"History is written by the winners" taken to extremes

[huinare]

It's pretty typical that I'm not-exactly-intentionally running into "The Last Ringbearer," which was actually published in Russia and is apparently available as a free English translation somewhere on the interwebs, when I'm supposed to be cracking open a textbook.  (If anyone's read it, I'd love your opinions, positive or negative.)

Now this is one

Comments

[altariel]

My thoughts here:
http://altariel.livejournal.com/508963.html

[huinare]

Thanks! I appreciated the more thorough blog entry you linked to also (ETA for total lack of clarity--"Eastern European Fantasy Post-Tolkien".) And I had to laugh at your remark about Faramir.

[altariel]

Good article, isn't it? Ultimately, Last Ringbearer is a sexist so-soish thriller and, it seems, at least as much an exercise in nostalgia as the original. I won't reread, but I'd always go back to Dwim's Lie Down in the Darkness, even though it cuts your heart out to hand it back to you and do it all over again. You might also enjoy my more modest Withered Tree or even The Age of Men.

[huinare]

Thanks for the recs. Lie Down in Darkness has been on my radar for a bit. I popped over to The Age of Men; that's an interesting speculative idea, and since a monarchy is often more about "the man" than "men" the title works really well to indicate a governmental shift.

[altariel]

LDID is well worth the time spent with it. Glad you liked the drabble.

[wheelrider]

"It's like punk never happened." Ha ha!
Although punks can be romantic, too.

[altariel]

I nicked that phrase from a pop magazine I used to read as a teenager in the 1980s ("Smash Hits"). The journalists used it all the time, with deep sighs implied.