Recommendations for an LotR fan - not necessarily fantasy

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by jgaiser

Wait! What? Jon is advocating something besides published order?

So Jon, you won't have any problems if I read Discworld out of published order, right? Because I could have sworn that you said the only right way to read that series is published order.

Yes, it is very much OK to read Discworld in chronological order. That said, published order and chronological order are the same.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I've not yet read the entire Shannara series, but I have read enough and I did not find any issue with spoilers reading in chronological order.

The First King of Shannara prequel spoils a huge plot point revealed at the very climax of The Druid of Shannara (book 2 of Heritage). Reading the prequel first will mean a new reader knows exactly how a book they've not read yet (Druid) is going to turn out--and it will become very obvious very early.

Originally Posted by JSWolf

That said, regardless of the order, you also have to include the Word & Void series as that is part of the Shannara series.

Yep. And they can be just as easily slotted into a publication-order reading as they can a chronological reading. There's publication dates that make such a thing relatively easy to figure out.

[jgaiser]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Yes, it is very much OK to read Discworld in chronological order. That said, published order and chronological order are the same.

Ok..... Whatever you say.

[Victoria]

Originally Posted by Hitch

Well, who knows what her estate does and doesn't know? If it's anything like other, older writers--from what I've seen--the rights and e-rights are a bloody mess. I would almost bet money that her estate hasn't even realized that the book is up there, legally or otherwise. And I'm sorry, I'll say it again: it's peculiar. And if it's a legal copy, WHY isn't it on Amazon, as KGSTudios asserts "worldwide rights?" What legit publisher in their right MIND would only put a bestselling trilogy up on SW, and NOT on Amazon? It's daft. All you have to have, to publish on Amazon, is a rights-reversion letter or a rights letter or even simply a rights EMAIL. This I know factually, as we deal with scads of rights-reverted works and backlist books. AND books from deceased authors.

That there was a version from KGStudios up there, on Amazon--and there appears not to be, now, is more telling than anything else we've discussed herein, IMHO. Given how low the bar for entry really is....

Just sayin'.

Hitch

I bought it from Amazon last year. The publisher says very explicitly in the front that they are copyrighted, and that they bought the exclusive rights for ebooks from the author

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by Victoria

I bought it from Amazon last year. The publisher says very explicitly in the front that they are copyrighted, and that they bought the exclusive rights for ebooks from the author

Victoria:

If you're talking, again, about KGStudios' version, what it says is, verbatim: "KGStudios holds the exclusive worldwide rights to digitally distribute this title." It doesn't say bupkus about them buying the rights from the author.

If this is the series of which you speak--which, BTW, is now not available on Amazon, after a bunch of MR'ers went over there and inquired as to its legality--then my earlier post stands. All KGStudios--which has no web-address, no website, no web-presence at all--has to do is give Amazon a copy of their contract with Stewart, and the books would have been published there. Or even a rights letter. They obviously did neither to Amazon's satisfaction.

If you're talking about a different publisher, I cannot find that publisher now, nor any version of the books. The barrier for entry for backlisted books on Amazon isn't high. KGStudios should have been EASILY able to satisfy Amazon's requirements to prove their rights, to publish that set of books. That they couldn't--and have settled to distribute on SW, ignoring 88-92% of the eBook market--is practically damnation itself.

FWIW.
Hitch

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Hitch

Victoria:

If you're talking, again, about KGStudios' version, what it says is, verbatim: "KGStudios holds the exclusive worldwide rights to digitally distribute this title." It doesn't say bupkus about them buying the rights from the author.

If this is the series of which you speak--which, BTW, is now not available on Amazon, after a bunch of MR'ers went over there and inquired as to its legality--then my earlier post stands. All KGStudios--which has no web-address, no website, no web-presence at all--has to do is give Amazon a copy of their contract with Stewart, and the books would have been published there. Or even a rights letter. They obviously did neither to Amazon's satisfaction.

If you're talking about a different publisher, I cannot find that publisher now, nor any version of the books. The barrier for entry for backlisted books on Amazon isn't high. KGStudios should have been EASILY able to satisfy Amazon's requirements to prove their rights, to publish that set of books. That they couldn't--and have settled to distribute on SW, ignoring 88-92% of the eBook market--is practically damnation itself.

FWIW.
Hitch

I tried to find the mythical KGStudios on the net and found nothing. If I had the rights to the Merlin Trilogy, I'd have made very well formatted versions and I'd be distributing them to any eBookstore I could. I'd be doing eveything to let these shops know this is legal. But I think this is very illegal as KGStudios is not a real business and if the only place they can find to put them up is SW, then what was done was to find a place very lax at checking copyright.