Looks like we got a published LOTR Sequel (I'm serious)

[Rivvy Elf]

So y'all excited for this published LOTR sequel (apparently, this was published September 22, 2022)? It's about $18 USD

Link: https://books.google.com/books/about/Th ... escription

Here's the summary:

"Long before Annatar, the original Rings of Power were forged by Celebrimbor and Narvi near the Misty Mountains. Though lost to history, these first magic Rings were far more powerful than those that came after, were corrupted by Sauron and fought for in the War of the Ring.

Elanor Gardner, daughter of Samwise, is nervous the night before her debutante party in the Shire. In the 22nd year of the Reign of the High King Elessar, the Blue Wizards return from out of the East bearing perilous news: the rest of the Rings have been found and they are in deadly danger. Thus begins the War of the Rings to End All Wars of the Rings. Before it is over Elves, Hobbits, Dwarves, Men and magical races long forgotten or never seen before will join the Quest to find and master Celebrimbor’s originals and the last of Sauron’s corrupted Rings of Power.

Elanor, two Hobbit friends, the Crown Prince Eldarion of Gondor, his Elvish uncles Elladan and Elrohir of Rivendell join the Wizards Alatar and Pallando in a war across Middle-earth fighting for their lives. If they fail, they will witness the return of the true Dark Lord, the Vala Morgoth, the source of Evil and former Master of the long defeated Lord of Mordor. With all the Rings of Power at his command, Morgoth will enslave the whole of Middle-earth – forever."

Here's the About the Author stuff:

"The author began winning awards for writing in junior high and in high school he won the National Forensics League’s regional championships in Original Prose & Poetry, becoming a published poet at eighteen.

Moving to Los Angeles after serving in the US Navy, he became an internationally published journalist. He has served on committees and boards for local and national political campaigns, charities and one arts foundation, The Alameda Writers Group, formerly the in-house writer’s group for ABC/Disney. As the AWG’s Executive Vice-President, he hosted weekly workshops and mentored poets, screenwriters and novelists.

His first screenplay “The Unknown Actor” tells the story of how Shakespeare became Shakespeare. It details the events which inspired the playwright’s Great Tragedies Period and the writing of Hamlet, seen through the eyes of the first actor who ever performed the role. This script became a semifinalist at the Slamdance Screenwriting Competition in Park City, Utah and the prestigious Nicholl Fellowships In Screenwriting, sponsored by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences. He has written over 400 poems and ten screenplays.

“The Fellowship Of The King” is his first published novel."

Here's the Bibliographic information:

"Title The Fellowship Of The King: The War Of The Rings - Book 1
Volume 1 of The War Of The Rings
Author Demetrious Polychron
Publisher Fractal Books, 2022
ISBN 9798986410456
Length 369 pages
Subjects Fiction › Fantasy › Action & Adventure

Fiction / Fairy Tales, Folk Tales, Legends & Mythology
Fiction / Fantasy / Action & Adventure
Fiction / Fantasy / Dragons & Mythical Creatures
Fiction / Fantasy / Epic
Fiction / Sagas"

[Moriel]

And audaciously dedicated to JRRT and Christopher, too! Oh, Tolkien Estate...

[Arnyn]

Wow! Does the Tolkien Estate even know about this?

The blurb sounds... quite off brand. Debutante party, the war to end all wars... That google link does provide quite a few pages, though. I might read those available just to see what's what. Before the Tolkien Estate burns it all down.

[Silky Gooseness]

Demetrious Polychron is a fantastic name. Googled him but can’t find anything to attest to him being an internationally published journalist. There is a review for the book here/ https://indiereader.com/book_review/the ... -the-king/ apparently he’s inserted some Chinese characters so you’re not alone in that fanfic sphere Rivvy - and the second book is on the way called The Two Trees only the cover is shamelessly cribbed from the Histories hahaha

[Aikári Salmarinian]

Oh you can now publish books in the Tolkien Legendarium and earned from it? I thought this was forbidden with all legal writing rights and so? I don't think this is really serious. Such books ought be with permission from the Tolkien Estate, not? Rather strange this looks to me.

[The Good Hunter]

Bets on how long this can fly under the radar?

[Romeran]

Wait is this actually official? Like it's approved by the Tolkien Estate? If not how on earth are they not getting sued into the ground? And If so... wow. All that I can imagine is that this comes from some other sale of IP (e.g. as to what allowed Amazon to make the show or something). I couldn't find much in a quick google but I didn't spend that much time on it.

[LegolasTheElf]

Woooot!?

The summary sounds weird and I don't trust the outcome of this, first time I hear about it also. I thought people were not allowed to publish stories in Middle Earth and declare them as canon.

I don't think this will work anyway lol.

[Moriel]

An update so full of delusion I can't even handle it (thanks for @Reikon Suchi-ru for sharing in discord!)

He's suing Amazon and the Tolkien Estate

[Rivvy Elf]

I hope this guy realizes that even if he wins, he's going to lose because then any haters of the TV series now have a lightning rod to send hate mail to for the script.

[Lail]

I bet the covers are also blatant copyright infringements.

[Silky Gooseness]

Bets on how long this can fly under the radar?

Apparently, too long for this guy

[The Good Hunter]

This is 2023's version of a farce

[Arnyn]

Grab the popcorn!

[Hanasian]

This was posted on Barrow Downs by someone using the moniker of bilbobaggins764 claiming it was his first published book. Name sound familiar?

[Rivvy Elf]

@Hanasian Ehhh they're different books though. Both content and title-wise. Unless you can provide the link that shows that the book is actually "The Fellowship Of The King: The War Of The Rings - Book 1" and not "The Road Goes Ever On" or if it's written by the same person.

[Hanasian]

@Hanasian Ehhh they're different books though. Both content and title-wise. Unless you can provide the link that shows that the book is actually "The Fellowship Of The King: The War Of The Rings - Book 1" and not "The Road Goes Ever On" or if it's written by the same person.

I really don't have the spoons to delve into it. I just saw these both pop up at the same time. Too funny really... in a sad way ... in both cases.

[Rivvy Elf]

Looks like the inevitable has happened. The Tolkien Estate has sued Demetrious Polychron (if that is his real name).

https://news.bloomberglaw.com/ip-law/to ... ngs-sequel

[Aikári Salmarinian]

Well this doesn't surprise me at all that is happening. There are always legal rights involved, to the original author. Unless specific permission is given, or that a legal amount of time has passed, it is not advised to try something like this. In the EU all your own creations fall under your ownership, if you aren't employed in someone's service. Then the laws of ownership applies in the firm you're working for.

[Rivvy Elf]

aaaand the court has ruled in favor of the Tolkien Estate and all copies of The Fellowship of the King must be destroyed:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2 ... an-sequel/

[Hanasian]

I'm not really surprised with this outcome.

[PauloIapetus]

It seems to me that the intent of the author with this byzantine publishing/libel stratagem is to obtain gratuitous publicity to his work when, eventualy, he'll retool his novel as an "original" work inserted in a new universe, separated from Tolkien's Legendarium, in the same way that was done with this case reported here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/commen ... in_middle/

In a different vein, Dennis L. McKiernan's Iron Tower saga started as an attempt to write an authorised sequel to Lord of the Rings. After he was turned down, he rewrote the idea in an original universe, but one which is still very clearly Middle-earth with the serial numbers filed off. So if you want to read his idea of what a LotR2 would have looked like, you can go through his series and just mentally reconvert "Darrows" to "Hobbits" and the various character names and locations.

[Silky Gooseness]

Being turned down and then publishing something as thinly disguised fan fiction is a bit different from actually challenging the estate owning the original material though

[PauloIapetus]

By having done so he will probably spread the rumor that he was libelled because his work was, indeed, the true inspiration behind Rings of Power, and, thus, Tolkien Estate was even more interested in concealing "the truth" from everyone. In spite of everybody considering this episode a public display of his total humiliation I truly doubt that we'll never heard of him again. Unfortunately.

[PauloIapetus]

Some of the legal documents connected with the case:

Demetrius Polyhcronv's allegations

Quite hilarious.