2006 Author Reviews for
Dawn Felagund

Her portrayal of the various F?anorians, and their interactions, is exquisite: psychologically insightful, multi-layered, believable. Her stories are rich in details, evocative, moving; the writing full of elegant imageries.

I discovered Dawn last year, when she just started to share her fan fic epic AMC with her livejournal friends. I had no idea what to expect from such a story title, but I started to read and soon this story became my treat to end a long workweek or a mere escape from other activities what I normally would seek in a good fantasy novel. As I reviewed this piece, we exchanged ideas, views, and experiences. It almost felt like a sort of homecoming and throughout posting AMC to her livejournal, Dawn became a good friend. Dawn?s writing is exquisite, thought provoking and exciting at the same time. Often you hear how good writers can paint a picture with their words for their readers: Dawn has a natural talent for it. Even though AMC might feel like a family epic, in her words and layers underneath, you can feel the drama underneath it. She writes her characters according to the age they represent, weaving in canon details in them, but those factoids do not dominate the work itself. It often surprises me that she gets commentary of fabricating fanon, while the base of her writing comes from the works of Tolkien himself. Another thing Dawn is quite good at is showing the reader the tragedy of the House of Finw? by writing her material between Black and White: even the ?good? characters are flawed in her works, which gives them a very human feeling. This especially shines through in Return to me, where the loyalty and love for a child makes even one of the mightiest Elven Lords doubt his course of actions. I am glad that I discovered Dawn\'s works!

Dawn really brings the First Age-elves to life. She takes these characters that to readers like me who have only read the Silm once or twice are little more than names, and really forms them into characters that I can feel the emotional weight of the situation. Her characters always jump off the page and seem very, very real to me, and more importantly make sense without an excessive amount of knowledge of the backstory.

Dawn Felagund writes the Feanorians with a compelling intimacy. Before I began reading her stories, there were several of the sons that I was at best ambivalent about, but I was soon brought around to caring about them as individuals. I love that Dawn focuses primarily on ordinary times, when life was peaceful or at least quiescent. Her desire to explore the psychology and complex interrelationships of this talented and proud family means that all of us have the opportunity to gain insight into their motivations. That she handles this difficult subject with apparent ease is testimony to her skill with both characterizations and atmosphere. Tiny details of life, worked in smoothly and never disrupting the story, lend depth and brilliance to the overall portrait. Dawn brings us into close relationship with the Feanorians, and helps us understand one interpretation that fleshes out what Tolkien was able to only sketch in part.

As far as I know, Dawn has only written a story featuring another race before. This was with the story ?Feanor\'s Mistake? where she wrote a light-hearted piece featuring Orome and one of the Feanorians. But with ?Choices of spirits?, she compares the fates of two kindred?s and explores the consequences of a romance with the emphasis on the experience of an immortal. Besides writing a good romance and mystery here, I can see how much effort she has taken in researching the race of Men and the time period they lived in. Dawn?s writing is simply beautiful, thought provoking and moving at the same time. Often you hear how good writers can paint a picture with their words for their readers: Dawn has a natural talent for it, but in this piece, she showed us the view of a character and stuck with it throughout the stories. This same feat is used in AMC as well, which gives us character pieces just as the story of Haleth and Caranthir gives us. What I often see in her works, is also repeated in this genre: she makes a daring choice for both her characters and forms a bridge between two creatures by creating a tale of legend at the same time. Dawn?s skill in world building in every work she writes is shining through in different gradations: she simply knows how to find a good balance with that. Dawn is a great all-round writer and with every work she shares with us, comes a new bit of insight in Tolkien?s world.

Dawn really brings the First Age-elves to life. She takes these characters that to readers like me who have only read the Silm once or twice are little more than names, and really forms them into characters that I can feel the emotional weight of the situation. Her characters always jump off the page and seem very, very real to me, and more importantly make sense without an excessive amount of knowledge of the backstory.

This delightful, unusual story is remarkable on several levels. First, the author has brilliantly told the story of a complicated family and their highly, exquisitely complicated, sometimes abrasive relationships encapsulated within one character?s thoughts and memories as he goes shopping for paper on which to write. The author?s skill in setting up the conflict in this story is remarkable. The thought progression as the protagonist walks and shops, reflecting upon the relationships he has with his family members?reminiscing about the dramatic disagreements that seem to fuel their daily lives?is very cleverly done. The characterizations shown here are excellent. The author uses wonderful imagery to create the mood and illustrate the protagonist?s thoughts. All of the descriptive details are beautiful in this story. From the visualizations of people and places, to the flights of fancy of the main character, the author is able to involve the reader completely in the story. There is an unexpected surprise at the end, which is a pure delight to discover, when our hero skips along the street smelling his fresh paper, and then bumps into a surprise character?the maiden who distracts the protagonist and causes him to drop his precious paper in the dirt. This remarkably funny and whimsical story was a sheer delight to read, being both humorous and wistful at the same time. It would brighten anyone?s day, with its brilliant descriptions, wonderful imagery and imaginative characterizations.

Dawn Felagund writes the Feanorians with a compelling intimacy. Before I began reading her stories, there were several of the sons that I was at best ambivalent about, but I was soon brought around to caring about them as individuals. I love that Dawn focuses primarily on ordinary times, when life was peaceful or at least quiescent. Her desire to explore the psychology and complex interrelationships of this talented and proud family means that all of us have the opportunity to gain insight into their motivations. That she handles this difficult subject with apparent ease is testimony to her skill with both characterizations and atmosphere. Tiny details of life, worked in smoothly and never disrupting the story, lend depth and brilliance to the overall portrait. Dawn brings us into close relationship with the Feanorians, and helps us understand one interpretation that fleshes out what Tolkien was able to only sketch in part.

Dawn knows how to write the F?anorians incredibly well. In her work ?Paper?, she shows us the family dynamics between the siblings, but also how a well-known character evaluates (with pride & attitude fitting to that House) his own role in it. ?Paper? is in that respect an excellent character piece, but is crafted so cleverly that you as a reader can decide for himself or herself what is real and what not. ?The Gift? or ?Salt? on the other hand shows us the sacrifices they brought in order to fulfil their sworn Oath. In ?Paper? Dawn uses such a clever writing technique to make the story full circle and I think every reader will have their own thoughts about it, thusly encouraging a lively debate between the reader and writer. But back to the F?anorians: I think Dawn does an awesome job in exploring in her works how they stood out from the other Elven races, but instead of showing their cruelties, Dawn shows the readers in which they excelled in and what contributions they had to the Valinorean society of which we actually know so little about, well besides LACE that is. Dawn has her favourite F?anorian, but I do think she can write every member of this house convincingly (although as Dawn sometimes admitted, they can be elusive too!), by most often treating the F?anorian fans to great character pieces. Thank you Dawn!

Dawn really brings the First Age-elves to life. She takes these characters that to readers like me who have only read the Silm once or twice are little more than names, and really forms them into characters that I can feel the emotional weight of the situation. Her characters always jump off the page and seem very, very real to me, and more importantly make sense without an excessive amount of knowledge of the backstory.

Dawn Felagund writes the Feanorians with a compelling intimacy. Before I began reading her stories, there were several of the sons that I was at best ambivalent about, but I was soon brought around to caring about them as individuals. I love that Dawn focuses primarily on ordinary times, when life was peaceful or at least quiescent. Her desire to explore the psychology and complex interrelationships of this talented and proud family means that all of us have the opportunity to gain insight into their motivations. That she handles this difficult subject with apparent ease is testimony to her skill with both characterizations and atmosphere. Tiny details of life, worked in smoothly and never disrupting the story, lend depth and brilliance to the overall portrait. Dawn brings us into close relationship with the Feanorians, and helps us understand one interpretation that fleshes out what Tolkien was able to only sketch in part.

Her portrayal of the various F?anorians, and their interactions, is exquisite: psychologically insightful, multi-layered, believable. Her stories are rich in details, evocative, moving; the writing full of elegant imageries.

I have been reading fics relating to the First Age and prior ever since I began reading Tolkien fanfiction. A number of my favorite fanfic writers write stories based on the Silmarillion, but I always read with a sense that the material was somewhat esoteric and less accessible than LOTR. I considered it to be an area of fanfiction where the bar has been nearly too high for general enjoyment. Dawn Felagund?s novel [Another Man?s Cage] turned my previous preconceptions on their head. She is able to popularize and humanize Silmarillion fiction to an extent that it becomes available to a far broader group of readers. In literary circles the concept of popularization is often used in a sense that is less than complimentary, which is not my intent. (I think of it more in terms of the way that Stephen J. Gould makes evolutionary theory available to the non-scientist, or Michael Shaara?s novel Killer Angels makes the history of the American Civil War live and breath.) This author has created a hauntingly beautiful epic of a year in the life of F?anor and his growing family. It is a compelling character-driven novel, which with meticulous care and compassion draws a vibrant portrait of F?anor, Nerdanel, and each of their first four sons. It is simultaneously wonderfully hilarious and yet always pendant with tragic foreshadowing. Chapter by chapter the story is relentlessly suspenseful despite the fact that we all know the end. The story rests on a grasp of historical and political this Age and the one to come. The analysis of culture differences among Teleri, Vanyar, and Noldor are thoughtful and done with humor. The physical descriptions of Tirion, Formenos and Alqualond? are exquisite. The story takes take small details of family life and make them enthralling, dramatic, and funny all at the same time. It is a complex, character-driven story that brings the period of the time of the trees to life to a degree I have not previously experienced. She sent me back to the original source with enthusiasm

The Silm and HOME are filled with so many details about the First Age and their events that it is sometimes very confusing to keep track of what happened when and where. Even more the works leave plenty of room to write gap-fillers, but the challenge is to keep it as close to Tolkien as possible while using the professor?s themes and ideas as well. This is not always that easy because there is a lot to remember let alone to interpret: but leave it up to Dawn to work this out in her works. ?The Gift? is full of symbolism and events that took place during this Era, and with her excellent writing skills, Dawn gives us a Felak-verse story. She leaves it in between what she truly thinks of her characters during these Era?s by solely exploring their motives and reasons to why they performed their deeds or not. I do think her story AMC is a great example of this because it covers so many facets of events, which took place before the First Age started. This all is presented to us with a breathtaking narrative of events and surroundings, in ?Return to me? for example this is an important aspect in the story to explore the motives of both Elves. Dawn?s skill in world building in every work she writes is shining through in different gradations: she simply knows how to find a good balance with that. Dawn is a great all-round First Age writer and with every work she shares with us, comes a new bit of insight in Tolkien?s ideas.

Dawn really brings the First Age-elves to life. She takes these characters that to readers like me who have only read the Silm once or twice are little more than names, and really forms them into characters that I can feel the emotional weight of the situation. Her characters always jump off the page and seem very, very real to me, and more importantly make sense without an excessive amount of knowledge of the backstory.