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Title: Come Back to Me (Drabble) · Author: Marta · Times: Fourth Age
and Beyond: Drabble · ID: 538
Reviewer: Marigold · 2007-10-08 17:47:43
What struck me most about this drabble was the sad realisation that
Men had apparantly forgotten the debt that they owed to the Ents.
Perhaps their existence was once more thought to be a children's tale,
or worse that they were discounted altogether as being beneath Man's
notice as thinking beings.

A very good sense of the passing of many long years!

Title: Celebration · Author: Tanaqui · Times: Fourth Age and Beyond:
Drabble · ID: 139
Reviewer: Marigold · 2007-10-08 17:53:42
Days like this are what Faramir fought for for so long and had to
doubt would ever come. I felt that was the reason he didn't join in
the contests - he found his enjoyment in watching his people at rest
and play.

I also liked Eowyn's involvement - she has obviously found her place
in the world and seems content.

Title: Aftershocks · Author: Gwynnyd · Times: Second Age: Drabble ·
ID: 504
Reviewer: Marigold · 2007-10-08 17:58:17
An interesting idea and very vividly written. I could imagine the
Lord's surprise months later at hearing Elendil's news.

Title: Coda · Author: Imhiriel · Times: Second Age: Drabble · ID: 627
Reviewer: Marigold · 2007-10-08 18:01:45
The death of such a book is heartrending and the descriptions are very
vivid. A different sort of subject matter, very well executed.

Title: Mentor · Author: Nessime · Times: Second Age: Drabble · ID: 653
Reviewer: Marigold · 2007-10-08 18:04:12
Sad that the hearts and minds of the Numenorean's were so easily
swayed. Well done.

Title: Endings and Beginnings · Author: Tanaqui · Times: Second Age:
Drabble · ID: 726
Reviewer: Marigold · 2007-10-08 18:06:26
Really interesting crossover and quite believable!

Title: For All Things a Cost · Author: Súlriel · Times: Second Age:
Drabble · ID: 268
Reviewer: Marigold · 2007-10-08 18:12:37
I've often wondered about how orcs were raised. This drabble really
made me think. It would seem obvious that any female would be
nurturing to their offspring, at least to a point, in order that they
would survive. But in orcish culture how far can that nurturing go
before it makes the offspring weak in some way contary to its
surroundings?

An interesting idea, written very well.

Title: Iron to Iron · Author: mrkinch · Times: Second Age: Drabble ·
ID: 662
Reviewer: Marigold · 2007-10-08 18:14:23
Wonderfully original pov! I liked this very much!

Title: Behind Every Great Man... · Author: annmarwalk · Times: Mid
Third Age: 2851 - 3017 TA: Drabble · ID: 52
Reviewer: Marigold · 2007-10-08 18:19:59
I really enjoyed that this was all in dialogue - very fitting for this
piece. I thought the characterisations were very good and actually
liked Denthor here! His servant was the perfect gentleman's gentleman!

Title: The Tolkienian War on Science · Author: Doc Bushwell · Genres:
Non-Fiction · ID: 444
Reviewer: Oshun · 2007-10-08 20:06:37
I very much appreciated this essay, because it managed to explain in
an intelligent manner some of the concepts that I had been bandying
around and annoying others with for the past year and half or so.
Crudely put that the Valar weren't exactly nature's noblemen, that the
Noldor were punished in fairly hideous and incidious ways for
defending themselves, and, hey, what's a little kinslaying in the
context of world history -- OK, all right, in my exaggeration and
hasty emotionalism, I go way too far and come across too stident (not
to mention inarticulate), that is when I try to point to this article
and Doc Bushwell and say "That is what I really meant to say!"

I also read The Lord of the Rings in 1968, but I greatly appreciated
Tolkien's anti-science, return-to-nature bias (it was during the
period when I was ranting about the "military-industrial complex" and
agitating for organic vegetables as a political statement). I also had
the history of hailing from a blighted coal-mining area, which
supported both stip mining and underground mining. I had some idea of
what the Shire could look like after the bad guys won. Time passes and
one gains life experience. The mines are around my childhood home have
long closed. The strip pits have been filled with water and stocked
with bass and the hills are green and wooded once more--OK, the
poverty is appalling, the unemployment rate obscene, but the landscape
is lovely. I now look upon Tolkien's naturism with a more critical
eye. And, having become completely obsessed with the Silmarillion,
find myself a die-hard Noldorin nationalist at the moment.

I agree with Doc Bushwell that [science and engineering are amoral in
and of themselves, but those who practice such crafts are only human,
so are equally subject to good and bad influences]. There is more
complexity to the question than a simple dislike of science and
technology on the part Tolkien. He is the one who wrote those Noldor
as so attractive and appealing (I've always thought of that as the
John-Milton aspect of his mythology--the villian as the real hero of
the piece, OK, maybe not the hero, but at least the one most
swoon-worthy).

Great piece, Doc Bushwell, thoughtful, perceptive, funny and so
well-written. (Sorry. I promised a good review and give you this silly
rant--forgive me.) I highly recommend Doc Bushwell's stories posted on
the Silmarillion Writers' Guild site which explore her thoughts on
this subject in fiction. Great storytelling and wonderful
characterization.

Title: Two Yuletide Carols of the Shire · Author: Dreamflower ·
Genres: Poetry: With Hobbits · ID: 736
Reviewer: Linda hoyland · 2007-10-08 23:31:28
I enjoyed these Hobbit carols very much.They seemed fitting for
Yuletide at the Shire and i enjoyed humming them to the traditional
tunes which they fit well to.

Title: For All Things a Cost · Author: Súlriel · Times: Second Age:
Drabble · ID: 268
Reviewer: Dwimordene · 2007-10-09 00:22:59
Every so often, one gets that rare shot of orcish life that shows that
it is simply impossible for a being to be totally corrupted. Evil mars
itself, throwing off glints of goodness by accident. Even more rarely,
those responsible for those refractory glimmers sometimes are
confusedly aware of them as something valuable.

One feels for Shubrut and her [little one] who will pay for her
'mistakes.' Well done, Sulriel.

Title: Iron to Iron · Author: mrkinch · Times: Second Age: Drabble ·
ID: 662
Reviewer: Dwimordene · 2007-10-09 00:23:18
Now here is a viewpoint I had not expected and have not seen before, I
don't think! This was very well done in just a few words, but it works
very well with Gandalf's line in FoTR, namely that one who breaks a
thing to find out what it's made of or who breaks white light thereby
loses the thing itself.

Here, light speaks and speaks of the bending and mutilation of its
nature, of its confinement and warping in what we call 'art'. The last
line says it all, bluntly and without apology.

A unique sideview on the history of the Silmarils, which apparently
didn't even start well, let alone end well.

Title: Mentor · Author: Nessime · Times: Second Age: Drabble · ID: 653
Reviewer: Dwimordene · 2007-10-09 00:23:32
I'm assuming that the mentor is Eonwe. Whether it is or not, one can
all too easily imagine his regret and his horror that the children
whose ancestors he had tutored should turn away from him and follow
the depraved ex-lieutenant of Morgoth.

I loved this line: [But memories, like their lives, proved too short.
] Eonwe hasn't learned yet, apparently, that lessons are learned anew
in each generation - they are not learned once for all time.

Title: Aftershocks · Author: Gwynnyd · Times: Second Age: Drabble ·
ID: 504
Reviewer: Dwimordene · 2007-10-09 00:23:48
An intriguing snapshot suggestive of many more tales. The situation
Elendil would have faced upon landing in Middle-earth is of course one
of the many things Tolkien neglected to give us.

The Lord of Cobas's concern for his people is of course made highly
and darkly ironic - his fears, had he but known, were drowned right
along with half his city.

Nicely done, Gwnynnd!



Title: Getting Away from it All · Author: Bodkin · Times: Fourth Age
and Beyond: Gondor or Rohan · ID: 63
Reviewer: Marta · 2007-10-09 00:23:55
This was a fun read; I thoroughly enjoyed seeing our four favorite
Gondorian nobles let their hair down. Arwen's and Eowyn's interchanges
were particularly fun. They had a vulnerability between them that was
really revealing about their characters.

Title: Coda · Author: Imhiriel · Times: Second Age: Drabble · ID: 627
Reviewer: Dwimordene · 2007-10-09 00:24:02
A chilling look at an untimely warning - just the sort of memorial
that seems fitting for Numenor.

It could have been anything - any little article, or even body, or
pieces of something or someone. But instead it was a book, and such a
book!

Maglor's song of the Noldor, and the quasi-prophetic dedication, is
the perfect gravemarker for the Land of Gift.

Nicely done, Imhiriel.

Title: Aragorn's Moment · Author: docmon · Races: Men: Eriador or
Rivendell · ID: 509
Reviewer: Dwimordene · 2007-10-09 00:33:00
Ah, I remember this story! Glad to have found it again.

Being the sad, sad Aragorn fanatic that I am, I love it when I find a
story that handles the interplay between duty and desire well. For
whatever reason, this seems to be a difficult task often times.

It's in part because Aragorn simply isn't made of stone - he has his
own agenda, one that fits with the society he exists in. That agenda
includes becoming king; it includes marrying Arwen; it includes taking
up a place in a history that frankly none of us would touch with a ten
foot pole if it were offered us, and not just because we'd all like to
survive quietly. It's just a foreign way of understanding ourselves.

On the other hand, Aragorn also does not primarily act out of sympathy
- he does sometimes, and we saw how well that worked on Parth Galen.
He does what is necessary, and here I truly appreciate docmon's read
of Aragorn's mindset in this moment. Necessity is what he's striving
to accommodate himself to - it doesn't mean no longer caring about the
rest or being disinterested in the sense of disinvested, but it sets
what he stands to gain by success to one side. At the end of the day,
he acts for others and because it is the task to which he is called.
That's it. The rest has to be kept at a certain distance - not denied,
but not allowed to drive him either.

A much appreciated fic, docmon!

Title: Stone from Above · Author: Thundera Tiger · Races: Men · ID: 284
Reviewer: Dwimordene · 2007-10-09 00:38:33
Hama is one of those characters that you *just* get to the point of
liking, and then you turn the page and Tolkien's killed him off. Seems
to happen often to minor characters whose names start with "H".

Thundera gives Hama a heroic end, letting his last deed, willingly
undertaken and in full knowledge of the consequences, be the sending
down of that crucial and titular ["stone from above"]. Things might
have gone far worse at Helm's Deep without it.



Title: Sorgbyrðen · Author: Aranel Took · Races: Men · ID: 275
Reviewer: Dwimordene · 2007-10-09 00:56:25
Eowyn can be a difficult character to write. The mixture of despair
and determination and frustration can be hard to balance, as can the
brother-sister relationship. For Eomer, that is clearly central;
Eowyn, though... it's more complicated.

Aranel uses an intertwined set of stories to try to pinpoint the
coldness that we see in Eowyn and which we naturally enough attribute
to Grima's unwholesome influence. Through this tale of two orc-hunts,
Aranel takes the much more interesting tack and shows how the death of
Eomund and her brother's taking up his father's sword affect a young
girl whose mettle already sets her apart.

On the one hand, Eowyn is only thirteen at this point, but as is
pointed out, thirteen is a woman in Rohan. She doesn't see herself as
a child. But even as a child, she had already taken it upon herself to
ask to be trained as with a blade - this is one little girl you don't
want to cross.

On the other, we see also how the fears of a girl who lost her father
to a gruesome death, and her mother to a wasting grief, and who now is
terrified of losing her brother, lets the cold in out of a
determination that one way or another, ["she wouldn't be one of those
women huddled in the hall."] So she will have no husband or lover out
of fear and (I think) also out of a certain pride and native strength
turned back on itself - and it will take Faramir to melt her resolve.

Nicely done!

Title: Feasting on Poison · Author: Gryffinjack · Races: Hobbits:
Post-Ring War · ID: 534
Reviewer: annmarwalk · 2007-10-09 01:43:17
This made me laugh and laugh, because I have a real-life friend who
refuses to touch tomatoes for the very same reason as Samwise! For
years I've been the recipient of her largesse as she scrapes them off
of sandwiches and digs them out of salads. No amusing song to
accompany her, though. I liked the amusomg and affectionate chatter
between the four hobbits, and how Faramir was charmed (and warmed) by
it. And the very idea of Pippin besting Legolas at archery! There were
many pleasant surprises in this story. Very nicely done!

Title: Family Jewels · Author: Raksha the Demon · Genres: Drama: Other
Fixed-Length Ficlet · ID: 464
Reviewer: Linda hoyland · 2007-10-09 02:35:54
This ficlet begings with a lovely image of aramir with his children in
his arms as he reads them a bedtime story. The steward has been
telling his son and daughter the story of Feanor's oath to recover his
lost simarils When the children sleeps, he reflects on Feanor's
obsession which cost the lives of his sons.

Faramir is all too aware that he too was almost a sacrifice to a
father's madness and would have died had not, Beregond,Gandalf, Pippin
and Aragorn saved his life.

As a father, Faramir wonders how anyone could sacrice their children.
The old tales now chill his blood.

A moving and thought provoking ficlet about family relationships,
pride and what a man's true treasures are.

Title: The White Tower · Author: Anna Wing · Races: Elves · ID: 528
Reviewer: NeumeIndil · 2007-10-09 03:39:54
It has taken me several weeks to review this story. It left me that
speechless. Even now, I'm not sure what to say aside from Wow. I don't
think I've yet seen a stronger portrayal of the youngest sons of
Feanor, nor one in which they are penitent and willing to own up to
their fate. I think this is also the first characterization of Elwing
that I've been able to read all the way through. I generally hold less
esteem for female characters who lack guts; your Elwing lacks nothing.

What surprised and pleased me most, though, were the details of ships
and such that you used to set the scene. It was, I think, very
Tolkienian; creative, unexpected, highly original and yet still within
the bounds of canon. I am highly impressed.

Title: Miss Dora Baggins' Book of Manners · Author: Dreamflower ·
Races: Hobbits: Incomplete · ID: 239
Reviewer: NeumeIndil · 2007-10-09 03:44:35
Modern parents, or those who want to be parents, should read chapters
1-4 and bits of 5, first! I was brought up with a certain amount of
Miss Dora's sort of manners, and it distresses me that many children,
or even people my own age, think even a simple "please" or "thank you"
is useless and stupid.

I found one error in Chapter 13 in which the name of the recipient was
used in place of the name of the writer's daughter-in-law, though I am
sure that was no fault of Miss Baggins'. ;) I just giggled so much
reading this story. She reminds me of my grandmother, in the
slightly-less-than-warm-fuzzy-but-still-fondly sense. Character voice
is excellent, as were the not-so-hidden jibes at a certain nephew,
wonderfully hobbity, but I think what I like most is that, to me at
least, much of it is still applicable practical advice. Well, except
perhaps for the bits about foot hair...

Title: Keepsake · Author: Marigold · Races: Hobbits: Vignette · ID: 256
Reviewer: Raksha the Demon · 2007-10-09 04:35:13
Short, sweet and sad - I hated to see Pippin lose Gandalf; they had
endured so much together. I could see Gandalf giving Pippin the new
charm; as the last gift of a friend and wizard.

Please forgive me if this topic has been previously discussed and I
missed it, but why, when I click on Reviews by Reviewers, does it say
there have been 2512 MEFA Final Reviews; and when I click on Reviews,
it says there have been 2181 reviews? Are there some Final Reviews
that I, or others, are not seeing?


RAKSHA

Hi Raksha

> Please forgive me if this topic has been previously discussed and I
> missed it, but why, when I click on Reviews by Reviewers, does it say
> there have been 2512 MEFA Final Reviews; and when I click on Reviews,
> it says there have been 2181 reviews? Are there some Final Reviews
> that I, or others, are not seeing?

No - you (and others) are seeing all the finalised reviews.

What's happening on the Reviews by Reviewers page is that when you ask
it to show all the reviews you've done (which is the default when you
first load the page), it shows you not only the Final but also the
Hidden and Draft reviews you've written, so you can edit them.

It does this by fetching *all* the reviews from the database, not just
Final ones. So when it counts the reviews and gives you the total of
reviews written, the number of reviews shown is actually the total of
all reviews - Final, Hidden, Draft - that everyone has written, not
just the Final ones.

However, if you use the Reviews by Reviewer page to look for reviews
written by another reviewer (ie not yourself), it only fetches all the
Final reviews from the database (because you're not yet allowed to see
someone else's Hidden reviews) and the count is therefore of Final
reviews, so the totals on the two pages agree.

I guess we should either fix the code so it works a little differently
or change the wording on the page, because it *is* confusing, isn't it?

Anyway, I hope I've explained what's going on and reassured you that
you're not missing any reviews!

Tanaqui