This is absolutely splendid as is all of your work. Please don't stop here.

Thank you for continuing this story! I realize that it is a HUGE commitment but your audience is very appreciative.
I devoured your newest chapter. It smoothly and believably moved several plots right along and set up several more. I eagerly await your next update.
I wish I was a better constructive critic for you but all I can say is "Please, please, please keep writing!"

I'm sorry this review is so late. My computer went to the hospital twice and didnt come back the second time, and I lost track of this update. It is amazing! I love seeing the brothers together, and their conversation is also a good tool to remind us of all that has gone before. I rather thought Faramir might have mellowed toward Gil after his years with Eowyn, but sadly, he hasnt. I'd love to hear Eowyn's view on Boromir and his squire!

I had expected Taleris' execution to be delayed until Boromir could deal the fatal blow, but at least we are fairly sure it will be delivered. Right?

Please dont delay updating as long as I delayed reviewing!

So I've spent the last few days reading "The Captain and the King" and "The Stewards Tale", and now I have nothing to read. I found your fics via Osheen Nevoy's rec, and her "Boromir's return" is the very first LOtR-fic I've dared to try, and only because of Painless rec. Your's are second and third. Because LOtR is such an enormous fandom I felt I could easely drown in it since i'm a chronic bookoholic.
However, these three fics have pulled me in. They are so very, very good, and the only thing that irritates me a bit in "Boromir's return" (I know it's a bit rude to presume you have read it, but she has you listed as favourite author) is all the riding around in wet clothes and not a blister in the backside. You made me happy with Gil's aches and paines. I love Gil. She is so very real, so not a Mary-Sue and so
awkward and intelligent. Did you make her up, or do you know her? As for the OCs you have managed to make them real. Even Merry and Pippin are in character, but so much more real than Tolkien's hobbits. It's so easy see them as "the young hobbits" but you manage to show them as separate individuals with their very own personalities. And of course I love your Boromir. Very realistic, down-to-earth, practical hero. The way you write I can almost smell him. Aragorn has always been to good to be true, but Boromir is solid, a real MAN. I'm glad he's not mine, I'd been wornout after a day of arguing.


Now critique. In "The Captain and the King" you start out with one of the most real, cruel, violent scenes I've ever made myself read through. The torture in Isengard's dungeons almost made me trow up. I bet you lose a lot of readers right there, and I can't help thinking that Saruman could have hypnotized or medicated them to get the information he wanted.( I come from Harry Potter fandom, OK, Saruman's supposed to be a wizard,right?) The only reason I continued is the very high quality of your writing. No typos, very good grammar, and perfect spelling. The time as Ugluk's prisoner is just as raw and brutal but somehow easier for me to handle, though I wonder If the orcs wouldn't have traded the Riders for, say, ten cows for each man? By the way, the goat is a nice touch. The mutton was disgusting. Give him bacon. It can, and does, convert vegans.
To end this review I just want to say Thank You for a very good book that will follow me for a long time, and please let those two wonderful people get some lovin' soon.

Maggie

I am breathless in the face of this masterpiece. You bring the world of Middle Earth to live as no other can, including perhaps its creator. When you write of strategy and plans, I see the markings of troops on a map before my eyes. When you write of battle, I cannot remain in my seat, and my every muscle tenses with desire to fight under the banners you describe. When you write of friendship, the fragile beauty of human life brings tears to my eyes. When you write of guilt and love, my heart bleeds in sympathy. Your every word is precise, powerful, perfect. Your command of every aspect of storytelling is beyond compare. I cannot thank you enough for sharing your talent and gifting us with this jewel. You have my deepest respect and highest esteem, dear lady, and may the muse favor you often, for the benefit of all that is good in literature.

Yours in friendship,
~ Tal

Thank you so much for the update! Your writing style never fails to impress me - impossible to put it down.

Faramir's mind has always been profound, and his confession seemed quite in character to me. The battle scenes were done brilliantly. But best of all, as always, Boromir. Again, I feel blind myself when reading this, and as though I can feel what he feels. I wonder how long he and Gil can dance around one another, and if this will lead into that fantastic one-off of Boromir and Gil together that another author wrote a while back with your permission.

I'm looking forward to reading what you have planned next. Thank you so much.

At last! At long last, an update! This was wonderful. Your writing is as rich, as engrossing, and as evocative as ever. Your story, and the characters who populate it, just keep getting better and better. Thanks.

Thank you!

I loved reading this chapter. I loved Boromir's interaction with Merry and Gil; Aragorn being all kingly and I loved how he had dealt with Gabril and the invading army.

And then the chapter just got better: Faramir! Yayy! I was so happy to see him!

My favourite line is this: Aragorn watched him in silence for a moment, knowing that the tired, broken old man was weeping and finding no pity in himself.

It is just beautiful, descriptive and I love how Aragorn still cannot pity Taleris; and this line just makes Aragorn even more human. One who can be angry and dangerous and has the power to make his displeasure knwon. (Even if he is usually a nice and kind guy.)

Thank you for the chapter, and I hope we won't need to wait too long for the next one.

Delicious as always! Love Boz. Love his concern over the realization he loves Gil. And Poor Gil!

As always Merry is perfect.

Don't make us wait so long !

Oh,my,goodness. Heaven knows when this was last updated, and yet as I started reading the whole tale came back to me, and it is still one of my very favorites!
Horay for such originality that it sticks for years. (just as well too - heh)
Lovely tone as ever - lilting writing and wonderful characterisations. Love Merry, love hidebound Faramir, love your everso kingly Aragorn. Loves it all.
More, slightly sooner?
Rose

First of all I am very happy that a new chapter has arrived! And the wait was very much worth it. This new chapter is very good. Really hoping that Boromir can get back into the action but I know it takes time to heal. Keep up the fantastic work and look forward to the next exciting chapter.

Wonderful to see another chapter. I'm always anxious to read more about Boromir and Gil.

Another wonderful chapter. I appreciate the way you write allowing the characters to maintain their inner integrity from chapter to chapter. Plenty of love and heart ache again and also good depictions of the hard decisions a good strong ruler must make. Looking forward to the next chapter, many thanks.

Ahh finally Boromir and Gil!! *dies* It's been so long since we read the epilogue of 'The Captain and the King' in which she's already his wife and mother of his three children - and now we see the beginnings of it... *melts*
This chapter was absolutely grand, plus it's the first time the computer has worked in about a week so I was all *YAY!!* when I found the alert in my inbox today. *loves you*
Thanks for updating!
All the best,
~Nini

Besides the fact that I love this story (and the previous one!) and I'm very excited about the update, the way you write is simply beautiful. I don't think there is any other author I enjoy reading more, simply for the sake of style! You capture the archaic style used in Tolkien, and use it efficiently and masterfully. Your diction in dialog, your detail in description, and your style in syntax work seamlessly to under gird the world you have created within Tolkien's Middle Earth.

Bravo!