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| Gifts of Life by fileg | 11 Review(s) |
|---|---|
| Soledad | Reviewed Chapter: 1 on 10/6/2008 |
| This was beautiful. Simply beautiful. | |
| Rose Sared | Reviewed Chapter: 1 on 7/16/2004 |
| Well this is probably redundant, congratulations on your Mithril award, and well done indeed. This is a lovely little story, very true and so original. Much enjoyed, I will go seek out your other stuff. Thank you Rose | |
| Cm | Reviewed Chapter: 1 on 3/21/2004 |
| This was wonderful. I loved Merry with his family "web", when he said that, the part about hobbits looking at their families as a web, each strand a life that touched a heart, I seriously paused a moment and read that line over a couple times and really thought about it, it was beautiful. I am still thinking about it now actually. Great job! And thank you for that bit of hobbity insight! | |
| Salsify | Reviewed Chapter: 1 on 9/21/2003 |
| This was wonderful - Gimli and Merry at the same time! My two favorites, and you did an excellent job with both of them. It certainly didn't show that you don't write dwarves all the time. Gimli was just right, and given how scarce dwarf children are, I wouldn't be surprised at all to find that he was a bit sentimental about babies. I really enjoyed this. | |
| Hai | Reviewed Chapter: 1 on 8/22/2003 |
| Wow! That was really cool! I loved how you put a bit of hobbit and dwarven history into it! That was great! You wrote it wonderfully also, thank you for your time in producing such and neat story! | |
| Orangeblossom Took | Reviewed Chapter: 1 on 8/11/2003 |
| Lovely! The attention to detail in this story is amazing. The mentions of Aragon's ancestory, Faramir finding the document, the gift of Gimli and Merry. A excelletn tale! Thank you. | |
| fileg | Reviewed Chapter: 1 on 8/10/2003 |
| Thanks so much for reading. I just snuck a teeny little change into this story (in the Faramir cameo - set up for something else I want to do) I based my Gimli on a red-bearded torc-wearing celtic buddy of mine who has often knocked on my door just this way. He too has been friends with many a keg! | |
| daw the minstrel | Reviewed Chapter: 1 on 8/9/2003 |
| The keg's "new friend" being Gimli? LOL The geneology IS an appropriate gift from a hobbit given how interested they are in figuring out who is related to whom. I never would have thought of that. Gimli's comments resonate as he talks about Aragorn carrying his lineage in his heart. I also have to say that only a hobbit could sort out the tangled relationships in Tolkien's work and enjoy it. Really both of their gifts are appropriate and beautiful. I enjoyed this. | |
| Nilmandra | Reviewed Chapter: 1 on 8/8/2003 |
| Fileg, this is wonderful! You have captured the dwarves and the hobbits absolutely amazingly - and so much is said in so few words! If I were to paste in all my favorite lines I would just end up recopying your story. The hobbit family tree being like Fangorn forest, and Gimli's references to being children of Aule, children of stone - are amazing. You have made them alive in Tolkien's world - shown their culture and history and beliefs very believably. I like the tight writing too - every word means something - so important in a vignette. Thank you! Author Reply: Let's hope I doing tis right - I am the OSX guinea pig for the site and I have not used this new interface before!! Thanks to you all for reading and encouraging! I am especially grateful to find this story is working, because it was written for Henneth-Annun’s “crossover” challenge – since I usually write about the race of Men, I drew “dwarves – Gimli without Legolas” and “orcs” from the list. (I cheated *just a little * by using so much of Merry, whose bright voice speaks to me, but who I had not written about before; and sneaking in a teeny reference to Faramir, who I depend upon to hold my paw when I write.) I have more in mind for Merry down the road if this is working… It was a challenge indeed to write not just a foreign idea, but for an entire culture I felt less sure of. (Though the orcs were worse! I scared *myself * with that voice – the silent rage of a first-age orc poet!) To see such wonderful response to the experiment is heartening indeed! I was afraid Gimli’s carved children would seem too sentimental for a dwarf – but I liked the way it let him recall his creation myth. Shaal, that “new aspect” comment is high praise indeed! It is what I strive for in my writing – not a “posed” picture, but a revealing candid snapshot. Shirebound, everyone here at home also liked the “Fangorn Forest” remark – that just came to me while typing, and it was the first moment I felt like I could really hear Gimli’s voice! Nilmandra, that you so much for your remarks about “tight” writing. I like the vignette form, especially the discipline it imposes. I have pictures and characterization when I write, but I seldom have what you could call “plot”, so I like to get right to the heart of it- Polaroid’s from Middle Earth. This is the longest single piece I have ever written. I write a lot of verse, and I think it makes me very aware of how I place each word, though I do it unconsciously for prose. My excellent beta, Chris, complains about all the parts I told her about and then left out, then goes on to point out all the deadwood I left in. I call her the “slash and burn” beta. (Check out her stories here, by the way to hear the voice of the woman whose excellent ear tightens up my work!) | |
| Shaal | Reviewed Chapter: 1 on 8/8/2003 |
| Just a wonderful story, Fileg. I re-read it after seeing Marigold's recommendation today and it is so well deserved. I love how the gifts Merry and Gimli craft reflect their personality so well and just how hobbity and dwarvish they were. It's very satisfying when a writer captures a new aspect of such increasingly familiar characters. | |