Recommendations for an LotR fan - not necessarily fantasy

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by crich70

Well it's listed under the name Mary Stewart and apparently she became a member of Smashwords on Feb 19th 2011. As Mary Stewart just died on May 9th 2014 I'm guessing that it was her who put the book out there in ebook format.

And do you know how easy it is to go and register using a name that's not already in use? TRIVIAL! So really, that's no proof of it being legal. In fact if it was legal, I would thing that Smahswords would be dancing for joy and advertising this all over the place. as it would be a big deal.

Can you find any place that says it's legal outside of this one entry on Smashwords? I bet not because its not legal.

[crich70]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

What I want to know is WHY do they have Peter Pan being played by a girl when the role is that of a boy? Now that's just wrong. I tried to watch the recent live version of Peter pan and found I had a problem seeing a girl play the part of Peter.

I think there are several reasons why a girl/woman plays the part of Peter in Peter Pan. One (I think) is that boys do mature and it would be awkward to have a boy's voice crack partway through a season of performances. Another might well be the weight difference when working with a flying harness. Girls/women are generally smaller in build and therefore lighter in weight than boys are. Remember Peter isn't supposed to grow up while boys and girls do, but generally girls are smaller even as they mature into women and therefore it's easier to keep a costume around that they are able to fit into than if the role were played by a boy as well. I understand they had some problems while making Peter Pan (2003) due to the actor playing Peter Pan going through a growth spurt. From IMDB:

Jeremy Sumpter went from 5 feet tall to 5' 8" during filming. The window of the nursery had to be rebuilt 4 times because the actor kept hitting his head on it.

Imagine having to find someone who can play the part in mid season on stage because the actor no longer can fit into the costume or flying harness. And they have to learn their lines yesterday as well.

[crich70]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

And do you know how easy it is to go and register using a name that's not already in use? TRIVIAL! So really, that's no proof of it being legal. In fact if it was legal, I would thing that Smahswords would be dancing for joy and advertising this all over the place. as it would be a big deal.

Can you find any place that says it's legal outside of this one entry on Smashwords? I bet not because its not legal.

I can't argue with you that it is easy to claim you are someone you aren't on the net, but I would think it might be harder to do some things. Like explain why the funds earned are in someone else's name. I mean if I claimed to be Bram Stoker (assuming he were alive) and yet funds earned for Dracula etc. were to go into another bank account under another name I'd think it would raise a few eyebrows. And Mrs. Stewart was still alive in 2011 so how can anyone be sure that she didn't open the smashwords account herself? Alas we can't ask her personally as she died back in May.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by crich70

I can't argue with you that it is easy to claim you are someone you aren't on the net, but I would think it might be harder to do some things. Like explain why the funds earned are in someone else's name. I mean if I claimed to be Bram Stoker (assuming he were alive) and yet funds earned for Dracula etc. were to go into another bank account under another name I'd think it would raise a few eyebrows. And Mrs. Stewart was still alive in 2011 so how can anyone be sure that she didn't open the smashwords account herself? Alas we can't ask her personally as she died back in May.

Crich:

But nobody claimed to BE Mary Stewart. They solely claim to be KGStudios. That's hardly difficult. And the funds would go to their DBA. Not to put too fine a point on it, but scads (thousands) of authors use DBAs for their imprint names, and those monies go directly to their own personal bank accounts, without any issue. I know they do for several of my clients, who never bothered to set up a corp or even an LLC. It's easy-peasy. In fact, all those erotica writers ALL essentially have publisher and noms and DBAs, and they all seem to get their money just fine.

I think that's conflation: nobody claimed to be the late great Mary Stewart, just some publishing entity. Hell...I wonder if you could fake a letter? Fake a letter, make a copy, scan that, scan it again, and send THAT to Coker? (Not implying, in ANY way, that Coker, et al, are complicit in this, you understand). How hard would that be? Particularly for a woman who has probably signed thousands, if not tens of thousands of autographs? On an estate that may or may not be sophisticated enough to LOOK for that one lousy set of 3 books on a not-famous (in the outer world) website?

Just saying. Sorry, but I'm no criminal mastermind, and even I can think of 5 different ways that they could get it up there with little or no difficulty, unless someone REALLY followed it up. Someone like an entity with Amazon's resources. And again, I gotta ask: if it's legit, WHERE is the copy that was up on Amazon in 2011? I feel it speaks volumes (no pun intended) by its absence, unless someone else saw it?

Hitch

[crich70]

I'm not claiming I know it is or isn't. I admit to not knowing either way. Anyway I think the thread has deviated a bit from topic. I'd think the Oz or Wonderland books might still be enjoyable for an 11 yr old to read. Or what about "The Phantom Tollbooth" by Norman Juster?

[JSWolf]

I cannot see Mary Stewart putting up her three most famous books on Smashwords via an unknown company and making peanuts when she could get them published a lot more prominently and making a lot more money.

I sent a comment on Smashwords pointing out that this could be illegal and a fraud and just because Smashwords might have what looks like a legal letter or a contract doesn't make it real because her signature is just too easy to get due to her many many book signings.

[Nyssa]

Originally Posted by crich70

I'd think the Oz or Wonderland books might still be enjoyable for an 11 yr old to read. Or what about "The Phantom Tollbooth" by Norman Juster?

I've not read it myself as yet, but The Phantom Tollbooth comes highly recommended from my husband, a friend / librarian with whom I worked closely for 2.5 years, and many Language Arts / English / Reading teachers. It seems to be a staple in 4th - 8th grade classrooms.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by crich70

I'm not claiming I know it is or isn't. I admit to not knowing either way. Anyway I think the thread has deviated a bit from topic. I'd think the Oz or Wonderland books might still be enjoyable for an 11 yr old to read. Or what about "The Phantom Tollbooth" by Norman Juster?

Originally Posted by Nyssa

I've not read it myself as yet, but The Phantom Tollbooth comes highly recommended from my husband, a friend / librarian with whom I worked closely for 2.5 years, and many Language Arts / English / Reading teachers. It seems to be a staple in 4th - 8th grade classrooms.

Y'know, this must be GMTA. (Great Minds Think Alike--we use this acronym at my office all the time. That one, and LP: Lipsticked Pig. I won't go into further detail on what THAT means.). I was pondering the Oz books, as well. I honestly cannot remember how old I was when I read them first, so I can't recall if it's suitable for an 11-y.o. However, I'll delve.

And, YES, Phantom Tollbooth! Excellent suggestion.

At this rate, I'll have to drop my health insurance to pay for books, LOL!

Hitch

[crich70]

Originally Posted by Hitch

Y'know, this must be GMTA. (Great Minds Think Alike--we use this acronym at my office all the time. That one, and LP: Lipsticked Pig. I won't go into further detail on what THAT means.). I was pondering the Oz books, as well. I honestly cannot remember how old I was when I read them first, so I can't recall if it's suitable for an 11-y.o. However, I'll delve.

And, YES, Phantom Tollbooth! Excellent suggestion.

At this rate, I'll have to drop my health insurance to pay for books, LOL!

Hitch

The Phantom tollbooth is available for Kindle. Just $5.70 for a copy.
Amazon US

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by crich70

The Phantom tollbooth is available for Kindle. Just $5.70 for a copy.
Amazon US

TY, I already looked! Unfortunately, he nix gots Kindle or any other e-reader; all my orders are, currently, DTs! Oh, the humanity (and irony...the opposite of wrinkly...)

Hitch

[crich70]

Originally Posted by Hitch

TY, I already looked! Unfortunately, he nix gots Kindle or any other e-reader; all my orders are, currently, DTs! Oh, the humanity (and irony...the opposite of wrinkly...)

Hitch

It should be able to be viewed via Kindle app if he has a computer. The first time I read it was in paper. The school library had a copy, and then yrs later I bought a copy in paper at a garage sale.

[dsn]

I notice that the bundle of the first 4 of Mary Stewart's Merlin series is available on the Canadian kobo site for $7.78 CDN. This is actually cheaper than the $6.99 price (or was it $6.69?) US on smashwords given the exchange rate. (I noticed this just *after* I bought from smashwords. I swear I checked on kobo before and after buying on smashwords, and it appeared on kobo within minutes of my smashwords purchase. Weird.)

Also other books of hers are available as ebooks on various sites, which I noticed by searching with calibre's "get books" functionality. Here's the link for kobo:

http://store.kobobooks.com/en-CA/ebo...arthurian-saga

[rkomar]

You might try Stephen Hunt's series starting with "Court of the Air". It's more steampunk than high fantasy, but it's definitely epic, high stakes, and has good triumphing over evil. The stories are classic potboilers, with a Victorian flavour to the stories.

[crich70]

Originally Posted by rkomar

You might try Stephen Hunt's series starting with "Court of the Air". It's more steampunk than high fantasy, but it's definitely epic, high stakes, and has good triumphing over evil. The stories are classic potboilers, with a Victorian flavour to the stories.

If we're stretching a point then Jules Verne wrote a number of good books that are like epics in some ways and which could be considered a bit 'steampunk' in nature. Like '20,000 leagues under the seas' for example. or "Journey to the center of the Earth.' Would E. R. Burrough's Mars books fit I wonder?

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by rkomar

You might try Stephen Hunt's series starting with "Court of the Air". It's more steampunk than high fantasy, but it's definitely epic, high stakes, and has good triumphing over evil. The stories are classic potboilers, with a Victorian flavour to the stories.

Thanks. I'm a huge steampunk fan, as I mentioned elsewhere. Maybe not this thread. I'd like to broaden his horizons, although, right now, I'm just so delighted he's reading that I have started out sloooowly, with the WIT series and The Dark is Rising series (sorry if I have a title name there rather than the full series name).

@Crich wrote:

If we're stretching a point then Jules Verne wrote a number of good books that are like epics in some ways and which could be considered a bit 'steampunk' in nature. Like '20,000 leagues under the seas' for example. or "Journey to the center of the Earth.' Would E. R. Burrough's Mars books fit I wonder?

I ADORED Burroughs as a kid, although I admit I leaned more toward Tarzan than POM. I have all the POM's in digital form, which I could lend him, IF he had an ePUB-reader. Drat. Hmph...I wonder if Mum and Dad would let me give him the spare NookColor I have sitting here (purchased for a client that never used it)? Or even, for parental monitoring, one of the newer inexpensive Kindles? He could learn to come to MR and PG and download classics, too.

Hmph. You guys are tough on my BUDGET! (It's nice to have a kid in the family, albeit my DH's, with whom to relate. The rest really aren't kindred spirits. I didn't know I even LIKED the little buggers until now.).

Hitch