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Ten Thousand Years Will Not Suffice  by Agape4Gondor 3 Review(s)
LarnerReviewed Chapter: 24 on 7/10/2010
A terrible time of loss, and the loss of two whom he'd held so dear. And poor little Boromir!

French PonyReviewed Chapter: 24 on 7/4/2006
Whoa. . . Life is certainly tearing Denethor a new one here. Finduilas's decline is swift and frightening. Something similar is happening to the mother of one of my friends, and it's both frustrating and scary. You can see where a decline like that is leading, but there's no sure way to stop it. The painted beach room was a good try, but far too late.

I think Denethor is already beginning to become a little bit unglued when he refuses to attend Finduilas's funeral or even mention her death to her children. That's a big dose of denial right there. And poor Amdir. He's been living on borrowed time ever since the fire anyway, but his loss so soon after Finduilas is just going to break Denethor apart.

Author Reply: I am finding that I am very frustrated in trying to speak to my readers about Denethor. He is enduring beyond normal endurance. My heart goes out to him. I cannot feel anything but a great sorrow for the man.

And worse yet will be what happens to what is left of his family!

We still have more than twenty years before Denethor 'loses' it entirely.

SarasratiReviewed Chapter: 24 on 5/27/2006
I haven't ever reviewed this story before, but I thought this last chapter deserved a bit of praise. I was kind of dreading it, both knowing what was going to happen (especially considering the wonderful depth of the relationship you have set up here) and having read other fics that didn't treat Findulias's death very well at all, but I shouldn't have worried. I am amazed at how you can put so much life into characters while still staying true to canon. We all know what'll happen to Denethor in the future, but there's so much more to him before that, and you're doing an absolutely fantastic job of showing what happened to make him that way while still keeping him a character to whom the reader can be sympathetic. Again, I loved the last chapter--kind of funny to say that, I suppose, because it was the saddest one yet, but it is an excellent piece of writing.

Author Reply: My deepest thanks for your kind words...

I was dreading writing this - fortunately, I was in a land far away (NZ) at the time; we visited the seashore and it reminded me so much of Dol Amroth that I was able to write this - though I cried the whole time I did.

I loved Denethor only because he was Boromir's father - now that I'm writing the characer himself, I have fallen in love with the man - I adore his battle to save his country. I adore his battle to be the father his own was not. And I adore his perseverance. Though on all three fronts, at the end, he failed.

I keep putting this on the backburner now that we are getting closer to those dreadful years - I find I have to force myself to sit down and look at what is happening to him. I really wish Tollers had saved him (AND his son!)

Thank you again, ten thousand times, for the encouragement.

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