Yahoo Forum Archive

Author: Nesta · ID: 595 · Races: Men [73]: General
Reviewer: Dwimordene · 2006-11-17 00:19:20
Faramir fans, take notice--Nesta writes a wonderful Faramir, pensive,
sharp, dedicated, haunted. Excellent characterizations all around,
actually, and she can pack a lot into a short story. She also has an eye
for unusual perspectives, and writes them beautifully, probing
psychological weaknesses and strengths as she does so in a believable
and creative manner. Her ability to give a voice to the inanimate is
wonderful.

Her pacing is also very good--nice timing all around, and her ability to
manipulate the political aspect of her characters' situation is
intriguing. I will be looking forward to more stories from her.
-----------------------------------------
Author: Nesta · ID: 595 · Times: The Great Years [56]: General
Reviewer: Dwimordene · 2006-11-17 00:19:34
Faramir fans, take notice--Nesta writes a wonderful Faramir, pensive,
sharp, dedicated, haunted. Excellent characterizations all around,
actually, and she can pack a lot into a short story. She also has an eye
for unusual perspectives, and writes them beautifully, probing
psychological weaknesses and strengths as she does so in a believable
and creative manner. Her ability to give a voice to the inanimate is
wonderful.

Her pacing is also very good--nice timing all around, and her ability to
manipulate the political aspect of her characters' situation is
intriguing. I will be looking forward to more stories from her.
-----------------------------------------
Author: Nesta · ID: 595 · Times: Fourth Age and Beyond [31]: General
Reviewer: Dwimordene · 2006-11-17 00:19:50
Faramir fans, take notice--Nesta writes a wonderful Faramir, pensive,
sharp, dedicated, haunted. Excellent characterizations all around,
actually, and she can pack a lot into a short story. She also has an eye
for unusual perspectives, and writes them beautifully, probing
psychological weaknesses and strengths as she does so in a believable
and creative manner. Her ability to give a voice to the inanimate is
wonderful.

Her pacing is also very good--nice timing all around, and her ability to
manipulate the political aspect of her characters' situation is
intriguing. I will be looking forward to more stories from her.
-----------------------------------------
Author: Nancy Brooke · ID: 105 · Races: Hobbits [106]: Fixed-Length Ficlet
Reviewer: Dwimordene · 2006-11-17 00:20:04
Nancy Brooke writes tight, concise, and precise vignettes, juxtaposing
characters and emotions in illuminating ways. She knows how to make the
most of a moment, and how to condense into a moment characters as widely
separated in time and space as Earnur and Baldor. Thoughtful work, Nancy
is able to take advantage of the calmer moments, and she writes a
variety of characters.
-----------------------------------------
Author: Nancy Brooke · ID: 105 · Races: Men [73]: Fixed-Length Ficlet
Reviewer: Dwimordene · 2006-11-17 00:20:18
Nancy Brooke writes tight, concise, and precise vignettes, juxtaposing
characters and emotions in illuminating ways. She knows how to make the
most of a moment, and how to condense into a moment characters as widely
separated in time and space as Earnur and Baldor. Thoughtful work, Nancy
is able to take advantage of the calmer moments, and she writes a
variety of characters.
-----------------------------------------
Author: Nancy Brooke · ID: 105 · Times: Late Third Age [26]: General
Reviewer: Dwimordene · 2006-11-17 00:20:33
Nancy Brooke writes tight, concise, and precise vignettes, juxtaposing
characters and emotions in illuminating ways. She knows how to make the
most of a moment, and how to condense into a moment characters as widely
separated in time and space as Earnur and Baldor. Thoughtful work, Nancy
is able to take advantage of the calmer moments, and she writes a
variety of characters.
-----------------------------------------
Author: Raihon · ID: 675 · Genres: Romance [51]: General
Reviewer: Dwimordene · 2006-11-17 00:20:47
Good slash is hard to find, so Raihon gets my thanks from one slasher to
another. She finds a way to use what's actually written to plumb what
could lie silent in the story, and in so doing convinces the reader that
that sub-textual view is plausible, fits the story as told, and can
actually explain the movement of the original story, and not simply
isolated segments of it.

Her characterization is very good--her Beleg has his own voice and
sounds plausibly elvish. She writes conflicted love well, without
descending into overdone sentimentality. Motivations make sense; they
match up with events and the personalities we are given in Tolkien's
story. The pacing may be a bit rough, but still--her work is recommended.
-----------------------------------------
Author: Rabidsamfan · ID: 380 · Times: The Great Years [56]:
Fixed-Length Ficlet
Reviewer: Dwimordene · 2006-11-17 00:21:00
Rabidsamfan delves into our favorite characters and fleshes them out
thoughtfully. She has the gift of writing voices suited to age and
experience, so that each character has his or her own way of speaking
and acting; there's nothing generic here. Whether she has wizards under
her fanfictional microscope or hobbits, there's no mistaking one
character for another.

She can also write to a variety of constraints--her drabbles are
wonderful, for she is able to condense a lot into that one hundred word
moment, and her language is both elegant and spare (of necessity). But
she can also take the time to develop the situation in longer stories,
and she does so with care. Her work is definitely recommended!
-----------------------------------------
Author: Rabidsamfan · ID: 380 · Genres: Drama [107]: Fixed-Length Ficlet
Reviewer: Dwimordene · 2006-11-17 00:21:15
Rabidsamfan delves into our favorite characters and fleshes them out
thoughtfully. She has the gift of writing voices suited to age and
experience, so that each character has his or her own way of speaking
and acting; there's nothing generic here. Whether she has wizards under
her fanfictional microscope or hobbits, there's no mistaking one
character for another.

She can also write to a variety of constraints--her drabbles are
wonderful, for she is able to condense a lot into that one hundred word
moment, and her language is both elegant and spare (of necessity). But
she can also take the time to develop the situation in longer stories,
and she does so with care. Her work is definitely recommended!
-----------------------------------------
Author: Rabidsamfan · ID: 380 · Genres: Drama [107]: General
Reviewer: Dwimordene · 2006-11-17 00:21:28
Rabidsamfan delves into our favorite characters and fleshes them out
thoughtfully. She has the gift of writing voices suited to age and
experience, so that each character has his or her own way of speaking
and acting; there's nothing generic here. Whether she has wizards under
her fanfictional microscope or hobbits, there's no mistaking one
character for another.

She can also write to a variety of constraints--her drabbles are
wonderful, for she is able to condense a lot into that one hundred word
moment, and her language is both elegant and spare (of necessity). But
she can also take the time to develop the situation in longer stories,
and she does so with care. Her work is definitely recommended!
-----------------------------------------
Author: Pipwise Brandygin · ID: 387 · Races: Hobbits [106]: General
Reviewer: Dwimordene · 2006-11-17 00:21:44
Pipwise writes a lovely gapfiller, with believable, sensitive
characterization. The story flows, there are no holes or breaks that
suggest anything is missing or less than well thought out.
-----------------------------------------
Author: Soledad · ID: 206 · Races: Men [73]: General
Reviewer: Dwimordene · 2006-11-17 00:22:00
I am envious of authors who can so fully develop their own world within
Tolkien's, and blend the seams in so neatly you can scarcely tell they
exist. Soledad is one of those authors, and her work demonstrates her
skill in creating vivid, highly detailed portraits of characters, in all
their complexity and concreteness, their differences and their class and
ethnic roots. She gives them all unique voices, which seem appropriate
to their ages and the backgrounds she sketches. And she does it all in
so short a space!

Soledad manages to keep an essentially episodic set of ficlets
together--she's mastered the strategy of creating separate storylines
that intersect at places, but go their own way, and which are held
together only by a theme or a single, anticipated event which serves to
foreground these stories which otherwise would not be easily held
together. If you enjoy original world-building that sheds interesting
light on the ethnic and sidelined communities of Middle-earth, try her work.
-----------------------------------------
Author: Salsify · ID: 314 · Times: The Great Years [56]: General
Reviewer: Dwimordene · 2006-11-17 00:22:25
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.
-----------------------------------------
Author: Salsify · ID: 314 · Races: Dwarves [12]: General
Reviewer: Dwimordene · 2006-11-17 00:22:40
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.
-----------------------------------------
Author: Ribby · ID: 613 · Genres: Alternate Universe [22]: General
Reviewer: Dwimordene · 2006-11-17 00:22:57
Ribby takes advantage of the alternate universe scenario in remarkably
short space. To encapsulate and contain a change that would, if followed
up, likely make a huge difference in the outcome of the Ring War takes
skill, and Ribby demonstrates she knows how to fit an event into the
confines of a drabble or short story. She recognizes the utility of
suspense, and of evocation, and focuses her attention accordingly on
setting up a portrait that will evoke in the reader the dread and
projection of disaster that should logically follow from the changes she
introduces.
-----------------------------------------
Author: Ribby · ID: 613 · Times: The Great Years [56]: Fixed-Length Ficlet
Reviewer: Dwimordene · 2006-11-17 00:23:13
Ribby takes advantage of the alternate universe scenario in remarkably
short space. To encapsulate and contain a change that would, if followed
up, likely make a huge difference in the outcome of the Ring War takes
skill, and Ribby demonstrates she knows how to fit an event into the
confines of a drabble or short story. She recognizes the utility of
suspense, and of evocation, and focuses her attention accordingly on
setting up a portrait that will evoke in the reader the dread and
projection of disaster that should logically follow from the changes she
introduces.
-----------------------------------------
Author: Raksha the Demon · ID: 178 · Times: Fourth Age and Beyond [31]:
General
Reviewer: Dwimordene · 2006-11-17 00:23:26
Raksha is an unapologetic Faramirist, and she brings him to life in a
variety of situations. She also writes a number of other characters well
and often with good humor. But Gondor is certainly her home field, and
she gives a number of portraits of Faramir, interacting with other
characters, in a variety of moods and situations.
-----------------------------------------
Author: Raksha the Demon · ID: 178 · Genres: Humor [50]: General
Reviewer: Dwimordene · 2006-11-17 00:23:41
Raksha is an unapologetic Faramirist, and she brings him to life in a
variety of situations. She also writes a number of other characters well
and often with good humor. But Gondor is certainly her home field, and
she gives a number of portraits of Faramir, interacting with other
characters, in a variety of moods and situations.
-----------------------------------------
Author: Raksha the Demon · ID: 178 · Times: First Age and Prior [23]:
Fixed-Length Ficlet
Reviewer: Dwimordene · 2006-11-17 00:23:59
Raksha is an unapologetic Faramirist, and she brings him to life in a
variety of situations. She also writes a number of other characters well
and often with good humor. But Gondor is certainly her home field, and
she gives a number of portraits of Faramir, interacting with other
characters, in a variety of moods and situations.
-----------------------------------------
Author: Raksha the Demon · ID: 178 · Races: Cross-Cultural [28]: General
Reviewer: Dwimordene · 2006-11-17 00:24:16
Raksha is an unapologetic Faramirist, and she brings him to life in a
variety of situations. She also writes a number of other characters well
and often with good humor. But Gondor is certainly her home field, and
she gives a number of portraits of Faramir, interacting with other
characters, in a variety of moods and situations.
-----------------------------------------
Author: Raksha the Demon · ID: 178 · Times: The Great Years [56]: General
Reviewer: Dwimordene · 2006-11-17 00:24:30
Raksha is an unapologetic Faramirist, and she brings him to life in a
variety of situations. She also writes a number of other characters well
and often with good humor. But Gondor is certainly her home field, and
she gives a number of portraits of Faramir, interacting with other
characters, in a variety of moods and situations.
-----------------------------------------
Author: Raksha the Demon · ID: 178 · Races: Men [73]: Fixed-Length Ficlet
Reviewer: Dwimordene · 2006-11-17 00:24:45
Raksha is an unapologetic Faramirist, and she brings him to life in a
variety of situations. She also writes a number of other characters well
and often with good humor. But Gondor is certainly her home field, and
she gives a number of portraits of Faramir, interacting with other
characters, in a variety of moods and situations.
-----------------------------------------
Author: Thevina Finduilas · ID: 87 · Races: Men [73]: General
Reviewer: Dwimordene · 2006-11-17 00:25:07
Thevina Finduilas does an excellent job of opening up the world of the
Dwarves. In particular, she does fine work with Gimli. Poor Gimli does
not have enough writers, period, and certainly not enough who can really
do justice to him. Thevina can, and so throws a strange but welcome
light on more familiar parts of the story. She also writes Gimli across
the het/slash divide and does good work to make him credible either way;
I appreciate that sort of flexibility when working with
characterization. I also appreciate her ability to write characters of
vastly different background interacting and feeling strange to each other.

In addition to Dwarves in general and Gimli in particular, Thev also
writes Denethor, Halbarad, Rohirrim, and does an excellent job setting
the scenes, so that the characters have a world to act in. Good job,
Thevina!
-----------------------------------------
Author: Thevina Finduilas · ID: 87 · Races: Dwarves [12]: General
Reviewer: Dwimordene · 2006-11-17 00:25:25
Thevina Finduilas does an excellent job of opening up the world of the
Dwarves. In particular, she does fine work with Gimli. Poor Gimli does
not have enough writers, period, and certainly not enough who can really
do justice to him. Thevina can, and so throws a strange but welcome
light on more familiar parts of the story. She also writes Gimli across
the het/slash divide and does good work to make him credible either way;
I appreciate that sort of flexibility when working with
characterization. I also appreciate her ability to write characters of
vastly different background interacting and feeling strange to each other.

In addition to Dwarves in general and Gimli in particular, Thev also
writes Denethor, Halbarad, Rohirrim, and does an excellent job setting
the scenes, so that the characters have a world to act in. Good job,
Thevina!
-----------------------------------------
Author: Thevina Finduilas · ID: 87 · Races: Cross-Cultural [28]: General
Reviewer: Dwimordene · 2006-11-17 00:25:39
Thevina Finduilas does an excellent job of opening up the world of the
Dwarves. In particular, she does fine work with Gimli. Poor Gimli does
not have enough writers, period, and certainly not enough who can really
do justice to him. Thevina can, and so throws a strange but welcome
light on more familiar parts of the story. She also writes Gimli across
the het/slash divide and does good work to make him credible either way;
I appreciate that sort of flexibility when working with
characterization. I also appreciate her ability to write characters of
vastly different background interacting and feeling strange to each other.

In addition to Dwarves in general and Gimli in particular, Thev also
writes Denethor, Halbarad, Rohirrim, and does an excellent job setting
the scenes, so that the characters have a world to act in. Good job,
Thevina!
-----------------------------------------