Yahoo Forum Archive

*blush* I completely forgot to post these the last few days. Will try
to be more consistent.

Title: Rest and Recreation · Author: Raksha the Demon · Races:
Cross-Cultural · ID: 700
Reviewer: stefaniab · 2006-06-16 22:37:34 Score: 6
Admin Edit Review
Boromir experiences unexpected cross-cultural "enlightenment" while in
engaging in what he considers "rest and recreation" before setting out
with the members of the Fellowship of the Ring. Raksha's depiction of
the Captain General of Gondor is written in the first person, with all
the appropriate arrogance and naivety that you'd expect from Book
Boromir. It's a great character study and has a wonderful "twist" at
the end, where the doughty protagnist has an "aha" moment that I'm not
about to divulge. I also think readers will enjoy the brief look that
Raksha gives us at a minor, but well-loved character who did not
receive much attention from Tolkien. To say any more would tell you
too much about this tale.
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Title: The Dancing Master · Author: Flick · Races: Men: Vignette · ID: 323
Reviewer: stefaniab · 2006-06-16 22:38:53 Score: 2
Admin Edit Review
A poignant tale with good characterization and a nice twist at the
end. I especially liked Faramir's final words to Eowyn in the closing
sentence.
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Title: Gaiety in Gondor · Author: Raksha the Demon · Genres: Humor:
Fixed-Length Ficlet · ID: 563
Reviewer: Nesta · 2006-06-19 11:25:31 Score: 3
Admin Edit Review
I simply loathe slash and would normally run a mile from anything with
this title, but with Raksha it's different. It's very good-humoured,
deliciously funny and leaves Faramir and Aragorn with their dignity
intact (though their coronets may be a little askew). As for Pongohil
- Pongohil for president. say I!


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Title: Call To Arms · Author: Space Weavil · Genres: Humor:
Fixed-Length Ficlet · ID: 857
Reviewer: Nesta · 2006-06-19 11:31:22 Score: 3
Admin Edit Review
How I laughed!!!

Thanks for enlivening a dull morning, SpaceWeavil. Now, every time I
watch the Horsemen storming out of the gates in the movie, I shall
wonder how Khamul's infection is getting on, and is it giving him hell...
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Title: The Will · Author: LydiaB · Times: Fourth Age and Beyond:
Fixed-Length Ficlet · ID: 770
Reviewer: Linda Hoyland · 2006-06-22 06:17:38 Score: 2
Admin Edit Review
An unusual and unique drable suggesting how Tolkien may have been
inspired to write his masterpiece.What if it truly were history and
not an invention of his mind?
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Title: Roots and Branches · Author: Raksha the Demon · Races: Men:
Other Fixed-Length Ficlets · ID: 611
Reviewer: Nesta · 2006-06-23 13:18:18 Score: 3
Admin Edit Review
I don't quite go along with the picture of Faramir in this drabble
because I don't personally think he has anything to apologise for.
However, this is a neatly constructed little story, and the way Sam
demonstrates his point of view is right for him, and very memorable.
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Title: Seeker of Shadow · Author: Raksha the Demon · Genres: Romance:
Fixed-length ficlet · ID: 63
Reviewer: Nesta · 2006-06-23 13:23:46 Score: 3
Admin Edit Review
A fascinating glimpse of two of JRRT's most fascinating characters.
(Moral: never ride out alone without telling your family where you're
going, and don't forget to take your mobile.)

I like the poetry, except for the white-hot stars ... well, they are
white-hot, I know, but they don't look it from M.E. (Symbolic, maybe).
Only a quibble.
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Title: The Tracks of Time · Author: Raksha the Demon · Races: Elves:
Fixed-Length Ficlet Featuring Legolas or Thranduil · ID: 60
Reviewer: Nesta · 2006-06-23 13:30:40 Score: 4
Admin Edit Review
This is beautifully written and very moving. It touches on that old,
old theme of the immortal who is brought agonisingly up against the
fact of others' mortality, and finds that 'the loss and the silence'
aren't all on the mortal side.

It makes me wonder if that isn't one reason why Elves and Men in the
Third Age tend to avoid one another, perhaps rightly. When mortal
meets immortal the result is always going to be heartbreak for somebody.

On the everyday level, it's a little like what dog-lovers feel: why do
their lives have to be so short?
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Title: Legend · Author: Raksha the Demon · Times: Fourth Age and
Beyond: Gondor · ID: 933
Reviewer: Nesta · 2006-06-23 13:35:16 Score: 3
Admin Edit Review
This is one of the most touching and convincing portrayals of Eowyn
I've ever read. Much more than an Amazon, this is a real woman. The
ending is very true and touching.

As for young, impudent Barahir maybe not being like her .. well, it's
always hard to see yourself as others see you!
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Title: The Household Accounts · Author: Branwyn · Genres: Drama:
Gondor Fixed-Length Ficlet · ID: 50
Reviewer: stefaniab · 2006-06-24 00:37:01 Score: 2
Admin Edit Review
Good mood piece that was nicely written. However, I thought it ended
abruptly. I expected a different end.
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Title: Show his quality · Author: Tanaqui · Races: Men: Steward's Sons
Fixed-Length Ficlets · ID: 875
Reviewer: Nesta · 2006-06-25 10:39:43 Score: 3
Admin Edit Review
It's neat, but it smells of movie Faramir to me. There's nothing ITB
to consider he was anything other than a highly competent military
man! I can't speak to his cooking skills though.
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Title: A Change In The Weather · Author: Marigold · Races: Hobbits:
Fixed-Length Ficlet series · ID: 692
Reviewer: Nesta · 2006-06-26 08:30:47 Score: 3
Admin Edit Review
This is a beautiful quarter that perfectly captures the character of
each of the hobbits, in a way that JRRT would surely have approved.
The difference between the safe, homely Shire and the dangerousness of
the world outside is encapsulated in just a few words.
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Title: Childhood Dreams · Author: Acacea · Genres: Drama: Gondor
Fixed-Length Ficlet · ID: 523
Reviewer: Nesta · 2006-06-26 08:33:12 Score: 3
Admin Edit Review
An unusual and fascinating line on the two brothers.

Is the corollary that Boromir is like a river? Interesting idea. I'd
have thought he was more like a horse - proud, noble, willing, but not
too bright and needing guidance from a wiser hand...
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Title: Fair Trade · Author: Tanaqui · Races: Men: Steward's Sons
Fixed-Length Ficlets · ID: 900
Reviewer: Nesta · 2006-06-27 09:56:54 Score: 3
Admin Edit Review
That's a nice way to show how someone like Faramir could capture men's
devotion, but I'm not 100% sure he'd go for it. In TT he is clearly
treated with distinction, and I think the men would expect this in
such a hierarchical society. They seem to love Faramir for what he is,
not what he does.
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Title: Jewels · Author: Gandalfs apprentice · Genres: Romance:
Fixed-length ficlet · ID: 790
Reviewer: Nesta · 2006-06-27 09:58:35 Score: 2
Admin Edit Review
Yum yum, I bet it was a night and a half.

One thing though - I reckong riding barefoot would be highly
uncomfortable, even if you didn't use stirrups!
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Title: Divinity · Author: illyria-pffyffin · Races: Hobbits · ID: 824
Reviewer: Cuthalion · 2006-06-27 11:51:50 Score: 6
Admin Edit Review
This is one of the most remarkable tales I've ever seen. Illyria takes
scenes from the Ringbearer's quest and shows them in a completely new
light - through the eyes of the Valar. What we get so see are
exquisite miniatures of divine intervention... or not, even if the
Valar would most likely try to interfere. As Manwë does, who turns to
Ilúvatar, questioning the righteousness of seemingly detached waiting
and watching:

"How will they fend themselves against so terrible a foe? Are we to
keep apart from their suffering and do nothing to spare them the
malice and deceit of the Enemy?"

This is moving, it is stunningly beautiful and written with a
excellent use of words and imagery... and with a deep understanding of
Tolkien's thoughts and beliefs that touch the reader's heart. Illyria
has written many great tales, but this is outstanding among her
oeuvre, and worthy of praise.
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Title: The Price of Power · Author: Rabidsamfan · Times: The Great
Years: General Fixed-Length Ficlets · ID: 989
Reviewer: Cuthalion · 2006-06-27 21:36:21 Score: 6
Admin Edit Review
This surprising drabble was written by someone I call the "Mistress of
Drabbles", and righteously so. To draw the reader into a plot, to get
the whole idea going and to bring it to a satisfying end with nothing
more than 100 words is a special, difficult art, and Rabidsamfan is
brilliant. In "The Price of Power" we are granted an astonishing
insight into Saruman's thoughts. He gives the order to tear the trees
around Osgiliath down, and he has known their voices and now hears
their screams as they are dying. To know that he has been "the
greatest and wisest member of our order" (as Gandalf put it), and that
his enormous greed for power overcomes and horribly corrupts the
wisdom of ages, is painfully to read and incredibly clever. Absolutely
wonderful. MORE!
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Title: Memorabilia and Other Useful Things · Author: Illwynd · Times:
The Great Years: The Fellowship · ID: 714
Reviewer: Nancy Brooke · 2006-06-28 14:54:04 Score: 3
Admin Edit Review
This is very sweet. It's nice to think of Pippin as being so
sentimental, and stopping to think about where he is in the middle of
the journey and about it looking back when any journey is through.
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Title: Flotsam · Author: Salsify · Times: The Great Years: Vignette ·
ID: 85
Reviewer: Nancy Brooke · 2006-06-28 15:00:33 Score: 3
Admin Edit Review
Very good. It's wonderful to see the thoughtful and reflective Merry,
talking himself around his troubled heart. I particularly like that he
doesnt' resolve his conflict, there is no neat and tidy ending here,
because the fact and his feelings remain, as they should do.
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Title: The Remains of Power · Author: Pearl Took · Times: The Great
Years: Vignette · ID: 228
Reviewer: Nancy Brooke · 2006-06-28 15:06:10 Score: 3
Admin Edit Review
This has some wonderfully insightful moments - that time is Saruman's
greatest weapon, that idea of his having no colour and therefore being
adaptable and easily hidden, not to mention the indifference of ducks!
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Title: Birnam Wood · Author: Inkling · Times: Fourth Age and Beyond ·
ID: 917
Reviewer: Raksha the Demon · 2006-06-29 07:52:17 Score: 4
Admin Edit Review
Oho! Birname Wood really did come to Dunsinane, and it came hungry and
angry. With Treebeard!

Excellent crossover with Macbeth; and wonderful characterisation of
the old Ent. The remembered encounter of boy and Ent, with references
to the long-gone Merry and Pippin, was poignant and very believable.

Let's hope Treebeard is still out there in the Wood, having a good snooze.
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Title: Make It One For Paladin · Author: Marta · Races: Hobbits:
Post-Sauron's Fall · ID: 48
Reviewer: Raksha the Demon · 2006-06-29 07:54:18 Score: 5
Admin Edit Review
A sad, sobering look at the life of Robin Smallburrow, the hobbit who
supported Lotho, and then Saruman's, takeover of the Shire.

What's particularly noteworthy (aside from the excellent use of song)
is the characterisation of Robin as a collaborator - he is not evil or
monstrous, just caught up in a sinister force that he was too weak to
flee or resist. He regrets what he did, when he's not blaming others
for it. The admiration of others for the brave hobbits who did resist,
some of whom Robin stood by and watched die without protest, only
exacerbates his guilt.

A well-written vignette on a character that I doubt has seen much use
in fanfiction except in a minor role.
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Title: The Shield-maid's Dance of Death · Author: Marta · Times: The
Great Years: Poetry · ID: 694
Reviewer: Raksha the Demon · 2006-06-29 08:14:37 Score: 6
Admin Edit Review
I don't know much about poetry, lays, battle-rhymes, etc., but this
piece really sounds like a rousing Rohirric war-chant to me. There's a
fire and passion in it, even on the brink of death, or maybe because
Eowyn stands on that very brink of death. Tolkien mentions that she
laughed, so I think she did feel a rush of adrenalin, of sudden nervy
courage to sustain her and take her suddenly beyond all fear when she
needed most to be strong. I also see an appealing sense of purpose, of
destiny in the song; Eowyn knows she is challenging a deathless demon
to perform this dance of death.

A very stirring Tolkien poem with a compelling rhythm. My only quibble
is that I wish the print were darker and larger on the page where
you've archived the song.


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Title: 17 Cunning Corsairs · Author: stefaniab · Genres: Humor:
Fixed-Length Ficlet · ID: 244
Reviewer: Nesta · 2006-06-29 09:33:50 Score: 3
Admin Edit Review
Bravo! I like to think that Lothiriel was a girl with a lively
imagination. (Reminds me of the maid in 'Beau Sabreur' who was always
sighing 'Sheiks'! and was eventually carried off by one, only he
turned out to be a solid American citizen in disguise.)
Was the Queen of the Corsairs pleased with her King of Rohan, or did
she always wish he'd been a hairy pirate?
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Title: Web of Friendship · Author: Gwynnyd · Races: Hobbits: General
Fixed-Length Ficlet · ID: 932
Reviewer: Nesta · 2006-06-29 09:36:05 Score: 3
Admin Edit Review
That's really sweet. I love the idea of little Elanor showing the
other maidens what to do. It must be hard to get an artistic result by
this whipcord method, until you're really good at it!
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