Reading Copy Book Blog

J.R.R. Tolkien’s two children are embroiled in a bitter lawsuit with New Line Cinema over unpaid royalties from the three Lord of the Rings movies.

According to the LA Times, “Tolkien licensed motion picture rights to United Artists back in 1969 for a low six-figure sum and 7.5% of the gross receipts.” however New Line has not actually paid any money to the Tolkien kids or the charitable trust fund.

The article explains how law suits are nothing new to New Line and that none of this will be solved for years because the courts are too backed up…. but the interesting bit is RIGHT at the end…

Of course, the Tolkien’s do have one giant club in their arsenal. Part of the remedy they’re seeking is to terminate New Line’s rights to Tolkien’s books, including the two “Hobbit” films, which are now in the works with “Pan’s Labyrinth” director Guillermo del Toro.

“I think they have every right to terminate, ” says Eskenazi. “If New Line engaged in gross misconduct, which I believe they did in this case, are you forced to continue in business with them?”

So we will have to wait and see how this plays out…

AbeBooks has posted an interview with Roderick Gordon and Brian Williams in its authors’ corner. Gordon and Williams co-wrote the underground fantasy book, Tunnels, and they’ve just followed it up with Deeper.

Collectors will be familiar with The Highfield Mole, their self-published version of Tunnels which is worth a lot of money on the rare book market.

They were an interesting couple to listen to. Gordon sold his house help publish The Highfield Mole - quite a gamble.

The birth of The Highfield Mole came from a shared desire to be creative and a series of events related to life underground.

“It was September 2003 on a dark and stormy night,” said Gordon. “We were thinking about a project to work on and my wife suggested writing a children’s book. At first it was a bit of a joke but it took over our lives. We each had half an idea at the beginning.

“My idea came from buying an old house in Northamptonshire – a 16th century crumbly old house with dust everywhere. I was digging outside in the garden and I came across all this compacted stone. There’s a chap who lived down the road and he poked his head over the gate and started telling me that there was supposed to be tunnel from the house to the village church. When he was five years old, he had tried to find the tunnel but couldn’t. I couldn’t find anything either but I started to think about a 14-year-old who loved to dig.”

This past weekend the presentation of the Nebula Awards took place in Austin Texas. Here’s a list of the major prize winners.

Novel: The Yiddish Policemen’s Union - Chabon, Michael
Novella: Fountain of Age - Kress, Nancy (Asimov’s, Jul07)
Novelette: The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate - Chiang, Ted (F&SF, Sep07)
Short Story: Always - Fowler, Karen Joy (Asimov’s, apr/may07)
Script: Pan’s Labyrinth - del Toro, Guillermo (Time/Warner, Jan07)
Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Rowling, J. K. (Scholastic Press, Jul07)

Damon Knight Grand Master for 2008: Michael Moorcock

There is a bit of a recap on the weekends activities in the blog of the nominees, Sarah Beth Durst

The finalists for the 2008 Locus Awards have been announced. Awards to be given out on the 21st of June

SF NOVEL
The Accidental Time Machine, Joe Haldeman (Ace)
Brasyl, Ian McDonald (Pyr)
Halting State, Charles Stross (Ace; Orbit UK)
Spook Country, William Gibson (Putnam; Viking UK)
The Yiddish Policemen’s Union, Michael Chabon (HarperCollins)

FANTASY NOVEL
Endless Things, John Crowley (Small Beer Press; Overlook)
Making Money, Terry Pratchett (Doubleday UK; HarperCollins)
Pirate Freedom, Gene Wolfe (Tor)
Territory, Emma Bull (Tor)
Ysabel, Guy Gavriel Kay (Viking Canada; Roc)

A signed, first edition, copy of The Hobbit was just sold at an auction house in London for £60,000, twice what the projected value of the book was. The Hobbit is considered one of the most collectable modern firsts because of its small initial print run and is the most expensive book ever sold on AbeBooks.

Also on the block was a first edition of The Hobbit in Swedish (the first foreign translation of the title) as well as the last known photo of J.R.R. Tolkein.

from AFP

There are no less then four novels being released to the silver screen this weekend and a couple of them don’t actually look too bad.

The one everyone is talking about is obviously Philip Pullman’s The Golden Compass (Northern Lights in the UK). The fact that the book has been out for a decade hasn’t stopped the media from going nuts over the alleged athiestic messages within the movie.

Lacking the same fan fair as Pullman’s book, Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner also comes out this weekend after a 6 week delay in the films release. The delay was to allow the two boys who lead, a chance to escape their home in Afghanistan after fears public reaction to the story’s pivotal rape scene. I was lucky enough to see the advance showing this past Wednesday the pacing and directing are top notch and the acting really brings the story to life. It’s a really good film and I would recommend it.

Also coming out are Richard Matheson’s post apocalyptic I Am Legend and Ian McEwan’s tale of love and tragedy Atonement.

So you have lots of options this weekend. Or you can just curl up in front of the fire with a good book and forget all this film business.

There was a really good article in The Times on how science fiction tends to get a bad rap even when compared to its sister genre Fantasy.

I think Bryan Appleyard brings up some good points, but then again I’m a SF fan and maybe I’m just bias.

Not too long ago I got the chance to have a quick chat with Elizabeth Hand. Her new book Generation Loss looks really good!

We were given a very lovely signed copy to give away to a booklover of our choosing, so please enter the contest.

If your having trouble with the contest question, remember google and wikipedia are a good friend =).

Stephenie Meyer’s latest vampire book, Eclipse, continues to go great guns with the publisher reporting 250,000 sales in its first week. USA Today gave her a major write-up yesterday.

The books mix fantasy with romance, without sex, drugs or foul language. Meyer’s “pet peeve about the (young adult) genre is that there seems to be an empty spot for novels where kids aren’t doing drugs and having sex.”

Meyer, a Mormon who studied literature at Brigham Young University, says her novels “aren’t overly religious, but my characters, even the vampires, think about religion.”

One bookseller on AbeBooks.com is now asking $700 for a signed copy of her 2005 debut novel, Twilight.

Locus Magazine lists the World Fantasy Awards nominations.

Philip Pullman is working on a follow-up to His Dark Materials, reports The Times. It’s been seven years since he completed the trilogy that has sold 15 million books.

Just a note for anyone in the southwest corner of the US this weekend.
July 26-July 29th will be the 2007 edition of the San Diego Comic Con.

Looks like a good event again this year with some neat author appearances including the likes of Neil Gaiman, Ray Bradbury, Laurell K. Hamilton and George A. Romero.

If you end up attending leave us a comment letting us know how it goes!

Expected to open in 2009 at Universal Studios in Florida.  The Harry Potter theme park will feature a life sized Hogwarts Castle, Forbidden Forest and the village of Hogsmead among other attractions.

If you’re a super serious Harry Potter fan, or happen to live in London, JK has organized a midnight book signing at the Natural History Museum in London on July 21. Those wishing to attend can apply for free tickets via Bloomsbury’s website.

A total of 1,700 will be chosen and all of them will get a free copy of The Deathly Hallows and have it signed by Rowling.

The first 500 randomly selected winners will also be invited to attend a midnight reading of the book by the author.

*UPDATE*
P.S. - For North American fans Scholastic added a contest giving 7 fans airfare and three nights in London to attend this event. Catch to this one is you must be UNDER 21 years of age.

We have an exclusive interview with Gavin Grant the winner from our Nebula Awards contest. If you were not in New York for the event, this is the next best thing.