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LotR Rewritten From a Mordor Perspective

Hugh Pickens writes writes "It's been said that history is written by the winners but Laura Miller writes in Salon about a counterexample as she reviews a new version of Lord of the Rings. The Last Ring-bearer was published to acclaim in Russia by Kirill Yeskov, a paleontologist whose job is reconstructing long-extinct organisms and their way of life. Yeskov performs essentially the same feat in his book. The Last Ring-bearer is set during and after the end of the War of the Ring and told from the perspective of the losers. In Yeskov's retelling, available in translation as a free download, the wizard Gandalf is a war-monger intent on crushing the scientific and technological initiative of Mordor and its southern allies because science 'destroys the harmony of the world and dries up the souls of men' and Aragorn is depicted by Yeskov as a ruthless Machiavellian schemer who is ultimately the puppet of his wife, the elf Arwen. Sauron's citadel Barad-dur is, by contrast, described as 'that amazing city of alchemists and poets, mechanics and astronomers, philosophers and physicians, the heart of the only civilization in Middle-earth to bet on rational knowledge and bravely pitch its barely adolescent technology against ancient magic.'"

7 of 583 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Great book by thijsh · · Score: 5, Funny

    Oh, I know the answers: 'greed' and 'none'. I shall now claim this free PDF as my prize...

  2. Life imitates art by NoZart · · Score: 4, Funny

    If that is not the best practical "in soviet russia..." joke, i don't know what is.

    1. Re:Life imitates art by Dr.+Spork · · Score: 3, Funny

      In Soviet Mordor, the ring disappears you.

  3. Re:Great book by JAlexoi · · Score: 2, Funny

    I don't think that total illiteracy can be considered as "perpetual copyright".

    PS: And author's attribution right, is nothing a sensible thing. While copy right is rather stifling....

  4. Re:Banewreaker by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 1, Funny

    Ooo...good troll. Totally off-topic and guaranteed to get a number of furious responses. *golf clap*

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  5. Re:Great book by shikaisi · · Score: 5, Funny

    I wouldn't want to abolish it, but I'd like to make it much shorter.

    I totally agree.

    Oh, sorry, you were talking about copyright. I thought you meant Lord of the Rings.

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    No left turn unstoned.
  6. Mordor Perspective... by Landshark17 · · Score: 3, Funny

    You can read the story from the perspecive of Mordor if you like, but I'm still waiting for a version of the original LOTR that removes the offensive word "hobbit" and replaces it with the more politically correct, "large-footed halfling".

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