Douglas C. Kane, a civil rights attorney and Tolkien scholar better known to readers of TheOneRing.net as Voronwë_the_Faithful, posted an excellent primer and explanation of the real facts and allegations of the ongoing lawsuit between the Tolkien family and New Line. 

The article summarizes the nature of the parties, allegations, and desired results of the lawsuit, explaining legal terms for the lay reader as it goes.  Mr. Kane also makes his own educated predictions as the the likely outcome of the suit.  The verdict?  The case will probably be resolved in mediation and the assorted plaintiffs probably don't have a shot in hell of actually getting the upcoming Hobbit movies shut down.  Read the full text of the article here.

So there it is, fanboys and -girls.  We can all stop our precious hearts a-fluttering, now.

George Martin himself posted the latest on the proposed HBO adaptation of A Game of Thrones:

The latest news on HBO front is that David Benioff and D.B. Weiss have turned in the second draft of the pilot script for A GAME OF THRONES, and their rewrite is presently being read and evaluated by the powers-that-be at HBO. In other words, it's the normal process, which is long and often slow. So far, the reports are good, and HBO seems to like what they're seeing... but no, there's no greenlight yet, A GAME OF THRONES remains a script in development, not a series in production.

Read the full post here.

Disney-ABC Domestic Television is producing Wizard's First Rule, the first book of Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth fantasy series, and the first of a planned TV adaptation of the entire series.  The series is being offered in syndication, so it's unclear at this point what networks/channels will be airing it.  Read more about it on Goodkind's website and on IMDB.

No series has polarized the fantasy-reading world as much as The Sword of Truth; Terry Goodkind's persistent Objectivist philosophy and forceful moralizing have drawn as many fierce fans as they have alienated less partisan readers.  Accusations of plagiarism and Mr. Goodkind's unfortunate tendency toward what seems to many detractors like arrogant self-importance (particularly on his website) have also created more controversy.

That said, it will be interesting to see what television does with (or to) an epic fantasy series of this length and depth.  And whether or not it succeeds.  Unlike the rumored HBO production of George Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series, The Sword of Truth is a done deal -- the two main leads have already been cast.  It will also be interesting to see how Disney (of all people) plan to adapt what is a very graphic, violent story for public broadcast.

Thanks to Bill M. for the heads up.

Remember that post we put up the other day, the one about a blogger named Bidisha and her entry on The Guardian's Comment Is Free blog about alleged sexism amongst reviewers of fantasy and science fiction ("Speculative Sexism: J.K. Rowling, Scapegoat for a Larger Problem")?

Well, there's a very lively discussion going on over at OF Blog of the Fallen about that very same Guardian article.  Read it here, and don't forget to read the comments.

Christopher Tolkien, the son of J.R.R. Tolkien, long rumored to be at philosophical odds with New Line Cinema and the makers of the Lord of the Rings movie franchise, will ask a Californian judge to stop production on the upcoming Hobbit films on June 6 in an effort to secure profits he claims are owed the Tolkien Estate by the production company:

He claims the Tolkien family is owed £80m by New Line Cinema under a deal for a 7.5% share of profits that was signed in 1969, when his father reluctantly sold film rights to pay a tax bill.
...
[A]t a hearing on June 6 Christopher Tolkien will ask a Californian judge to back his claim that he can "terminate" film rights to The Hobbit. He is said to be furious with the New Line studio, which earned £3 billion from the Rings trilogy. Tolkien's lawyers accuse New Line of "accounting chicanery". Warner Bros, owner of New Line, declined to comment.

One thing I've always wondered was whether Christopher Tolkien ever saw the Rings films and, if so, what he thought of them. It seems now that we have something of an answer:

Tolkien Jr, described by his biographer as "cantankerous", is unlikely to allow thefilm-makers free access to The Silmarillion. He has always been sceptical of Hollywood. Even now relatives are unsure whether he has watched The Lord of the Rings, which won a total of 17 Oscars.

The Silmarillion is relevant to the second planned film in the Hobbit film duology, which is said to chronicle the intervening years between Bilbo Baggins's return home to the Shire and the beginning of The Fellowship of the Ring.  Producer Peter Jackson and Director Guillermo del Toro likely plan to draw heavily on the material contained within the final book of The Silmarillion, Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age in order to write and produce the second Hobbit film.

Photo copyright Tolkien Gateway.

Bidisha, of The Guardian's Comment is Free, is angry: she feels that the critical press has slighted female authors of speculative fiction, and that the comfort with which critics have torn down J.K. Rowling is part of the problem:

"[B]ut the issue doesn't stop with her. It extends to all female fantasy writers, world-creators and myth-makers. According to the backlash, Rowling is swell for dim kiddies, along with Susan Cooper and Diana Wynne Jones (but none are as good as CS Lewis or Roald Dahl, of course), while Philip Pullman and Philip Reeve are worthy of adult analysis. Critics ignore the tough heroines created by Tamora Pierce and Trudi Canavan, but acclaim Lewis Carroll's creepily pliable Alice, who obediently consumes whatever cupcakes and potions she finds in Wonderland. Darren Shan and Garth Nix are rising stars thanks to the Potter-fuelled fantasy bandwagon, but there's no casual namedropping of female speculative authors Robin Hobb, Mary Gentle or Malorie Blackman, whose Noughts and Crosses is a modern classic."

If Bidisha is referring to the mainstream literary press, then the fact that female writers have been sidelined probably has more to do with the fact that only the most commercially successful, accessible genre fiction even makes it to the review section of your favorite newspaper.  The names "Robin Hobb" and "Joe Abercrombie" produce no results in a search of the New York Times Books section, for instance. 

Mainstream reviews of fantasy fiction in particular are almost always dull to read and filled with the same dull comparisons: Tolkien, Lewis, Carroll, etc.  This is almost certainly due either to a dearth of serious readers of the genre in the ranks of the literary press or to an inexplicable need to dumb down reviews of genre fiction by going light on comparative analysis.  Either way, all the more reason for the amateur genre critics (the Bard included) to start correcting these problems.

Edward James, Professor of Medieval History at Universty College, Dublin, is presenting two lectures at the University of Auckland, New Zealand.

The first of the lectures, and the most interesting for the Bard's purposes, is titled "J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis: Friendship, Religion, and Fantasy."  Professor James plans to discuss the shared Christian values of Tolkien and Lewis and how those values found their way into their writing, as well as the marked differences between the authors' work.

James had some interesting things to say about the different, but equally Christian, themes of The Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia:

He says Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings is a more subtle expression of Christianity than Lewis' Narnia series, in which Christian allegory is clearly portrayed through the Christ-like Aslan the Lion.

"Tolkien described The Lord of the Rings as a 'Catholic epic', but the author was more interested in representing Christian values than Christian allegory," says Professor James, who notes Tolkien was instrumental in converting Lewis to Christianity. "Of course, there are Christ-like figures in the trilogy-- most notably, Gandalf and Frodo. And it's no accident that the Ring is destroyed on 25 March, the traditional medieval date for the original crucifixion. But Tolkien and Lewis approached Christianity very differently in their fantasy works," he says.

I had never heard (or noticed, I should say) the bit about the March 25th date and its Christian significance before reading this article.  It's probably not news to CJ, who has a background in medieval history.

The Catholic/Christian symbolism is, superficially, fairly obvious: Frodo sacrifices (or intends to) his life (for all intents and purposes -- he's never the same afterward) on the same date medieval scholars associated with Christ's messianic crucifixion.

The fact that Frodo actually becomes consumed by the Ring's power and is only able to get the job done with Gollum's help makes the interpretation more interesting, of course.  The fact that Tolkien sometimes referred to Middle-Earth as a primeval age of our old world also portends a larger picture -- are such sacrificial events merely history repeating itself? 

Professor James's other lecture concerns the differences in perception of barbarians between the Roman Empire and modern society and is titled "How to Recognize a Barbarian."

I think I can speak for both of us when I say that we wish our own respective colleges had seminars like this.  Go Auckland!

The Spring/Summer 2008 issue of Spectra Pulse Magazine features an article by Scott Lynch titled "Be Thou Familiar, But by No Means Vulgar: The Worst Cliches in Fantasy and Science Fiction." 

A brief look at a subject that could (and most likely has) filled entire doctoral theses, the article nonetheless contains a few worthy chestnuts:

And don't even get me started on Mysterious Mentors who possess the power to blast planets into atoms with a single fart, yet spend all their time wandering in the woods or being uselessly cryptic to the hero when they could just go deal with (Insert Dire Threat to All That is Bright and Wholesome Here) themselves and be back in time for a three-martini lunch. The desire to have it both ways with this sort of character, to withhold vital information or prevent obvious action for the transparent purpose of prolonging a flimsy plot, kills plausibility dead.

A quick, fun read, perfect while eating lunch at one's desk.

According to the Irish Independent, Dublin-based author Sarah Rees Brennan is on her way to filling the much-lamented vacuum left by the ending of the Harry Potter series:

Similar to the Harry Potter books, [Brennan's novel] The Demon's Lexicon tells the story of a teenage boy living with a magical secret.

Nick (16) is from London and he has been on the run from magicians for his whole life because his mother stole a powerful charm from them. The teen's father is dead and when his older brother's life comes under threat, things get more serious and a cat and mouse chase ensues.

Sarah's books are not for kids but are aimed at the young adults market. She hopes to tap into the growing appetite for fantasy books like the Lord of the Ring series, and Artemis Fowl.

The most identifiable aspect of the Harry Potter books was the fact that each book was a  bildungsroman in the most literal sense of the word: each book followed the moral and academic development of a young character, specifically through a fantastical version of a very English school.  Absent his distinctive schoolboy identity, Harry Potter would be a fairly lackluster fantasy character.  To truly be a successor to Potter, a novel has to have that scholastic, after-school aspect to it.  Not to mention v-neck sweaters, huge scarves, and repp ties ever-so-fashionably askew.  

Either way, we look forward to Ms. Brennan's debut.

Nothing says "post-apocalyptic cyberpunk mercenary" like a bulletproof bed.  As this post on Switched.com points out, it's ideal for those of us who routinely bunk down in war zones.  I suppose it's easier to conceal from your neighbors than a bunker, but that's about its only selling feature.

Even assuming you have about 160,000.00 to spend on a bed--and what self respecting post-apocalyptic cyberpunk mercenary doesn't--it's not very practical.  The bed weighs about 2,000 pounds, which means it's hardly mobile.  If you want to sleep in it, then you have to sleep in the same place every night.  As fans of the post-apocalyptic genre know, mobility is the key to sustainability.  People who hole up in one place usually don't stay alive very long.  Terry Brooks makes the point, in The Elves of Cintra, that whatever safety a fortress offers is illusory.  The very walls you hide behind advertise your location to your enemy. 

Moreover, although the bed comes with a DVD player, PC hookup and microwave, it doesn't come with its own power source.  WTF?  How, exactly, do you power up these gizmos?  Assuming your current home is so war torn that you really, genuinely need to sleep in a bulletproof bed, and conditions are so unsafe that you can't even walk a few feet to heat up your canned stew, Con Ed probably isn't making a cameo. 

The chemical toilet isn't such a hot option, either.  I mean, come on--chemicals or no, its still a toilet and, in the long term, a health hazard.  Hell, in the short term.  And, do you really want to sleep with your head next to your toilet, night after night?  Come on, whoever designed this bed was on crack. 

Sure, bunkers are sort of outré.  And, if you build one, you're going to be "that" brother in law, the one your family loves but also sort of avoids.  But, when it comes to hardcore preparation, a bunker is the only way to go.  You need adequate storage and living space, way more than any bed--even one this expensive--can provide.  And, hey, if the apocalypse comes, you're going to become the belle of the ball really quickly.  You can tell them all, "I told you so" over canned stew.

Speaking of George Martin, A Dribble of Ink put up a link last week to an article on A Game of Thrones written by up and coming British fantasy author Joe Abercrombie for SFX Magazine. 

The late Robert Jordan (James Oliver Rigney) was just inducted into the South Carolina Academy of Authors Hall of Fame.  Dragonmount has full coverage of the event, including complete video coverage via YouTube. 

In the context of speaking about the author Jordan (as opposed to the man Rigney), Mike Livingston, an English professor at Rigney's alma mater the Citadel, gave a stirring address about the fantasy genre ranging from its origins in medieval epics to The Wheel of Time itself.

Just to pass the word, Neil Gaiman's now-classic 2003 novel American Gods is available for online reading here.

Gaiman had offered to post the complete text of one of his books online, and allowed fans to decide which one by vote in an online poll.  American Gods won, apparently resoundingly.

You can read Gaiman's blog here, by the way.

Arthur C. Clarke, author of 2001: A Space Odyssey, died this morning.  Much more than just a visionary science fiction author--although he certainly was that--Clarke was a true futurist.  He gave us a glimpse of a brilliant future, one which undisputedly inspired some of the best scientists of our time.  Some people laugh at futurists, understanding them only as pseudo-scientists who waste our time with prophecies so impossible as to be all but meaningless.  What these people fail to grasp is that futurists hold scientific discovery in trust for us all.  It is they who give it its core, its heart, its moral compass.  Clarke, the best of the best, left us with a vision that not only inspired our minds but also shaped our future.

He created the concept of the communications satellite, he commented on the Apollo series of moonshots, he researched the dynamics of the Great Barrier Reef.  And, he did it all from a wheelchair.  Clarke battled Polio his entire life, first as a child and later as an adult.  He won his first battle with Polio as a child, but his enemy returned several years later in the form of Post Polio Syndrome, a debilitating chronic condition.  His physical trials, however, never dampened his optimistic spirit.  He continued to explore the world around him, from the deepest crevices of the ocean floor to the nether regions of space, sharing his observations as he went. 

We owe this wonderful man a huge debt of gratitude, not only for his incredible mind, but also for his generosity in letting others share in the beauty of his ideas.  Ninety years was far too short a time.  I hope that, wherever he is, he's still exploring.

Beloved British fantasy author Terry Pratchett, author of the Discworld series, was diagnosed last year with early-onset Alzheimer's disease.  The Guardian has a great story on Pratchett, how he's coping, and the news that he has just donated half a million pounds to the Alzheimer's Research Trust.

Pratchett seems in good spirits, however, and finds that one of the biggest problems he has is determining what is a symptom and what is plain old reality for a professional writer:

"When I was going in for the tests, they asked my wife and PA to say what they had noticed in my behaviour. They jointly wrote a letter saying, 'Like any author who's in the throes of writing a book, Terry probably shows all the signs of dementia: he's unworldly, he doesn't pay attention to things, he's antisocial, grumpy.' I'm a typical bloody writer. Maybe all of us have had Alzheimer's for years without realising it.

Science Fiction Quarterly (SFQuarterly.net) is a brand new online science fiction magazine that is currently accepting submissions for its premier issue, scheduled for a March debut.  They are looking for short stories, reviews, and "think pieces" -- essays on the genre.  The magazine, in the classic sci-fi "short story tradition," is especially interested in working with new and inexperienced writers to bring their vision to publication.  The submissions guidelines are worth reading for any aspiring writer.

I emailed the editor, Glover Wright, and asked whether they were interested in stories in the fantasy genre.  He responded by saying that while they were not interested in straight fantasy, they would be willing to publish fantasy with science fiction elements and "fantasy that relies more on hypotheticals than, say, magic."

For aspiring writers in these genres, it doesn't get much better than an up-and-coming publication ready and willing to make room for new authors.

Be sure to read their blog for the latest news.

During a SXSW seminar in which he and Steven Johnson "laid out their agenda defending the youth of America as a sophisticated, information literate generation with the power for democratic change," Henry Jenkins described Harry Potter as an impetus for social good.  From the Guardian:

Did you know that Harry Potter is a source for social good? It has inspired fantasy fiction and role playing, but also political engagement, said Jenkins, talking about the Harry Potter Alliance which raises support for child-related issues like child soldiers in Uganda.

"The premise is that Harry Potter is a young man who stood up to want he believed in, and so young people inspired by Hogwarts can go forward and do things to try and change the world. In an information society, kids play with information. Young people as they become adept at processing this information will become a powerful social force."

The Harry Potter Alliance is "dedicated to using the examples of Harry Potter and Albus Dumbledore to spread love and fight the Dark Arts in the real world."  They ask you to join them in creating "the real Dumbledore's Army."  Awesome.

I propose a vigilante group to be called the Night's Watch, whose mission shall be the quick and merciless tarring and feathering of violent terrorist leaders, who shall then be hung off the side of a glacier to cool off.  But maybe I'm missing the point.

Believe or not, we at the Accidental Bard never played Dungeons and Dragons, but given its obvious relevance to fantasy fiction as well as our own (read: Jim's own) occasional former flirtation with Magic: The Gathering and occasional current flirtation with World of Warcraft, Mr. Gygax's passing yesterday was big news. 

The Time Out Chicago Blog has a concise, fitting farewell, and Wired a short summary of his life and contributions.

Sometimes reading fantasy has surprisingly positive results.  Fourteen year old Emma Peterson, a Junior Olympian and the top-ranked epee-fencer in the US in her age division, traces her initial interest in the sport to her love of fantasy fiction:

She came to the sport while still a student at Calthorp Elementary School. She had a writing partner to whom she would send letters anonymously. Professing her love for reading fantasy fiction that often told stories of protagonists wielding swords against formidable enemies, her partner suggested she learn to fence. Peterson came home that day and promptly asked her mother, Margie Peterson, what fencing was.

For those of you wondering about the rumored HBO production of George R. R. Martin's epic fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire, The Wertzone has a useful round-up of the official facts to date:

The deal for HBO to option the television rights to A Song of Ice and Fire was ongoing in 2006 and concluded in January 2007, when GRRM announced the news on his website. Subsequent blog entries confirmed that the writing of the pilot script had commenced. Prior to the start of the Writer's Guild of America Strike in November 2007, writer-producers David Benioff and D.B. Weiss had completed a pilot script which GRRM had signed off on. This script had been passed to HBO, who were considering it and running budget estimates for the series at the time that the strike began. As with all Hollywood television projects, work on the adaption was suspended until the strike concluded in mid-February 2008.

Essentially, since HBO's option has yet to expire and the writers' strike has concluded, there is still a very real possibility of it happening.  Wertzone goes on to describe the proposed scope of the project:

No final decision has been made but the tentative plan is for HBO to adapt A Song of Ice and Fire as a series of 13-episode television seasons (potentially seven seasons in length, one for each novel). Whilst the project would be high-budget, it would not be as expensive as HBO's previous major costume drama, Rome, and would probably be filmed in Eastern Europe or perhaps New Zealand due to the lowered production costs.

As always, take anything you read on the Internet with a grain of salt: although Werzone seems to have based their information primarily on official sources, nothing is official until you hear it from either GRRM or HBO.

While we're on the subject of "Urban Fantasy" (what I like to call Vampire Porn; see below), Robert at Fantasy Book Critic discusses the growing selection of Urban Fantasy novels available these days.  In his review of Mark Henry's Happy Hour of the Damned, he discusses what Henry has done for this popular sub-genre:

Conceptually, there’s nothing new about having supernatural entities like vampires, zombies, werewolves, and whatnot existing alongside humans and having their own hotspots in nightclubs and bars. Just read one of Laurell K. Hamilton’s Anita Blake novels for that idea, but Mark Henry does take it a step further with the aforementioned magazines, their own newspapers, a reality TV show—Undead on Tape—a spa, and even a 12-step group!

I can't believe writing about zombie spas is someone's job.

At the beginning of January Fantasy Book Critic interviewed Robin Hobb about her newest book, Renegade's Magic.  One of the more interesting things Ms. Hobb had to say therein concerned the writing of trilogies, an art she has personally mastered and one of vital importance to fantasy in particular:

Q: “Renegade’s Magic”, which was released via Voyager in the UK on July 2, 2007, is the third and concluding volume in your most recent trilogy (Soldier Son) and is finally making its US debut on January 8, 2008 (EOS Books). Compared to the other two Soldier Son books, what was it like writing “Renegade’s Magic” and how do you feel about the way you closed out the series?

Robin: For me, writing a trilogy is a single task. I break the manuscript into three publishable pieces, but I don’t really pause between books or see each piece as a separate entity. For that reason, probably the hardest task of beginning the third book was remembering that readers do experience a year’s gap between books and therefore plot points and characters should be re-introduced with enough information to either jog the memory or give the entering reader a place to start. Retreading ground without being obvious or boring is a really difficult task. I felt like the book ended pretty much as I had expected it would from the beginning, so that was satisfying.

For a writer of long fiction, be it trilogies or longer series, the need to catch the reader up eventually becomes a real issue.  Many authors struggle with how to do it effectively and whether to do it at all.  The late Robert Jordan once said that he had originally wanted his readers to be able to read The Wheel of Time starting with any of the books.  Although the increasing length and complexity of that series made it effectively impossible, it is nonetheless a vital question for writers of fantasy: how much can I rely on the reader to remember?  Do I have to summarize the events of the previous book for the readers of the current one? 

As any good reader of the genre knows, George R. R. Martin is one of the biggest names in fantasy.  His A Song of Ice and Fire series has pretty much set the standard for mature, well-written epic fantasy in recent years.  The first three books in the series, A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings, and A Storm of Swords, respectively, were published precisely two years apart starting in 1996.  Following the 2000 publication of Swords, however, everything slowed down.  The fourth volume, A Feast for Crows, did not appear until 2005.  Now, in 2008, the prospective publication date of A Dance with Dragons, the series' fifth book, remains tentative at best.  So the question remains: what happened to Dragons and, perhaps more importantly, what is going on with Martin's writing process?  More after the break.