[Shadowen]

Just checked amazon there and nearly died of excitement (ok, slight exaggeration http://www.sffworld.com/ubb/smile.gif) to see not one but two new WOT books due out in January 2002 - From the Two Rivers and Into the Blight.

Closer inspection of the covers, however, show that they're just The Eye of the World re-released in two parts. Amazon also has them categorised as 'reading level ages 9-12.

Has TEOTW been rewritten as a kids book? Or are we simply being insulted? Anybody have any idea?

[Rob B]

M&M's Marketing and Money.

It is just EOTW split into two books, for a couple of reasons.

--Some RJ fans (as with any fans) are completists, they want to have EVERYTHING he wrote.

--It will make money

--Tor is hoping to capitalize on the LOTR films and these will be published around the time of the movie.

[Barbarossa]

Age levels are fairly arbitrary anyway. Look at Philip Pullman's Dark materialy it's maketed for kids too, and except for the sheer size and number of names it easily beats WOT in complexety, it also has more sey, and violence that fairly brutal in parts.

Not that this would be a bad thing, there's nothing kids can't take, but if this wins kids prizes than judging from their maturity level a lot of "adult fantasy authors" should be read in nursery scholl only.

[This message has been edited by Barbarossa (edited September 17, 2001).]

[FitzChivalry]

Hmm.. i see with big worry the recent trend of dividing hardcover books to two volumes in the paperback edition... Martin before and now Jordan too... seems to me like the publisher houses are out to make some bucks while we will have to pay double the price for the same paperback book...
I hope the trend will stop with those two authors.

[Bardos]

-I just had to say this. I know it's not the "right" topic, but it's the closest to Jordan on the top.-

I just started reading Dune(I know, I should have read it already! http://www.sffworld.com/ubb/smile.gif). I have read 40 pages so far (and Herbert is WONDERFUL, btw), and I thought: Jordan?!... What a ripoff?!! *Everything* is stolen from Herbert.
He (Jordan) should have been in jeil, righ now... http://www.sffworld.com/ubb/smile.gif

[Steven Savile]

Dividing of Hcs into 2 Paperbacks - the problem with GRRM for instance is that on British paperstock, which is thicker than the US tissuepaper, his 1500 page mss simply won't fit into the binding. The books fall apart. Tad Williams suffered the same problem. In the US the GRRM books are coming out as a SINGLE paperback - mind you there was fear that his latest might not fit into HC binding if he continues to write such huge books...

The choice to redo RJ is purely economic...

[Barbarossa]

Here in Germany they split up fantasy books for year, it would be another reason not to read translations if I needed one, which I don't. They used to excuse it with technical reasons too, but in recent times proved they are just money-grabbing misers, by splitting Wot nad SoIaF not into 2 but 3 books each. (Wot is at vol 27 now in German)

[FitzChivalry]

Kane, do you know Storm of Swords will be a single paperback in the US or do you assume so?
A Clash of Kings and A Game of Thrones were single paperback too in the UK...

[Steven Savile]

I had a long chat with Anne about it, I must confess. She was determined it would be a single volume and that it would release later than the UK edition which was rushed and divided into two. There was some pretty long discussions about it, but even at its size, with the thinner paper that they use in the US a single volume is possible, and that in her opinion was the only way to do it. So, single volume. Promise.

[Rob B]

As for the 1 LARGE hardcover equals 2 paperbacks, sometimes the issue is quality of the paperback.

When To Green Angel Tower was published as a hardcover (I have a first printing, lucky me!) it was 1023 pages of relatively small type. When DAW books went to paperback they decided to go with two paperbacks of about 760ish pages. There is a brief one or two page intro in the paperback versions as to how/why they decided, it was up to Tad Williams and the publisher.

However, like I said above, for TEOTW it is just a way for TOR to make MORE money from WOT. They published, about a year ago, a version of TEOTW with a new cover and a $3.99 price. I guess every year or so they will try a new marketing ploy to draw readers into WOT.