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This book does not belong in this series
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My stance is still the same on this; I don't think I could make the call to remove it. https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
but.. but.. I actually read the whole terrible book to justify the scathing judgment!
I'll take it! I sent a message to the help desk as Emily suggested many moons ago.
Marc wrote: "but.. but.. I actually read the whole terrible book to justify the scathing judgment!":-D
Wishing you a 5-star-worthy book to read now!
I'm getting the same line from GR Help. It seems that everyone is willing to take the author's unsubstantiated word for it that it was remotely anywhere in the realm of possibility that this piece of crap would be published. Has no one actually bothered to read even two paragraphs of the book to see what a farce this is? Okay, actual evidence that the author is making stuff up:
I searched for some more evidence of this falsehood and found a post by Elaine Cunningham, an ACTUAL AUTHOR OF FORGOTTEN REALMS HARPERS SERIES BOOKS:
Link: http://forum.candlekeep.com/topic.asp...
Text:
The wording on Mr. Moffat's site is ambiguous and somewhat misleading. He states that he wrote this story in 1998, and says "it was intended to be published 1999-2000." Please note that he does not state that TSR intended to publish this book.
A lot of people intend to write a book for the Realms. The fact that Mr. Moffat did, and the fact that it was not published, does not make it an "unpublished Realms novel"--at least, not in the sense that it was ever TSR/WotC intention to publish it.
He states that the book was not published as part of the Harper series because WotC discontinued this series. That is true, as far as it goes. But again, the ambiguous wording gives the impression that the book was contracted and then cancelled. I do not know for a fact that this is NOT the case, but from what I do know, it seems unlikely.
Here's why.
Mary Kirchoff, who was managing editor at the time, told me that she has no recollection of any project by Charles Moffat.
TSR intended Thornhold to be the last Harper book. I wrote it in 1997, and it was published in 1998. This strongly suggests that they never planned to publish a book #17.
Mr. Moffet wrote his story in 1998, after the Harper line was discontinued.
Thornhold was intended to be a pivot book, which introduced two new characters (Bronwyn and Ebenezer Stoneshaft) who would become shared-author characters. The plan was to move from the Harper series into a longer story arc that would be covered in several novels and game products. The editorial direction changed and this story arc was dropped. But if Mr. Moffet HAD been in discussions with TSR about writing a post-Thornhold book, he would have written about Bronwyn and Ebenezer. He did not.
His book is only 152 pages long, less than half the length of most Forgotten Realms novels. The story is not formatted in Forgotten Realms fashion. There are no chapter breaks, only short windows.
I suspect that Mr. Moffat wrote this story hoping, perhaps intending, that it would become a Harpers novel, but I doubt anyone shared this intention.
Edited by - ElaineCunningham on 14 Aug 2012 21:03:29
(END copy/paste)
So I am not just basing my indignation about this extremely minor issue in the grand scheme of things on nothing!
Oh, and happy Thanksgiving!
Actually I would like it removed. I would also like people to stop sharing unauthorized PDF copies of it that were full of typos and mistakes.I wrote the book in question 23 years ago and at one point (years after it became clear it would never be published) I posted it on a website for free. Then someone took the individual chapters and put them in a PDF without asking my permission + started distributing the PDF, again without asking my opinion on the subject.
I apologize to anyone who has read it. It is definitely not my best work.
You should write to Goodreads Support, especially since legal issues are involved:https://www.goodreads.com/about/conta...
Emily wrote: "You should write to Goodreads Support, especially since legal issues are involved:https://www.goodreads.com/about/conta..."
Marc suggested the same thing. I have contacted GoodReads support and hopefully they can just remove the book listing entirely.
:)
Given that the author has disowned the title, and even the book synopsis has been changed to: "Rise of the Blade is a fantasy novel written in 1998, but it was never finished and never edited. There are unauthorized versions of it available on the internet which the author refers to as an "abomination"."
... I really think it's time to remove it from the series list for genuine "Forgotten Realms: The Harpers" novels.
https://www.goodreads.com/series/4167...
Please and thank you.
Goodreads Librarians Group
Books mentioned in this topic
Rise of the Blade (other topics)Authors mentioned in this topic
Elaine Cunningham (other topics)Charles Moffat (other topics)
Book in question: Rise of the Blade by Charles Moffat
Series: Forgotten Realms: The Harpers (https://www.goodreads.com/series/41679-forgotten-realms-the-harpers )
The book is available free as a pdf. It was never endorsed or acknowledged in any way by TSR or Wizards of the Coast (owners/publishers of the Forgotten Realms line of novels). The author implies in his foreword that his book was intended for publication in this series; this is not possible. At best, he wrote it intending to submit it for consideration. But, for one thing, the book is so terrible (just read one page; I read the whole thing to justify a negative review) and amateur, completely lacking in any proofreading or editing, let alone a spellcheck, that it would not have been considered for publication in any way. Second, there is no indication that TSR or Wizards of the Coast took open submissions for books; it doesn't fit at all with the profile of authors who they did publish.
Can you please remove this title from the series list? It has no place there, any more than Harry Potter fan fiction would have a place with the actual Harry Potter series.