A tiny print book roundup with bonus complaints about ebook pricing

[annathepiper]

Noting this as I actually bought a couple of print books from Third Place the other day–things that fall into the general category of Authors Who Are Absolutely Vital For Me to Have In Print. The people for whom a lack of access to their books would make me sad, whether due to power outage or loss of reading devices or what have you.

The first of these purchases was In the Labyrinth of Drakes, Book Four in Marie Brennan’s excellent Memoirs of Lady Trent series. I’ve actually already read this and I did indeed love it immensely, but I definitely wanted the Lady Trents in print. And this one finally was available in trade now that the hardcover of Book Five is out.

Beren and Luthi

Much more importantly, I acquired a hardback copy of the new Tolkien release, Beren and Luthien!

Y’all know my love of Tolkien, and you’ll probably also remember that I’m particularly fond of the tale of Beren and Luthien, which is hands down my favorite thing in the whole of The Silmarillion.

Relatedly, when Christopher Tolkien released the excellent Children of Hurin version of the other big tale from The Silmarillion–the tale of Turin Turambar–I nabbed that in hardback. I’ve said before how I had to have that in hardback just for the gorgeous illustrations, and out of general appreciation of the beauty of the work that went into putting that book together as an object.

So given all of these things together, you better believe I had to jump on the Beren and Luthien release.

Fair warning though to fellow Tolkien fans who may be covetously eying this release too: it is not cheap. (I got the hardback for $30.00, and while I could have gotten it for substantially cheaper at Barnes and Noble, I made a point of buying it from Third Place instead because local-to-my-house indie bookstores are love.) If you want that hardback and you’re more budget-pinched than I am, be aware you’ll get it for much cheaper on Amazon or with B&N, both of whom are showing prices for it around $18.

Likewise, the ebook is stupidly expensive right now. It’s clocking in at $16.99, and that price is the main reason I haven’t already nabbed this release as well in digital form. Do not mistake me: I will also be buying this book in digital form, because a) Tolkien pretty much would top the list of authors I require in both formats, and b) under no circumstances am I taking the hardback out of the house. But that price annoys me, as it’s yet another indicator of the return of agency pricing, and I have an ongoing gripe with the publishing industry seeming bound and determined to piss off digital readers by making ebooks as expensive as possible.

I’m genuinely torn, though, as to whether Tolkien is worth it to me to shell out for the ebook at that price anyway; if any author merits doing that out of all my favorites, it’s Tolkien.

Either way, the ebook edition will eventually be joining my collection too. And that’ll likely be the way I read it, just because I do most of my reading on commutes.

For now, that’s two additional book purchases to add to the tally this year, which has been quite small. (I’m actually trying to make an effort to put a dent in the backlog of books I actually own, doncha know.) 17 for the year.

Mirrored from angelahighland.com.

Comments

[wrog]

if any author merits doing that out of all my favorites, it’s Tolkien

Unless, of course, this turns out to be more Chris than his dad. Which could be an improvement if he's finally lost his fear of filling in the gaps that need to be filled in (one of my frustrations with Children of Hurin).

On the other hand, I'm already pretty sure he's not going to tell the story I really want to see

(and, I'm guessing I"ll be long dead by the time this all makes it into the public domain and someone can finally do the movie without getting sued...)

 

[annathepiper]

Children of Hurin felt pretty seamless to me; which bits frustrated you? (It's been a while since I've read it.)

And, *snerk*, well, Christopher Tolkien himself is well into his nineties at this point. I haven't heard yet who would be in line to take over the Tolkien estate once he passes. It's possible that it'll be someone in the family a bit more open to stories in the Silmarillion making it to film.

[wrog]

which bits frustrated you?

it's been a while for me, too, but my recollection is that the pacing was really wacky and that the places with the unexpected fastforwards had an uncanny correspondence with the places in the Unfinished Tales version where it was, "So the cocktail napkin I retrieved from the bottom of his 1938 trunk petered out here, the next one I could find stuffed in between the 1948 and 1949 tax returns picked up the story 10 years later, but this other set of notes I found scribbled on the back of the refrigerator instruction manual mentioned pivotal events X, Y, and Z that were all supposed to happen in the interim, and that's all I got. Sorry. So anyway, 10 years later we have this: ..."

... and yes, in CoH, he did take the trouble to actually come up with some text to cover X, Y, and Z, but it still seemed like he was afraid to mess with Dad's Grand Vision more than he had to.

[annathepiper]

Ah okay, fair 'nuff. My overall takeaway when I read it at the time was that it was a rather more cohesive read than the version in The Silmarillion, so I was pretty happy with that overall.

From glancing into the Beren and Luthien volume he might be taking a different approach; there are some sections at the beginning, in front of the main story, that go into more of the background of the story's development. And some glimpses of very early versions. I'm going to start diving into it this weekend, I think.