2006 Author Reviews for
Alassante

Alassante is an amazing author that I saw growing more in every story she wrote. Even in her older stories you can see the talent and inventiveness in her writing. Paradox is the story that she is working on currently, but besides that she has another alternate universe in the works, which shows her creativity and knowledge of Tolkien?s world. Add romance to the mix as well and you will find yourself reading story after story from her. They can be quite addictive! Her characters feel so incredibly realistic to you and you feel that you can sympathise with them easily, I know that Alassante spends a big deal on character development and fleshes them out with care: this most certainly shows in her stories. As for canon and following Tolkien?s ideas, in Paradox Al gives us a Valinor in the 4th age, which feels so realistic to you, even though we never read so much about that. In this sense, Alassante does a good job at world building in her story, she simply fills in the gaps or shows us how that world must have looked like. Even the canon characters have this unique feel about them and I often enjoy those written accordingly to her take on them. Al?s story techniques, especially in [Paradox of the fourth age] is something I never came across before, not even in original works. She simply writes the paradox in her story and not in a forced manner, but in a natural way that you can feel the consequences of the past, which is slowly being changed in the present. I simply marvel at such writing technique and how she pulls that off: simply thumbs up!

A while ago, someone asked on the OSA board if there were any stories out there, which focussed on Arwen specifically. For some reason unknown to me, I never got far since I recced about four works, but I immediately had to think of Alassante?s works. Her poem ?Here you cannot leave me? feels like a strongly written work featuring this character and her drabble ?My eyes! My Eyes!? only confirmed that she is one of the best Arwen drabble/writers. In the last work, it was delightfully cheeky! Besides this, Alassante is a great poet. She really knocked me off my feet with Eru?s Lament (incorporated in the Fe?norian drabble series), which besides keeping to a specific drabble length it is just brilliantly created in free verse and fits this fandom seamlessly. ?Here you cannot leave me? is so powerfully written that it leaves me in tears and simply shows how well Alassante can put so much feeling and emotion in a poem. She does the same in her original poems where she does not shy away to get raw emotions on paper, something you see often with poets. Not everyone is comfortable with that, but Alassante takes on that challenge. This combined with crawling under her character?s skin, gives me the impression that Alassante is a very gifted poet and I hope she will create more of these beautiful gems.

Alassante has this delightfully tongue-in-cheek sense of humour. A while ago, someone asked on the OSA board if there were any stories out there, which focussed on Arwen specifically. For some reason unknown to me, I never got far since I recced about four works, but I immediately had to think of Alassante?s works. Her drabble series ?Mischief in Imladris? is a great work, but not mainly featuring this character, but her drabble ?My eyes! My Eyes!? is. This only was a confirmation that she is one of the best Arwen drabble/writers that I know of. Although I do not think the person in question was looking for that. But Alassante has written more drabbles that are like that, Smaug or her Mischief in Imladris bear all that same trademark which is unique to Alassante?s voice and it was great to see that captured. Her MEFA nominated piece is delightfully cheeky! Drabbling is not very easy, as Alassante and I, both often said to each other: we can work on it for hours finding the right balance, flow and pacing. To write a drabble that is also incredibly funny? Alassante can pull that off without any effort. With short works like this, the punch line has to fall at the right moment and she does that greatly whether it is a stand-alone work or a series.

Al and the F?anorians, the F?anorians and Alassante: what can I say which I haven?t said to her before. She has her favourites amongst them, but her knowledge about them all shows through in her works. Give her a plot bunny and she comes back with a satisfied bunny and a greatly written story! Add romance (or smut) to the mix as well and you will find yourself reading story after story from her. They can be quite addictive! Her characters feel so incredibly realistic to you and you feel that you can sympathise with them easily, even though you know, deep down that they have done evil things too. Her drabble series in particular are just a stunning piece of art. To exactly get the meaning across in an limited amount of words, to write those works correctly language wise and put down a superb portrayal of those final moments and thoughts: simply wow. It is not always easy to evoke emotions and put down a moment effectively, but she simply pulls that off. But in every piece in which the F?anorians feature, Curufin mostly, come to life to me. And darn, you should stop writing Curufin so sexy! It is just too distracting! But all in all, Alassante is a all round first age writer: she combines this with her unique voice in writing, sometimes crazy ideas, but we all know she?s on a mission to redeem her favourite F?anorian and make us love them even more. And honestly, I join her gladly on this goal.