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| Beneath a Gibbous Moon by Bodkin | 58 Review(s) |
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| Dot | Reviewed Chapter: 2 on 11/19/2006 |
| Oh, Bodkin. Just, wow. I’ve been sitting here wondering why it’s so difficult to create atmosphere and then I come across this! What imagery. You’ve done an incredible job. I was right there with Isildur, shivering with damp and despair. I love how you kept the identity of the characters from us and yet still pulled us into their story. It was fascinating to see Isildur’s despondency and Thranduil’s hope and I really like how you play them off each other and yet there is a bond there too. There is such a sense of foreboding as they both face the unknown but they are here now and will do what they must. Isildur is very real and understandable to me here but I particularly love how you’ve drawn Thranduil – he’s otherworldly, dangerous, whimsical and wise. And, of course, there is the added poignancy of how both of them will find their world changed so abruptly, how victory and loss so often go hand in hand. I’ll have to read this a few more times to make I’ve taken everything in but I just love it! Author Reply: Thank you, Dot! Poor Isildur - he did his best, but the ring just outsmarted him. Maybe a bit more arrogant and sure of himself than his descendant - used to being a lord of men rather than a chieftain, perhaps. Used to people kowtowing to him rather than regarding him with suspicion. Thranduil and Isildur might well, I thought, have recognised some similarities between them ... and, then, it just made such a neat mirror to the end of another age! For all the disasters of the battle and the outcome, they might both be rather surprised to survive through to the other end. Even if Isildur only has a relatively short time left to him before the ring betrays him. I'm glad you enjoyed it! | |
| vampfan30 | Reviewed Chapter: 2 on 11/19/2006 |
| like Everybody else, I thought " ah, another cynicalAragorn vs. ancientwisdomLegolas in a typical ready to take each other on in a free for all", but, proven wrong towards the end. It's pretty obvious now where those two get it from.... this will go on my faves list! :) Author Reply: I hoped there would be enough resemblance to make readers think it was Aragorn and Legolas - and then, maybe, begin to wonder. I'm glad you liked it! | |
| daw the minstrel | Reviewed Chapter: 2 on 11/19/2006 |
| I forgot to say how much I liked the malevolent weather at the start. Great imagery. Author Reply: Thank you! | |
| daw the minstrel | Reviewed Chapter: 2 on 11/19/2006 |
| Well, you fooled me, Bodkin! I tried to resist guessing who they were because you gave no names and that's a sign of tricksiness, but I gave in about half way through. It's interesting to see these two as the younger generation, and also to imagine them winning through to victory, a victory that turns to ashes over the next age. No wonder Thranduil gets cynical. Author Reply: It is indeed a sign of tricksiness. I hoped they sounded enough like Aragorn and Legolas at the beginning to lead readers astray - but they did insist on making their own voices heard. I reckon Thranduil is old enough - if only just - to know how the hope of the First Age's ending turned sour. While Isildur, of course, knew the destruction of Numenor from his own experience and had survived that only to see Sauron return to Mordor. And this will be another victory with a sting in its tail. Although I doubt Isildur expects to be the one to provide it. | |
| Jay of Lasgalen | Reviewed Chapter: 2 on 11/19/2006 |
| Wow - this was brilliant, Bodkin - perhaps your best yet. I'd come to the conclusion that it *couldn't* be Legolas and Aragorn, or you wouldn't have been so vague - but I never guessed Thranduil and Isildur. That gives the story a whole new layer of sadness for them both, because we know what happens. Very, very well done. Jay Author Reply: I didn't click on anybody for the who's in it bit, either! It started off quite easy to make it ambiguous - but Isildur just got more ... like someone used to being in charge of things. While Thranduil is just a little less self-effacing, I think, than his son. And yes - the end is near now. And the beginning. Depending on which way you look at it. I'm pleased you liked it! | |
| French Pony | Reviewed Chapter: 2 on 11/19/2006 |
| Isildur is marvelously snarky. He has every right to be snarky, of course, keeping watch out in the rain on the night before a big scary battle, but it's nice to see him give in to the impulse. And it's weird -- even though he has almost no canon personality, snarkiness still becomes him better than it might become Aragorn, who just seems a little too serious for that sort of thing. Interesting, also, to think about how that battle must have begun, on wet, muddy ground. Maybe Oropher didn't charge after all, but merely slipped in the mud. Author Reply: It was easier to make it seem as if it might be Aragorn and Legolas at the beginning. Aragorn and Isildur led such different lives, though, that I just don't see them being too alike when it came down to it. And snarky was just such fun to do! Of course! That's it - Oropher and his followers slid accidentally into the way of all those orcs - and rumour did the rest! | |
| Lady Esyllt | Reviewed Chapter: 2 on 11/19/2006 |
| You fooled me too:) It's nice to see another side of isidur, most of the time he is just the man who couldn't destroy the ring, thanks Author Reply: It's easy to see Isildur only as the one who kept the ring - but he's also the man who risked Sauron's vengeance to save the White Tree. And I thought it would be fun to play with misdirection here! I'm glad you liked it! | |
| Elena Tiriel | Reviewed Chapter: 2 on 11/19/2006 |
| Oh, Bodkin, this is haunting.... and I suspect that before the end of this day, both the elf and the man will become king. Of course, as you probably expected, I thought they were two other, more familiar characters from the Fellowship... nice bit of misdirection... Very well written! *shiver* - Barbara Author Reply: Thank you! I am pleased you enjoyed it. I am glad I managed to misdirect you! It was easier at the start - and then their voices began to diverge a bit more from their descendants at the end of another age. And if it is not this day that the two become king, it will not be long delayed! | |