immensely rich cache of notes, drafts and other unpublished material by JRR Tolkien to work from. Based on the evidence of the prequels, as well as the scraps put out in Dreamer of Dune, all of Frank Herbert's best stuff went into the books he actually published while alive.
Secondly, Christopher Tolkien was close to his father's writing, as letters between them show. If anyone has the authority to complete a Tolkien story (definitely a valid question), it's him. Brian Herbert was pretty much estranged from his dad during most of Dune's creation, and Frank certainly never consulted with his son or got him involved with the writing (they reconciled years later, but the one book they did together had nothing to do with Dune). Now if Frank's wife Beverly Herbert was still alive, that would be a completely different story...
Finally, CT has done an enormous job compiling and editing JRR's actual words, showing the process of creation, the evolution of ideas, the inconsistent drafts, and so on. The level of documentation is staggering, and if I didn't know better I'd say it was more than any fan could ever want. BH has (with the exception of the small handful of deleted scenes included in Dreamer of Dune) decided not to share FH's work-in-progress, but instead "adapted" it with the help of Star Wars hack Kevin J. Anderson, creating new books that are obviously both corrupt and unauthentic. Never mind their complete lack of literary value, they're also utterly useless as a guide to Frank Herbert's thinking about Dune.
In my opinion, then, Christopher Tolkien has earned the benefit of the doubt. He has shown that he has great respect for his father's work, and even should he screw this one up, it won't change the fact that he's done a great service to that work. Meanwhile, Brian Herbert has earned the "benefit" of our extreme skepticism, even prejudice against any volume he puts out with the word "Dune" on the cover.
i think christopher has, as everyone said a: been a great editor of his fathers work and b done some decent works on his own (based on his fathers notes though). so i think this should be worth the read. as for movies. well we all know the huge battle between the studio and peter jackson on what he is owed for lord of the rings and they they DONT want him working on hobbit so i doubt we will see this book come to light in a good way. (might end up looking like an old 80's fantasy if its made. although films like krull and dragon slayer i still looooooove as old classic fantasy)
Quotewell we all know the huge battle between the studio and peter jackson on what he is owed for lord of the rings and they they DONT want him working on hobbit
Yay! Maybe someone will make it that doesn't feel a need to embellish and add their own ideas to an already extensively rich and fleshed out world!
well, he never did say his films were THE book. they were based on the book and i though he put the story to film rather well. if that book was done line for line as a film it would have been soooo boring.
Quote from: Snarky on Tue 27/03/2007 00:35:01
Christopher Tolkien was close to his father's writing, as letters between them show. If anyone has the authority to complete a Tolkien story (definitely a valid question), it's him.
Indeed, CT was a member of The Inklings (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inklings) and heard many of the Middle Earth stories from the very beginning, before they were published (as did CS Lewis, etc).
Here are some more details about
the book.
(http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=30670.0)
Apparently, it's going to be pretty dirty if they make it into a film.
(http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article648973.ece)