How could I miss the first upload of this story? Anyways, I have noticed now, that you have posted the sequel and found 2 chapters- it's like christmas!
I like how you play with different styles of writing. I have to admit, that I usually prefer longer stories in a style like you used it in ransom, because if you read of the event itself and not of how somebody else tells it afterwards it's easier to feel as if you were inside the story, but I enjoyed the points of view you gave in this story nevertheless. I could imagine what happend pretty well and through your way of telling I got somehow an additional impression of the people of Harad and living there and the storietellers. It gave me 100% of sitting-in-an-inn-and-listening-to-an-old-guy-blabble-feeling, but then again what he was talking about was really hard to swallow. I'm digressing, sry. I like your style, even if it is not the one I usually prefer and I think it's great how you are able to change from one style to another and play with them just the way you like and the way which is perhabs the best for the story. You are a great storyteller!
The firsth story-teller is great (reminds me a bit of Butterbur) and how you made him tell the story (not streight to the point, but still at the end of the chapter the reader knows everything). And the second is very interessting to, less sympathic, but his story-telling was exciting (as was the firsth). I can imagine both charakters very well, they seem very 3D and realistic.
And like always I love your Aragorn. Unendingly noble and dignified, but still shrewd - the "All the honer he deserves" statement was great and so...Aragornish. (I always imagined he answerd question refered to himself in this still when he was Thorongil.)
So till now the story has been like all the stories I have read of you so far: remarkable well written; with exceptional good characterisations; exciting and haunting - and absolutely not the right thing to read as goodnight-story (like I sometimes do with other fanfictions); and overall just marvelous.
I am looking forward to more.
Author's Response: Thanks for the wonderful review!
Yeah, I tried to push myself a little with this one by playing around with a very different style. I wanted to build this story around the theme of legacy--how he'd be remembered in Harad, if he'd be remembered, what kinds of consequences his actions would have. Additionally, telling it as I did allowed me to get the story out there in a reasonably short fic. If I'd written it all with the level of detail that I use in most of my fics, each of these chapters might end up at least as long as "Ransom." While I know some authors who can crank out that kind of work in a month, I'm not one of them. ;)
That being said, I'm playing around with an Aragorn-POV version of this story which I may someday post. It's difficult not just because of the length and the world-building required, but also because the events of this fic (particularly the first chapter) tend to be very dark. The "storyteller" narration allowed me to distance myself from that, but writing it from Aragorn's POV is much more painful. Still, I'm enjoying where that story is going, so we'll have to see what comes of it.
The last chapter of this fic should be up within a few days. It's a bit more immersive than the first two (and also much *longer*). I hope you enjoy it!
-Brennan | 