[Zsinj16]

Well, I've been to the bookstore lately, and in the Fantasy/Sci-Fi section, I've noticed that The Wheel of Time novels are now being separated into two parts, because I saw that The Eye of the World has been separated into two books.
Does anyone know why Robert Jordan is doing this? Is it to make the books less heavy to read for people or what?

[astrianna]

There's a real push happening with publishers to open up some of the fantasy/sci fi novels that have typically been inaccessable to youth because of size and print size. Fenn (Tor) has started putting out the Starscape editions, which are larger than mass market but smaller than trade paper, with larger font size, and have covers geared for younger readers. Ender's Game and the split Wheel of Time books are the first in that series of editions. (Personally, I think the new Ender cover is seriously gaggy)
The idea is that they can reach a younger audience by making the books easier to read.

[Zsinj16]

Okay, thanks for clearing that up, Astrianna! http://www.sffworld.com/ubb/smile.gif
And I agree with you, the new cover to Ender's Game does look kind of blech!
Personally, I think the covers to the Parts I&II of The Eye of the World that I was mentioning look rather dull. In my opinion, I think they should have stuck with the original Eye of the World cover, because that one rocks!!!

[jbcohen]

I think to some extent this has to do with the fact that some people have been complaining about the sheer size of the novels.

[Rob B]

astrianna is absolutely correct, Tor wants to garner more readers, perhaps in the wake of HP and LOTR, thus they are starting the Starscape line of books. Perhaps the size was a factor with the splitting of tEotW, after all a 800 page book can be daunting to a youth reader.

Here is a link to the press release: http://www.hatrack.com/misc/starscape/index.shtml

[saintjon]

Yeah, I think Fitz said it well. Now that a bunch of kids (and adults too!) have read Harry Potter they smell money in the form of shorter books.
I dunno, though. If a kid's smart enough to read HP surely they're going to notice in the bookstore that next to the shorter, two-part Eye of the World there's EIGHT FULL-LENGTH WoT books! On that note, do you think this plan will bear fruit?

[astrianna]

I think that they'll make money from it, at least at first and perhaps even long term if they choose the right books to convert. I have parents coming in droves wanting good quality books for their kids to read. I don't know if the kids will really care about the covers, but I know that parents want to feel they're giving their child age-appropriate material, and the cover is the first thing they look at.
It seems that Tor is choosing good books, so maybe it'll be a good thing for the genre. A new generation, and all that.

[Zsinj16]

By the way, I read an interview that Locus Magazine had with Robert Jordan. And in it, Jordan said that if The Wheel of Time setting could be influenced by any historical period in this world, he meant it to be influenced by the 1700s.
Now, this seems quite strange to me because I've always thought the Wheel of Time Series setting was supposed to be like in the dark ages.

[jbcohen]

This raises an interesting question. Do you think that the Wheel of Time books are in a good position to take advantage of the Harry Potter? I think that the size of the novels may be one of the things that are holding the series back from getting some of the potter crowd. Will the halving the size of the novels help matters? I don't know. I think my favorite fantasy novels, Dragon Lance, are in a better position to get some of the potter crowd. The novels are small and an easy read and very highly addictive.

What can be done to get the potter crowd to Wheel of Time? I do not know. What do you think?

When potter fans start to look around for more of the same what will they pick up on? Will potter fans continue to read novels as they have been doing or will they revert to their non-reading TV addicted state that they have been in for some time? Will fantasy literature continue to appeal to these people? What books will they pick up on?

Will the Lord of the Flies movie have any ability to get people interested in fantasy books? Will the Wheel of Time pickup readers from this movie?

These are all questions for discussion. What do you think the answer to these questions and other related ones are?

[Rob B]

Will the Lord of the Flies movie
?????