Chapter 259 The Charm of a Filial Son (Part )
"Mr. Liu, are you listening?"
Richard's voice calling from the microphone woke Liu Hongmin from his daze.
"I am listening!"
Liu Hongmin smiled and said, "Richard, you should know that my consistent principle when writing books is never to give away spoilers. It's all up to the readers to understand on their own."
Richard sighed, "Okay! I respect your idea. But, Mr. Liu, I have to say it again, the Frozen Throne trilogy is so well written, even better than the Dark Gate trilogy. I'm curious, how did you come up with so many good stories?"
Liu Hongmin laughed and said, "I am also standing on the shoulders of my predecessors."
Most of the books he wrote were based on movies and TV series. Dark Portal and Frozen Throne were also compiled based on CG and what he remembered. Only The Forgotten Cataclysm can be considered a book he wrote himself.
Of course, he also contributed a lot, because these novels either have no original version or the original version has various defects.
The original stories of Dark Portal and Frozen Throne were like this. The writers hired by Blizzard each wrote their own stories, and many of the plots were conflicting. Since Blizzard had to be in the game, they had to re-set the story content. Moreover, the writing style of these writers was not very good, and their understanding of magic was also much worse.
They are far behind the Chinese in terms of imagination. But it is understandable, after all, they wrote their books in the 00s. If they had written ten years later, perhaps we would have seen those mind-blowing Chinese online articles and would not have lacked imagination.
Liu Hongmin has experienced the peak period of Chinese online literature. Any western fantasy novel on the Internet is more imaginative than the original story. He has also read hundreds of novels about Warcraft, and his understanding of Warcraft has long exceeded the sky. If he had not maintained the story line, he might have written a story that broke through the skyline.
If one step ahead of the times is a genius, and three steps ahead of the times is a madman. The setting of future online novels is at least ten steps ahead of this era. If Liu Hongmin wrote it, he would probably be in a mental hospital soon.
Richard thought Liu Hongmin was just being modest, but that didn't stop him from praising Liu Hongmin.
Finally, he told Liu Hongmin that once the English version of "The Frozen Throne" trilogy is translated, it will be released nationwide in the United States on March 3.
"I am looking forward!"
Liu Hongmin asked about Wang Qingyang's condition again. Richard said that the legal team had just contacted a congressman who had some influence and it would take some time to lobby.
After hanging up the phone, Liu Hongmin unexpectedly received a call from Li Huanfang from Peking University Press.
"Brother Li? How come you have time to call me?"
Li Huanfang smiled and said, "It's the Frozen Throne you wrote."
"What happened to Frozen Throne?" Liu Hongmin asked in confusion. Western fantasy novels don't have many audiences in China, so Liu Hongmin didn't have much hope for the domestic market. The reason for publishing was just a routine matter. The money he got was not even a fraction of what he would get if he published it abroad. Therefore, Liu Hongmin donated all the royalties from Dark Portal and Frozen Throne.
"Of course not!" Li Huanfang said, "It's good news. We printed 50,000 copies of The Frozen Throne and they're all sold out!"
The Dark Gate trilogy only sold more than 39,000 copies in China, not even 40,000 copies. So when printing Frozen Throne, Beijing University Press estimated that the sales volume would be more than 40,000 copies.
As expected, when Frozen Throne was first released, not many people bought it, even though it was written by Liu Hongmin. Only some college students bought it, and they were basically die-hard fans of Dark Portal. After all, the three trilogies together cost 15 yuan, which was enough for them to buy a piece of clothing. If they were not die-hard fans, who would spend this money?
They thought Dark Portal was pretty good, so they wanted to watch Frozen Throne. I thought Frozen Throne was the same as Dark Portal, a story about the struggle for supremacy among races. But after watching Arthas, I found that it was a complete personal biography of Arthas!
However, Arthas's story is indeed attractive. Not only is the plot ups and downs, but the transformation of Arthas is also explained clearly. Soon, they were brought into the role of Arthas and faced those choices with him. As a result, they found that they did not think of a better way than Arthas.
Even when Arthas chose to massacre the civilians of Stratholme, although they felt condemned in their hearts, they would still make the same choice as Arthas.
They will even explain Arthas's behavior.
Arthas wants to protect the people of the entire Kingdom of Lordaeron. Instead of letting all the people in Stratholme become undead and wreak havoc on the Kingdom of Lordaeron, it would be better to kill them before they mutate. This will also reduce Mal'Ganis's military strength, which is beneficial to the next military operation.
It was just like when Cao Cao slaughtered Pengcheng and intimidated the people of Xuzhou. This was a method used by a tyrant, and although it was against human nature, it could defeat the enemy at the lowest cost.
These readers are obviously smarter than Richard. When they saw the ending of "The Lich King" and heard the words of King Terenas in Arthas' ears, they knew that Arthas replaced Ner'zhul and became the new Lich King.
Therefore, they attributed all of Arthas' actions to Arthas enduring humiliation and bearing heavy burdens just to replace the Lich King and solve the kingdom's greatest enemy, although the price was the destruction of the Kingdom of Lordaeron.
But if Arthas didn't do this, the Kingdom of Lordaeron would still perish.
Rather than letting the Kingdom of Lordaeron perish in vain, it is better to use it to kill the Lich King, the invincible enemy.
Sometimes, when you tell people the truth, they won't believe it. Instead, they will believe it in the illusions they create in their minds.
This is the reason why Liu Hongmin does not make any interpretation of his own works.
Many literary works are pushed to the altar because of over-interpretation. Just like "There are two trees in front of the door, one is a jujube tree, and the other is also a jujube tree", the original author may just want to make up the word count and cheat some royalties. But after being over-interpreted, it becomes this spirit or that spirit.
It was under such circumstances that the Frozen Throne was recommended by college students. Many students from well-off families bought a copy, and 50,000 copies of the Frozen Throne were sold out.
When it comes to Liu Hongmin, it is attributed to the charm of a filial son.
In fact, this is also an over-interpretation without knowing the truth.
(End of this chapter)
