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Trust a Brandybuck and a Took!  by Grey Wonderer 10 Review(s)
cathleenReviewed Chapter: 10 on 2/17/2006
GW this was great! You have such a wonderful way with words and a terrific imagination. I love the way the soldiers had their own narrative and your young Pippin and Merry are true delights! I do love your tales.
Cathleen

Author Reply: Thank you! So glad that you enjoyed my solider and his hobbits. LOL Thanks for the review and for reading!

LarnerReviewed Chapter: 10 on 5/3/2005
Love all the commentary from the POV of the Lieutenant. Hilarious





Love all the commentary from the POV of the lieutenant, and Pippin as a commander in his own right. Lovely, light moment.


















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Author Reply: Pippin had a way of making the soldiers tow the line. The Lieutenant better come to terms with that or he'll be out of the boat and swimming before his tour of duty is over. Glad you liked my attempt to "think like a toy soldier".

Jeodo BrandybuckReviewed Chapter: 10 on 3/12/2005
Again, what a fun story! Everytime I feel down and can't find anything that takes my interest, I have to return to this one -- it's a guarenteed laugh!

Thanks!
Jeodo

Author Reply: I love repeat business! And thank you for the review. It isn't often that someone stops by a second time and takes the time to leave a note too! Thank you! I am very glad that you like this one.

DreamflowerReviewed Chapter: 10 on 8/16/2004
This is absolutely lovely! As a child, some of my very favorite stories were those in which the toys came alive and had their own thoughts and feelings. Many of those are very old-fashioned stories, and yours had a similar flavor. I especially enjoyed the ending, where Pip seems to know exactly what Merry's little lieutenant is thinking. And you don't need to apologize for the M&C reference, it's very subtle, really.

Author Reply: I am a huge fan of "The Velvetine Rabbit". I guess it shows, though I wasn't thinking of it when I wrote this, at least not conciously. I never know what's in the back of my mind. I do think that if anyone could talk to toys it would be Pippin so it seemed only natural that he might know what that little soldier was thinking. LOL Glad the Master and Commander bit worked for you. I just had to do it. Too good to pass up.

Hai TookReviewed Chapter: 10 on 8/4/2004
I loved that! The way you went between the soldiers thoughts and what was going on with the missing soldiers and teh Intruder getting caught was great! I especially loved the end when Pippin actually replied to the soldier! Very neat! Thank you for such a fun story!

Author Reply: So glad you liked my soldier. I thought that Pip might just be able to talk to the little soldier because I think little children have extra talents that they out-grow. LOL

Pearl TookReviewed Chapter: 10 on 8/1/2004
This is so incredibly creative!! I thoroughly loved it. You need to edit out the apology for the Master and Commander joke, it is wonderful!!! Wonderful, wonderful!!

Author Reply: Thank you for saying such nice things! I figured that even if it didn't work, it was, at the very least, a different approach. Maybe next time the boat can tell its side of things. (No, that may be going a bit too far.) So you enjoyed the Master and Commander joke? Glad to hear that someone did. I did that for me. LOL It seemed a cute tie-in at the time, but I thought some might find it a bit silly so I tacked on the apology. Thank you again, for this lovely review.

PIppinfan1988Reviewed Chapter: 10 on 8/1/2004
I can't remember when I laughed so hard, GW! General Brandybuck, the Intruder, the Old Campaigner, the Advisor! LOL.. All from a wooden toy's point of view...while a child is able to "communicate" with it. Brilliant as always, Grey Wonderer! Loved that M&C bit! My salty little Pippin! :-)

Pippinfan

Author Reply: I actually am a wooden toy and so that part was easy. Thanks for reading this and for flattering me and calling me brilliant. I am now going to go and let some of the hot air out of my head to relieve the swelling. LOL

Jeodo BrandybuckReviewed Chapter: 10 on 8/1/2004
Oh damn, damn, damn, damn, damn! I wish I had written that!!

Wonderful! Just wonderful. This one goes in my files with the very best!

Jeodo

Author Reply: Wow! Thank you! I almost wish you'd written it too because I just love your stories. (I almost wish you had. LOL) Thank you for the great review and for reading this. The soldiers and the boat were in "Thinking of You" in a rather serious chapter in which they help to jog Pippin's memory a bit. I wanted to revisit them in happier times. I have always thought that Merry would have made a terrific general or master-planner of some sort.

LindeleaReviewed Chapter: 10 on 8/1/2004
I didn't have time to read the whole, and fully intend to come back later! But what I did have time to read was so believable, and made me chuckle, and reminded me of my growing-up days, when my brothers played so.

It is a little hard on the eyes. Is, perhaps, the entire chapter appearing in "bold"?

Author Reply: I spent two hours trying to format this one! LOL It's a wonder that it is appearing at all. Yes, it is all in bold at the moment and I do plan to try and fix that after I recover from last night's efforts. For some reason, Every time I put this chapter in, the formatting took out two of the first three papagraphs and moved them to the end of the story. Then it was too broad for the frame and you had to move with every line to read it, then....well, you get the idea. LOL
Glad you enjoyed what you were able to read and I am sorry about the eye-strain. As originally post, the soldier's bit was in italics and the rest of the story was just normal print. It worked on my LJ, but not here. Go figure.

BodkinReviewed Chapter: 10 on 8/1/2004
I just love this. The soldier is such a lovely character - I hope he will appear in further stories. It's great the way he and Pippin can communicate. So amusing.

I'm sure the lieutenant enjoyed his afternoon sailing before he got back to the serious business of fighting the Battle of the Five Armies. It was so funny the way he looked on the green soldiers as being traitors because they enjoyed their sail. And the nicknames - the General and the Old Campaigner, the Adviser and the Intruder - and he had the character traits off perfectly.

Good story.

Author Reply: So glad that you enjoyed this one. It's a bit different for me as I've never written the thoughts of a wooden soldier before. LOL Since he was Merry's favorite soldier I figured he'd be very serious about the battles and Merry's instructions. The nicknames for Merry and Frodo came easy, but finding one for Frodo took a while. As for Pippin, he started out as the thief but it just didn't work well so I changed it. Glad that worked out. Thank you for reading this one.

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