The Iron Tower + Two Ways To Appreciate Middle Earth

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Age is no excuse for shoddy work. Mobi only and a rather poor cover is not something one can blame on age. Besides, it's easier to make an ePub then it is to make a Mobi.

What specifically does Mobi lack when all you need in a book is headlines, paragraphs, bold, italic, and normal words?

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

McKiernan actually has had a number of his books released as eBooks. I bought Eye of the Hunter years ago and Voyage of the Fox Rider as well. It's just his older mid 80's backlist stuff. that was missing. If I'm counting correctly, he's got some 15 books in the Kindle store, excluding the German editions.

Originally Posted by Timboli

Most of his books have been released as ebooks. I think it was just the first trilogy and duology that hadn't been until now ... duology to come.

Right. I'm aware that he has other books available. But unfortunately, seemingly everything else he wrote (except for the fairy tale books and the D&D players vs. a computer books) are sequels to The Iron Tower.

That's the danger of an author setting everything in the same fictional world. To an outsider, their work can become impenetrable. Ray Feist has the same problem.

[ZodWallop]

Incidentally, I bought the book. Lord knows when I'll read it. I'm midway through the never-ending For Whom The Bell Tolls, then I'll likely read Stephen King's Revival. So many books, so little time...

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Right. I'm aware that he has other books available. But unfortunately, seemingly everything else he wrote (except for the fairy tale books and the D&D players vs. a computer books) are sequels to The Iron Tower.

That's the danger of an author setting everything in the same fictional world. To an outsider, their work can become impenetrable. Ray Feist has the same problem.

True enough. It can be hard to know what order you need to read them in and if you really need to read book A to enjoy book B.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Age is no excuse for shoddy work. Mobi only and a rather poor cover is not something one can blame on age. Besides, it's easier to make an ePub then it is to make a Mobi.

I think I'm starting to understand the Resident Curmudgeon tag.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

True enough. It can be hard to know what order you need to read them in and if you really need to read book A to enjoy book B.

My rule of thumb is to read any series in the order it was published, regardless of its internal chronology.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by Timboli

...
There is a number of typos in that new introduction, possibly as has been suggested, due to his age. It seems Dennis was involved with the conversion to ebook, albeit with some kind of help. Perhaps it has even been done on the cheap.

It feels to me, like he has released the ebook version with no big fanfare deliberately. It is there now for his fans etc who want the ebook (been clamoring for it), but maybe due to his age, he is hoping to avoid the old controversy surfacing again. Good luck to him.

P.S. I don't think he has written anything in a while now, so maybe he isn't well etc ... perhaps feeling his mortality.

Katherine Kurtz's original Deryni trilogy, from the early 70's was converted to ebook by a fan for her, so it's entirely possible something similar may have happened. Can't say that I've ever heard of the listed publisher, Thornwall Press.

Writers like Kurtz and McKiernan are classic mid-tier writers, i.e. writers with a small and very loyal following, but never really broke through into best seller mode. I'm just happy that the books finally made it to eBooks. I can over look a typos.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by Timboli

...
I will admit though, that I had always hoped, that Christopher Tolkien, who knows his father's work both inside and out, would have found the time and motivation to continue what his father started. I now hope that another family member might, as surely the wondrous world of Middle Earth, has many more tales than just the few we have read (one for most people). Certainly there are good arguments out there, especially for making his other tales at least, more palatable for the masses.

...

To get back to this particular point, I'm sure most Tolkien fans know that for The Silmarillion, the first of the posthumously published Tolkien add on's put out by Christopher Tolkien, he was aided by Guy Gavriel Kay, a fine writer in his own right. I wouldn't be incredibly surprised to find out that Kay gave the book that polish that made it a lot more readable as a pure narrative than the other ones.

Now that Christopher Tolkien, who is now in his mid 90's, has relinquished control of the Tolkien literary estate, many have expressed a hope that the family will open up to either allowing, or perhaps hiring writers to novelize many of the earlier parts of the Tolkien universe, or at least open up the material for movies and TV. It's going to be very interesting to see if Amazon's miniseries dips into that material for their LOTR prequel mini-series, or if much of it is made up whole cloth. One hopes the former, but we will see.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

To get back to this particular point, I'm sure most Tolkien fans know that for The Silmarillion, the first of the posthumously published Tolkien add on's put out by Christopher Tolkien, he was aided by Guy Gavriel Kay, a fine writer in his own right. I wouldn't be incredibly surprised to find out that Kay gave the book that polish that made it a lot more readable as a pure narrative than the other ones.

Now that Christopher Tolkien, who is now in his mid 90's, has relinquished control of the Tolkien literary estate, many have expressed a hope that the family will open up to either allowing, or perhaps hiring writers to novelize many of the earlier parts of the Tolkien universe, or at least open up the material for movies and TV. It's going to be very interesting to see if Amazon's miniseries dips into that material for their LOTR prequel mini-series, or if much of it is made up whole cloth. One hopes the former, but we will see.

I've never understood the need to explore every last nook and cranny of a fictional world, wringing every last drop of lore out of it. I'd be happy to let Middle Earth go with just The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings.

I know I'm in the minority and am not disparaging others. But I'd rather read new works by authors than have them write fantasy novels in Middle Earth.

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

Can't say that I've ever heard of the listed publisher, Thornwall Press.

It is self published. If you look in the beginning of your book, in the copyright section it will say:

Copyright © 1984, 2000, 2019 by Dennis L. McKiernan

Cover photo

Cover design by Dennis L. McKiernan

Cover design © 2019 by Thornwall Press

Thornwall Press is wholly owned by Dennis L. McKiernan

Not sure why he created a publisher, but possible to hire part of the work out? If he did the cover himself, then it would explain why the font is practically unreadable on eink. The font should have been simpler, the luminance contrast of the red and black should be bigger.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by DuckieTigger

What specifically does Mobi lack when all you need in a book is headlines, paragraphs, bold, italic, and normal words?

It lacks the ease of converting to ePub that most KF8 give you.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

Katherine Kurtz's original Deryni trilogy, from the early 70's was converted to ebook by a fan for her, so it's entirely possible something similar may have happened. Can't say that I've ever heard of the listed publisher, Thornwall Press.

Writers like Kurtz and McKiernan are classic mid-tier writers, i.e. writers with a small and very loyal following, but never really broke through into best seller mode. I'm just happy that the books finally made it to eBooks. I can over look a typos.

I've converted an RTF file to an ePub for an author once.

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Incidentally, I bought the book. Lord knows when I'll read it. I'm midway through the never-ending For Whom The Bell Tolls, then I'll likely read Stephen King's Revival. So many books, so little time...

You better put that Stephen King book on hold and start The Institute, when it's published Sept. 10.

https://www.amazon.com/Institute-Nov...gateway&sr=8-1

[Timboli]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

My rule of thumb is to read any series in the order it was published, regardless of its internal chronology.

My rule of thumb too, certainly for the first read ... not so much after that, where it can add another interesting angle reading it chronologically.

[Timboli]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Age is no excuse for shoddy work.

I'd say it was more cause, than any excuse on his part.
Could be due to senility or dementure etc for all we know.
He also always seemed to me, to be pretty meticulous with his writing.