What are chances you think Folio Society does Wheel of Time/The Witcher

As far as I know neither of these series have gotten the special treatment from any presses... but they are now adapted (or will be) to TV and I'm sure a bunch of them are trying to acquire rights to publish.

What do you guys think the chances are Folio publishes either series? Also I've only been on this forum a week or two now and I know that people will hate this idea I'm just asking if people think it's realistic.

>1 Soup811: I though Folio Society already started working on the Wheel of Time series already.

I am a fan of The Witcher universe as depicted in the video games, however I sincerely hope FS does not publish the books as they are quite bland and badly written. It is the video games that made the brand popular, not the books, which were only used as inspiration and background by the software developers, who created an enchanting atmosphere in the games with good music and characters.

>2 duonkha: that would be awesome. I couldn’t find any information on this. Hoe did you get your information?

>3 Raenas: I've heard the writing is much better in the original Polish than how it was translated, but I don't know Polish, so I'm not sure if that's actually true or not.

I've read one of the Witcher books and I wouldn't necessarily disparage the writing to that degree - however have only read one

Goodness grief, I do hope FS don't stoop that low. I read one Witcher book and listened to another on audiobook. They may convert well to video games and TV, but as literature they are absolutely woeful. That may of course be in part attributable to the translation, but the quality of writing is truly truly awful. Highly unrealistic to expect FS to publish these, even given their current focus.

If they can't publish more than one volume of Dune, I can't see them sticking with WoT for long. There's what, 14 books? And they'd all probably need to be published as two volumes. And a lot of the books are pretty bad.

I don't think The Witcher and The Wheel of Time are a good fit for FS. But if the original Polish text of The Witcher is much better than the English translation, they could commission a new translation.

The Wheel of Time was great when I was 13 years old until I realized it was just splatterhouse Tolkien (and the judicious Dune plagiarism) with the whiniest female characters I've ever read. They make anime women seem realistic and levelheaded.

>7 Conte_Mosca:

Never say never. Anything's possible at the Star-Ship Blue-Sky-Thinking Maguire Street Mission Control - "The world's best-selling pulp fiction at a fantasy price just out reach of Everyman."

>12 boldface: "The world's best-selling pulp fiction at a fantasy price just out reach of Everyman."

Classic, Jonathan. They really should adopt that as their new Mission Starement.

*Tugs their braid and smoothes their skirt*

Please tell me this thread is a joke...

I am a huge fan of the Witcher books. I think the series has an amazing story and relatable characters, and it is my 2nd favorite fantasy series just after Discworld. I hope Folio Society will publish the Witcher series in those beautiful, illustrated editions like their Robbin Hobb and George RR Martin books.

I agree The Witcher novels commit the ultimate crime of being dull. The characters are reasonably interesting but the plot is stretched wafer thin over 5 books, with a lot of filler.

I don’t mind not much happening story-wise if the writing is excellent, but it’s not. Although of course it’s as much to do with the translator as the author.

I have been the german editions of The Witcher, and i have to say that the translations seem to be a tad better. In English, it just across very abrupt at times. However, i am not a native German speaker, so maybe my observation is a bit skewed.

I have read the first two books and i liked them just fine. But i would not like a Folio Edition of these just because i don't think that they really merit the FS treatment. I would much rather have them revamp the Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, Silmarillion, etc.

As for Wheel of Time...i hope to God not.

I feel that just saying a book/series is "bad/terrible/poor" doesn't mean much. Why is it so bad? What are you comparing it to? What do you consider good? Do you enjoy fantasy series? While certainly far from perfect, I will say that on goodreads the series has a 4.5/5 score with 1022 ratings.
https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/41187016-witcher-series-6-books-set-colle...

I personally think it would be great for the FS to publish The Witcher and other popular works. Hey, I'm not a fan of Creighton's Jurassic Park, but I think it's good for the FS to publish modern works that are outside the traditional definition of "classic literature". Honestly, if the FS was able to produce a signed limited edition set, they would rake in a ton of money and as a business, well, they do want money.

>19 astropi:

I think some of us have been quite explicit as to why the series is so bad. The quality of the prose is laughably poor. Barely literate. And the juvenile sex scenes are cringeworthy. You can't go by fanboy reviews on Goodreads. It would be a travesty if FS stooped so far from its aim of publishing great literature to wasted time on this piffle.

This is not an anti-SFF point of view. Whilst I am disappointed that FS seems to be narrowing its fiction output to SFF and popular fiction rather than the rich and wide diversity we have been blessed with in the past, I would nevertheless acknowledge that by and large FS has focused on the most important publications from the genre to date (with one or two notable exceptions, but I won't go down that rabbit hole here). That would not be the case with such puerile writing as found in The Witcher series. The Witcher may have influence in having been the inspiration for a highly regarding gaming series. But that is no more excuse to publish the books than it would be to publish a finely bound edition of The Adventures of Mario Bros.

>19 astropi: Why it so bad?

When FS published Killing Floor, there were lots of comments on here about the quality of Lee Child's writing. I took a glance at the first page or so via the Amazon preview. The short sentences did jar on me a little, but it did at least feel to me like a genuine flow of thought, and I could imagine someone narrating it over the beginning of a movie. I doubt I'll ever read the whole book, but it wasn't the worst writing I've ever seen.

The Witcher? I've just had a quick look at the Amazon preview. Just a few paragraphs.

"Ciri felt the knight who carried her before him on his saddle abruptly spur his horse."
"All around her screaming such as she had never before heard grew louder."
"The houses whirled around her and suddenly she could see windows belching fire where a moment before there'd been nothing but a muddy little street strewn with corpses and cluttered with the abandoned possessions of the fleeing population."

These sentences feel like the first draft of a translation – the translator has 'bashed out' the meaning of the source text, but hasn't then gone through and refined the translation as a stand-alone piece of target-language writing. Maybe even just adding a few commas would have helped. At this point, my issue was with the translation. (I won't go as far as to berate the translator, as I know very well that literary translation is woefully underpaid and translators are pushed to deliver to unrealistic deadlines that don't always give them the time to produce work they can be proud of.)

But then, about a page or so into the, er, 'thrilling' opening scene, Ciri wakes up and it was all just a bad dream. Phew! How's that for an original piece of plot twisting? At this point, my complaint no longer lies with the translation.

I haven't read any further, but what I've read is enough to convince me that this isn't worthy of the Folio treatment. I don't count myself as a member of the 'curmudgeon camp' (cheeky but friendly wink), and I do enjoy much of FS's current output. But if this were to appear in a forthcoming Folio collection, I might just consider switching my allegiances.

>19 astropi:
1- WoT is bad because not just the prose, but also the character work is really terrible. All the characters are so irritating. The author clearly had no idea how to write the women and chose to create some of the worst female characters in Fantasy. They are cringey and gratingly annoying. The author might have been trying to make them seem strong and authoritative in a slightly matriarchal world, but he absolutely did not succeed in that. As for the storyline, it might be good enough, however it took him 14 books to get there, of which 4 (11-14) weren't written by him and 4 (7-10) are real drags. Even the hardcore fans admit that. It would be such a huge commitment for FS. Of course many of us would rather have those efforts be put in somewhere else. Witcher is a bit better, but maybe because it is shorter. However, the author did drag on in parts. And it is very far from being remarkable. Plus, the english translation is really terrible.

2- I am comparing them to ASOIAF and LOTR. Even if the Robin Hobb books are only okay, they are a one time thing. A simple box set with all three books. Easy to convince people to give them a try. How many non-nerds could be convinced to put in £79×14 = £1106 (no shipping, taxes, etc. included) or a £300 -£400 box set for The Witcher? I doubt that they could afford to price them at £39 or £44 and sell them as single copies, since attaining the rights to the book series would not be easy.

3- I consider LOTR, ASOIAF to be good. Besides, there are others too which are rather good like Mistborn and Memory, Sorrow and Thorn, however they aren't quite as iconic. I would prefer for Folio to publish the best and most unique in every genre. Not just everything in a genre.

4- I love and adore fantasy.

5- And most of Dickens works have a rating of 3. something. Goodreads ratings mean nothing and are not at all indicative of the quality of a book.

Like i mentioned, Witcher is okay. I enjoyed the first few books, but it is nothing extraordinary. And i highly doubt that it would have got this much fame had it not been for the games and the subsequent series.

I am okay with FS publishing books to try and pull in new crowds, which they anyways are doing with the ASOIAF and Farseer books. No need to scrape the bottom of the barrel... unless they would rather lose the customers who are looking for classics/literature fiction/non-fiction, etc. and getting tired of waiting for any books to be released which match their tastes.

>22 sekhmet0108: Thanks for the input. It's good to hear from someone that has actually read a few of the Witcher novels. You know, one problem I have with Song of Fire and Ice is that it seems like a certain author is never going to finish the work :/
If I had to pick one fantasy series to get a truly deluxe treatment, that would be Le Guin's Earthsea.

>23 astropi:
Completely agree with you there. I haven't bought the Earthsea book that FS has taken out because it is simply wrong somehow for the story. (Left Hand of Darkness and The Dispossessed, on the other hand, are beautiful.) A full box set of Earthsea which didn't look this drab, would have been amazing.

And yeah, Martin is not going to finish. Even if by some miracle Winds of Winter comes out, A Dream of Spring won't. It sounds callous to say this, but i don't know if he has 10-12 years to write DoS.

>24 sekhmet0108: unlike many fantasy series, I think each Earthsea story stands alone. Yes, there is a chronology, and shared characters, but the themes, focuses, and narratives are all substantially different, and expecting otherwise will lead to disappointment I suspect (especially with regard to the later stories, such as Tehanu). Wizard of Earthsea is one of my favorite novels, and one of the books that I can’t help but acquire in multiple editions. My favorites are the current folio slipcased version and an old UK Gollancz hardcover, which is small form factor, but well bound and has a style that reminds me of something like a mix between Norse saga and literate fairy tale. I wasn’t entirely sold on the illustrations Folio chose most recently, but they work much better in person, and the cover has a marvelous tactility in the embossing (or stamping, whatever) of Ged’s scar. One of the more successful of Folio’s illustrated covers (as opposed to graphic-designed covers, if that distinction makes sense to you), in my opinion.

(Tangent: the Vess illustrations for the recent one-volume Books of Earthsea by some other publisher that slips my mind at the moment are also wonderful, but the book itself is large enough to be somewhat cumbersome.)

>15 DanielOC: Did you get the survey lol

>26 Soup811: I got it! I really, really hope they get the rights to the Dark Tower series.

>26 Soup811: Oh yes....and i gave the FS survey monkeyman a piece of my mind

Church End,
Veternum Anguli,
Dorset

1 April 2023

Dear Nephew,

Just a quickie while I can still hold a pen. Are you sitting down, dear? Take my advice and make a cup of Ovaltine first.

I’d been back scarcely a minute from my Scott’s Hut Antarctica Covid Variant 4th Booster shot to find the latest Folio Society prospectus along with the Netflix streaming digest for next month on my doormat. Have you had yours? I couldn’t believe it – they’re identical! Is this fantasy, dear, or am I dreaming?

I thought there was something funny last night, when the Revd. Droan’s Reliant Robin screeched to a halt on two wheels outside my front door. He was beside himself, poor man, because the Folio Society had suddenly discontinued his Complete Motorcycle Repair Manual facsimile set after only three volumes. He’d already had the first two grease-stain posters framed. Now, of course, it all makes sense. The Maintenance Channel cancelled the new series just last week. I read it in the Church Times. Or was it InfoWars?

Finish your Ovaltine, dear, and then reply asap and tell an old lady it’s not true.

In despair,

Great Aunt Dottie.

>29 boldface:
Only two years away? Despite the date, part of FS seems to be heading this way, although at present they are also publishing more serious literature as well.