News Resources
Login
Become a member
Help
Search
|
|
| About Us News Resources
Login
Become a member
Help
Search
|
|
|
| The Day the Stranger Came by Cairistiona | 9 Review(s) |
|---|---|
| Inzilbeth | Reviewed Chapter: 1 on 5/21/2013 |
| I absolutely loved this story from start to finish! Not just because for once I wasn't beta-ing and could just sit back and enjoy the ride, more it was the exquisite balance between humour, h/c and canon. Cairistiona brings each of these qualities to all her stories but here, by her own admission, she held the h/c in check and I feel this was a stronger story for that. I particularly liked [and, again, these are Cairistiona trademarks] the subtle glimpses of the man behind the disguise which inevitably leave those sufficiently intuitive to notice, scratching their heads and wondering. Very well done. Author Reply: Thank you! So very glad you enjoyed it (sans the work of beta'ing)! I just can't seem to write a story without including some humor, can I. And you're right, I do love writing characters who catch a glimpse of his kingly qualities, even if (especially if) it leaves them completely befuddled. Kings in disguise are fun that way. *g* | |
| Linda Hoyland | Reviewed Chapter: 1 on 5/8/2013 |
| I enjoyed this very much and loved your 2 OCS, both ladies I would like to meet!Their reactions to Aragorn made me smile.I'm not surprised he won them over!I'm delighted to see a new story from you! A word on the corn question. English people always mean "Wheat" when they say "corn" .I'm certain Tolkien meant "wheat" or he would have said "corn on the cob". That said, maize is plausible in M-e as they had potatos and pipeweed. Author Reply: Thank you, Linda... so glad you enjoyed the story and the two ladies. I'm not as comfortable writing female OCs as I am male, for some reason, so I'm glad you'd like to actually meet them. I think they'd be fun guests at tea time. :) | |
| rs | Reviewed Chapter: 1 on 5/6/2013 |
| Excellent! I love this! Mildreth totally reminds me of my mom. A survivor; a caring person willing to help those in need (my mom's taken in more than a few strays--we had a full house growing up); arthritic but yet she keeps on chugging along cause she has to; and a how do I say it??? "not so prudish" mind! Loved the potty humor! I love the opening scene. Very vivid. Glad your back, friend. Author Reply: Thank you, RS! Glad you like it... and I'm glad you told me about your mom being a little like Mildreth. I tried to make her seem like a real person and it sounds like I inadvertently personified your mom! LOL If she reads it, tell her it's pure coincidence. :D And I'm glad to be back at writing, thank you. I figured everyone had pretty much forgotten me after all this time. LOL | |
| Larner | Reviewed Chapter: 1 on 5/4/2013 |
| Oh, but I DO like this very well indeed. From the bawdy consideration to the enhanced healing likely to be known by this most hardy of Men, and the recognition of his innate nobility, this is a wonderful examination of how the northern Dunedain might well appear to the Rohirrim. Delightful look at our favorite Ranger! Author Reply: Thank you, Larner! The more I read Tolkien, the more fascinated I become about Aragorn and how other people in Middle-earth viewed him, and by extension his northern kin. I wish Midreth could have lived to see him as a king, so we could have seen her thoughts about that... I'm sure there likely would have been a few irreverent observations mixed in with the admiration! *g* Thanks for reading! | |
| Fiondil | Reviewed Chapter: 1 on 5/4/2013 |
| Finally had some time to read this. Aragorn kissing Elwynna's hand, thinking it Arwen's was a hoot and the ladies discussing his... er... attributes had me chuckling. A very nice slice-of-life look at a typical Rohirric homestead. Aragorn was lucky to have found his way to Mildreth's place. I enjoyed this very much, Cairistiona. Thanks for sharing. We don't see enough of your stories and I hope you will grace us with more soon. Author Reply: Thanks, Fiondil! So glad you enjoyed it. Aragorn was just a wee bit muddled by fever; it's just as well he'll never know he did that. And thank you for the encouragement--I've been having a lot of the dreaded "real life stuff" going on and writing had to take a back seat, but things have calmed down now and I hope to get back into writing and regularly (or at least semi-regularly) posting stories again. | |
| UTfrog | Reviewed Chapter: 1 on 5/1/2013 |
| Lovely story. I especially like the women giggling and speculating on "attributes." Really good OC's. thank you. Author Reply: Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it. | |
| Elentarri | Reviewed Chapter: 1 on 5/1/2013 |
| Beautiful! :) Author Reply: Thanks for reading! | |
| eiluj | Reviewed Chapter: 1 on 5/1/2013 |
| Thanks for the story. Re. your thoughts about maize, tomatoes, and potatoes: remember that the hobbits' pipeweed also originated in the New World (Peru and Ecuador, apparently). So you've got tomatoes, potatoes, and tobacco all with an origin in the same part of South America ... and then there's the maize. (It eventually spread as far south as northern and central South America, but when?) Author Reply: Hope you enjoyed it. :) I have no idea how long/when maize spread from Mexico to the rest of the Americas; I researched enough about all the various Middle-earth veggies enough to know that maize could have been a plausible addition to the rest. But it'd be interesting to know the entire "migration path" of maize through the Americas. | |
| MP brennan | Reviewed Chapter: 1 on 5/1/2013 |
| Oh, this was wonderful! You have a way of writing imagery ("wind snarled oak tree") that I could just read forever. Mildreth is a great character. She comes across so vividly, even without a lot of set up and your choice of detail throughout the story really fleshes her out. I got a little too much enjoyment out of her creeping on Aragorn. ;-) Her getting giggly with Elwynna made for a great scene and I loved Elwynna's panicked helplessness when he kisses her hand (although compared to Elladan in "Keeping Watch," she got off easy! ;) All of Mildreth's interactions with Aragorn are great, and I particularly love their last conversation about the wisdom of children. I think you ended on just the right note, with his rapid healing adding an air of mystery to the whole encounter. The women's reactions to that were very believable. This was an excellent piece, start to finish! Author Reply: Thank you so much, MP! I'm glad you enjoyed all the details... I was hoping to create a sense of place, so the reader would really know they were in Rohan. And "creeping on Aragorn"--LOL!! I guess she kind of was, wasn't she! *g* Poor Aragorn... I can't seem to write him sleeping without doing something to embarrass himself. Fortunately, this time around, he'll never know! Thanks again for your kind words! | |