Comments on Full of Wisdom and Perfect in Beauty

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Even after reading only four chapters of Full of Wisdom and Perfect in Beauty, I am immersed in the Numenor of Gadira's creation.  I'm particularly drawn to diverse cultural interpretations of JRRT's world, and Gadira's is an excellent one.  The political machinations, the social structure, the theology, the environment itself - all are well realized.  Couple those with well-drawn, complex and conflicted characters (my favorite variety), and this proves to be a well-crafted story.

Keep those chapters coming.  Please!

- pandemonium_213, 29-08-2007

Given that I am on a review-ish tear (multiple MEFA drafts lurking in my iBook), I thought I'd pop in to tell you how much I am enjoying Full of Wisdom and Perfect in Beauty.  You've created a marvelous secondary world out of a secondary world (tertiary world, perhaps?) with a wealth of details poured into both culture and characters.  I devoured these (and subsequent) scenes of Melkyedid - truly an exotic creature despite her distant connections to Numenor.  The final scene of Inziladûn and Zarhil (latest chapter) as the realism that an heir is on the way was well done - laughing at the foolishness of an assumption that caused so much recrimination.  

Your background and interests (history if I read between the lines correctly?)  shine throughout the story and embellish your story arc with such richness so that it reads like original fiction yet with the satistfying additions that JRRT did not sketch out.  I love the interweaving of Mediterranean/European mythology throughout.

And Inziladûn and Gimilkhâd?  Fabulous characters!  Flawed, conflicted but each with his own redeeming traits as well.    You "write" their complexity effectively.  Finally, you capture the constant shroud of darkness and the languid decadence overhanging of the last days (well, years) of Numenor oh-so-well. 

I look forward to the coming chapters. 

Argh- sorry. I did not see this review until today!

Thank you very much for the nice words. My basic driving interests when writing this fic was my love of Phoenicians, though there are several other civilisations (not all Mediterranean) added to the mix.

(And I´m secretly very glad that you enjoy my characters)

Great to see that you have resumed the novel, Gadira!  The Wolf's Howl was gripping and suitably creepy.  Seeing the events through young Amandil's eyes was effective.

Really like this interlude, especially the scene between young Pharazôn and Zimraphel and their curiosity about one another.  Zimraphel comes across as fey and disturbing -- nicely done! I also found it refreshing that Inziladûn (at least from the children's perspective) is not entirely benign.

 

Thanks! I was afraid that people had just forgot about this after so long...

 

I´m glad you like what I´m doing with the new generation so far. Zimraphel´s portrayal may seem a bit controversial, but Tolkien did kind of go back on his decision of making her a mere victim.  And Inziladûn can´t be entirely benign -he´s going to be a king, after all. :)

I hope you will keep enjoying this.

Just to say - I haven't really been able to keep up with this, but the bits I've read are impressive. You have a lot of interesting ideas about Numenorean culture and how it shapes your protagonists!

I must admit I am a bit uncomfortable with the concept of Melkor as the traditional and inherited deity of the Numenoreans, though - not that I can't at least to some extent see where you're coming from. And of course it seems to be an integral part of your version of Numenor.

Hi, and thanks for reviewing! It was hard to pick this up again, but now I´m getting into the mood and remembering more and more stuff as I go by.

On Melkor: Tolkien said that many of the men who remained in Middle-Earth during the Second Age worshipped the darkness and were descendants of those that had fallen under Morgoth´s sway. When Númenoreans started travelling to Middle-Earth and having interests there, they could have theoretically picked up all kind of ideas. Of course Tolkien wouldn´t have liked it... but I don´t like Tolkien´s take of a pre-modern human society that exists without any kind of otherwordly belief for centuries and centuries, just because he didn´t want them to be pagans. It´s unrealistic, it never happened on Earth, and if it doesn´t stand out much in a chronicle like the Akallabêth, for a novel it´s not feasible. Hence the subversion. :P

Oh, wow, this is a great chapter!  The pacing is fantastic -- a true page turner (digitally speaking).  The first scene between Amandil and Pharazôn just crackles and snaps. Excellent writing there.  I will say it again: I love your characterizations of these two fellows.  They are so real, so human.   Likewise, the break between Amandil and Yehimelkor is heartwrenching.

The character of Yehimelkor is so well-crafted, but then I find all your supporting cast to be intriguing.  I daresay you could spin them off into their own arcs readily.  The connection of Yehimelkor to Alashiya is a neat bit.  The priest has always struck me as a noble, deeply intellectual yet brittle man.  As painful as it is to see Amandil rejected and turned out by his mentor, I find myself in understanding of why Yehimelkor reacts as he does and sends Amandil away.

Excellent wordsmithing throughout, too, and I love the finality of this last line.

And with this he turned back, and walked inside his rooms with the silent irrevocability of a High Priest after a sacrifice.

Looking forward (as at the edge of my seat) for more.  Well done, Gadira!

Wow, a review! Thanks, thanks!

I am glad you like the characterization of Amandil and Pharazôn -I´m growing too fond of them, especially of the latter, which I´m starting to suspect may become a problem at some point. (I may get to feel just like Tolkien when he wrote Fëanor and the Noldor. They´re bad! But I like them! But they´re bad! But I like them!). LOL.

I´m not sure about the supporting cast getting their own arcs, though, as the most important points are covered here, and writing other things would read like filler. For a while I was wondering whether to give my Elendil some side story, as he´s born to be a main character and then is shortchanged. But my inspiration of late is not feeling very generous, so I prefer to concentrate in the stuff at hand. If I ever get to the end of this I may write the Ar-Adunakhôr part, though. I think I could fall in love with him; he´s such an explosive mix of Pygmalion of Tyre, Hiram I and Constantine the Great. And Elissa/ Alissha could be a great character, too, from what I could glimpse of her in "The Northern Sea".

As for the connexion between Yehimelkor and Ar-Alissha´s line: add Melkorbazer to the mix, who was also a priest of Melkor from the same family and fell in disgrace after he married Lindorië, Inzilbêth´s mother and Inziladûn and Gimilkhâd´s grandmother. They always manage to be in the thick of things, though rather in the wrong side of them.

Ah, well, I´m glad you´ve liked this and are ready to come back for more! And don´t worry, for Yehimelkor´s role in this story, supporting character as he may be, is far from over. His High Priesthood will cover the periods where most sane people would want to be very, very far away.

So the boys have returned to tie the knot, and there's no way out for Isildur (that is, he could decide to die, but that would be uncanonical). I'm very sorry for his bride, over-talkative though she may be - nobody seems to like her much, though at least Amandil has an eye-opener and finds some pity for her. Isildur is to be pitied, too, though "Malik" is dead right in his assessment of their respective degrees of selfishness (as well as being a bit of a jerk, because it's a human right to pursue happiness). Anyway, it's good that Isildur inevitably got his act together in the end - he had to, or how else would he have ended up with four sons? Hopefully he'll run into someone who can tell him exactly what is going on with him, as the hint that he's in love with a ghost apparently isn't sufficient. Maybe Yehimelkor. Or Númendil. :P

It's a good thing Ilmarë doesn't know what's really happening to Fíriel in the Palace, or she'd be in a frenzy. It was thrilling to see Sauron again, and his conversation with Fíriel was extremely cleverly done. He remains the Deceiver, and he doesn't know what Zimraphel knows, and yet... his suggestion regarding why Zimraphel really wanted Fíriel in the Palace is as horrifying as it seems plausible. Last time I feared for the life of Gimilzagar, now I'm even more afraid for Fíriel. The idea of both of them dying together is less terrifying. Well played.

I must admit I find an irony in the contrast between the importance given to Isildur's bloodline later and his own, dim feelings about the subject. :P He did have four sons eventually, but only one falls within the scope of this story, as there were 40-year intervals between each birth, and 51 for Valandil (which originally gave me the idea for his general, er, lack of enthusiasm). I feel sorry for his wife, too. She might have been happier as an only child, and of course with any other husband. Númendil definitely sounds like he knows something that no one else does - not even Isildur himself, it seems.

Oh, and I'm happy you finally found a Sauron you could get behind.