2006 Author Reviews for
Salsify

Salsify excels at finding the side views, the marginalized voices in the story, and exploiting them to cast a new light on the whole. She has in the past done a sensitive piece on the motivations of Eowyn in riding to war and in so doing highlighted a form of gendered schizophrenia where Eowyn (or really, any woman in Middle-earth) is concerned. This year, her stories center on the experience of Dwarves and on the question of innocence in war, mediated through Merry\'s observations on drowned orc children. In each of these cases, Salsify demonstrates her ability to characterize well: the voices of the characters seem authentic, and appropriate to their race, their ages, the history of their people and their own experience. She dips into the details of Tolkien\'s work, picking up on the mechanistic side of the Enemy\'s warfare, for example, which ends up integrating those portions of Tolkien\'s work more fully into our own experience of the text, which might otherwise overlook these parts or else be overwhelmed by more obvious features. And of course, I love an author who can raise an interesting point of ethical debate within a text, which Salsify does. Give her work a try if you want careful, sensitive, reflective pieces. Her stories are well worth the read.

With most of the authors I have reviewed, on reflecting on just what it is I like about their writing, I am able to identify one or two traits that really shine in all of their piece. Yet with Salsify, it\'s not like that somehow. Her writing has her strengths, but each piece I read seems to shine in a different way. \"Gundabad\" shows her ability to take an obscure canon factoid or quote and spin it into a full story. I\'m not talking about just writing a good gap-filler, but instead following something Tolkien wrote to its full conclusion. It\'s a remarkable skill and really develops the idea that the Red Book and Bilbo\'s Translations from the Elvish were supposed to be historical remnants of our past. \"Flotsam\" is remarkable for a different reason, the emotional impact it brings in such a minimalist ways -- it actually left me physically shaking. These different strengths just hint at a very dynamic writer. Salsify\'s tales always affect me strongly and each is a gem in its own way.

Salsify excels at finding the side views, the marginalized voices in the story, and exploiting them to cast a new light on the whole. She has in the past done a sensitive piece on the motivations of Eowyn in riding to war and in so doing highlighted a form of gendered schizophrenia where Eowyn (or really, any woman in Middle-earth) is concerned. This year, her stories center on the experience of Dwarves and on the question of innocence in war, mediated through Merry\'s observations on drowned orc children. In each of these cases, Salsify demonstrates her ability to characterize well: the voices of the characters seem authentic, and appropriate to their race, their ages, the history of their people and their own experience. She dips into the details of Tolkien\'s work, picking up on the mechanistic side of the Enemy\'s warfare, for example, which ends up integrating those portions of Tolkien\'s work more fully into our own experience of the text, which might otherwise overlook these parts or else be overwhelmed by more obvious features. And of course, I love an author who can raise an interesting point of ethical debate within a text, which Salsify does. Give her work a try if you want careful, sensitive, reflective pieces. Her stories are well worth the read.

Salsify has a gift for coming up with inventive plots, and the ability to really get into the heads of her characters.