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| Okay, NOW Panic! by Boz4PM | 17 Review(s) |
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| Anna | Reviewed Chapter: 51 on 4/28/2008 |
| hey!! i love your story!! well, the two in the series....are you going to make another section?? i would love to see you continue this story, it is very interesting....well, email me if you want ideas...i would love to give them to you...(: Author Reply: There will be no trilogy, I'm afraid. :) Time constraints simply will not allow it. I have said, though, that there may well be little one-offs and short stories, about Penny or other characters, and they would all be posted in one place, under one title, perhaps, as time would allow. Thank you for reading and glad you've enjoyed it! | |
| Abra Ahab | Reviewed Chapter: 51 on 4/18/2008 |
| A great chapter! I wonder if this new kink in the plan - that Saruman saw Penny - will cause any great changes. Sometimes I wish she would revert back to her old spirits - just to let go of everything that she's been holding onto. One big blow-out and then everything will be well. lol - at least that's how it sometimes happens in my family :) Oh, you are such a tease when it comes to Penny and Halladan. I mean, it's been forever since she's had real human contact. And here she is - surrounded by strong handsome burly men (men! surrounded!). Surely she is affected! Or at least I would be. Then again, she's got a lot of other things on her mind. So glad to see that you're updating, despite RL obligations. I'll take what I can get! Author Reply: I am so sorry! I honestly thought I had replied to this review! Well better late than never, I hope. :\ I know what you mean about Penny - I think she probably would feel better if she had a good old rant and rave, but i think she's just SO overwhelmed such fire is beyond her at the moment. RL has been particularly insane of late (hence the LONG delay between current chapters) but at leas the next chapter is here at last! | |
| Miss | Reviewed Chapter: 51 on 2/12/2008 |
| AHHH, I can't help the way I feel, but this chapter was so frusterating!! I was so hoping for some kind of action, but then it just stopped. Evil cliffy!! Secondly, i really do think that this was a difficult chapter to wright, but it was a bit too streched out. It's like Penny walking in cirkles...Nevertless, it's still good! Poor Penny, struggling to find some peace within herself. You know, after reading this chapter I hope that Penny will wake up from a coma or something..... Till the next chapter! Author Reply: Well, mentally Penny is kind of walking in circles and it's only fair to describe that aspect of her psychological make-up at the moment - it is plot-relevant, after all. :) And I'm sorry you felt there should be more 'action' but I'm not quite sure what you might mean by that - given we know from canon that nothing much happened during the journey north aside from their meeting Saruman on the road and then pausing for seven days while they say goodbye to the Galadhrim. The timespan on this chapter was at least a week or so which, given the pace of the previous few chapters is actually quite a change and an indication of the plot moving forward far faster than previously. I'm sorry you found it all frustrating, though. Thank you for reading. And Penny is surrounded not simply by good friends, but healers with great wisdom. She'll come through this without a complete breakdown and she's also a lot more centred and mature in herself than she ever used to be. | |
| Pearl Took | Reviewed Chapter: 51 on 2/9/2008 |
| Sorry I'm late getting to reading this :-( Wonderful as always. I love the detail of the dwindling supply of tea and Erestor trying to speak English is sweet - and thank you for not doing it all phonetically! :-) I think you have Penny's homesickness spot on! There is much for her to miss that she will never find in Middle-earth which has to be worse than just missing you own home but in a world that has many similarities. Author Reply: No need to apologise! Thanks for reading it at all. And thank you, glad you liked the chapter. Yes, I would agree - similarities at least provide some familiarity, but something utterly alien makes it all the more stark. | |
| AspenJules | Reviewed Chapter: 51 on 2/6/2008 |
| Ok, I know I left a review over at ff.net, but I thought I would add something here that I forgot about, since it took me a few days to read it all. I loved the bit with Erestor speaking english to her. While it would be so wonderful to hear it, at the same time I can imagine how jarring it would be to hear it as well. Both jarring as in shocking to her ears after so much Sindarin, Westron, etc, but also really triggering more homesickness. That little touch of home, especially with the foreign-ness of his accent (yes, I'm glad you didn't type it phonetically the whole way - I'd NEVER have gotten it! LOL) could just serve to highlight the difference of where she was. And I think her dream about the wake highlighted nicely her biggest problem, that she feels guilty for the fear, sorrow and uncertainty her family is experiencing. That really would be incredibly wearing on one, to know that her family is going through that and there's nothing she can do to relieve it for them. That should relieve the guilt, but it wouldn't. Oh, and can I just say... skinny-dipping by starlight?!?!? I LOVE IT! Great description... All right... enough going on. Well done, my dear, as always. *massive hugs* Author Reply: Thanks, AspenJules. :D Two reviews for the price of one, eh? ;D I think Penny will take Erestor up on his offer, though. She has to. She has to exorcise the demons in a way - both for her grief as well as her homesickness. In many ways the two are inter-related. And you're right, guilt is a HUGE factor in her grief. | |
| Dreamflower | Reviewed Chapter: 51 on 2/4/2008 |
| Ah! Finally, some uninterrupted time to catch up on this latest and long-anticipated chapter. There were a lot of things to love in this--I was glad to see her able to enjoy the company and friendship of the hobbits once again, sharing breakfast and tea and Westron lessons. You do so well in portraying them. I just loved this part: Merry, just as Pippin had done with the Gondorians, had entirely taken Rohirric sensibilities about such things to heart. Penny did not doubt for a moment that if anything were to happen as they passed through the Dunlending’s land, Merry would be at the forefront of any fighting to be had, be he surrounded by warrior ellyn and Dunedain or no, such was the strength of feeling with which he had just spoken. Yes, these were hardier hobbits than those that had left the Shire so many months before. So very, very perceptive: Merry and Pippin *are* warriors now, and of their "adopted" lands, of the lands they have pledged their allegiance to. It does not change the fact of them being hobbits and of the Shire, but they are more than that now, and it will stand them in good stead. I really liked how you described the passage through Dunland, and the avoidance of the Dunlendings. It makes more sense of the group's unimpeded passage to see that the lands were not *actually* empty, but merely appearing so, with the people hiding. I'd never thought of it that way before! Penny's dream of her "wake" was utterly realistic. I've dreamed before of either myself or a loved one being dead, and yet still being there talking and interacting as though not, and in the dreamworld, it seems perfectly logical. And this: "why a story about a man utterly failing to avenge a murder that might not have even happened was considered one of the greatest stories of her people. Wow! I have never before seen such a perfect one-sentence summary of "Hamlet" before! And I can certainly understand Penny's fear of Saruman: for all that he's fallen, he's still a Maiar. He might percieve who and what she is in some way, and be able to *use* that fact in some way or another--whether likely or not, it's still possible. That would have to unsettle her. And I love the slow development of things between Penny and Halladan--that's coming along very nicely indeed! *grin* Author Reply: It does not change the fact of them being hobbits and of the Shire, but they are more than that now, and it will stand them in good stead. Well, exactly. I think you see that so well in the way Merry, Pippin and Sam just instantly react to what's going on in the Shire from the moment they arrive, refuse to kowtow to it and just get on with turning out the ruffians. They don't even think twice about it. It makes more sense of the group's unimpeded passage to see that the lands were not *actually* empty, but merely appearing so, with the people hiding. I'd never thought of it that way before! Well, it made sense once I thought about it. Tolkien says they did not impede the travellers, thus the implication has to be that they were still there and had not deserted the land. I think they would have lost a lot of menfolk in the attack on Helm's Deep (the huorns left none alive, of course, and I doubt they would have distinguished between man or orc) so that would have been an added factor, no doubt. I have never before seen such a perfect one-sentence summary of "Hamlet" before! lol! I had to study it for two years for A-level, and have seen various productions of it, including Daniel Day-Lewis's. One of the most interesting (that I didn't see live, unfortunately) was one where the ghost was 'internalised' - i.e. the lines were said by the actor playing Hamlet, as if it was a possession or else a mere figment of his imagination/a force of madness. It's so versatile a text - you can interpret it in so many different ways. And that's exactly it re. Saruman - you've put it better than I managed. ;D | |
| Alassiel | Reviewed Chapter: 51 on 2/4/2008 |
| Greetings Boz4PM, This is a long overdue note of encouragement. I have been reading this tale and its prequel since they were first published and thoroughly enjoying them. All of the characters are well drawn and feel like real people to me. Though she is not a Mary Sue, for which I am grateful, Penny is resourceful and quite resilient. She is beginning to know the full extent of her losses, and I hope that she finds at least one among her friends who can help. One I thought of is Galadriel. I may be wrong, but I don't think she knew until some time later that she had been pardoned and could return to Aman. I know that life can often interfere with our writing time, so I understand the long intervals between chapters. I send my blessings and hopes that you will be able to complete this wonderful tale. Your Devoted Reader, Alassiel Author Reply: And greetings to you! :D Thank you for taking time out to comment. I'm glad you're still enjoying the story all this time later. :) | |
| Reviewed Chapter: 51 on 2/3/2008 | |
| Hearing Penny try to explain modern concepts is wonderful. Her homesickness was teriffically written. Author Reply: Thank you - for reading and commenting. :D | |
| obsidianj | Reviewed Chapter: 51 on 2/3/2008 |
| I'm very glad that you didn't write Erestor's accent. As a non native speaker, I have trouble figuring out what he was talking about in the short sample you gave So, now Saruman is gone and even if he noticed Penny, I think she can breathe lighter. I can understand her homesickness so well. Even after a long time in the US, I still have days when everything is strange and gets on my nerves and I just want to pack up and go home Author Reply: lol, well that's why I realised I couldn't include it in the main text. And that's exactly right re. homesickness. It can return even years after the initial bout of it, perhaps due to illness or depression or even just noticing someting that reminds you of home momentarily - which is what's happening to Penny right now. With everything else, especially the grief, it's hitting her hard. In some ways it's more 'sick of where she is/how she's feeling/what's happening' more than anything else. That, combined with the grief, means she's missing 'the familiar' terribly. | |
| Silvereyes06 | Reviewed Chapter: 51 on 2/3/2008 |
| I wanna get off to. Poor Penny, she has been through so much, it's abou time she came to terms with it and the nightmares, i can only imagine having leave my cellphone, laptop, and chocolate behind. i would go insane. BUt, i don't know why she's terrified to see Saruman, i would relish the chance to glare at him and dare him to figure out the truth of my being there. it would be great. great chapter over all, and keep it coming. i always have something to look forward too when ever im on the net. Author Reply: Well, if she hadn't been in such a low state of mind to begin with, then she might well have felt more defiant and beligerant (sp?) about seeing Saruman. It's one of those vaguely irrational moments when, no matter what your brain is telling you (in this case that Saruman is no danger since a) he's lost his power and b) she's surrounded by a couple of hundred warriors - two things Halladan will point out to her next chapter, incidentally), your emotional side reacts instinctively in spite of you. As much as anything if Saruman had picked up on her being there and made enough of a thing about it that would bring her to the attention even of those around her - and don't forget most people still just think of her as 'strange woman found lost and wandering in the North with amnesia.' Glad you enjoyed it, and thanks for reviewing. :D | |