A Short Review

Very short! I can't remember a thing about this book, presumably I read it all. I've written down one quote from Tolkien himself, saying that 'part of the attraction of LOR is, I think, due to the glimpses of a large history in the background: an attraction like that of viewing far off an unvisited island, or seeing the towers of a distant city gleaming in a sunlit mist.'

Incidentally, one of the most sustaining experiences I ever had was reading some of Tolkien's unpublished poems from when he started writing. They were not good. They had all the elements of his style and all his subject matter, but because his technique wasn't good at that stage, they didn't come over very well. Imagine if he'd said, 'Oh, I'm rubbish, I'm quitting.'

The only other note I've made is on the technique of writing in the responses that you want the reader to have. If you want the reader to feel shock, show a sympathetic character physically reacting. '...in his living face they caught a brief vision of the power and majesty of the kings of stone. For a moment it seemed to the eyes of L that a white flame flickered on the brow of Aragorn like a shining crown.

Eomer stepped back...'

I took a workshop run by Garry Kilworth once and I remember him saying that all editors long to find fantasy novels with that huge sense of history in them.