Comments on Elegy for Númenor – Volume 2: The Darkening

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Thrilled to review this here as well, Elfscribe :D It feels like waiting for a longed-for book to be published. Your writing is superb and the characters so real I feel like I’m watching  a film as I did with Volume I! 

The nice part about coming late to this fandom is getting to binge read fics,  and your/my timing has been impeccable with this, being able to go straight from Vol 1 to this!

Your characters are so full-bodied, their interactions so true to life, your descriptions so vivid I barely start reading before my mind sees pictures instead of words. I think your ships would definitely do more than float. Although these doldrums are more trying than a storm...

 

 

Wow, what a tour de force! I read through the "storm" chapters all in one go, unable to stop. Glad there is a breather now - both for myself and for the sake of poor Sûla! Annatar was really fascinating here, from his foolish impudence at dinner to shifting between despair and arrogance in his cage to - especially - his interactions with Uinen and Osse. Can't feel particularly sorry for Kamin (or Ar-Pharazôn for that matter). Loved the appearance of the whale! Sûla's servitude to Annatar definitely doesn't get boring.
Thank you so much for this sequel!

Hi Lyra, how lovely to see you here! Very happy to hear that those 5 chapters had forward momentum! I hoped that would be the case, but as usual with me, it got longer than I'd anticipated and so much real life got in the way of writing that to me it seemed to go on forever. Those chapters are meant to be a mini-arc and the next bit will go to Tigon and Elendil and sons. Especially pleased that you found Annatar fascinating here. I do enjoy his character, someone who does not suffer fools gladly, and here he's actually being playful, although as we know, he'll get darker and scarier. The whale, lol. Osse's pet was one of those serendipitous things that appears while writing. And yes, poor Sula at the end there is pretty disgusted with all the drama he's been through. Thank you so much for such an encouraging comment. Cheers!

Oh, wow! 

You packed so much into these chapters that I wouldn't know where to start commenting. But I was basically on the edge of my seat with the tension and at the same time fascinated with your inventiveness while I was reading.

Storms! Ainur shenanigans! Whales!  And more.

But poor Sula. It is really not good when Sauron is your best option.

Also, Osse, I think it might not be such a good idea to let Sauron help you with geological issues under Numenor...

I'm pleased that you found these chapters gripping. The action will calm down a bit in the next section. Oh yes, poor Sula, I really gave him a hard time here. No wonder he just wants to go off and get drunk. And I thoroughly agree with you that it's not a good idea for Osse to get Sauron's aid on Numenor's foundations. But then this Osse isn't exactly Sauron's intellectual equal. :-D  Thanks for commenting!

Arrgh! I can't read fast enough! I'm reading these comments and can't wait to dive back in here again! But I'm re-reading Part I first because I raced through it because I wanted your imagery in my mind before The Show That Is Not Worth Naming aired (which I now know was needless!) that I missed so much of the deliciousness of your writing that I'm savoring now...

Hi Anerea! Well, I'm so happy you want to reread Vol. I . Particularly that you raced through it to avoid contamination, lol. You're right, I needn't have worried about RoP. It hasn't interfered with my head canon at all. So there's that, at least. Savor away! I'm not getting more of Vol. II out for a bit since I foolishly signed up for MSV.