“Where there’s a whip there’s a will, my slugs. Hold up! I’d give you a nice freshener now, only you’ll get as much lash as your skins will carry when you come in late to your camp…”
Book VI
Chapter 2
The Land of Shadow

Little enjoyment left in the story.

Frodo’s dragging me down. I want to smack him around and tell him to stop being so frickin’ miserable and depressed. He just plods along, complaining constantly and refusing to hope. I know what it’s like to go on miserably long after I thought I had strength for it. Clearly not to the same extent given that this is a frickin’ story, but I know that even in the worst gloom there’s a chance at getting a second, third, fourth wind and so on.

Let’s have the story depend more on “strength of character” and “heroism in light of despair” instead of just good luck all the time. Whenever they’re about to be discovered, orcs end up fighting each other till they get away or the threat is gone. Sure, maybe it’s the effect of the ring, but it’s getting old. Without Sam the story would hardly be worth reading.

So, Gollum is still around and he has the mithril coat. We know the Enemy gets a hold of it sooner or later, but do they get a hold of Gollum? Is he going to cause even more trouble for them?

I’m sorry, but reading this chapter is hard enough. I’m afraid I can’t bring myself to spend more time going over it to come up with something interesting to comment on. And you can forget about me writing down anything I like. Well-written and enjoyable are far from synonymous, and I want to get through this to the light and the end of the tunnel.

till next time,

Mark-Edmond Howell
Kanazawa Japan
far(out)