News Resources
Login
Become a member
Help
Search
|
|
| About Us News Resources
Login
Become a member
Help
Search
|
|
|
| The Ties of Family by Larner | 8 Review(s) |
|---|---|
| grumpy | Reviewed Chapter: 30 on 7/4/2005 |
| Please forgive me for not reviewing earlier, I have been moving, and things are all over the place. Love your story, you write the rangers and the people of the shire so well. Glad to see that the king has let the ranger out again, he and Bowman make quite a pair. So the folks at Angmar are making trouble again. Author Reply: Thank you for the compliments, Grumpy! It is ever an honor. I find I love writing about the Rangers, and like to see Aragorn letting Strider take precedence from time to time. He has no real reason to resume Thorongil's role, but there will ever be reasons, I think, to return to Strider from time to time. Hope you continue to enjoy the story. | |
| Raksha The Demon | Reviewed Chapter: 30 on 6/17/2005 |
| Elegantly and sensitively written, as always. And I'm so glad that Faramir and Eowyn travelled with Aragorn & Co. to the Bridge and met so many Hobbits. I liked Faramir's participation in the Trial and his discussion of just who's a barbarian... Author Reply: Yes, the question of who is a barbarian all too often is embarrassing of those who have set themselves against some they've identified as such start applying the standards they use to judge others against themselves. As I said in an earlier chapter, there is no one as vicious as one who sets out to fight barbarians and then feels impelled to behave worse than the perceived foe. Thanks for the compliments. | |
| Kitty | Reviewed Chapter: 30 on 6/17/2005 |
| Aragorn comforting Sam after his nightmare was sweet, no matter what this impertinent Beasty thinks. This one I want to slap, hard and repeatedly. Arrogant little brat. And how can he think he only has to wish his deeds are forgotten and he can go back and do it again? I loved the reappearance of Strider the Ranger. Probably Aragorn enjoys these little escapes from the kingship in spite of the grave reason. For one who has lived so long in the wilds the live at the Court is surely quite tiring and irritating at times. And I loved the natural authority with which Pippin took care of the women and children, not waiting for the Lords among the Big Folk. Angmar again? They are hopeless! One would think they should be glad to be rid of the Witchking. Why can so many people not live without war?? And their reason for this - honestly, I didn't know if I should laugh or cry! I'm not sure if the witnesses of Angmar truly believed this nonsense they meant to see or if they twisted it purposedly to set their folk against the King. But them to call the Gondorians barbarians while they themselves acts so barbaric ... *shakes head* Author Reply: Unfortunately two of the most common attributes of the truly criminal mind are utter self-centeredness and a willingness to suspend logical thinking in order to indulge in the surety that the world revolves about the self of such a one. And there is no question Bedro Bracegirdle embodies both these tendencies. Look at the http://www.wm3.org site and the history of John Mark Byers if you wish to see these realities in action. Some people can't seem to live without fighting, unfortunately; and all too often conjuring up demonic, barbaric enemies for their people to focus their hatreds and fears on allows those at the top to slip into full control of the land and people before the populace realizes they've just been had. Hermann Goehring of the Third Reich, in fact, recommended such tactics as a means of getting people to accept a tyrannical rule. I suspect this witness may have not understood what he saw at first, but was widely encouraged to accept this interpretation as it allowed the war leaders to manipulate their people on the basis of his testimony. And again, I think the story told earlier would have sparked such a bad dream in Sam, and that Aragorn might indeed have anticipated such an event. | |
| Radbooks | Reviewed Chapter: 30 on 6/17/2005 |
| Whoa! The men of Angmar! I never thought about some of them being around still, but I suppose some still could be. I don't know if I've ever mentioned it or not, but I really like your OC's - Halladan and Hardon. Though I guess Hardon doesn't talk much, does he? :) But they are nicely done and I hadn't thought a lot about having a steward in Arnor or how Aragorn would have had to have someone up there running things for him. You certainly couldn't just leave it alone when you are that far away. It was a touching scene with Sam and Aragorn at the start of the chapter and then Aragorn sitting on the stump with his hands in his lap. I could just feel his sadness and weariness, but then sharing a pipe with Pippin and Merry - not to cheer each other up, but just to comfort each other and be together. Nicely done chapter! As usual. :) Author Reply: I certainly can't imagine Aragorn just letting the Northern Kingdom sort of take care of itself--I'd always thought that those Rangers who came South to fight at his side would need some social and authority structure, and he'd have some sort of system in place to meet their needs. And once he received the Sceptre of Annuminas, there HAD to be some kind of stewardship to help Arnor once again take shape as the Northern Kingdom. Glad you find the structure I've considered believable and acceptable. The story Elanor asked for would undoubtedly have awakened the memories of grief and fear somewhat, and so Sam would be likely to be troubled by his nightmares. And that you see Aragorn sitting there afterward with his own sadness and weariness in the wake of soothing him--I love that picture that my own portion of the story has conjured in you, that you see these emotions in him, Merry, and Pippin, which indeed I'd thought of but had not explicitly written. And once again I'm looking at the appendices indicating that Eomer's Riders followed Aragorn to many strange lands to help secure the peace. If Rhun is now an ally, and most of Harad as well, and they've pacified the Wainriders of the far East, what other peoples might threaten the security of Aragorn's lands? So I've tried to imagine what the descendants of Angmar might be like.... | |
| harrowcat | Reviewed Chapter: 30 on 6/17/2005 |
| wow, what a chapter Larner and I do love our ranger coming out to play. The detail you weave into your stories is fantastic. It always makes me want to go back and re-read the original. Aragorn healing Merry of his first experience of the black breath by a simple touch - oh yes! The respect for what the four Travellers went through just keeps increasing in EVERYONE as more and more of their story comes out. How do you keep track, you must spend hours plotting - who else have you got left to tell a part of it? I am simply awed by your story-telling. I can easily imagine you sitting on the barrels at the free fair and I envy your students! But, poor, poor Sam. I just knew he was going to suffer for the telling of that tale. But then, I wouldn't mind having the King there to soothe my nightmares! Author Reply: Hours plotting the story? Not really, althouh now and then I have to bring up one of the other stories to make certain I've managed not to cause interstory conflicts. And I wouldn't mind keeping Aragorn around to soothe nightmares (and a few other things as well.... ;-> ) | |
| Tigger | Reviewed Chapter: 30 on 6/16/2005 |
| So the old hatreds are still brewing. Sad. Expected, but still sad. This was a very well written chapter that showed just how evil can use appearances to twist to it's own uses. And Beasty hasn't learned a single thing has he? That's a hobbit in for a extremely rude awakening, regardless of what Aragorn gives as justice, as merciful as he can be. Loved Aragorn hearing Sam in the night and coming to his friend's aid. I wish I had an Aragorn when my own nightmares/flashbacks rear their ugly heads. I so could sympathize w/Sam there. They are very, very real when they happen and very much seem like it's still happening when they take place. Excellent chapter. Looking forward to more as always!! Author Reply: So many will insist on maintaining old enmities long past their times for their own purposes; and how often we misunderstand the simplest truths, twisting them to fit our own expectations. And I could do with an Aragorn a time or two myself. Hope your own flashbacks fade with time. | |
| Dreamflower | Reviewed Chapter: 30 on 6/16/2005 |
| *whoosh* I sympathize with you, having to move this large party of Men and hobbits about. Having done something similar in the past, and attempting it again, I understand the difficulty. Does the expression "herding cats" sound familiar, LOL? But you are managing this brilliantly! I am impressed with how well you are keeping up with every member of the party. I have occasionally lost track of my characters from time to time, LOL! There is much to love about this chapter: Aragorn soothing Sam's dream; the reappearance of Strider; the foiling of the attempted ambush. I *love* the scene in the Pony, reliving that fateful night when the four met Strider was marvellous, even to Merry's reaction. And I am loving the way Beasty is beginning to have things hammered into his thick skull. But your most brilliant thing of all was the Angmarians' interpretation of what happened in the battles! I would *never* have thought of that in a million years, yet once you point it out it makes an inevitable kind of strange sense! And of course, you also show the total illogic of those who have been propagandized! *More*More*!!! (pretty please...) Author Reply: Yes, am aware of what you mean by herding cats--getting any number of children within a classroom going in the same direction tends to be as difficult! Am so glad that even familiar events can look startlingly odd and even sinister through the eyes of those who do not understand, and that I've managed to surprise some with the odd interpretations of what was seen by those from Angmar. And Beasty is remarkably thick headed, isn't he? Thanks! | |
| shirebound | Reviewed Chapter: 30 on 6/16/2005 |
| My goodness. "He fought upon the Pelennor, and saw the woman and child facing the Lord of the Nazgul himself, and the Men of Gondor and Rohan encouraged them in this. He fled east after the Captain was killed, and fought again with the troops of Mordor, saw the old Man given to the Eagles, saw the Eagles flying with the bodies of children clutched in their claws." You are able to bring us the most amazing and unique ideas! What a misguided yet logical way to have perceived what happened on that day. This whole chapter is fascinating. Author Reply: Obviously this is a possible interpretation which no one else appears to have considered anyone might have made of the rescue of Frodo and Sam, or the defiance of the Witchking of Angmar. What will those who have never seen Hobbits think of their first sight of them? Well, this is what percolated through my fevered brain last weekend as I wrote this. Glad you find it fascinating. Thanks so much for the feedback! | |