2004 Author Reviews for
Fileg

Powzie writes both poetry and prose, and in each case there's something wonderfully fluid about her style. There's a sense of quiet, too, that is most appealing particularly as a sort of counterpoint to Faramir's canonical story arc.

Fileg has an amazing ability to write the very quiet moments. It takes a very delicate and deft touch to make these moments both subtle and meaningful, and Fileg has such a touch in spades. Fileg doesn't focus just on the character or characters but includes scenery, time, place, and other elements in equal amounts. The result is a very balanced, refreshing take on various issues that are shaped as much by the people as by the setting. Everything feeds into the stories' stillness, and it makes the tales dynamic without losing the stillness that I have really come to enjoy.

Fileg is a poet, true, but he/she (gender questions again) can also write stories and you can feel the poetry within them, even when they don't contain a poem.

Evocative stories. Finely crafted in words and story lines. "As Truly as the Arrow Flies" is the precursor of "River of fallen stars". Both stories use the Gondorian constellations Archer who defends and who hunts to support a family and the Swordsman (aka Orion) who defends Arda from the dark to evoke Faramir (archer) and Boromir (swordsman). Very haunting is the last paragraph in "River of fallen stars" where the picture of the Swordsman below the waterline reaches for the Archer who has a foot below the water but who managed through the years to somehow keep his head above water. /r"Breathe" takes up the brothers' relation in connection with the Anduin, while "All of Them Together" only hints at the very end on the yet unborn brother Faramir. Very beautiful poem describing aspects of Boromir and Thorongil. Both learned this special nursery rhyme from their father, Boromir remembers it well and Thorongil only vaguely grasps this memory. All stories complement LotR.

I'm insanely jealous of Fileg's ability to pull off the more difficult and structured forms of poetry, such as the villanelle. The rhythm and meter are maintained throughout the poem (very appropriate, given Denethor's formal nature), the choice of line one and line three were very good, and the lines woven in to support these ideas were equally good. Fileg makes a very natural progression of thought and character from beginning to end, and that's difficult to do, especially when your last two lines are identical to your first and third line.

Fileg has a hand for poetry. The rhymes and rhythms work and I could see the pattern in the stanzas without it taking away from what the poetry was saying.

Poetry is a difficult genre to master, but Fileg seems to have absolutely no difficulties with the two poems featured here. The terzanelle, in particular, astounded me as it's something that has forever eluded me. But Fileg pulled it off and gave it one of the best and most appropriate subjects for that style of poetry. Knowledge of the poem's requirements and constraints was evident, and the advantages that the poem's style offered were used to their fullest. Given a freer structure, Fileg still maintained an even, steady meter that fit like a hand in a glove, and together they formed the basis for something I could envision as a lullaby or a favorite nursery rhyme, either one. (Who says all lullabies are cheerful? Remember the one about cradles and tree tops?) Anyway, I'm astounded at Fileg's ability to manipulate poetry and use it to accentuate the chosen topics. Wonderful reads!

And another author with a talent for verse, among other forms. Home By Morning is probably my favorite, but I have enjoyed many others; fileg is never afraid to try another form, it seems, and we all reap the benefits of her word-play.

Fileg outdoes herself in this fic-what a great way to write an orc! And what a scathing review of the Elves, that takes their virtues and turns them into vices, while transforming them into "pig-iron" that precedes the perfection of orcish steel. The Silmarillion does well to showcase the hubris of the Noldor and other elvish "mistakes", yet fileg goes a step further and gives us an eloquent critique from the mouth of corruption. A very fitting commentary indeed.

I think it might be hard to characterize an Orc and really show why they hate all that is beautiful. Fileg did a good job and followed the old tenet that beauty is in the eye of the beholder.