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Msg# 8464

MEFA Reviews for December 6, 2007 Posted by Ann December 06, 2007 - 4:31:15 Topic ID# 8464
Title: Wind of Change · Author: Imhiriel · Genres: Crossover · ID: 669
Reviewer: Marta · 2007-12-05 15:13:18
Fascinating perspective on a modern Earth historical event. I never
would have thought to bring Maglor into this moment in history, but
you made it feel so natural, especially the way you connected it with
one of my favorite aspects of his past, his love for Elros and Elrond.
Very well done.

Title: Bitter · Author: vladazhael · Genres: Drama: General Drabble ·
ID: 173
Reviewer: Marta · 2007-12-05 21:04:04
Mmm, it is amazing what we can forgive our parents - save perhaps
dying before we feel like they should, and "leaving us." Your drabble
does a very good job of capturing this idea, and through it capturing
the spirit and character of the Sons of Feanor. Most thought-provoking!

Title: First Flight · Author: Isabeau of Greenlea · Times: Mid Third
Age: 2851 - 3017 TA: Other Fixed-Length Ficlet · ID: 513
Reviewer: Inkling · 2007-12-05 23:36:40
I've always had a soft spot for the Eagles, and so while reading MEFA
reviews this one caught my eye. Isabeau has crafted a charming
portrait of an Eagle family, each member with his or her own distinct
personality. Especially well done is the contrast between the two
brothers (reminding me, in fact, of my own twin sons): impetuous
Landroval, hurling himself out of the nest with no clear sense of how
to fly; and the more thoughtful Gwaihir, holding back and perhaps
learning from his brother's clumsy attempt, then executing a perfect
take-off.

A nice glimpse of the [scruffy wizard] as well!


Title: Peregrin · Author: Pearl Took · Races: Hobbits: Gapfiller · ID: 316
Reviewer: stefaniab · 2007-12-06 01:02:52
"Peregrin" explores the stream of conscious thoughts of Peregrin Took
as he climbs a cliff to light the beacons of Minas Tirith. In
parallel, Pearl Took offers the thoughts of a peregrin falcon soaring
over the orc armies assembled for the siege. This nicely imagined
movieverse story so beautifully expresses how Pippin might have felt
as he struggled to prove his worth in an endeavor life in the Shire
has left him ill prepared for. From the falcon's point of view, Pippin
is a struggling fledgling trying to find his "nest." The falcon
presents Pippin with a twig from what it thinks is the fledgling's
nest--the beacon site only a short climb beyond the hobbit's resting
place. In a touching finale, the bird gives Pippin unspoken
encouragement and inspiration.

Title: The Wizard's Coin · Author: grey_wonderer · Races: Hobbits:
Pre-Quest · ID: 480
Reviewer: Dreamflower · 2007-12-06 02:59:21
This is one of GW's earlier stories, and I am so grateful to the MEFAs
for giving me an excuse to revisit it. I truly enjoy seeing the germ
of Merry's and Pippin's personalities here, that later developed into
the characterizations of her later stories. Pippin's adorable,
speaking his "Pippish" and getting himself into the kind of trouble
that only Pippin can. And Merry is caught on the cusp between wonder
and practicality, at that age where a child is not quite ready to give
up believing in magic. Of course I love Frodo in this as well--he's
his wise and common-sensical and loving self!

I really loved the ambiguous ending as well!

Wonderful fun! I so much enjoyed reading it once more!

Title: Cultural Exchanges In Gondor · Author: Llinos/Marigold
CoAuthors · Times: Late Third Age: 3018-3022 TA: Other Fixed-Length
Ficlet · ID: 94
Reviewer: Dreamflower · 2007-12-06 02:59:52
These were all quite funny--it's always lovely to see the hobbits
encountering something new in the Wide World, but I have to say my
favorites were Sam's planned joke on his sister, and Pippin in the
last one--oh my!

Title: A Pirate's Life for Me! · Author: Raksha the Demon · Races:
Men: Other Fixed-Length Ficlet · ID: 438
Reviewer: Dreamflower · 2007-12-06 03:02:18
I love this set of ficlets. Imrahil was an excellent and fond uncle,
and served as a wonderful role model for his little nephew--who in his
turn had a chance to deal with his own little pirates!

And there *is* something appealing about the idea of pirates, if not
the reality, that makes children want to play at it.

Title: Rauros, golden Rauros-falls · Author: Imhiriel · Genres: Humor:
Drabble · ID: 624
Reviewer: Dreamflower · 2007-12-06 03:04:12
This drabble needs a beverage warning. Let us just say that it is
unlike any other "Boromir!lives" AU I have ever seen, and having read
it now more than once, the ending *still* startles a laugh out of me!

Title: Hope Unquenched · Author: White Gull · Genres: Poetry: With
Hobbits · ID: 410
Reviewer: Mechtild · 2007-12-06 03:44:19
I could not tell what or whom this poem was about until I got to the
end, prompting re-readings to double-check. "White Gull's Nest", the
title at the top of the page (rather than "Hope Unquenched") read,
making me think the poem was going to have something to do with
seagulls, or the Sea. When I read of the "halls" in stanza two, it
made me think it might take place in Minas Tirith. Seagulls could
easily wing their way up the Anduin following ships. There was a
special tree. Perhaps it was the White Tree and the mournful
protagonist was the King?

Then I got to the unnamed subject of the poem turning to gaze "Into
the west", and saying, "I'm coming, sir", and assumed that, of course,
the grizzled hair belonged to Sam, and tree was the Mallorn he'd
planted from the seed in Galadriel's box, and he was mourning the
death of Rosie. Re-reading I saw you'd practically hung a sign out
right in the first stanza—"In heart that hope, unquenched". Yep, Sam.
Hope Unquenchable!

Having figured things out, this poem was a little too sentimental for
my tastes, but I liked reading it aloud. Like a lot of your poetry,
White Gull, it is very musical. The crafting of words in the next to
the last line, I thought, is very fine. I just love sound and sense of
it. You began with "Arrested, turned his wond'ring gaze/ Into the
west, past end of days", then got to, "For great heart felt
near-quenched hope stir". I love the words you chose there, all
one-syllable, making a series of strong sounds, like audible strokes,
emphatic and somehow `packed', so that one is compelled to slow down
reading them, making the last line that much more effective.

I do think you should add the poem's title (Hope Unquenched) to the
top, though, rather than "White Gull's Nest", which doesn't seem to
have anything to do with it. I am wondering if that is a mistake?


Title: Elrond's Song · Author: White Gull · Genres: Poetry · ID: 409
Reviewer: Mechtild · 2007-12-06 03:44:43
This poem has a lilting but solemn cadence to it, with a pulsing,
regular rhythm that carries the reader forward, almost like being
borne along on a horse. For this reason, and because it seems to tell
the namesake's tale in sum, it seems right to call it a song. I was
moved by the song's depiction, with epic-like brevity, of the deeds of
the Ring-bearer and Elrond's respect for them, and Elrond's love for
their doer.

The second-to-the-last stanza moved me especially. It was all the more
poignant to think of Elrond hoping for Frodo's healing, inviting him
to walk with him and calling him his child, when he knew that once he
was over-Sea his own daughter would be sundered from him forever. That
Elrond was glad that Frodo might be healed before he passed from
Elrond's world—as if Frodo might carry that healing as a gift and sign
to wherever it was that his daughter's doom would be, having chosen a
mortal life--was very moving.

One note on the meter: the pulse of the poem's rhythm is so regular
("Da-di-Da-di-Da-di-Da"…), when that rhythm was departed from ("You
gave me the peace to sail"), I was brought up short. After six stanzas
of the same meter the line felt as though it had a few beats missing,
so that I re-read it a few times to see if I had scanned it
improperly. Was that intentional, to underscore the "peace to sail"
line? If not, that line might be reworked so that it matched the meter
of the rest of the poem.


Title: In the Bleak, Cold Winter · Author: GamgeeFest · Races:
Hobbits: Pre-Quest · ID: 493
Reviewer: Larner · 2007-12-06 06:30:11
Sam's slipped in the garden of Bag End and will be bedridden for some
days while a cast hardens and he heals enough to walk with crutches.
Being cared for by Frodo and Merry Brandybuck, however, isn't as easy
as they'd thought it would be, for Sam's not used to the constant care
gentlehobbits are accustomed to giving those stuck in bed, and Merry
has a past indiscretion to live down.

A sweet look at life in the Shire and developing relationships.

Title: First Among Equals · Author: Tanaqui · Genres: Adventure:
Fixed-Length Ficlet · ID: 564
Reviewer: Larner · 2007-12-06 06:34:39
Two drabbles about Faramir's first battle among the Rangers of
Ithilien. It's not easy killing men for the first time, even if
necessary; but now he has joined the ranks of the defenders of Gondor.

All too realistic look at the life of a young soldier.

Title: Ever in your Arms · Author: White Gull · Races: Cross-Cultural
· ID: 668
Reviewer: Mechtild · 2007-12-06 07:01:08
I thought this title sounded familiar, and, starting to read I found
that I actually had read it a while back, but only the first chapter.
I thought it was complete--and maybe it was at the time--telling the
tale of a last chance for love for Frodo, with an unusual woman,
ending in the conception of a child. It appears, however, that you
went on to write additional vignettes, depicting significant moments
in the intervening (and prequel) years between chapters one and eight.
The middle chapters don't always move from one to another with ease,
and the multiplicity of authorial styles detracts, but they do serve
to flesh out the back-story for the interested reader.

For me, the jewels in this tale are the inset poems. I hope you have
posted them as stand-alones. The poems for Ch. 4, "Ebb and flow of
childhood dreams" is a very fine piece of love poetry, which could be
appreciated without any reference to the story's characters. Likewise,
"Look to me, my love, my lady" is a courtly ballad that woos its
hearer whether one knows it's supposed to be about Beren and Lúthien
or not. The poem that opens and closes the piece, appearing in the
first and last chapters, is also extremely good, lyrical, emotionally
resonant and lovely to recite aloud (or sing, should it be set to good
music).

[Not part of the scored review:

Note #1: Your chapter 2, with the intro by Aratlithiel (whose
depiction of these two characters was not very like yours, but I
suppose that's the result of the challenge's intro.), seemed awfully
familiar. I feel as though I have read a close version of this a while
back, but one in which the admirer turned out to be someone else—Merry
or perhaps young-lad Bilbo—I can't remember. I'm wondering if someone
ran off with your chapter! Or was that part of the challenge—to write
a scene with the same opening and premise, but portraying different
characters, that weren't to be revealed until the end?

Note #2: As a convenience to readers, it would be helpful if you put
your chapter numbers and titles at the tops of your entries. Unless
one uses the links on the "Chapter Headings" page, there is nothing to
tell the reader where she is. I came to your story through the
nomination link, which took me directly to what turned out to be
chapter one. Since it came to an end where the story as I knew it
originally ended, I almost didn't go on, only clicking the "Next"
button out of curiosity. The "Next" button sent me to the next
unnamed, unnumbered chapter, and so on. When it came time to review, I
had no way of knowing which chapters my comments came from. I found
the chapter list page, which thankfully had the numbers and titles,
and just kept clicking them open until I found the sequences I was
looking for.]


Title: The End of a Lonely Road · Author: White Gull · Races: Hobbits
· ID: 542
Reviewer: Mechtild · 2007-12-06 08:39:31
[This review contains spoilers.]

I couldn't read past Ch. 3, White Gull, but you mis-introduced this
when you called it a `"might have been" gap-filler'. A gap-filler in
what story? Tolkien wrote of a Shire in which it was scandalous for a
Hobbit even to cheat in a game (cf. Frodo's outrage at Gollum's
behaviour with Bilbo under the Misty Mountains—"Hobbits don't
cheat!"), and in which no Hobbit had intentionally killed another in
memory. Could such a Shire have tolerated much less produced a person
like Rory Pickthorn, who beat his wife and child black and blue (with
bruises folk could see), ran a whore-house out of his ale shop—with
his own daughter as a child-prostitute—and Hobbiton folk *patronized*
it? Surely not.





Title: Friendship of Their Kind · Author: Dwimordene · Times: Early
Third Age: 1-2850 TA · ID: 425
Reviewer: Inkling · 2007-12-06 10:06:44
[spoilers]

There have certainly been some interesting--and wildly
different--responses to the alphabet challenge prompt "D: Like a Very
Dirty Dragon"! Dwimordene's impressive take on it has produced this
brief, intense foray into a dragon's nest by a small group of Rangers.

All babies--even monstrous ones--elicit a certain "Aww" response based
on their helpless, innocent state. But Dwim avoids the pitfall of easy
pathos in this scene. These hatchlings are neither cute nor pathetic,
but merely [scaly little forms]. Yet, like Televor, I couldn't help
but wince as they are dispatched, despite knowing full well that their
deaths are necessary and justified.

This cold-blooded killing provides the central action of the piece,
but that's incidental to its real purpose: to serve as the springboard
for Halandur's unexpected, moving eulogy to fallen foes that forms the
heart of the story. Enemies, even helpless ones such as these, may
deserve no mercy, but they are owed respect--acknowledgement that this
was no fair fight--and even gratitude ["for going ahead"]. This
sentiment is indeed what sets the Rangers apart from those they
oppose--and what elevates this story to something more than simply a
well-written, gripping tale of suspense. It marvelously amplifies the
passage in LOTR that Dwim quotes in her author's notes and that gives
this story its title.