During the Christmas season, Santa Claus is a very prominent figure. Nicknamed the “jolly old elf,” he has elves helping out in his workshop, making toys for all the good boys and girls. This version of elves is quite different from the way elves are often portrayed in modern fantasy fiction. J.R.R. Tolkien’s elves are... Continue Reading →
Where the Shadows Lie, by Michael Ridpath
Was Tolkien a plagiarist? How many gritty police detectives can one genre of fiction reasonably accommodate? And, does Iceland have trees? Important questions all; the answers to which, respectively are: kind of but not really; apparently many, and; the odd one or two. Already a successful author, Ridpath was in the depths of a massive... Continue Reading →
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien
I wasn't interested in the Lord of the Rings, indeed, I hadn't really heard much about Tolkien or his writings until The Fellowship of the Ring came out in 2001. I thought it and the sequels were amazing. About a year ago, I saw that Fellowship was on Time Magazines list of All TIME best... Continue Reading →
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