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| Deific Flame by Bejai | 4 Review(s) |
|---|---|
| Nilmandra | Reviewed Chapter: 1 on 4/24/2004 |
| Bejai, I have put off reading this until I had my own view of the second age and the role of Galadriel and Celeborn more in hand. Thank goodness I did, or I would be shamelessly borrowing and having to slap my own hand and apologize. You awe me with your ability to write so powerfully. Celebrimbor and Annatar are masterful. | |
| daw the minstrel | Reviewed Chapter: 1 on 4/20/2004 |
| I was caught up in this from the first paragraph. Your scenes flowered into reality before me and your characters lived and breathed. I was horrified by Annatar, but then I had the advantage of knowing who he was. Poor Celebrimbor. He is so deceived and the folly of Feanor lives on into another generation. | |
| Marnie | Reviewed Chapter: 1 on 3/1/2004 |
| Ooh! It's exciting! I really like the opening paragraph with the elves on fire, in a sense, in a way that Men would scarcely recognise in them - but we recognise from the Silm, which makes the transition to Celebrimbor looking and behaving just like Feanor so right. It was a great discussion :) I loved, with a great secret glee, the idea that Celeborn forbade the Mirdain to finish the Rings, and that was the last straw which convinced Annatar he had to act. Excellent idea! The introduction of Amroth as a cloaked figure whom you don't know who he is works in the story to draw you in, but also as a great symbol of who he is in canon as well. Oh, and I adored 'the last of the generals before the moon, the very fist of Elu Thingol.' I may have to use that as a subtitle for my site it's so good! Annatar is a joy (in a slimy sort of way, because you can't help liking a bad guy who's actually good at what he does.) I liked "all they touch turns to ash." Yeah, he's a fine one to be talking! But then you could argue that what he says is all entirely true. It's just that none of it *means* what he makes it mean. And the religious undercurrants are so good, because the NOldor know from their history that nothing good comes of setting themselves against the Valar... Nice to see Calandil again as a sort of mentor of the family. And I liked the way that Galadriel reacted to Celebrimbor as if she'd been waiting all along for this to happen. That sounds very likely, not only as someone foresighted, but also as someone who knew Feanor quite well and would have seen the similarities. Definately a great start! I don't deserve all the plugs though - your stuff is far too thoughtful and interesting to have managed to get anything from me. And speaking of which - could I *please* put this on the site? Author Reply: Hi Marnie I was hoping that I'd managed to invoke a Silm-like feeling in the beginning of the chapter. It would be hard for me to justify the vision of a mob of elves with the peaceful LOTR version of the elves if not for Feanor's revolt against the Valar. I'm glad it worked, because that was a key thing. And I couldn't help but suggest that Celeborn tried to stop the forging of the rings. Would make Nenya more difficult for him to deal with in addition to explaining the revolt. Glad you liked Annatar. I mean, we all know who he is, but it's fun to think about how he would come across if we didn't. Like Mithrandir, but more beautiful, more persuasive. I wanted him to come across as reasonable, as right, while still leaving that shadow lurking under everything he says. I'm so gratified that Calandil's creator approves of him :) He'll show up at least once more. And you absolutely deserve all the kudos I can give you, Marnie. There's this brilliant third age story, see, called "Battle of the Golden Wood." Don't know if you've read it, but if you like Celeborn, you've got to go check out this author ... :) As ever, I'm honored that you would want my story on your site. Feel free to do so. | |
| Sphinx | Reviewed Chapter: 1 on 2/29/2004 |
| Lovely title for the story, btw. Made me look up the dictionary. ;) But I like it. I've been waiting for someone to come along and do a good Second Age Eregion story, and this has all the makings of one, even if I'm not the world's greatest Amroth shipper. Great sense of action in the beginning - it all seemed to happen fast, and it worked well. Calandil!!! *hugs* I LOVE Calandil. Ask Marnie. He was the one original character I genuinely adored in BoTG. Excellent confrontation with Galadriel and Celeborn with Celebrimbor. This is what Celeborn is really like - cool, calm, level headed even in the midst of such rioting. And I really, really liked Galadriel's reaction to her realization of Celebrimbor's betrayal. It makes his gift of Nenya to her all the more poignant. And Annatar's vedict on the Valar! Yes. Very well done. And Amroth was intriguingly interesting....wasnt Galadaran a name Tolkien originally intended for Celeborn? All in all, a brilliant opening chapter. You always manage to keep interest riveted. :) *prods for more asap* Author Reply: Thank you :) Glad you like the title. I was doing the Bilbo Baggins thing for this story. Had about 15 titles written out before I decided that I like this one. Far more traumatic to pick one then is reasonable. To be honest, I'm not sure if I'm an Amroth shipper either. But I thought I'd try it and see where it goes. I loved Calandil too. And when I needed a faithful, Glorfindelesque character who would look out for the family, but not be afraid to kick Celeborn in the rear from time to time, I couldn't get Calandil out of my head. Marnie was nice enough to let me borrow him, which was great. Galadaran is very close to a name that Tolkie nearly gave Celeborn. Celeborn's was, I believe, Galdaran. One less "a." I justified giving Amroth his other name a couple ways -- it was a mirror of "Celebrian," for one, and closely related to Galadriel's name. When someone else pointed out how close it was to Celeborn's original name too, I decided that it was destiny. Thanks for the review! | |