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| Flames by Lindelea | 24 Review(s) |
|---|---|
| Eirinn Leigh | Reviewed Chapter: 32 on 11/19/2015 |
| I like these last two chapters. And it's good to see Ferdi's father becoming a better hobbit and a better dad. Author Reply: Thank you! | |
| Eirinn Leigh | Reviewed Chapter: 30 on 11/19/2015 |
| This story is told a lot more abruptly than the others I've read of yours; more a 'History of Annuls' and less a 'bardic tale' if that analogy makes sense. But styles are styles; it's good to try out a variety. The one critique I do have is that the way you stagger your backflashes requires the reader to have knowledge of them before they get the them to really understand the nuances of what is going on. Also I'd really like to know more about the initiation of the shunning. So far it doesn't seem absolute (as seemed implied in 'Starfire')- is it not formal yet? or are the Tooks breaking their Thain's verdict behind his back? What formal prodecures occur in cases of shunning? Author Reply: The abruptness may be partly because this is such an early story. Interesting critique! I hadn't thought of it that way before. I'll have to take another look. Ferdi's shunning was never formally announced, it was sort of sneaky and underhanded on Paladin's part. Paladin blamed Ferdi, unfairly, for Pippin's near-death in the ice storm, and subsequent self-exile. I think he knew that if Pippin had found out about the injustice, he would have returned and taken up his duties once more -- but he didn't find out until much later, because he returned letters from Tookland unopened. There was hurt and bitterness on both sides. The Tooks didn't like it, but they were afraid of Paladin's temper, and so any who broke the rules, did this very carefully and surreptitiously as possible. Except, of course, for Eglantine, who kept trying to get her husband to reverse his stance... and was about the only one who didn't have to be afraid of the consequences of defying him. You can read more about formal shunning in Truth, both the pronouncement and the reversal. (http://www.storiesofarda.com/chapterlistview.asp?SID=476) Of course, you read about the Ban in Flames, here, and in another story (Runaway), Ferdi and Tolly both nearly get Banned because of a misunderstanding. I have a love-hate relationship with that story... Anyhow, thanks for the feedback. The Muse has deserted me for the time being, which means I'm not updating the unfinished stories right now. But I keep hoping I'll be able to sit down and finish those, sooner than later... The feedback helps -- it draws my attention back to Stories of Arda, after being away for way too long. Author Reply: Oh, I just remembered, there is a little more about Ferdi's shunning in A Took By Any Other Name. http://www.storiesofarda.com/chapterlistview.asp?SID=3330 | |
| Eirinn Leigh | Reviewed Chapter: 5 on 11/19/2015 |
| Is this the story that tells *How* Ferdi came to be afraid of fire? Or is that an earlier one? Author Reply: That story is told more fully in Pearl of Great Price. http://storiesofarda.com/chapterlistview.asp?SID=1060 Thanks for stopping by and leaving a note! | |
| SZWpHlpbOWe | Reviewed Chapter: 23 on 10/22/2012 |
| Your's is a point of view where real intleligecne shines through. | |
| Nienor Niniel | Reviewed Chapter: 58 on 8/20/2006 |
| I just finished this fic, and I don't even know what to say. You had me in tears several times: poor Ferdibrand goes through so much! It's really unusual for people to let a character go such a difficult way in fics, at least in those I've read. There may be angst, but it's usually resolved relatively quickly. I like how it is different with Ferdibrand. This way it gains much more significance when his life starts to brighten. The amount of detail you put into the Took's culture and customs is incredible, and I enjoy the many things you invented: the competitions, the little changes Pippin makes to Tookish customs, the hierarchy under the higher-ranking hobbits... the list is endless. I'm going to read the companion pieces next, and then the stories that follow. I desperately hope you'll allow poor Pippin to get fully healthy again in one of them! Thanks for your writing! Nienor Author Reply: You're welcome! Thanks for sharing it with me. The only reason I can write Pippin so unhealthy without too much of a pang is because I have a timeline, of late Third Age and Fourth Age happenings in the Shire. (I made it up, incorporating every hint I could find of JRRT's). On this timeline is Pippin's healing. You'll find the details of that in two stories: At the End of His Rope, and A Healer's Tale. Hope that's a comfort! The pony races were the seed of the culture that grew itself in these stories; Jodancingtree was writing a pony race (in Sam's Rose) and asked me for suggestions, and after reading her description of the Free Fair at Michel Delving I found my imagination stretching and flowering and hobbits and the Shire becoming more real. So a great deal of credit goes to Jodancingtree! Thanks! | |
| Larner | Reviewed Chapter: 38 on 4/3/2005 |
| Very gentle ending, a good one, surrounded by love. | |
| Larner | Reviewed Chapter: 5 on 3/10/2005 |
| Excellent and appropriate punishments. Author Reply: Thanks! I've been told they are too harsh. Either hobbits would never do anything "bad" enough to be banished from the Shire, or... I don't know. I cannot imagine hobbit prison--if there were gaols or prisons, then why would the ruffians have had to make storeholes into Lockholes? I could see banishment as the hobbit form of "capital punishment", ridding their society of a dangerous element. And it seems as if you'd have to have some sort of permanent marking to keep them from walking back in. (Dreamflower, I think, uses a tattoo as her solution.) If they had dangerous elements, that is. Thanks! | |
| Larner | Reviewed Chapter: 4 on 3/10/2005 |
| Watch all sides indeed. Author Reply: Yup. It struck me that some might see it as a coincidence that the heirs to the two most influential hobbits and the one who inherited from the reputed richest hobbit in the Shire should all disappear at the same time, followed by the growing troubles under Lotho's influence. And nobody seems to have the power to stop Lotho. | |
| Bodkin | Reviewed Chapter: 58 on 3/10/2005 |
| Ferdi - my favourite hobbit. I'm glad he got his reward in Pimpernel. Not that it stopped his suffering, of course, but at least he could look forward to the nursing! Author Reply: Y'know, Ferdi's one of my favourite hobbits as well. Merry has always been my favourite, though I find it hard to write him for some reason. (Perhaps I fear I won't do him justice.) Pippin's been an interesting character study. D'y'know, I started writing Ferdi because I'd written so much Pippin-angst I thought I ought to pick on someone else for a change? Poor Ferdi! | |
| Dreamflower | Reviewed Chapter: 58 on 3/9/2005 |
| Well, I've whiled away the afternoon on this, start to finish, and not taking the time to review each chapter as I go--sorry about that, but it's just been too absorbing, and I'm still a bit brain dead from too little sleep last night. It's been lovely to see the story from Ferdi's POV--I like to see the same thing from different points of view. It's very satisfying to see how all the events hang together. You are an expert on that, and I take my hat off to you. Ferdi is so well-depicted, I tend to forget that he is an OC! His pride, his stubborness, his gradual overcoming of all the obstacles, his growing friendship with his cousin and Thain are so very well done. I loved it. Congratulations on another wonderful addition to your epic. (For to me, all your stories are like one long story.) Author Reply: So glad you took the time to leave a word! I'm not going to burden people with reviewing every single chapter, for nobody would likely read my stories if that were the case! (Even though I love reviews, some are crunchy and some smooth and creamy and all are delicious with chocolate sauce.) Y'know, I've had that feeling before, that it's all one long story and I'm just taking snapshots (or in some cases something much bigger) at certain points along the way. Thanks! Author Reply: p.s. There's just one little detail (that I've noticed so far) that doesn't quite "hang together". In "Flames" Farry is four, turning five when his father becomes Thain, but when I calculated it later he ought to have turned four that year. Also, in "Jewels" (actually, "Seeing the Forest" which spun off from "Jewels" and was written concurrently) Farry's birthday is in the Spring, and in "Flames" it is in the Autumn. So one of these days I need to go back and figure out how to adjust that and reconcile the two. But happily it doesn't seem to have bothered the readers any. | |