THE HOBBIT

one story that can not be separated from the trilogy of lord of the rings. a story that explain everything before a journey begin. 

synopsis

Gandalf tricks Bilbo into hosting a party for Thorin's band of dwarves, who sing of reclaiming the Lonely Mountain and its vast treasure from the Dragon Smaug. When the music ends, Gandalf unveils a map showing a secret door into the Mountain and proposes that the dumbfounded Bilbo serve as the expedition's "burglar." The dwarves ridicule the idea, but Bilbo, indignant, joins despite himself.

The group travel into the wild, where Gandalf saves the company from trolls and leads them to Rivendell. While there, Elrond reveals more secrets from the map. Passing over the Misty Mountains, they are caught by goblins and driven deep underground. Though Gandalf rescues them, Bilbo gets separated from the others as they flee the goblin tunnels. Lost and disoriented, he stumbles across a ring and then encounters Gollum, who engages him in a game of riddles with deadly stakes. With the help of the ring (which confers invisibility), Bilbo escapes and rejoins the dwarves, raising his reputation. The goblins and Wargs give chase and the company are saved by eagles before resting in the house of the shape-shifter Beorn.

The company enter the black forest of Mirkwood without Gandalf. In Mirkwood, Bilbo first saves the dwarves from Giant Spiders and then from the dungeons of the Wood-elves. Nearing the Lonely Mountain, the travelers are welcomed by the human inhabitants of Lake-town, who hope the dwarves will fulfil prophecies of Smaug's demise. The expedition travel to the Mountain and finds the secret door; Bilbo scouts the dragon's lair, stealing a great cup and learning of a weakness in Smaug's armour. The enraged dragon, deducing that Lake-town aided the intruder, sets out to destroy the town. A noble thrush who overheard Bilbo's report of Smaug's vulnerability reports it to Bard the Bowman, who slays the Dragon.

When the dwarves take possession of the mountain, Bilbo finds the prized Arkenstone gem and steals it. The Wood-elves and Lake-men besiege the Mountain and request compensation for their aid, reparations for Lake-town's destruction, and settlement of old claims on the treasure. Thorin refuses and, having summoned his kin from the north, reinforces his position. Bilbo tries to ransom the Arkenstone to head off a war, but Thorin is intransigent. He banishes Bilbo, and battle seems inevitable.

Gandalf reappears to warn all of an approaching army of goblins and Wargs. The dwarves, men, and elves band together, but only with the timely arrival of the eagles and Beorn do they win the Battle of Five Armies. Thorin, mortally wounded, lives long enough to part from Bilbo as a friend. The treasure is divided fairly, but, having no need or desire for it, Bilbo refuses most of his contracted share. Nevertheless, he returns home with enough to make himself a very wealthy hobbit

ADAPTATION 

this  far, no plan from peter jackson *director of LORD OF THE RINGS TRILOGY) to create this prequel . it's a pity i think. but other adaptations were produced before. started from stage production, radio drama, animated version, live action film, story-based Video games ( cool !!) untill COMIC. wow.. what a phenomenon.

i'm still expecting this title will be produced with epic style in the future.

 

article source from :

wikipedia.org

Science Fiction Story - introduction

science fiction story, like other story telling genre, is always good to read. when it offers a dream, fantasy, or even hope, it will be come our new power to reach our goal, life destination, or maybe a medicine for our heart. we so many science fiction stories applied into films, books, or even architectural theme.

but what is actually science fiction?. according to what we can read in wikipedia.org,
Science fiction is difficult to define, as it includes a wide range of subgenres and themes. Author and editor Damon Knight summed up the difficulty by stating that "science fiction is what we point to when we say it". Vladimir Nabokov argued that were we rigorous with our definitions, Shakespeare's play The Tempest would have to be termed science fiction.

According to science fiction writer Robert A. Heinlein, "a handy short definition of almost all science fiction might read: realistic speculation about possible future events, based solidly on adequate knowledge of the real world, past and present, and on a thorough understanding of the nature and significance of the scientific method."Rod Serling's stated definition is "fantasy is the impossible made probable. Science Fiction is the improbable made possible."

Lester Del Rey wrote, "Even the devoted aficionado– or fan- has a hard time trying to explain what science fiction is," and that the reason for there not being a "full satisfactory definition" is that "there are no easily delineated limits to science fiction."

Forrest J. Ackerman publicly used the term "sci-fi" at UCLA in 1954, though Robert A. Heinlein had used it in private correspondence six years earlier.As science fiction entered popular culture, writers and fans active in the field came to associate the term with low-budget, low-tech "B-movies" and with low-quality pulp science fiction.By the 1970s, critics within the field such as Terry Carr and Damon Knight were using "sci-fi" to distinguish hack-work from serious science fiction,and around 1978, Susan Wood and others introduced the pronunciation "skiffy." Peter Nicholls writes that "SF" (or "sf") is "the preferred abbreviation within the community of sf writers and readers."David Langford's monthly fanzine Ansible includes a regular section "As Others See Us" which offers numerous examples of "sci-fi" being used in a pejorative sense by people outside the genre.

what we can see....

when we write a story, such as fantasy, horror, super hero, or may be historical story (and many other..),we can easily add science-fiction color as a selling part of the story. our rapid technology improvement these days makes us able to combine science-fiction with other genre easily.