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A Took by Any Other Name  by Lindelea 177 Review(s)
PSWReviewed Chapter: Author's Notes on 1/9/2016
Wow, lots going on here! But all seems to be looking up in the end....

Thanks for writing!

Eirinn LeighReviewed Chapter: 17 on 11/20/2015
Oh Merimac! Oh Ferdi!

Eirinn LeighReviewed Chapter: 9 on 11/20/2015
But Pip never found out... what happened!?

Eirinn LeighReviewed Chapter: 6 on 11/20/2015
Out of all the horrors and pains in this chapter it hurt the most to think of Ferdi - not riding off to route goblins or preparing to drag Pip home to face the music as Pip would have it - but wandering through life in near silence, too took-stubborn to leave and too took-loyal to rebel against his sentence in any but the most minor of ways.

Author Reply: I just saw this, years after you wrote it. Thank you so much for your encouragement, and stopping to leave your thoughts.

Author Reply: And p.s., you have exactly described my feelings in the matter.

ImhirielReviewed Chapter: 16 on 12/5/2006
The parallels between Pippin's present situation and his recollections are truly eerie, as is the way he later confuses and mixes both. And well presented, here and in the previous chapter.

Author Reply: Why, hello!

Here is another review I don't remember seeing in my e-mail. I just chanced upon it now.

Thanks for leaving your impressions.

ImhirielReviewed Chapter: 14 on 12/5/2006
Knowing what was to come, Merimac's return and every gesture and every word had so much poignancy!

I loved the scene with Paladin and Eglantine at night: little scenes like this always are so moving, because they show that for all the bad Paladin does, there is still the love for his wife, and the memories of earlier times, when he was the warm and loving father. Which makes it all that much harder to read in contrast.

but then Paladin was always one to acknowledge hard truths, as long as he wasn’t looking into his own faults.

*snort* Too true, too true...

ImhirielReviewed Chapter: 9 on 12/5/2006
"...tradition is, when one under the Ban falls seriously ill, sentence is lifted, but there’s been nothing of the sort in this case."

"Came here to see the lad, out of his head with fever, and left without saying a word. Woodruff as head healer is the only one who’ll openly defy the hobbit..."


If Woodruff were not so brave as to defy Paladin, what do you think would happen/would have happened? Would Paladin really risk endangering Ferdi's life for the sake of his foolish, wrong-headed, despotic, tyrannical, heartless etc. pride? (Sorry, but this just makes me so angry everytime I read it...)

Author Reply: I think, perhaps, that if someone had not taken Ferdi up when he collapsed, if Woodruff had not defied Paladin, that Eglantine would have dragged Paladin by his ear to where Ferdi lay, in the corridor, and the shock of how far things had gone would have brought him to his senses.

So the irony is that Ferdi's Ban would have been over four years sooner, if nobody had done anything to help him at a time when he couldn't help himself.

Either that, or Eglantine would have had Woodruff declare her husband mad and unfit to be Thain (wonder why they didn't do that anyhow?) and then she, as head of the family after Paladin's removal, would have reversed the Ban. But it would have been an irreversible act, for Paladin, and so she never quite got up the nerve to do so. Perhaps she never stopped hoping Pippin would return soon, or perhaps that her constant chipping away at Paladin would bear fruit and her husband would have a change of heart.

It was heartening to read this review, almost like having a new review, though you wrote it some time ago.

I don't know if I'm making sense today. Am groggy from a headache. But belated thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts.

DanaReviewed Chapter: 19 on 4/24/2005
Oh. Oh, but this was an incredible ending.

Author Reply: So glad you made it all the way through! And glad to have your note, as well. *h7gs*

CuthalionReviewed Chapter: 19 on 3/30/2005
Dear, this is one of the most remarkable tales I've ever read. Wonderful characters, a magic worlds of details, and you ripped my heart out of my chest with the fever-scene in the bathtub (sorry that it took me so long to return and to read since my last review!). This is the work of a great storyteller... thank you so much, Lin!

Cúthalion

Author Reply: Aber danke!

And I know how it is, about getting back to a story. I have a number on my reading list, that I last commented on some time ago. Here I am again, with almost no time to read.

But then, I suppose it's better than having a boring life.

SaoirseReviewed Chapter: 19 on 3/11/2005
My... What a wonderful ending to another wonderful story. It is nice to see Pippin getting along with Diamond in your stories (as I've always pictured his marriage with her to be rather bad). It seems that Pippin has come into his own here, and although the road ahead for him may still seem a bit foggy (and rocky), at least he's wandering the path. The ending was just perfect. How could Paladin not have the heart to add his grand-lad's name into the Yellow Book? At least there Pippin can see that his father was indeed thinking of him and his family, and despite cruelties and misunderstanding, loved them all very much. Wonderful job :)

Author Reply: Well, thank you! Appreciate the encouragement. I always get depressed when finishing a story--perhaps that's why some of them go on and on.

Anyhow, yes, Paladin did love his son very much, though he did not know how to show it very well. But someday, perhaps, I'll shock everyone and write a Pippin-getting-along-with-Paladin story. LOL.

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