New Elder Scrolls Novel

[Aimedshot]

Apparently an author wrote a book based on the Elder Scrolls Oblivion called Mythic Dawn. I read it on Amazon. It was pretty amazing.

If anyone else is interested, check it out. Worth it.

[AKB]

To those curious, I believe I found it. This isn't official, of course. Believe it or not, there are a ton of unofficial books on the Elder Scrolls on Amazon. Few actual novels on them, though. It's kind of strange how many books Amazon actually allows in, especially when it appears to be fanfiction to a still active series (like this is).

[Aimedshot]

Yeah, Mythic Dawn is not an official novel by Bethesda. But it's also not fanfiction. This is an actually published book based on Oblivion's story and I believe there's a second one coming out from what I've read at the end of this first one. It's a great read and I highly recommend it to any Elder Scrolls fans. This book did it justice.

[Wolfie]

Yeah, Mythic Dawn is not an official novel by Bethesda. But it's also not fanfiction. This is an actually published book based on Oblivion's story and I believe there's a second one coming out from what I've read at the end of this first one. It's a great read and I highly recommend it to any Elder Scrolls fans. This book did it justice.

Fanfiction is any book, published or not, that is not by the creator\cureent rights or their aproval.

so this is fanfiction

[Aimedshot]

Oh, all right. Thanks for clearing that up.

Has anyone else read the sample or even bought the book and read through it? If so, what did you think?

[Wolfie]

Not to be mean to the writer, but what they are doing as far as I can tell is ilegal, now thet may not be in USA which may make it diffreint but I'm 90% the law is dictated by where Beth is and not the writer... either way

i'm not to found of someone CHARGING for a fan made book, that said it looks okay, its taken form the oblivion story line how ever.

so i wont buy it but it seems good form what little there is

[dzio]

Aimedshot, why do I get a sneaking suspicion that your name is Joseph Brown?

And I think Wolfie is right - I'm all for fans being creative and making up their own stories set in other people's universes. But I don't like the idea of making money from something that doesn't belong to you. I haven't read the book, but the summary looks like it's a novelisation of the plot of Oblivion. If that's the case, then it's not just using the setting the author doesn't have the rights to, it's actually using the plot written by someone else. Not cool at all.

[Aimedshot]

Hehe, no I'm not the author.

Regarding potential copyright infringement, aren't there published books written from varying authors based on sources like Magic the Gathering, a card game, or even World of Warcraft, a video game? If I remember correctly, I believe a renowned author, Terry Brooks, even wrote a Star Wars book, which was a movie. I think this Mythic Dawn author might be within legal bounds publishing this book.

But again, I'm not sure. I just enjoyed it and wanted to see if anyone else might have read it.

[dzio]

Those books you're talking about are published with permission from the owners of copyrights (who receive some part of the profits) and are considered a part of the original franchise. Many authors have no problems with fanficiton, as long as it's clearly stated that the copyrights belong to the author of the original work, and as long as it's not done for profit (some have other conditions, like JKR not approving of Harry Potter [&@%!]). Sometimes the authors of those spin-off books start off as fanfic writers and sometimes collections of short stories are published, some of which were originally fan creations published online or in fanzines.

My point is, the only way "Mythic Dawn" could be fully legal is if it had a "Beth approved" stamp somewhere on it, and I don't think it does. I think that Beth already allow a lot of fan-manipulation of their product, what with releasing the Construction Sets with the games and encouraging the modding community, so stepping outside of what's allowed by them is really not okay in my book.

[Avron the S'wit]

I think everyone above explained things pretty well. Usually you need approval or to negotiate a licensing agreement, if you're planning to profit.

Me, I looked at the book, but I'm not too interested in main quest fanfiction...mostly because I can just play it myself and make it just the way I like it.