The Last Ringbearer

[siddharth]

Has anybody read this book:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Ringbearer

How correct is it, factually and is it of any interest to normal LotR-fans?

[heliona]

I've got it as an e-book, but I haven't read it yet. I think the idea is interesting. I like thinking about other people's points-of-view in stories, and playing the what-if game because I think it means you understand the story itself more clearly.

Saying that, as it is written from the point-of-view of the bad guys, some people might not like it that much.

[siddharth]

Saying that, as it is written from the point-of-view of the bad guys, some people might not like it that much.

I'm certainly not one of those. As you said, it's very appealing and interesting to read the story from the POV of a different side.
However if it's more of a fanfic-type thing or has gross inaccuracies, then I am not interested in it.
That's what drew me into asking the question here.

[heliona]

From what I've heard, it's very well-written and not like a fan-fic. (Saying that, I've read some excellent fan-fic, that's turned out to be well-written and better than the source material. [I don't read LotR fanfiction, though.])

I've also got Mirkwood: A Novel About JRR Tolkien which does seem to be a fan-fic, and I've heard it's not very well-written. But I haven't read it yet, so I can't comment directly (although the summary did strike me as rather fan-ficcy).

The summary says that the author was inspired to write it because his daughters asked where the heroines were in LoTR, and since I have an issue with people constantly complaining that there aren't many/any strong female characters in Tolkien's world (there are plenty of books that don't have strong female characters in them, but they don't get complained about. Also, the women of Middle-earth are very strong, they just don't play a large role in LotR, which quite frankly is realistic, in my opinion, but that's another debate. ) it struck me as being like fan-fiction. How it got published is rather surprising to me (although the Tolkien Estate did at one point want all copies to be pulped).

[frito bugger]

Would like to read all that,for a laugh,but wouldnt pay a jot for it.

[solicitr]

Lucky for the authors and publisher Russian law doesn't recognize foreign copyrights, or they'd be receiving a rather stiff communication from Blackburn Maier LLC.

[ngaur]

The idea leaves me cold, just as would telling Star Wars from Darth Vaders point of view.

[heliona]

As I said, that alternative point-of-view is not for everyone. I personally find it interesting, as it leads me to think about the original source material more deeply. It is for that reason that I have found some Harry Potter fabric very thought-provoking.

[Gadget2]

By definition, this is fan-fic. Not even remotely interested.

[Corsair_Caruso]

By definition, this is fan-fic. Note even remotely interested.

Aw, some fanfic is actually quite good! I don't know whether or not this falls into that category, but I'm always willing to read fanfiction to see if it is well-written, stirs my emotions, gets me thinking. These are the things I want any fiction to do, and if fan-fiction can do them, then more power to fan-fiction authors!

[ElvenArcher]

For the moment, we'll be moving discussion of the 'fanfic' of the Russian Tolkien 're-tellings' to the Scriptorium (where other fanfic is posted). This may change but for now that's the area where you can find fanfic (and discussion thereof). I'm leaving a shadow thread here.

[heliona]

Here's the thread in the Scriptorium, just for ease of navigating to it.

[Frelga]

Eh, just posted about it in the Black Arda thread.

It's not exactly written from the POV of the evil guys. It starts with the premise that history is written by victor and therefore the Red Book and other Gondorian sources are not exactly accurate.