Waiting on Wednesday - 'The Story of Kullervo' and 'Ideal'

I don't do this meme very often because I'm usually not the best at keeping an eye on all the upcoming releases and I find it impossible to pick just one book from the heaps that I do know about. However, when there are books such as these coming up (or having just been published, I'm cheating a little bit here), there is no way I will not be posting about it.

Waiting on Wednesday is hosted by Jill over at Breaking the Spine and lets you spotlight upcoming releases that you're eagerly awaiting! Today I'm featuring two books, one which is coming out soon and one which came out last month already but I completely missed then!

The Story of Kullervo - J.R.R Tolkien

This one may have been the big news of the last week! Only published before once in an academic collection of Tolkien's works, The Story of Kullervo is one of his first attempts at writing legends. Based on The Kalevala, the Finnish epic, it promises to be amazing. It will be published on the 27th of August, 2015.

The world first publication of a previously unknown work of fantasy by J.R.R. Tolkien, which tells the powerful story of a doomed young man who is sold into slavery and who swears revenge on the magician who killed his father. 

Kullervo son of Kalervo is perhaps the darkest and most tragic of all J.R.R. Tolkien’s characters. ‘Hapless Kullervo’, as Tolkien called him, is a luckless orphan boy with supernatural powers and a tragic destiny. 

Brought up in the homestead of the dark magician Untamo, who killed his father, kidnapped his mother, and who tries three times to kill him when still a boy, Kullervo is alone save for the love of his twin sister, Wanona, and guarded by the magical powers of the black dog, Musti. When Kullervo is sold into slavery he swears revenge on the magician, but he will learn that even at the point of vengeance there is no escape from the cruellest of fates. 

Tolkien himself said that The Story of Kullervo was ‘the germ of my attempt to write legends of my own’, and was ‘a major matter in the legends of the First Age’. Tolkien’s Kullervo is the clear ancestor of Túrin Turambar, tragic incestuous hero of The Silmarillion. In addition to it being a powerful story in its own right, The Story of Kullervo – published here for the first time with the author’s drafts, notes and lecture-essays on its source-work, The Kalevala – is a foundation stone in the structure of Tolkien’s invented world.

Ideal - Ayn Rand

This may seem like a completely opposite read, but I carry a massive torch for Ayn Rand and her heroes and heroines who refuse to live their lives for others. This previously unreleased book (see the theme of this post?) follows an actress and, looking at the blurb, it could have been written today! Here's a link to an excerpt, which has me all excited!  This book was published on the 7th of July, 2015.

In print for the first time ever, author and philosopher Ayn Rand’s novel Ideal.

Originally conceived as a novel, but then transformed into a play by Ayn Rand, Ideal is the story of beautiful but tormented actress Kay Gonda. Accused of murder, she is on the run and turns for help to six fans who have written letters to her, each telling her that she represents their ideal—a respectable family man, a far-left activist, a cynical artist, an evangelist, a playboy, and a lost soul. Each reacts to her plight in his own way, their reactions a glimpse into their secret selves and their true values. In the end their responses to her pleas give Kay the answers she has been seeking.

Ideal was written in 1934 as a novel, but Ayn Rand thought the theme of the piece would be better realized as a play and put the novel aside. Now, both versions of Ideal are available for the first time ever to the millions of Ayn Rand fans around the world, giving them a unique opportunity to explore the creative process of Rand as she wrote first a book, then a play, and the differences between the two.

So, those are the books I'm featuring today! Which book are you waiting for? And what do you think of the two books above?