Stories of Arda Home Page
About Us News Resources Login Become a member Help Search

The Last Messenger: A Tale of Númenor  by Fiondil 4 Review(s)
RadbooksReviewed Chapter: 7 on 2/21/2008
Oh, good chapter. I liked the way they made it look like Vandiel did not want to go on the boat, it's always good to have a nice brother/sister fight. :) The boat ride and the area you described there sounded beautiful. When Laurendil gets back to Aman, he absolutely needs to learn how to swim! Maybe it will come into play here, but as old as he is, it's time he learned. :)



Author Reply: I'm sure Vandiel and Valandil had a blast putting on that particular show for the spectators. *grin* And I'm not sure if Laurendil really doesn't know to swim or was just joking with Valandil. You would think that after 3 or 4 millennia he would have at least learned how to tread water. LOL

Nieriel RainaReviewed Chapter: 7 on 2/19/2008
Vandiel and Valandil's acting was great! LOVED all the sailing info. I've always wanted to learn to sail. Laurendil can't swim? Interesting. Poor elf.

Great chapter. I look forward to seeing what comes next!

Author Reply: Part of the sailing scene, where Valandil invites Laurendil to take the helm is based on my own experience of being on a Windjammer cruise sailing through the Grenedines and being allowed to steer, although that was at night with no lights (not even the moon). Luckily I didn't hit anything. LOL Glad you liked the chapter.

AlquawendeReviewed Chapter: 7 on 2/18/2008
Very nice chapter! Khibîlhazid, I know is Andunaic but it sounds almost Dwarvish.

Author Reply: It does sound dwarvish, doesn't it? *grin* Glad you liked the chapter.

LarnerReviewed Chapter: 7 on 2/18/2008
A shoal-draft boat would indeed be broader in the beam than one intended for speed, but I think that a boat thirty feet wide by sixty long would be rather unwieldy. The late husband was a former swabby, so I was often the recipient of his lectures on boats, ships, barges, and so on, and we owned a succession of motor cruisers over six years that left me with an appreciation of how much trouble they can be. It's often said that the two happiest days of a boater's life are when he first gets his new boat and when he gets rid of it. As he was blind by then, I was the one who got to pilot the thing in storms, and I found I didn't feel anything like secure having to not only head toward my destination but deal with the direction of the waves, currents, and wind as well as the motor and the attitude of the boat. In calm waters he'd drive and I'd tell him, "left, right, forward, reverse, speed up, slow down." At low speeds you are often at the mercy of wind and currents, which can send you flatly opposite the direction you WANT to go, and that would drive me nuts. The day he was able to bring the boat in after two others of us couldn't he was so blasted smug!

I love the tunnel and how it was disguised being there in plain sight as it were, and the description of the lodge, that still sounds to be larger than my house! Heh!

Author Reply: Well I based this on a description I found for a sailing boat used by a Windjammer company that sails out of Maine, so I don't know how unwieldly it would be, not being a sailor. I think the 30 feet is overall dimensions, not neceassarily the actual width of the main deck. And I based the description of the lodge on the 'summer home' at Sonneberg Gardens outside Geneva, New York. My condo could have easily fit inside the foyer! LOL

Return to Chapter List