Eskov bases his novel on the premise that the Tolkien account is a “history written by the victors”.[2][3] Mordor is home to an “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”, posing a threat to the war-mongering faction represented by Gandalf (whose attitude is described by Saruman as “crafting the Final Solution to the Mordorian problem”) and the Elves.[2]
Macy Halford, in The New Yorker, writes that The Last Ringbearer retells The Lord of the Rings “from the perspective of the bad guys, written by a Russian paleontologist in the late nineties and wildly popular in Russia”.[4] The book was written in the context of other Russian reinterpretations of Tolkien’s works, such as Natalia Vasilyeva and Natalia Nekrasova’s The Black Book of Arda [ru], which treats Melkor as good and the Valar and Eru Ilúvatar as tyrannical rulers.
This comes up every time when lotr discussion goes deep and I love it every time. Good reads and fun perspective exercise. The books that is. Not puddin’.
The Last Ringbearer (annas-archive) by the paleontologist Kirill Eskov.
This comes up every time when lotr discussion goes deep and I love it every time. Good reads and fun perspective exercise. The books that is. Not puddin’.