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| Pearl of Great Price by Lindelea | 4 Review(s) |
|---|---|
| Grey Wonderer | Reviewed Chapter: 28 on 1/15/2004 |
| This is getting desperate now! Hope those birds aren't flying over a little Took lad and his dog. Now I'm worried. Got to go and read the next chapter in a hurry. This is a very good story with all of the tension between family and friends and now Pippin's disappearance! Keep it coming! | |
| FantasyFan | Reviewed Chapter: 28 on 1/14/2004 |
| Forgot to ask - what kind of carrion birds would they have in the Shire? A Big Person like me might think of vultures or buzzards, but would they live there? (Perhaps a flock of those big nasty crows would be as bad to a hobbit.) Author Reply: Buzzards are a likely choice. Other possibilites are carrion crows and red kites. Found a fascinating website while doing research, with descriptions of all sorts of British birds in their A-Z guide. This is the link to the page on buzzards: http://www.rspb.org.uk/birds/guide/b/buzzard/index.asp | |
| FantasyFan | Reviewed Chapter: 28 on 1/14/2004 |
| This is really the first time this story has focused on Ferdi's thoughts without words, and it's pretty much the youngest we've seen of him, isn't it? It is interesting to compare this wounded, somewhat unsure lad with the Ferdi we know and love in a story like 'Truth'. Here, he's just learning from Veri the skills of a tracker - trying to think like Pippin (ha!), looking for more than just footprints, searching smart rather than just hard. I see his compassion, and dedication to duty. And although Ferdi will recover his voice later, I think there always remains for him a core of silence and stillness. Pip's gotten himself into trouble, and not for the last time! He might be hurt, or perhaps it's the dog he won't leave. Ferdi's life is about to become tangled up with that of the future Thain in a way that is new now, but sets the pattern for many future interactions. What kind of impression will this encounter leave? Author Reply: I think you are right about that core of stillness. He is rather like a hurricane... a core of silence surrounded by restless winds. Hmph. Methinks I ought to go to bed and leave the writing for the morrow. Of course, Ferdi spent a month every summer before this at Paladin's farm while his father trained colts, so he has known Pippin from the time Pip occupied the family cradle. This makes his friendship with Pippin potentially as close as Merry's (just reminded myself that Pippin's father is brother to Merry's mother--though in this story I have arbitrarily decided that Paladin and Ferdinand were as close as Merry and Pippin will be in years to come, so really, the potential is there) ...if not for the fire that changed the course of his life. Thus he has spent a month each summer for the past eleven years or so helping watch over the tyke. I shouldn't wonder if he had a sort of protective "older brother" feeling, which lingers into later storylines. And of course, Pip, being younger and spoilt in the bargain, tends to take Ferdi for granted for far too long, before he really comes to appreciate him (Again, talking later storylines, of course. This story is nearly finished and there's not much more scope for developing there relationship herein.) | |
| Lyta Padfoot | Reviewed Chapter: 28 on 1/14/2004 |
| I suspect the poor dog has bought the farm. Chilling conclusion to this chapter. Ferdi is functional but not really all there. Author Reply: You are very shrewd in your guesses. | |