Ahira's Hangar

I would not be surprised if the main reason the Bombadil parts were cut from the film of Fellowship was the simple reason of time constraints.

I always thought he was Tolkein's attempt at comic relief - a bad C3-PO of LotR.

--A

Could be, though I'm sure there is more to Mr. Bombadil. But we're given only vague hints about his true nature, which is a bit frustrating.

I'm finally reading Martin's "A Feast for Crows". Hey, maybe he's been putting off finishing the next book until I read this one!

Am rereading Weiss/Hickman's Darksword trilogy. Forgot how much I enjoyed it...definitely the darkest of their combined writings.

--A

Well...that's a tough one. I would 'cause I love it. But Weis/Hickman (authors of the famous DragonLance books), are regarded by many as juvenile-targeted "fluff". (Where's Taras? ) So it's a call you have to make. As I said, this particular series has much darker overtones than most of their books, and definitely (for me) counts as probably their best, but a lot probably wouldn't like it.

--A

Currently a third of the way into The Return of the King.

I tore through The Two Towers in about four days. It's overall much better than the movie - not that I felt the movie was ever actually bad, just that the story seemed too clumsily told and rushed. Well, Jackson maybe should have adhered a bit more to the book instead of trying to reinvent the story. The way Tolkien told it flowed a lot better. "The Treason of Isengard" portion was especially thrilling.

The Ten Thousand by Paul Kearney - heroic historical fantasy inspired by ancient Greece in general and Xenophon's Persian Expedition in particular.

While I did not mind some of the changes in The Two Towers film (in that Jackson was trying to fit on some things he could not fit on from some of the other books like Old Man Willow from Fellowship, the way the elves did fight battles in the War of the Ring, or the way Arwen would watch over Aragorn from afar and aid him as she could which is found in the appendixes) but the one change I cannot stand at all is the change in Faramir from noble good guy to...a bit of a jerk.

I just finished Robin McKinley's YA fantasy Chalice, which was very well written, a very good story.

It put me in a mood for additional first rate fantasy written by women, so I think I might try to track down Patricia McKillip's latest, The Bell at Sealyhead next.

I'm reading Deryni Rising now. I read it when I was ~12 (a long time ago) and loved it. Gotta say, I'm digging it now, too.

Just finished Return of the King. Can't believe I finally read LOTR after all this time.