I’m not talking about the movie, which was so far from the greatness of the book it deserves its own dissertation, I’m talking by the original work by JRR Tolkien, originally published way back in 1937. This book was a landmark for fantasy in a whole host of ways, and many of those ways are not at all obvious to those of us who have inherited the literary landscape of Tolkien. None of those new and original things would have mattered, however, if it hadn’t been a great yarn. Let’s talk about a few big ideas: The main characters are…
Read Chapter 1, part 1 Michael paused beside Gadero, his sergeant major, on the hill and looked out over the battle plain. Calot, as he called his destrier, was anxious and padded the ground beside Gadero’s lighter horse, which was placid, almost sad. The rain was lighter now, a mere sprinkle, and though the sky was leaden he could see clearly the main infantries of the Artallan and Ferrallese armies as they played their lines in the mud. He watched a shield wall fold in the Ferralla line, watched as Johan’s infantry pushed into the gap, only to fall back…
Matthew J. Wellman joins me once again to discuss the many, many problems with Peter Jackson’s movie adaptation of JRR Tolkien’s classic epic fantasy tale The Hobbit. How could he be so successful with Lord of the Rings and yet fail so spectacularly with The Hobbit?
Writers of the dawn is:
David V. Stewart – Fantasy and Historical Fiction Author, musician
Matthew J. Wellman – Urban Fantasy author, musician
Fellow fantasy author Mattew J. Wellman joins me to talk about Peter Jackson’s movie adaptation of JRR Tolkien’s Return of the King, the third part of Tolkien’s epic fantasy classic, The Lord of the Rings.
Writers of the dawn is:
David V. Stewart – Fantasy and Historical Fiction Author, musician
Matthew J. Wellman – Urban Fantasy author, musician
Writers of the Dawn (Fantasy authors David V. Stewart and Mattew J. Wellman) break down Peter Jackson’s adaptation of JRR Tolkien’s second volume in The Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers. What sacrifices were made during production to make the movie adaptation function? What was done well? We also discuss the pushing of the original ending into the final movie.
Writers of the Dawn is:
Today, we talk about how the first Lord of the Rings book by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring, made the transition from printed book to fully fleshed-out high budget movie. We talk pacing, cringe moments, and what was changed to make it work better as a movie.
So, are you looking to get into fantasy, or at least do a little exploration of this massive genre? In the video below, I go over some books that I think are a great place to start. I tried to curate the list to include titles that are diverse in terms of setting and style, so if one doesn’t appeal to you another might, and I did my best to talk about titles that are accessible for a wide audience and don’t require you to already have a large amount of experience in the genre to understand. This list, for…
