LOTR: Reading The Books

[Vigloom]

I've recently been on a Lord of the Rings kick (it gets better each time I watch/read them) and I know there's Hunger Games, Twilight, and Percy Jackson reads as well as Harry Potter, so does any of you know of any Lord of the Rings reads? Preferably ones with Aragorn :)

[Kitty279]

Sadly no, though I'm a huge LotR fan myself. But as I have been reading fanfics only on Stories of Arda for years and never delved into the ones on FFN, I've not seen a RtB story yet.

[readingwizard4]

I'd like to read one of these set after the books are over

[Kitty279]

Hm ... though it would be interesting to consider what changes could be made to deal with Sauron earlier.

[devil101]

I thought about doing this at one point and having it not as a change the future but just simpley the main characters telling each other what happened on their part of the journey. But then I remembered I'm a really bad author so figured I would leave it to someone else

[Kitty279]

If there are any out there, then probably only few in comparison to HP. But at least there is the normal LotR fanfiction

[Dimcairien]

This would be very interesting to see and I have briefly wondered if there were any LOTR RtB stories.

[sherza]

An RtB of LotR? sweet Jesu, that'd be a hell of an undertaking. I mean ... just ... guh. It just doesn't lend itself as easily to RtB, what with the mass quantities of 'primary' characters. Meaning, the ones that take center stage a lot, or do something really bloody important. In Harry Potter, there's ... what, a dozen, give or take? In LotR, there's like ... three times that number. The Fellowship itself, Elrond, Galadriel, Eomer, Eowyn, Faramir, Denethor, Saruman, Sauron, Gollum, Bilbo, a couple important Orc/Uruk-Hai leaders ... and that's just off the top of my head. I *know* I'm forgetting folks that feature prominently. It's hard enough to juggle a dozen people in a Harry Potter RtB ... getting the 'necessary group' to hear a LotR RtB in one room and not having any of them languish forgotten in the background would be damn near impossible.

[Kitty279]

That, and to keep Denethor, Sauron or Gollum under control, I'd cross them rather off the list and add Elladan and Elrohir there. But it's true, the cast is huge, and with so many strong leaders who are even harder to write in some way. Plus, they have to act a heck of a lot more mature than the HP characters. No silly comments in between, save maybe from Merry and Pippin. I know I'd never even try it, as much as I love LotR. Too daunting.

[Dimcairien]

I'd love to try it, but I don't want to murder Tolkien's epic work.

[rikustark]

I would love to read something like that, but I don't think a RtB for LotR will pop up anytime soon.

[Kitty279]

Wise decision, Dimcairien, I can't even think of a normal fanfiction to write for LotR, though I've read so many (and am waiting for the next update to my favourite story to be uploaded today). RtB would be many times worse.

Riku, you could always search on FFN for that, but I guess I'd not get my hopes up, either. It would take a very skilled author to pull that off even reasonably well.

[sherza]

About the only way I could ever see it being done would be via a collaborative effort between, say, two or three authors, with each one responsible for certain characters.

[Kitty279]

Hmmm ... that might be an idea, yes. But they'd have to be able to work together very well for months, if not years - not easy, either.

[sherza]

No kidding, but it'd be the only way to allow all the characters that'd be there an equal share of time.

[Kitty279]

Yeah, there's a reason why most fanfics concentrate either on the Elves or Hobbits or Fellowship etc., but barely on all of them together. Very few are able to handle that many people.

[Dimcairien]

I'm amazed Tolkien was able to handle all of the dynamics of the different characters, but he succeeded extremely well. LOTR is one of my top fictional books, about equal with Les Miserables.

[Kitty279]

Maybe it was made easier because after Parth Galen the Fellowship was split up. But still, it was a daunting task, and he did it extremely well. And when you remember how he had to write in longhand and then had it typed out, and how many times he re-wrote stuff ... Did you ever read the HoME books? It's amazing how the first few chapters changed over the different versions.

[Dimcairien]

No, I haven't read HoME yet, besides the first part of BoLT. The series is on my reading list, but I don't really have the time for twelve books.

And yes, splitting up the main characters probably did help with keeping track of them, at least somewhat.

[Kitty279]

Twelve books in small print ...

I'v gone mainly over the books concerning LotR, not so much the Silmarillion stuff. It's rather dry at times, but interesting. Strider was initially a hobbit named Trotter And it's impossible to keep up with all the name changes, it gave me a headache trying to keep track of who was who in which version. But it was interesting to see how stuff changed.

[Dimcairien]

Yes it is. Have your read any of Tolkien's letters? I've read some of them and it was quite interesting reading him complaining about being asked to write a sequel to the Hobbit as he believed that the Hobbit didn't need a sequel.

[Kitty279]

Ah yes, I own that book, though it's been a while since I did read it.
LotR did in the end start as a sequel to the Hobbit and then turned into something different and much more serious and adult, didn't it? These books are quite different in style. But when he finally started writing, it got longer and longer. Somewhere I've seen a letter where he told his publisher something along the line of 'the story will be finished soon, only a few chapters left' - IIRC, that must have been somewhere around Lothlórien ... But he then fell under the power of the One Ring, obviously, as we all did.