Comments on By the Light of Roses

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Such a sad and beautiful story. And, as usual, the sights, smells, tastes, and descriptions live. Wonderful for a change to get a look from the outside into the details of the lives of Feanor and his family from someone so intimately involved and yet one step removed. I still chuckle at how my mouth fell open when I found that you had written a slash story of Feanor and my skepticism that someone could make it work. Well, you did and I salute you for that. There is so much that I could say, but just want, for now, to give this my highest recommendation. I am so pleased that you have posted this here.

Thank you, Oshun, for such a kind review. I used to think that Feanor could not be slashed ... not for fear of one\'s life. ;) I\'ve never had the best of luck with my Feanor muse. Feanor chapters/stories tend to get deleted, corrupted, or otherwise mauled. Yet he left me completely alone while writing BtLoR. Hmmmm ... >;^)

This remains, unexpectedly, one of my favorites of my fanfic stories. I thought it would be a cross between throwaway pr0n and Dawn on a soapbox, but stepping outside the family to look at them at such a volatile and difficult time in the family\'s history gives a really interesting perspective, having devoted so much (too much!) time to the PoV within the House of Feanor.

This is a shocking (in a wonderful way!) contrast to your chronologically earlier Feanorian stories (particularly "Another Man's Cage").  Light, sweet moments are few and far between in this fic, which is probably the best description of a family in pain I've read in this fandom.  Maedhros's inability to accept his youngest brother's unorthodox marriage is a particular surprise, given that he comes across as such a caring elder brother elsewhere; it's good to see you've given his 'beautifully-formed' character some quite believable flaws.  And I love the way you bring Finwe's view of the Spring Festival in at the end as a not-so-subtle contrast to his son's views of the past and the Valar (because by this time, the reader is certainly beginning to believe that Feanor's view of the Valar is well-justified).

Ithilwen, thank you so much for this review. It made my evening to hear such kind words from one whose work was so influential to me! This remains one of my favorite of my stories, although, as you note, it is so far from my usual \"verse\" that it tends to get forgotten. I suppose the vastly different tone reflects my own state of mind at the time (not to mention the fact that it is quite distant, chronologically, from AMC!) Thank you again! :)

This was very well written, and a beautiful story to boot. You have amazing talents!  And this pairing was surprisingly wonderful - I had never thought it would work this well before. He is, after all, mostly paired with Glorfindel. I also loved the way you protrayed the torment of people who are different in sexual desires. It was also amusing to me that Fëanor should be into both - well, there was no other way, was there - as he was one of those I identified most with the first time I read the book, and I fancy both as well. It is indeed despicable that people don't accept others just because of who they love. I've always wondered why. Are they frightened? Do they think we'll fall in love with everyone? I remember when I was younger, there was a girl in my high school class who claimed she didn't like it if I looked at her, because she thought I wanted her. This was said behind my back, of course. I later explained to her that I wouldn't come close to her covered in anticeptic with an iron poker extended on a ten foot pole. Still, it seems that love for same sex makes good excuses for petty hate. Sad, really.But yes. I thoroughly enjoyed reading your story! Shall look through more of them, and then perhaps write one of my own. :) -B

Beatrisu, thank you so much for so many kind comments lately. I am sorry that I've been slower than usual in replying, but I have treasured them all and will soon get you the replies you deserve! :)

I wish I had the answer to your question about acceptance, I really really do. If you read the introductory stuff to this story, you will know already that this was a very personal issue to me when I wrote BtLoR and is to this day. This story was my own way of wrangling with that question ... and it didn't get me any answers but I hope it might at least get a couple of people to think about these things. :)

The Feanor/Erestor pairing was a challenge from a good friend who loved them both and wanted to see them together. I figured the story would wind up a throwaway PWP but the Feanor!muse had different ideas entirely! Writing this story was almost surreal because I don't recall a single point where I had to make the story keep coming. (Even AMC had points where I would have just as soon given up but made myself pull through.)

Of my own stories, this remains one of my favorites, and it does not get nearly the attention that many of my other stories do, I suspect because it is slash (and a rather odd pairing at that). Therefore, reviews on this story mean so much to me. Thank you! :)

(And I do hope you will soon join we authors on SWG! :)

I'm not very good at writing reviews, but I would still like to tell you I really loved reading this story!

I don't know how, but Erestor is one of my favourites too even though he's such a minor character in the book. A few things really grabbed my attention. Your Elves aren't perfect. Don't get me wrong, I love my long-haired gods but you write them very differently, flawed. And I liked it.

Thank you for writing this, so I could read it almost ten years later!

 



Thank you! And please don't worry about writing good reviews. It means so much just to hear a story has been read and enjoyed ... ten years later! :)

I'm a believer in flawed Elves. I like exploring what it means to be human in my stories, and since I write about Elves (in Tolkien fanfic anyway), then the distant, elevated, perfect people we see in LotR just won't work for me. And, of course, we see in the Silm that they are SO far from perfect, so I like writing about the human elements behind that.

Thank you again, both for reading my story and for letting me know that you liked it. :)