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New on Tor.com: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in Fiction, Part 2

Posted on August 31, 2009 in: Fantasy and SF, Spare Bits|Post Comment

Tags: babylon 5, lord of the rings, ptsd, there is a hole in your mind, tor.com, tor.com posts, trauma

Lord of the Rings: Frodo

“How do you pick up the threads of an old life? How do you go on, when in your heart you begin to understand there is no going back. There are some things that time can not mend. Some hurts that go too deep… that have taken hold.”
– The Lord of the Rings, the movie

In part 1, I talked about the characteristics of memories involved in PTSD, as well as a summary of what fiction often gets wrong about PTSD.

For this part and the next two, I’ll discuss more in depth specific examples of fictional PTSD I’ve encountered that mostly get it right. A little wrong, but mostly right (some more “mostly” than others).

To start off, here are two examples; one from a popular SF TV show, Babylon 5, and one from a very popular fantasy novel, The Lord of the Rings.

[Continue reading at Tor.com...]

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Kindle Spotlight: A Little More Tolkien

Posted on April 19, 2009 in: Fantasy and SF|Post Comment

Tags: a. merritt, andrew lang, arthur machen, austin tappan wright, clemence housman, david lindsay, douglas a. anderson, e. nesbit, e.a. wyke-smith, e.h. knatchbull-hugessen, fandom, francis stevens, frank r. stockton, george beahm, george macdonald, h. rider haggard, james branch cabell, john buchan, kenneth morris, l. frank baum, lord dunsany, lord of the rings, ludwig tieck, richard garnett, sigurd, spotlight, tolkien, william hope hodgson, william morris

Even after buying The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit for the Kindle some of us may want, well, a little more.

So here are two Tolkien-ish related books I recommend (out of the… miasma… out there).

Tales Before Tolkien: The Roots of Modern Fantasy by Douglas A. Anderson

Buy: Kindle Store

From the compiler of the wonderful The Annotated Hobbit¹ comes a volume of fantasy stories that preceded and even influenced J.R.R. Tolkien.

“The Elves”
by Ludwig Tieck

“The Golden Key”
by George MacDonald

“Puss-cat Mew”
by E.H. Knatchbull-Hugessen

“The Griffin and the Minor Canon”
by Frank R. Stockton

“The Demon Pope”
by Richard Garnett

“The Story of Sigurd”
retold by Andrew Lang

“The Folk of the Mountain Door”
by William Morris

“Black Heart and White Heart: A Zulu Idyll”
by H. Rider Haggard

“The Dragon Tamers”
by E. Nesbit

“The Far Islands”
by John Buchan

“The Drawn Arrow”
by Clemence Housman

“The Enchanted Buffalo”
by L. Frank Baum

“Chu-bu and Sheemish”
by Lord Dunsany

“The Baumoff Explosive”
by William Hope Hodgson

“The Regent of the North”
by Kenneth Morris

“The Coming of the Terror”
by Arthur Machen

“The Elf Trap”
by Francis Stevens

“The Thin Queen of Elfhame”
by James Branch Cabell

“The Woman of the Wood”
by A. Merritt

“Golithos the Ogre”
by E.A. Wyke-Smith

“The Story of Alwina”
by Austin Tappan Wright

“A Christmas Play”
by David Lindsay

The Essential J. R. R. Tolkien Sourcebook: A Fan’s Guide to Middle-Earth and Beyond by George Beahm

Buy: Kindle Store

If you’re a total Tolkien modern fan, I think you would sort of love this book to pieces.

Not yet available in Kindle form, but this is one of the big-deal annotated editions with plenty of pictures, drawings, maps, and references. In other words, a Real Book Worth Getting. [↩]

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New on Kindle: Lord of the Rings. For real.

Posted on April 19, 2009 in: Fantasy and SF|Post Comment

Tags: harpercollins rocks the house, j.r.r. tolkien, lord of the rings, new on kindle, tolkien

HarperCollins is an ebook wonder among the big publishers, and so it comes as no surprise that they’ve managed to bring The Lord of the Rings to Fictionwise and the Kindle store!

Of course, DRM-locked is still DRM-locked (even the Fictionwise formats are DRM’d and thus unavailable for reading on the Kindle without a cracking tool), but y’know, this is a huge step forward.

Fictionwise has a serious flash page about the event even, and for now any hits to Fictionwise’s main URL redirects to that.

For those of us with a Kindle or an iPhone with the Kindle app, here are links to the books.

The Lord of the Rings (Trilogy) by J.R.R. Tolkien

Buy: Kindle Store

All three books of the main trilogy rolled up into one. Lest you be spurned by the more-than-$10 price ($15.42 as of this writing, but could go down in the future and usually does), remember that this is three (very large) books rolled up into one.

Nice cover, eh? I like the covers of these guys. See more below, along with The Hobbit.

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

Buy: Kindle Store

Many people love The Hobbit and dislike the trilogy, others love the trilogy and wish they could forget The Hobbit. And still many more love both.

This is getting downloaded to my Kindle as of this instant.

The Children of Hurin by J.R.R. Tolkien

Buy: Kindle Store

I had no idea that this post-humous tale from Tolkien had made it to Real Story status (what about The Silmarillion? Although that really was more notes-ish and short-story-ish). If you can’t get enough of Tolkien, you could get this.

It’s sort of depressing. Well, it’s really depressing. Bit of a downer.

The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien

Buy: Kindle Store

The first book in the trilogy is also sold separately if for some reason you desire this.

It’s also my favorite. If I were a real stickler, I probably would just buy only this one and forget the rest, but so many of us are completists at heart….

The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien

Buy: Kindle Store

The second book in the trilogy is also sold separately, although I don’t know why anybody would only want The Two Towers and not Return of the King; those two are bound together far more tightly than with Fellowship.