Quote:
Originally Posted by pwalker8
So The Iron Tower is finally released as an eBook. This is one of those books that I thought would have been released ages ago. I had given up on it coming out as an ebook. This is the omnibus version, i.e. it has all three books from the trilogy. Perhaps the Silver Call will be next.
|
It is very likely that the refusal of releasing an ebook of
The Iron Tower was the publisher's fault. I suspect it has something to do with reversal of rights or at least the ebook rights. Why do I think that? The omnibus edition is his only ebook version currently in KU, also the price is reasonable at US$9.95. There could be other politics and power moves involved, though.
The Lord of the Rings omnibus ebook is not in KU, while the individual parts are. Neither normal or enhanced ebook version of
The Hobbit is in KU. There is no obvious rhyme or reason, but
The Iron Tower was released in KU from the start. If
The Silver Call follows and also comes to KU, reversing the rights back to the author becomes more likely.
Quote:
|
I first read this years ago back in the mid 80's. Certainly, it was inspired by, a take off, whatever you want to say, of Tolkien's LOTR. I never really understood why some people trashed McKiernan and Brooks because of that. It's not like other archetype books, such as super spy Bond of Ian Fleming, or Dashiell Hammett's world weary private detective, or Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None, or many, many others weren't copied or used as a model.
|
On this all I can think of is that the fanbase is bigger and louder for
The Lord of the Rings than your other examples, possibly the biggest for any book (excluding, of course, religious books). Do I dare say that some fans are very close to being fanatical? This crowd you can never make happy. It is either too much, too little, too different.
ETA: As to what he has to say about it in the new ebook foreword (just opened the book on my ereader, but I checked and you can see it also in "look inside" at Amazon).
Quote:
|
Some might say I ripped off Tolkien, but I say not. Even so, much credit it due to him. He was and is an inspiration to many of us.
|
Take it for what it is worth. Including the typo, which I submitted, maybe it will get fixed to "much credit is due to him."