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| The Choice of Healing by Larner | 6 Review(s) |
|---|---|
| Inkling | Reviewed Chapter: 10 on 6/8/2005 |
| “Did you have to wear that to the table?” LOL! I’m ready to smack Paladin upside the head for his refusal to understand or believe…for I do see it as a refusal rather than an inability…most people don’t want to hear that others had it worse than they did. It belittles what they went through themselves, and even, perhaps, sounds arrogant to their ears. Remember Barliman? “There were some folk killed, killed dead! If you’ll believe me.” That, to him, was far worse than anything Gandalf and the others could say about the War. Author Reply: I certainly appreciate what you note. This could definitely be at play here, although it is more, in my eyes, a vain attempt to try to pretend the bad times didn't happen at all, that we are just the same happy family we were before that awful time we will seek to suppress memories of happened. Yes, I, too, have found myself wanting to smack Paladin at times, but Eglantine's reactions are even, in my view, worse--wanting to twist reality to something else instead. | |
| Radbooks | Reviewed Chapter: 10 on 6/4/2005 |
| You know, if you continue to write such wonderful stories, I am NEVER going to get any housework done! :) I've been sitting around here all day just soaking up this story like a sponge. Ah well, housework will always be there. I am enjoying seeing the interactions between Pippin and Merry and their parents and others in the Shire that were spoken of in King's Commission. How hard it is for people to accept others when they have changed from the picture they had of them in their minds. And the way you portray Fordo and his downhill slide is so heartbreaking. Well done! Author Reply: Yes, it is heartbreaking watching someone you love lose their health. Been there, done that. And the folk of the Shire would have found the thought that the world has changed due to the actions of their own very hard to understand. Glad you like the references from the King's Commission as well. | |
| harrowcat | Reviewed Chapter: 10 on 4/5/2005 |
| Thanks Larner you have got me screaming at my lap top for someone to shake Pippin's Dad. And my laptop doesn't like it much. It tends to go on strike unless I feed and water it regularly, pet it and always, ALWAYS pat it before going to bed! Please resolve this with some comfort/fluff soon! No really this is great stuff. Author Reply: Ah, does it need a pat? Mine often needs to be rescued from kitties traipsing across the keyboard and adding in extra end-of-lines, which makes it go "DONG!" excessively. Paladin does start coming around--the revelation that it hurts for them to talk about it is the first step toward that. | |
| Kitty | Reviewed Chapter: 10 on 4/5/2005 |
| Larner, I'm loving this story more from chapter to chapter. It is truly amazing how you do this, and although it is quite sad, I'm enjoying it very much. Frodos tale about the king in the last chapter was beautiful. Narcissa starts to realize what had happened, I think, even if she doesn't want to accept the whole truth. Poor girl. The way how Merry and Pippin's parents are reacting is so well written. I am glad at least Saradoc and Esmeralda are understanding and able to accept what Merry is able to tell them. But Paladin ... *shakes head* ... no wonder poor Frodo had to tell him all this shortly before he went away. If Paladin is not inclined to believe anything (or at last not admitting to himself he believes it), it will be very hard for him and Pippin. I think Pippin basically needs some silent support from his father, but he doesn't get this in the next time, and this will not make things easier. Author Reply: Not all parents are like Esmeralda and Saradoc, and even they tend to try to overprotect some. My stepdad was like Paladin, while my mom was like Saradoc. Have seen both in my life. And Eglantine is directly patterned on one of my grandmothers, although I find Eglantine to be more sympathetic in the end. | |
| Bodkin | Reviewed Chapter: 10 on 4/5/2005 |
| Sorry I haven't reviewed before - been away and pushed for time. I'm really enjoying the story from Frodo's point of view. I like Narcissa and would like to see her being happy one day - but it's difficult to compete with Frodo Baggins. Isumbard is a great character and very sensible. Ferdi is a star. But Paladin! Oh my, talk about blinkered. Author Reply: Paladin, not wanting to think of the world beyond the Brandywine Bridge, how things have changed so that now he is the Thain in truth and not just the rightful guardian of the Shire and its folk. He is now going to have to be responsible to authorities "out there" and may well be dragged "out there" to see those authorities in person. And he couldn't protect the treasure that means more to him than any other at this time--his own son and the dearest of his younger kin. Pippin, Merry, and Frodo have all come back so changed, and this is the hardest to bear, thinking somehow he has failed to protect them, spared them what they ought not to have been forced to face. The Shire has been able to ignore the outer world since the days of Arvedui--that's changing--has already changed. His world has changed, his son has changed, his nephew has changed, and his beloved young cousin is slipping away, day by day, and he is helpless. Fear all too often begets anger and denial. Author Reply: BTW--Narcissa's happiness doesn't really come until she looks at the picture in Ruvemir's bedroom, I fear. | |
| Dreamflower | Reviewed Chapter: 10 on 4/5/2005 |
| What a contrast between the way Paladin and Saradoc deal with their sons. Both of them love their lads dearly, but Paladin has the very same Tookish impatience that his son does, and some of his concern is also Tookish curiousity, not to mention a temper--it's no wonder he is being difficult. Saradoc is far more easy-going and laid back. I think Merry got his intelligence and ability to calmly analyse things from his father. Very good picture of the way things are as it stands. Author Reply: Paladin and Eglantine are still in denial--they don't want things that are that changed, I'm afraid. Accepting that their son has been close to death, that their nephew and their son were in horrible battles, that Frodo has done something so horrible in his own eyes he still at times wishes he'd not survived, that is a lot to swallow at one gulp. How can their son a soldier, much less the guard of the King's person? They just don't have the experiential level to deal with all this. I think that Saradoc and Esmeralda would be more ready to accept that they couldn't have protected the four who left the Shire, more aware they would have to come to terms with themselves as both Hobbits of the Shire and as soldiers of Middle Earth, in their own time. But the love is there in all of them, just waiting for the dam to break and for the admissions to finally begin to be made. | |