Fan fiction has always thrived. Some of it is even turned into entire other, also successful franchises; the 50 Shades of Grey saga, you may recall, originated as a mere Twilight knockoff. But one fanatic went too far when they tried to publish an ambitious sequel series to what is arguably the fantasy genre’s top dog.
According to Variety, earlier this year author Demetrious Polychron dared publish the first in a planned seven-part follow-up series to The Lord of the Rings. The first installment? It was called The Fellowship of the King. The sequel? Its title was to be The Two Trees. Polychron might have gotten away with this, too, but he went and sued both the Tolkien Estate and Amazon, alleging that the latter’s pricey LoTR show, The Rings of Power, had borrowed from his sequel.
But it was not to be. On Monday a California judge dismissed Polychron’s lawsuit. That’s not all, per Variety:
The Tolkien estate then countersued the author for infringing on their copyright. A U.S. district judge found in the estate’s favor this fall, granting them a permanent injunction to prevent Polychron from “copying distributing, selling, performing, displaying or otherwise exploiting” his book or its sequel, titled “The Two Trees.” The author was also ordered to destroy all physical and electronic copies of the works.
Polychron has also been ordered to pay the Tolkiens’ and Amazon’s legal fees, totaling $134,637. In his ruling, said judge noted the “fantasticality” of Polychron’s suit, pointing out that the characters he used were lifted from copyrighted material, i.e., Tolkien’s beloved books.
As of this writing, Polychron’s The Fellowship of the King is still available on Barnes and Noble’s website as an ebook. It has one user review, which awards it one star:
“It’s one of the worst books I’ve ever read and ignoring the fact it’s blatant copyright infringement, it’s just an abhorrent piece of work. Poor English, incomplete sentences, and the careful delivery, rhythm and expertise of Tolkien is missing. The guy who wrote this rubbish is clearly deluded.”
(Via Variety)