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Post by Black Cat on Jul 26, 2009 15:33:56 GMT -5
Remember a few months ago I've told you about John Grant's blog? Well, he made an announcement regarding the Legends of Lone Wolf yesterday, and what an announcement it is: the series will be republished in a "director's cut" edition. A few year's ago, the Italian publisher Armenia translated the series in Italy in a series of five omnibuses. However, they were reworked version of the old text prepared by the author himself. According to John Grant, a lot of of text has been re-edited for this Italian edition. Now, Dark Quest Books will publish in English this reworked version of the Legends series, keeping the concept of the five omnibuses by Armenia. However, these will be reworked version of the reworked version of the text (said differently: a second upgraded version of the text). The first omnibus should be release at the beginning of next year. The blog entry from Mr. Grant: realthog.livejournal.com/118897.html |
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Post by eviltb on Jul 26, 2009 18:11:10 GMT -5
Is this a good or a bad thing? Ive never read the Legends books, so I dont know wether to hang myself or jump for joy.
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Post by Doomy on Jul 26, 2009 18:16:28 GMT -5
I've never read them either, but have read several mixed reports on the LW forums. Some parts are universally loathed.
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Post by Beowuuf on Jul 26, 2009 18:42:49 GMT -5
i was about to start book 8, perhaps i should wait...
Be interesting to see what gets tinkered with, and interesting to read the last part again
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Post by Simey on Jul 26, 2009 19:42:26 GMT -5
Is this a good or a bad thing? Ive never read the Legends books, so I dont know wether to hang myself or jump for joy. Well, don't do the former - they're certainly not that bad! ;D Would I be instantly chased from the Tower if I admitted that this news - if it turns out to be definite - is more exciting to me than the republication of the gamebooks and the new novels and all that? Do let me know if so, and I'll keep quiet about it.  (Oh boy was this ever a good night not to be able to sleep!  ) |
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Post by Ghost Bear on Jul 27, 2009 3:52:05 GMT -5
This is excellent news. I have to admit that certain parts of certain Legends gave me headaches, but some of the books are pretty good, and well worth a read. Hopefully he'll edit out Q****** and A**** though!  |
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Post by wildhorse on Jul 27, 2009 9:38:35 GMT -5
Is this a good or a bad thing? Ive never read the Legends books, so I dont know wether to hang myself or jump for joy. Well, don't do the former - they're certainly not that bad! ;D Would I be instantly chased from the Tower if I admitted that this news - if it turns out to be definite - is more exciting to me than the republication of the gamebooks and the new novels and all that? Do let me know if so, and I'll keep quiet about it. (Oh boy was this ever a good night not to be able to sleep! ) If you are being chased out of the Tower, they will have to chase me out too? Hmm, I hope the re-worked Legends will do justice to the world of Lone Wolf...that is all that I ask for. Not too many fanciful additions... |
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Post by Samildanach on Jul 27, 2009 13:15:24 GMT -5
Well...this sounds like it's going to be a more John Grant-ified version, which presumably means more Qinefer, more Alyss, and probably less Lone Wolf.
The thing is, that might not necessarily be bad. I think the main problem with Legends was they had too little of each component - they had too little Lone Wolf and too little John Grant, because they were trying to be both things. So maybe this will be an improvement.
(For the record, I find the original Legends flawed but enjoyable.)
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Post by Simey on Jul 27, 2009 18:05:34 GMT -5
I think the main problem with Legends was they had too little of each component - they had too little Lone Wolf and too little John Grant, because they were trying to be both things. So maybe this will be an improvement. Good point. The main issue seems to have been that the publisher at the time was aiming at children and didn't believe that children would read a 400 page book, so forced Grant to lop great chunks out of some of them. J.K. Rowling has, of course, since proved the publisher's assumption to be a nonsense.  |
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koreth
Full Member
The Cener Druids Rule All. Accept It.
Posts: 172
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Post by koreth on Jul 27, 2009 18:37:08 GMT -5
WOW ! This is amazing.
Mr. Grant has a different writing style, but it is important to remember that a good bulk of the LW community was citing it as a reference for certain histories of Magnamund because there was/is no other source.
I wonder how/if discrepancies will be dealt with. There are different grandmasters in the Mongoose LW1 gamebook and the first books of the Legends series.
So I'm guessing that Joe Dever has blessed this republish? Would Mr. Dever still have some editorial say in this republish? (Don't see how he would have time to be too involved with this...?)
Wow. The more things change, the more they stay the same !
Koreth
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Post by Simey on Jul 28, 2009 7:32:01 GMT -5
There are different grandmasters in the Mongoose LW1 gamebook and the first books of the Legends series. Yeah, and the names of the ones in Eclipse of the Kai are way better than the new ones! I think it's quite likely that Joe Dever rather than John Grant created Storm Hawk and Winter Owl for the Legends, so I'm not sure why he chose to reinvent them. Unless he was keen to disassociate the gamebook revisions from the Legends....? Will Alyss still appear in the GM series, I wonder. P.S. I never said ' THANK YOU!' to BC for searching out this amazing news and bringing it to the Tower! A definite happy moment in my week! |
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Post by Samildanach on Jul 28, 2009 9:52:25 GMT -5
I had a look at the blog entry in question, and it was actually quite touching to see John Grant's delight at getting a twelve book deal. After all, he's very much a cult author, not a huge success - so I imagine it'd feel wonderful to have a publisher saying "we want to buy twelve of your novels".
Which reminds me, I need to have a second go at Albion. I started it once, but stopped because I wasn't really in the mood.
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Post by Balgin Stondraeg on Jul 28, 2009 11:59:37 GMT -5
Is this a good or a bad thing? Ive never read the Legends books, so I dont know wether to hang myself or jump for joy. Bad. Very bad. Especialy since there doesn't seem to be much of a Joe Dever/Mongoose link. Sounds more like a writer trying to get more money out of his old work than bringing back wonderful stories (wonderful stories that he didn't enjoy writing, considers his worst work, and constantly dismisses fantasy "because he thinsk sci fi is better"). John Grant's books were well written but he took the stories in some unpopular directions (and they barely seemed to feature Lone Wolf at times). |
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Post by Samildanach on Jul 28, 2009 13:18:35 GMT -5
I find it much easier to read Legends if I think of them as something like 'Tales from Magnamund' rather than anything to do with Lone Wolf himself. After all, anyone looking for Lone Wolf-centric stories must surely be disappointed by Grant's reduction of him to a semi-competent thug.
Does Grant write more science fiction than fantasy then? The only non-Legends book of his I've seen is Albion, and that's fantasy too.
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Post by Black Cat on Jul 28, 2009 13:48:49 GMT -5
I wonder how/if discrepancies will be dealt with. There are different grandmasters in the Mongoose LW1 gamebook and the first books of the Legends series. So I'm guessing that Joe Dever has blessed this republish? Would Mr. Dever still have some editorial say in this republish? (Don't see how he would have time to be too involved with this...?) Hmm... I believe that Grant is the sole owner of the publishing rights of the 12 Legends novels, so Dever doesn't have anything to say about this. That's why Project Aon cannot put the Legends online since they don't have Barnett/Grant's authorization. However, if Grant decides to write more Legends novels, I think that he will ask the permission of Joe, but I highly doubt that more novels by him will be made around the universe of Aon. Simey: It was Jonathan Blake that reported this news first on the Kai Grand Sentinel. As a journalist, it's my job to make the news be known by as much people as possible. ;D |
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