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Old 08-25-2019, 02:56 PM   #1
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The Iron Tower + Two Ways To Appreciate Middle Earth

This topic is not specifically about ebooks, but I was more recently motivated to do it, by the first ebook release this month, of The Iron Tower by Dennis L. McKiernan, which has finally been released as an ebook, so it seemed a good time to bring all this up.

Two Ways To Appreciate Middle Earth
There are of course, many ways to both appreciate and not appreciate Middle Earth, and even different degrees of such.

However, for the purposes of this discussion, I am talking about two main ways, for those who enjoyed J.R.R. Tolkien's creation greatly.

On the one hand, you have those who are called the purists and on the other, those who are just the readers, and of course a big bunch of us who lie somewhere between the two groups. We are all fans.

Harking back to some of the other ways, just for a moment, just to touch upon the negatives out there, though this conversation is not really about them, but of course there is some degree of relevance.

Tolkien has at times been criticized for various aspects of The Lord Of The Rings. Some people have complained of religious overtones and hidden agenda and or allegory. There have been complaints about Imperialism and even Racism. Another big one, is about lack of sex or romance, and even insinuations that the love is very boy's club, perhaps even touching on gay or homosexual ... certainly in regard to the main three characters. Tolkien of course, attempted to debunk most of these things, and admitted to very few failings.

Tolkien claims, that he wrote about Middle Earth, so as to give England some Fairy Tales, as unlike most of Europe and even Ireland, it did not really have any. That said, he was always clear about his stories not being tales about fairies ... certainly not the fairies in children's books. Of course, most of those stories have been toned down for children, because they are based on quite dark adult things, but because they were fanciful, were relegated as stories only for children ... that was the thinking of that time.

Aside from The Hobbit to some degree, Tolkien did not consider his tales as stories for children.

Anyway .............

Many have read both The Hobbit and The Lord Of The Rings ... or at least attempted to. A good number like myself, have gone beyond those two works, reading The Silmarillion at least, and maybe one or two other works by Tolkien, with some of us even digging much deeper into the History Of Middle Earth, provided by Tolkien's son, Christopher.

Many only know The Hobbit and The Lord Of The Rings, through the Peter Jackson movies, having either no willingness to read the books or have attempted and failed.

Some who have indeed read those two works, have skipped the heavily detailed parts, especially in The Lord Of The Rings. Those detailed sections, of which a good number exist throughout the story, are in fact, what have prevented many from completing their reading of them. For them, Tolkien waffles on too much, which breaks the flow of the story, and they then struggle to stay interested.

In fact in some quarters, it is seen as quite an accomplishment, to have read them fully and properly ... though that is not necessary to enjoy them.

There is even a snobbish element to that with some readers, amongst some scholars in particular. Some have made more than one attempt to complete them, especially where perhaps they were too young when they made their first attempt. All of which brings me back to the main two types of appreciation.

Many, no doubt most, love those two works, especially because they are a great rollicking tale full of wonder and depth. When I say most, it is really all ... I suspect, though some might indeed just enjoy for purely scholastic reasons. However, for the greater majority, that is where their liking for Tolkien's works stop, at the entertainment side of things. Those of us who have scholastic leanings, go beyond the obvious and look at the depth and cleverness of Tolkien's work, and to varying degrees, dissect it.

So in essence, those two works are appreciated in two main ways, which for a good number of us, are a blending of the two.

Now onto the main gist of this discussion.

What Tolkien wrote, and certainly in the manner he did it, and the reasoning behind it, was unique ... though to be sure, it was built on very solid foundations of older stories by others, mixed with his wonderful imagination and skill.

So really, he was the first for that overall type of tale. Some consider he should be both first and last in that regard, and don't really appreciate other works by other authors, treading on much of that same ground ... which for them is sacred.

Personally, I think that is ridiculous, and those other works a tribute really, and just furthering what Tolkien started in some ways, but also carrying on his work, that to a good degree, was based on tales by others, that he reshaped into his own voice.

Certainly some works by a small number of others, have come very close to imitating the master, and it is those that cop most of the criticism. Two in particular, always come immediately to mind for me, that I greatly enjoyed reading, and I have never appreciated the criticism against them, feeling it is unjust and unfounded, because of the differences between them and Tolkien's master work, rather than just focusing on the similarities, and denigrating them because of that, like a good number do.

Those two being the tales of Shannara by Terry Brooks, and the tales of Mithgar by Dennis L. McKiernan.

Both authors have created wonderful worlds and written many great stories set in them.

Terry Brooks has gone on to great acclaim, but Dennis L. McKiernan not so much, and he has copped the greater amount of flack, which is not surprising when you know how he commenced his tale telling, which was as a temporary invalid, writing a sequel to The Lord Of The Rings, in a somewhat naive manner.

Diverging for a moment.

Those two authors are not alone, as even the late great Robert Jordan was criticized, because his first book in his Wheel Of Time series, started out very reminiscent to elements at the start of Tolkien's LOTR tale. Many have written elements of their stories which echo elements of Tolkien's main work.

Of course, many of those doing the criticism, do so out of fear and to my mind, misguided respect. The fear being the watering down of Tolkien's great achievement, relegating it to just becoming a good story. That fear or notion, when you look at the bigger picture, just doesn't stack up.

First off, Tolkien's tale is two things, one a great story, two a great scholastic work. For most readers or fans, it is just a great tale, the scholastic side meaning little or nothing to them.

For those who really care about the scholastic elements, these similar tales by other authors, just cannot compete and are never likely to, with what Tolkien did. Anyone who has any degree of knowledge about what Tolkien did, surely knows that. His was a great literary achievement, while the others are in a different ball park altogether, literary wise.

Each can be admired for their relevant merit, without much conflict ensuing.

At the end of the day for most people, it is about being entertained by a great story, and each achieves that, but in Tolkien's case, he achieves something more, and both Terry Brooks and Dennis L. McKiernan acknowledge and respect that, considering Tolkien as the master, not to be compared overall with their humble works.

There is room for both to exist and be appreciated and enjoyed for what they are. In fact, for those who struggle(d) with Tolkien, these other much lighter reads, are a great way to enjoy something similar.

In further defense of Dennis L. McKiernan, in particular. When I first read The Iron Tower trilogy, which was many years after reading The Hobbit and The Lord Of The Rings, I was captivated by the magic in Dennis' tale, and enjoyed it immensely. I only superficially compared it to Tolkien's tale, and just because they had similar fantasy epic ingredients. There was for me, enough differences for there to be no feeling of being a derivative work or a poorly told rehash. The story had plenty of merit on its own, and I was certainly transported into another enjoyable world. It was similarly so, when I read The Shannara trilogy.

Like many I guess, I wish Tolkien had written more stories set in Middle Earth.

That can never be, though he certainly did write many other tales set there, if not fleshed out in the same manner as his main two book tale, so not easily accessible to most people, who prefer a more normal form of story as reading entertainment.

So it is great (certainly in my view) that others are writing and have written similar tales, even if they can only be appreciated as great entertainment, and lack the depth of similar scholastic achievement.

My enjoyment of Middle Earth, is not lessened by my enjoyment of Mithgar or Shannara etc. Just as my appreciation of Tolkien, is not lessened by my appreciation of other authors.

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.

I say all this as someone who both liked and disliked the Peter Jackson movies. There were many elements of those movies, that did not sit right with me, did not match the visions, experience or knowledge in my head. As entertainment, those movies are certainly great and epic fantasy, and I try to see them like that, and not really as a true representation of the books. I don't like the images from the movies or the character portraits, supplanting the very different ones in my head. In fact, I may never read the tale again, because I don't want those things surfacing, and I fear, supplanting my original thoughts.

That last said, I have read The Hobbit and Lord Of The Rings three times, the last time in their expensive glamorous editions. I am also several books into The History Of Middle Earth, which later cover much of the same ground and alternate writings or versions by Tolkien, during his many revisions before publication ... I am at that point now.

P.S. I enjoy The Iron Tower so much, that I have purchased it three times ... the original single books (great covers) (stored safely away), the first omnibus with minor improvements (unread), and now the all-in-one ebook. I have read the story and its immediate sequel (not yet in ebook), three times.

Last edited by Timboli; 08-25-2019 at 03:31 PM.
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Old 08-25-2019, 06:09 PM   #2
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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.

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.
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Old 08-26-2019, 01:15 AM   #3
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Quote:
Originally Posted by pwalker8 View Post
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."

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Old 08-26-2019, 10:18 AM   #4
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Originally Posted by Timboli View Post
This topic is not specifically about ebooks, but I was more recently motivated to do it, by the first ebook release this month, of The Iron Tower by Dennis L. McKiernan, which has finally been released as an ebook, so it seemed a good time to bring all this up.
Wow! I've wondered why there had been no ebook release.

I do wish he'd gotten better cover art. Maybe in a re-release.

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Originally Posted by DuckieTigger View Post
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.
I suspect you're right.

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Originally Posted by pwalker8 View Post
This is the omnibus version, i.e. it has all three books from the trilogy.
That should really be added to the item description. $10 for the first book in the trilogy is high. The same price for an omnibus of all three is a different story.
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Old 08-26-2019, 10:57 AM   #5
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The author is preparing The Silver Call for electronic release, but it will take some time. I learned that from his FB page. Yep, presumably the rights reverted to him.

I haven't read McKiernan at all for some reason, but I'll get the trilogy now.
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Old 08-26-2019, 12:53 PM   #6
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The problem is that Dennis is making a right mess of his books. He's only having them made in Mobi. There is no KF8 version. He doing this very badly. The Iron Tower Trilogy is Mobi only.
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Old 08-26-2019, 01:20 PM   #7
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The author was born in 1932, so age may be playing a part in some of his decisions.

I read his first trilogy back in 1985, or thereabouts, and remember enjoying it. Even though it's so heavily influenced by Tolkien, I found the story enjoyable.

Yet another good reason to go with Kindle Unlimited.
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Old 08-26-2019, 01:29 PM   #8
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Originally Posted by DuckieTigger View Post
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.

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).

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."
Oh, I already bought the ebook. I have the paper version and the audiobook version of the first book of the original trilogy.

LOTR fans are fanatical? Surely you jest.

When I was in high school, I knew some people who could write using the Elvish runes. I suppose that I would be considered a fanatic given how many times I've read LOTR and the Hobbit, plus the assorted add on books put out by Christopher Tolkien, but I never went to that level.

Yea, I know people who absolutely hated the movies (as does Christopher Tolkien, whom I don't know) because of all the changes they made to the story. There was less angst when DeMille deviated from parts of the Bible while making the 10 Commandments!

Certainly, there were aspects where I wish that the movie had followed the book more closely, but all in all, I liked the movies.
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Old 08-26-2019, 01:32 PM   #9
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The author is preparing The Silver Call for electronic release, but it will take some time. I learned that from his FB page. Yep, presumably the rights reverted to him.

I haven't read McKiernan at all for some reason, but I'll get the trilogy now.
Good to hear that. No, he isn't Tolkien, but he is a pretty good mid tier author.

The funny thing is that he is an author that I follow on Amazon, but I didn't get any notice that this book had come out as an eBook.
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Old 08-26-2019, 01:34 PM   #10
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The author was born in 1932, so age may be playing a part in some of his decisions.

I read his first trilogy back in 1985, or thereabouts, and remember enjoying it. Even though it's so heavily influenced by Tolkien, I found the story enjoyable.

Yet another good reason to go with Kindle Unlimited.
Of course, you can pay the normal $10 price if you don't have Kindle Unlimited as I did.
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Old 08-26-2019, 01:38 PM   #11
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Wow! I've wondered why there had been no ebook release.

I do wish he'd gotten better cover art. Maybe in a re-release.

...
Yea, I've noticed a number of older backlist books have basically the title of the book on a simple colored cover. I guess it's cheap and the original cover art is under copyright to either the original artists or the publishing company (depending on if it was a work for hire or not). Usually someone uploads the original cover art on one of the bookstores. I have the original paper backs, so I might just scan the cover and use that.
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Old 08-26-2019, 02:15 PM   #12
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Yea, I've noticed a number of older backlist books have basically the title of the book on a simple colored cover. I guess it's cheap and the original cover art is under copyright to either the original artists or the publishing company (depending on if it was a work for hire or not). Usually someone uploads the original cover art on one of the bookstores. I have the original paper backs, so I might just scan the cover and use that.
I don't expect the original cover art. Just one that's.. you know, good. Indie book covers have gotten better over the years.

But given the author's age, I'm just assuming he really could use some help and guidance.

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Originally Posted by Sirtel View Post
I haven't read McKiernan at all for some reason, but I'll get the trilogy now.
I'm in the same boat. I remember McKiernan's books being a staple in the SFF section of most bookstores and was surprised there had been no ebook release.
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Old 08-26-2019, 08:00 PM   #13
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Originally Posted by ZodWallop View Post
I don't expect the original cover art. Just one that's.. you know, good. Indie book covers have gotten better over the years.

But given the author's age, I'm just assuming he really could use some help and guidance.



I'm in the same boat. I remember McKiernan's books being a staple in the SFF section of most bookstores and was surprised there had been no ebook release.
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.
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Old 08-27-2019, 01:21 AM   #14
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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.

FYI - The duology was written first and in a different form, as it was originally written as a sequel to The Lord Of The Rings, while he was in a full body cast after a motorbike accident. He even later, somewhat naively, tried to get the Tolkien estate to allow him to publish it, but they politely refused. He had a publisher interested though, and they requested he rewrite it with significant changes, and do a prequel to match, to take the place of The Lord Of The Rings. So he did both and they published the prequel (The Iron Tower) first. The publisher were the ones who decided to split it into a trilogy ... in a way echoing what happened to Tolkien with LOTR.

Yes, the cover is pretty ordinary, and I suspect deliberately so ... and it does relate to a big part of the story. The cover for the first omnibus edition is pretty good, and easily found on the web, and I grabbed it myself to use as a replacement, but then changed my mind, and kept to the plain eclipse like version.

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.

Last edited by Timboli; 08-27-2019 at 01:32 AM.
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Old 08-27-2019, 04:55 AM   #15
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Originally Posted by Dr. Drib View Post
The author was born in 1932, so age may be playing a part in some of his decisions.

I read his first trilogy back in 1985, or thereabouts, and remember enjoying it. Even though it's so heavily influenced by Tolkien, I found the story enjoyable.

Yet another good reason to go with Kindle Unlimited.
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.
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