2005 Author Reviews for
Aeneid

If there were a category for Boromir writers, Aeneid's name would be among the topmost of a very short list of writers who write him well?more than well, spectacularly so, able to encompass in unflinching terms both his strength and his weakness without seeming clumsy about it. She has a very distinct voice as a writer?her unrhymed poetry has its own unique feel, and defies easy classification as she goes for the heart of her chosen character and his circumstances, while her prose has a lovely, ironic edge to it that hints at other, darker things. Whether she has recourse to out and out allegory (the "good-bad son of Gondor" with his "tissue thin" soul where temptation is concerned) or puts him in a prosaic context among other characters (or both), Boromir shines, and illuminates all the rest with him.

Aeneid writes original characters like no one's nbusiness. Whether it's Gil in "Sight" or the whole cast in "Adraefan" and "The Laughing Oliphaunt", the characters are always well-realised, three-dimensional with real flaws, and they always fit well into what we know of Gondorian culture. It always amazes me the different genres that you can write: romance/erotica, drama, and oh so definitely humour. I was laughing out loud at places, often seconds after being near tears; that takes a lot of talent.

When it comes to AUs, I'm extremely, and I do mean *extremely*, picky. There are numerous ways to write an AU, and most often, what passes under that label is a canonical lapse in some niggling detail; or an obvious bit of wish fulfillment that couldn't justify itself otherwise and which simply exists, lodged in the midst of the original story without being in real communication with it; or a story that would count as a gap-filler if the author were, perhaps, a bit braver in placing his or her story. None of these options seems to me to exemplify the genre of the alternate universe: they don't take advantage of the resources the original story gives us in order to turn the original story on its head. A well-done AU does not ignore canon; it is, on the contrary, in constant and intimate communication and dialogue with it, no matter how far it strays from it. And the good news is, Aeneid understands that. The "Boromir Lives!" genre of AU is one I don't often dip into, for reasons I'd stated in my review of "Adraefan". It's a matter of preference. But Aeneid's story is absolutely worth the time. In the first place, she finds the right moment: Parth Galen. Now, I have a special objection to most scenarios I've read that use Parth Galen as the point of departure for a "Boromir Lives!" AU, and happily, Aeneid demolishes it by making the hard choice: I often think that writing an AU is like balancing scales?a change to one side leads to a change in the other of necessity, and an equal and opposite change w.r.t. each other. In other words, since Boromir lives, there's a price to be paid in terms of how his companions are portrayed, and if in the original story everyone ends in the bloody waters of redemption at Parth Galen, no one comes out smelling like roses in the AU. We may wince about this, but it's a logical departure?it *could* have happened this way, and Aeneid has the guts to take that bull by its horns and the skill to deal with it successfully. Secondly, she doesn't make it easy for Boromir?not at all, which is another objection I ususally have to AUs; too often, complexity is lost in favor of some resolution that feels cheaper than the original. Not so in "Adraefan." The "Greco-Roman" feel alluded to in the summary as often as not has as much to do with the amount of gore and pain the hero endures as it does with the obvious allusion to the poetic form and of epics as "Iliad" and "Odyssey" or their investigation of the operations of fate (although "Adraefan" is similar on those levels as well). Boromir becomes a sublime object, able to endure anything and continue on?most authors cannot pull this off without cutting the ties that suspend Damocles' sword, aka in this case, the reader's disbelief, but Aeneid managed it and I salute her. But beyond physical suffering, there's the moral agony, the absolute crisis of self-identity that makes Boromir much more Oedipus to my mind than Odysseus or any of the heroes of "The Iliad". This is key, it is the heart of the story as I see it?"Adraefan" is about redemption, and once again stays close to LOTR in demonstrating that salvation is not won through a single act, nor in isolation from others. One should not be surprised, then, that other characters who appear in this story are as well-written and placed as Boromir is. We recognize them, and can believe that had the story gone this way, they might well have behaved and felt in just this manner. Aeneid uses the alternate storyline to develop these characters, but also to develop characters who were excluded from the main narration?Radagast is spectacular, and her original characters are wonderful and shed light on an older conflict than the present War of the Ring. The AU genre allows that to happen in a unique way, and it allows it precisely by remaining in contact with that original story. This review is already quite long, and it should give ample evidence of my opinion as to the merits of the author of "Adraefan" as well as, I hope, some indication of the merits of "Adraefan" itself. Aeneid deserves to be commended for her masterful deployment of this alternate universe. Thank you, Aeneid, for doing it superlatively well, but more importantly, for doing it right.

Aeneid writes original characters like no one's nbusiness. Whether it's Gil in "Sight" or the whole cast in "Adraefan" and "The Laughing Oliphaunt", the characters are always well-realised, three-dimensional with real flaws, and they always fit well into what we know of Gondorian culture. It always amazes me the different genres that you can write: romance/erotica, drama, and oh so definitely humour. I was laughing out loud at places, often seconds after being near tears; that takes a lot of talent.

Aeneid writes original characters like no one's nbusiness. Whether it's Gil in "Sight" or the whole cast in "Adraefan" and "The Laughing Oliphaunt", the characters are always well-realised, three-dimensional with real flaws, and they always fit well into what we know of Gondorian culture. It always amazes me the different genres that you can write: romance/erotica, drama, and oh so definitely humour. I was laughing out loud at places, often seconds after being near tears; that takes a lot of talent.

If there were a category for Boromir writers, Aeneid's name would be among the topmost of a very short list of writers who write him well?more than well, spectacularly so, able to encompass in unflinching terms both his strength and his weakness without seeming clumsy about it. She has a very distinct voice as a writer?her unrhymed poetry has its own unique feel, and defies easy classification as she goes for the heart of her chosen character and his circumstances, while her prose has a lovely, ironic edge to it that hints at other, darker things. Whether she has recourse to out and out allegory (the "good-bad son of Gondor" with his "tissue thin" soul where temptation is concerned) or puts him in a prosaic context among other characters (or both), Boromir shines, and illuminates all the rest with him.