Sauron, the Dark Lord, has gathered to him all the Rings of Power, the means by which he intends to rule Middle-earth. All he lacks in his campaign for dominance is the One Ring, the ring that rules them all, which has fallen into the hands of the hobbit, Bilbo Baggins.
In a peaceful village in the Shire, Frodo Baggins finds himself faced with an immense duty, as his elderly cousin Bilbo entrusts the Ring to his custody. Frodo must depart from his home and make a hazardous journey across Middle-earth to the Cracks of Doom, there to destroy the Ring and foil the Dark Lord in his evil intent.
First available in 1954, The Lord of the Rings has been a book people have cherished. Steeped in unrivalled charm and otherworldliness, its sweeping fantasy has touched the hearts of young and old alike. Over 100 million copies of its many editions have been sold around the world. It is now available for the first time on digital download, complete and unabridged.
Rob Inglis has a voice similar to how you imagine the great JRR Tolkien would sound. He keeps the narration neutral so as to leave a great deals still to the imagination of the listener. A very soothing listen, best when sat next to a real fire. This is once of the few opportunities you will get to hear the Lord of the Rings in its entirety.
Audiobook downloads - Visit audible.co.uk
JK Rowling looks set to be honoured by the city of Edinburgh for her contributions to literature. The fantasy author’s handprints will be immortalised in the quadrangle outside the City Chambers and she will also receive a special award due to the honour that her achievements have brought the Scottish city.
Edinburgh hopes that this will lead to an increase in tourism with tourists visiting the city where her phenomenally successful Harry Potter series was started and finished. The capital city is bidding to become the first World City of Literature, a campaign that Rowling herself fronted.
In the US, fantasy author Terry Goodkind is moving from Tor Books to Putnam. Ivan Held, the president of Putnam acquired the US hardcover and paperback rights in a joint venture with Berkley Books - Berkley will publish the paperbacks, Putnam the hardcover.
Goodkind had been with Tor Books for almost 15 years, a period of time in which approximately 25 million copies of his books were sold worldwide. Confessor, the final chapter in the Sword of Truth series was published in November and this marked the end of a very productive relationship.
Putnam believe that they will be able to showcase Goodkind’s to a much larger market than Tor. Terry Goodkind will also be moving away from the fantasy genre with his next release, a contemporary thriller set in the US.
Goodkind Fans may not have any new fantasy offerings to look forward to for a while but the release of Wizard’s First Rule as a television series, produced by Sam Raimi, should help ease the withdrawal symptoms.
Guillermo del Toro, the director of the planned two-film adaptation of JRR Tolkien’s The Hobbit, says thay he will try his uptmost to remain faithful to the spirit of the work.
In an interview with SciFi Wire, del Toro said “I’m trying to be faithful. I’m trying to re-create on the screen the feeling I had when I was 11 in my bed reading the book. How excited I got. How great I thought it was. That’s what I’m trying to honor.”
del Toro also went onto say that, although most fantasy does little for him, The Hobbit “echoes with me very strongly”. The first film will begin shooting later this year in New Zealand.
JRR Tolkien biography, bibliography and interviews
The Hobbit book review
Three signed, first-edition copies of books by CS Lewis are expected to fetch up to £3,000 each at an auction that will be held next month. The three books, all signed by CS Lewis, are The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, The Horse and His Boy and The Last Battle.
The books are being sold by American Walter McGehee Hopper, who was a friend to and private secretary to CS Lewis. The proceeds from the auction will go to the Roman Catholic church in Oxford where CS Lewis worked and spent much of his life.
The auction will take place at Sotheby’s in London in the 17th of July.
2008 year marks the 110th anniversary of CS Lewis’s birth. He was born in Belfast in 1898. CS Lewis went on to write The Chronicles of Narnia, seven works of fantasy produced for children and published between 1950 and 1956. The books have since been translated into more than 30 languages and sold millions of copies.
There is a website called Takatok.com that allows toddlers and tweens to write, illustrate and publish their own stories. Sharon Kan and partner Orit Zuckerman, both mothers of two, launched the site in March 2008. Membership to the web site is currently growing at more than 300% a month.
Adora Svitak is ten years old, a Tikatok member, and an internationally published author. Her first book, Flying Fingers, was written and published when she was only seven years old. She will be helping other children to use Tikatok.
The idea for the Tikatok website, named for the tick-tock sound of a clock, came to Kan while perusing the children’s book section at a Barnes & Nobles store with her daughter. The young users write their stories online then, with the help of an adult, scan or mail original artwork to Tikatok to be bound in hardcover or paperback. There is no charge for membership on Tikatok and completed books cost approximately £10 ($20) each. The author’s artwork is also archived as clip art for others to use as illustrations - the artist is notified when their work has been used.
The majority of Tikatok’s content is private to protect the minors involved. The stories visible to the public are real, but the author’s information is not.
Visit Tikatok.com - Tikatok is where kids channel their imagination into stories - and publish those stories into books for you to share and treasure with friends and family.
Whilst many of you will be aware that there is to be a big screen production of the best-selling book by Susanna Clarke, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell no one seems to know when it’s eventually going to happen! New Line Cinema/Warner Bros. are in charge of bringing what now appears to be two films to the screen but have been beset with delays. They are now hopefully due to go into production in 2009. The screenplay for both films has been written by Clarke and Julien Fellows (Gosforth Park) which rumoured to be nothing short of brilliant. There has been no confirmation of a director for the project and whilst gossip is rife concerning casting for the films there is again no confirmation that anyone has been chosen. Some of the more interesting names being thrown around are Johnny Depp as John Uskglass and David Lynch as a contender for Director. Surely Mr. Depp will want his good friend Tim Burton behind the camera? Ravens, dark magic and period gentlemen? Sounds just his cup of tea!
Garth Nix has announced that there are to be a further two titles in the Abhorsen series due out in 2010 and 2011 respectively. First will be Clariel: The Lost Abhorsen, set some three centuries before Sabriel it tells the story of a young women who eventually becomes known as Chlorr of the Mask. The second book will be a sequel to Abhorsen and will be set several years after then end of events in that book.
If you can’t wait that long for a new Garth Nix fix then breath easy, Nix has promised us the last two titles in the Keys To The Kingdom series - Superior Saturday and Lord Sunday to be released before the new Abhorsen books, and a new novel called Confusion of Princes to be released in 2009.
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The next release from prolific writer Terry Pratchett comes to us on 11th September this year and is the eagerly awaited young adults, non-Discworld book Nation. Set on a remote tropical island recently hit by a Tsunami, it throws together several characters from very different walks of life who find themselves stranded together tackling topics such as culture, religion, reality and sex. Whilst there are very real and serious issues in this book there is also plenty of humour, not least by way of a foul mouthed ship’s parrot stranded also.
Initial feedback on Pratchett’s new book has suggested this is one of his best books yet so get your pre-order in as it’s set to fly off the shelves when it hits the bookshops later this summer!
Roderick Gordon and Brian Williams, authors of Tunnels and its sequel Deeper, will be making appearances this summer at the Edinburgh International Book Festival on 22nd August and the Bath Festival of Children’s Literature on 28th September. Since Tunnels re-release in 2007 (originally released in 2005 under the title of The Highfield Mole) it has become the second in the children’s book charts in France, the number one seller in Romania and a New York Times Bestseller!
Further information on the Edinburgh International Book Festival can be found at http://www.edbookfest.co.uk/
For further information on the Bath Festival of Children’s Literature go to http://www.bathkidslitfest.co.uk/