2004 Author Reviews for
Altariel

Altariel's command of the Minas Tirith's Ruling Steward and his family is, as always, impeccable. I love the way Denethor is portrayed, and as with all Altariel's fics, the focus is kept firmly on him, never straying far. The other participants brought into the story are characterized swiftly and have their moment, and then Altariel moves on, never losing sight of the final goal. This is a great twisting of Dickens' famous story, and I think Altariel has put in all the necessary adaptations to make it work in Tolkien's world. The narrative was smooth, and at no point did I feel as though things were awkward or contrived. Crossovers in this fandom can be tricky, but Altariel pulls this crossover off beautifully.

Altariel deftly brought A Christmas Carol into the LOTR world without making it campy or too familiar. She has quite a talent.

When I read this the first time I did not realize this to be an adaptation of Dickens's Christmas Carol. I thought "what a strange ending". Now having reread it I recognize the similarities. Speech is very good as in all stories by Altariel. The Characters of Denethor and Faramir are well done. And the story line of "A Christmas Carol" is well adapted.

Altariel writes with precision, as always, and with a deft and certain hand at characterizing Faramir. First person is a difficult point of view for me, but Altariel has mastered it, and to great effect-her introspective narrative is amazing and never feels stale.

Altariel is another author whose review must suffer because of my memory. I loved her series about Faramir, which The Fire Sermon is part of. Altariel does a wonderful job, especially with his point of view. She's a wonderful writer, as evidenced by her now getting paid for such work! I wish I could say more.

Altariel really is a wonderful author. Especially when she writes Faramir. But no matter what it is she writes, she writes with grace and feeling and character. I knew her first from Trek fanfic, and she's just as brilliant there. TPTB must have thought so, too, as they've published her.

I think it is Altariel's unique gift to paint characters in moments. The people in Altariel's stories stay fairly true to whatever emotion they might be entertaining. Sufficient background is laid to understand the situation, and the characterization is always addressed so that we are aware of a character's other attributes, but the real story is told within the moment itself, and that's quite a talent. Because it is the moments that make up life, and Altariel reminds us of that fact with each story. In a moment of grief, Denethor would remember this. In a moment of admiration and possible defeat, Denethor would try to do this. In a moment of awkwardness, Faramir would behave like this. In a moment of despair, Faramir would say this. Altariel uses the moments to show men as they really were in Middle-earth, and they say far more about a character than almost anything else could. Moreover, this use of "moments" in storytelling ensures that the story never veers far from its intended course, making for exceptionally tight writing and good overall focus.

I envy Altariel her skill at winnowing away at words until only those necessary remain. She is indisputably the master of the concise turn of phrase and the tightly-scripted plot. Her insight and sympathy for the first family of Gondor are always evident, as is her love for Eliot (ok, maybe not always but often). As I mentioned before, she is the only author to date who has managed to convince me that Denethor could be an abusive spouse and father. It's an easy move to make, and I've seen some other authors make it in the quest for drama; the way to success, however, lies in respecting the hiddenness of this sort of relationship: it is always there, always informing the background of the Eliot-arc, and yet only rarely glimpsed and that indirectly, usually by report or a stray memory. There's a fine balance to be struck when dealing with something as complex as family violence, and she has managed to find it time and time again, and not only when dealing with that one interpretation of Denethor. Perhaps it is Altariel's self-confessed devotion to symmetry, evident in all she writes, that enables her to find it.

Best speech of all writers I know. Altariel is the writer whose words directly speak to my emotions. Her plots may be not as inventive as those of others but for me the speech is of primary importance. Her much applauded story "A game of chess" is not so much too my liking as it renders Faramir as shell-shocked, but nevertheless this is the story which induced me to write my first review in fandom. I remember I sat through the night reading this story really forgetting to look at the time. Afterwards coming back into reality I spent many hours in the following days thinking on this story and why it bothered me so much. No other fanfiction story had me musing as much. Many of her stories are part of my imaginary LotR Appendix G.