Today is an exciting day for fans of The Hobbit worldwide as Harper Voyager Books releases ‘The Hobbit‘ as downloadable Enhanced Ebook! As you’ve probably noticed, we’ve themed the site to celebrate! Exclusive to this Enhanced version of the eBook are new high-resolution colour images of all of Tolkien’s illustrations for the book, many of which are also included in their earlier black-and-white versions, which can be revealed by a simple swipe of the screen. A Foreword by Christopher Tolkien examines the writing of the book, complete with illustrations including manuscript pages and unused drawings. Finally, the Enhanced eBook includes some recently discovered audio recordings of J.R.R. Tolkien reading excerpts from The Hobbit, including the dwarves’ party song, the account of their capture by the three trolls, and Bilbo Baggins’s terrifying encounter with the hideous Gollum. You can download it now from a multitude of locations, all summarized neatly on the official Facebook page. [Facebook Tolkien Ebook Store] [iBookstore (iPad/iPhone)] [Kindle]
Category: Books Publications
Welcome to our collection of TORn’s hottest topics for the past week. If you’ve fallen behind on what’s happening on the Message Boards, here’s a great way to catch the highlights. Or if you’re new to TORn and want to enjoy some great conversations, just follow the links to some of our most popular discussions. Watch this space as every weekend we will spotlight the most popular buzz on TORn’s Message Boards. Everyone is welcome, so come on in and join in the fun!
Continue reading “TORn Message Boards Weekly Roundup – November 22, 2011”
The rest of the world is perfectly free to walk (or run) to the cinema and watch The Adventures of Tintin directed by the legendary Steven Spielberg. But for once, the tables are turned on movie lovers in the U.S. and we must wait until December to see the motion capture film of the beloved comic strip character produced by Peter Jackson.
However, those who are anticipating Belgian writer and cartoonist Hergé’s collection of grand adventure stories put on screen can content themselves with The Art of The Adventures of Tintin book from special effects studio Weta and HarperCollins. Continue reading “Review: The Art of the Adventures of Tintin”
For this Halloween installment of J.W. Braun’s bookshelf, J.W. dresses up as a favorite Lord of the Rings character and reviews J.R.R. Tolkien Artist & Illustrator by Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull.
HarperCollins is starting its celebrations for the 75th anniversary of The Hobbit ahead of time, with the publication of a collection of Tolkien’s artwork and a “cute” pocket-sized edition of the novel at the end of this month.
The Hobbit was first published in September 1937, but HarperCollins estates publisher David Brawn said it was beginning its celebrations early to pre-empt the excitement about Peter Jackson’s film version, starring Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins, which will be released in December 2012.
HarperCollins estimates around one third of the UK population will see “The Hobbit” film. Brawn said: “Since ‘The Lord of the Rings’ films, The Hobbit has played second fiddle—now it’s going to be the turn of The Hobbit to have that focus on it. We said: ‘Let’s jump in there and celebrate Tolkien before everyone starts to celebrate Peter Jackson as director of the film.'” More..
Parting is such sweet sorrow (there will be spoilers for the last few Harry Potter films)
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban was a wonderfully creative film with a more unique look due to a new director. But the film franchise always had the same set of Producers, and thank goodness for that. They were the real shepherds to make sure Rowling’s story stayed the course. After all, this series of stories was turning into an epic tale of good versus evil, and there were character arcs to maintain, bits that had to be dropped in to earlier films so that they could pay off in later films. When Dobby first showed up, didn’t you wonder if he was just going to be another Jar Jar Binks? Who knew that he’d be so important to the story later on, or that you’d cry at the end of Deathly Hallows part 1 when he dies? But we also had to have knowledge of the basis of the Horcruxes and the qualities of the Sword of Gryffindor and learn about Polyjuice potion and dueling and the Room of Requirement too. So Prisoner of Azkaban was followed by the Goblet of Fire, and we get our first death and our first indication of the seriousness of this epic battle in the making. We were now getting the type of high drama we’d gotten in the Lord of the Rings. This was followed by Order of the Phoenix, and another high profile death, coupled with a really spectacular duel between Dumbledore and Voldemort.
Continue reading “When Harry Met Frodo, a Final Farewell (part 3 – the finale)”