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| Just Desserts by Lindelea | 5 Review(s) |
|---|---|
| TopazTook | Reviewed Chapter: 3 on 10/15/2005 |
| This imposition of King's "justice" in taking away everything, including their livelihood, from the innocent survivors of a supposed criminal seems awfully unjust -- much like the forfeiture laws, which may have been your inspiration, which confiscate the vehicle a convicted felon's wife may use to get to her job and earn money to feed her kids. I am hoping things somehow work out for the best in the end, and that lessons are learned... Author Reply: Reprehensible, isn't it? Positively medieval! (Which is the period we're studying in history. Sure glad that the Men of the West seem more upright and justice-oriented than the lords of the history we're studying at present. At least, for the most part.) We are working toward the resolution, even now. Not many chapters left to post, unless the current revision takes a drastic turn. Thanks! | |
| Bodkin | Reviewed Chapter: 3 on 10/12/2005 |
| Oh dear. Poor Denny - what a shattering moment. He knows enough to talk at the prisoners rather than to them, though. It must be a difficult moment to be between the Guard and the family; not knowing which way to go. I'm glad he sort of went the family route. Pippin was impressive - you don't often get to see him pulling rank among Men, but the rank is his to pull and I'm glad the guard holding Robin recognised that. I suppose, in reality, there was no way this could be settled without due process - but it's a good thing Seredrith has already given birth, because I don't know how her body could cope with this in pregnancy. And to be told in that impersonal way that her home and livelihood was forfeit to the crown and all her possessions to be auctioned. Including, I daresay, everything she was't actually wearing at the time. I can't see Diamond taking to that too well. (In fact, if it comes to that, I could imagine Diamond at the forefront of the bidders, with a very ferocious expression on her face, saving what she can.) So what Jack has feared so long is unwinding - but he and Will are facing it with remarkable fortitude. I suppose, in a way, reality is less intimidating than endless nights of worrying. Those gallows must have haunted their dreams for years. Fingers crossed that their torment won't last much longer. And not because they'll be dancing at the end of a rope. Author Reply: Poor Denny. He knew just how far he could go... but as you may already have seen in the next page, he knows how to stretch that line, too. I too could imagine Diamond in the forefront--that was actually one of the early scenarios--but it probably won't work quite that way, the way it's written now. Still, a satisfying ending if we can just make our way to the end. Though Jack is not a Numenorian, I'm sure he's heard about "the gift of Eru". We've been reading in history about cultures where the people didn't fear death... cultures from which Tolkien drew many of his ideas. The main reason that Numenor fell was because Men refused the gift, wasn't it? Perhaps shorter-lived men sought rather to die well, than to try to live "forever". The chapters are breaking out shorter than I thought, partly due to time constraints. So while the angst seems to be stretching out interminably, in our time, in the story time it really is over pretty quickly. Thanks! | |
| harrowcat | Reviewed Chapter: 3 on 10/11/2005 |
| I love reading the reviews and your responses as much as the story - well almost! Glad to see that the family has friends and relatives that don't desert them even when all seems bleak! And what a powerful hobbit threesome acting on behalf of the king. Nice to see them on some official duties and not just guard duty. Author Reply: I love reading the reviews, too... And the responses are interesting to write, being something of a give-and-take as a story is being thought through and edited. I really do enjoy the give-and-take. Sometimes a review will make me take a deeper look at a plot development or a character, sometimes it will alter the course of a story somewhat as I read a new insight that I didn't "see" originally. Sometimes it just confirms what is happening. In any event, oftimes reviews lead to a better story. I like to contemplate the three remaining Travellers working together in concert in the face of a challenging situation... | |
| Larner | Reviewed Chapter: 3 on 10/11/2005 |
| Ooh, now I am angry, that there should be an auction of the premises? Am so glad Pippin spoke up for Robin. Bless the Thain! As for being glad I respond, you know how much I appreciate responses to my own, and yours, being so well informed, mean a great deal to me, as you know. Now, Elessar, you'd best do right by these or I'll smuck you up alongside the head! Author Reply: The auction of the premises was something that just sort of inserted itself as the logical thing to do, without really being thought out. But it still seems like a logical thing to do, if the owner has been hauled off to be hanged, and his son with him. In our family history, when my great-grandfather died, my great-grandmother and her three daughters were turned off their property with just what they could carry. Sad, isn't it, what history tells us? Whoa, if I didn't have such confidence in Elessar I'd have to alert his elite bodyguard... | |
| Dreamflower | Reviewed Chapter: 3 on 10/11/2005 |
| Oh yes! I do like seeing Sir Peregrin, Captain of the Citadel and Thain of the Shire assert his authority over these big Men. I do feel sorry for the family; really, I do! So why am I grinning? 'Cause I love your evil cliffies, and I *know* you're going to pull something special out of your hat. Author Reply: Is he really Captain of the Citadel? Well, in hobbits' eyes, maybe. But then I hear/see the proprietor of the Green Dragon shrug and say, "Sit-a-dell? Is that the new inn, down Waymoot-way?" Poor family. But they're banding together. (Could have been so much worse. If Turambor weren't salt of the earth he might have cast out Robin for his association with criminals... but he's a good man. And he certainly won't turn his back on his daughter and grandson for having the misfortune to be married to/descended from a law-breaker, even though there's precedent in fiction for such a thing to take place. I'm afraid Seledrith has lost her wits, just a little... but it's a plot point and so I'll end here.) Thanks for the vote of confidence! (Lots of potential for cliffies in this one, I fear. Such is life.) | |