A tip o’ me hat to Tom at Literarium for the news.
And sorry to those who came here looking for Kermit the frog.
Muppet: A person who is ignorant and generally has no idea about anything.
A Memory of Light was released today, to the hordes of Robert Jordan fans who have been waiting 20 years for the series end. Unfortunately for some die-hard fans the eBook will not be released until April and they isn’t happy, leaving (at time of writing) 155 one star reviews on Amazon.
Such passion from fans, so much passion that you’d think they’d be hanging on every snippet of information, like this from Tor, the publisher:
Tor Books has announced that the ebook edition of A Memory of Light, the exciting conclusion to one of the most epic fantasy series in existence, will be available for e-reader devices on April 9, 2013. The initial book release is scheduled for January 8, 2013.
Tor March 2012 <---quite some time ago
I find the actions taken on Amazon disappointing. I can't help but see it as a bit of privileged dummy spitting. The information on the book was out there and the reasons for the ebook's delay as well.
Jordan’s widow wants it to soar up the NYT charts, maybe she wants the bookend to his career with glory, maybe she wants to get the best return she can. I’ll begrudge her none of those things; she supported him in his writing for all those years and writing good fiction is a several magnitudes harder than reading it.
You can give me a number of reasons why an eBook should be released at the same time – I’ll probably agree with some of them. I can understand the disappointment that comes from expectations denied (The Hobbit showing in Australia two weeks after everywhere else).
A suitable response would be to contact Tor on their forums, write them,telling of your disappointment. If still angry to vote with your feet and walk away or buy it from some cheap retailer of books.
But for some that’s not good enough, they feel the need to attempt to affect sales of the book by sabotaging the amazon review process and lodging a one star protest. Like we are trying to stop some evil megacorp from using whale fat to fry their burgers or something.
Reminds me of every privileged, eye bulging, angry customer who thought I had to worship the ground they walked when I worked in retail. Seriously I teach teens who have better control than this.
This is not a real protest. This is privileged whining - when it comes down to it, someone's just disappointed they didn't get exactly what they wanted when they wanted it and they are acting like they have been personally violated.
Be disappointed, don't be a muppet.
Surely there's enough good fantasy out there to fill in that three month gap. Now go on crucify me in the comments.
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