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Abandoned Elda Kundu, Kurutar: A Wizard's Tale by Jess S1 - T - HP/LOTR

Discussion in 'The Alternates' started by Skeletaure, Sep 14, 2011.

  1. Skeletaure

    Skeletaure Magical Core Enthusiast ~ Prestige ~ DLP Supporter

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    Title: Elda Kundu, Kurutar: A Wizard's Tale
    Author: Jess S1
    Rating: T
    Status: WIP, 100k words, 6 chapters
    Pairing: Harry/ElfOC
    Chapters: 6
    Words: 96,563
    Updated: September 11, 2011
    Published: July 17, 2008
    Status: Abandoned

    Summary: During the summer after fourth year, Harry makes an innocent wish that takes him to a different world. He needs to find a way home, but first he has to decide where his home really is... LOTR/HP. There & Back Again - Rewritten
    Link: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4403118/1/Elda_Kundu_Kurutar_A_Wizards_Tale

    Essentially, post-GoF Harry gets dumped in Middle Earth at the start of the Third Age.

    Okay, let's start with the negative. There's only really three things I dislike about this fic:

    1. The opening chapter is extremely convenient. Everything is being set up for Harry's transport to Middle Earth by the author. And his transport there in the first place is very clearly a plot device. These things are negatives, but they're the kind of things that those of us used to crossovers have come to accept.

    2. With the latest update, it looks like the future updates might contain a bit of a shark-jumping moment. Namely:

    Elves look like they might learn HP magic in the future

    3. Harry's love interest is a cardboard cut out character. She has no character.

    Other than those, the fic is very good. It's well written in technical terms, and it covers an epic timescale. One of the better HP/LOTR crossovers. Despite being 100k words long, it's nowhere near to being done. Still another 500 years or so to go before the start of the War of the Ring.

    Objectively, I'd call this 3/5. However, in entertainment value I'd put it at 4/5.


    Checked by Minion, January 14, 2013
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jan 14, 2013
  2. Captain Trips

    Captain Trips High Inquisitor

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    Oh, one of my old favourites. I recently read it through again and it's still as good as I remember.
    5/5 from me.

    Funny thing is, the original version of this is in The Recycling Bin.
     
    Last edited: Sep 14, 2011
  3. CBH

    CBH Sixth Year

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    I'm not the best source for LOtR, but I'm pretty sure the events of the War of the Ring occurred in 3018 while its only 667 in the latest update, so it another 2450 years or so, not 500.

    I've been following this since the second chapter or so and I enjoy despite having the same problem with his love interest and more recently the elves learning magic. I also have the same problem with this that I do with all HP/LOtR in that apparition seems to take out the necessity of the actual Fellowship and most of the events of the book. This is especially true since apparently any elf can now do the same.

    Another mistake is that apparently the Istari shouldn't be around yet at the point they are mentioned which I thought was odd since the author seems to have done a lot of research before writing this. I only found this out on wikipedia so it might be wrong.

    While updates usually are pretty large, the time between them means that I usually have to reread the story to have any idea what's going on. This last one actually took about two and a half years.

    I'll wait until more actually happens to rate it, but I'd give it a 4/5 if I was going to at the moment.
     
  4. Azotez

    Azotez Seventh Year

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    Cool, thank you! This is exactly the kind of story I was looking for to waste my time on.

    I will give it a proper review once I am done with it.
     
  5. Skeletaure

    Skeletaure Magical Core Enthusiast ~ Prestige ~ DLP Supporter

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    I think apparation can be overcome by by some kind of reasoning about the effects of the ring. Like, the ring would hijack any apparation attempt.
     
  6. ninjacom

    ninjacom First Year

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    How much prior knowledge would be needed to understand this story, LotR lore-wise? It looks pretty interesting; should I do any background reading?
     
  7. Skeletaure

    Skeletaure Magical Core Enthusiast ~ Prestige ~ DLP Supporter

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    The characters are mostly from LotR, though some of them are only briefly mentioned.

    Some, however, are more obscure. They tend to be more fleshed out though.

    I think that you should be able to read it fine if you have read LotR. Or even watched the movies, probably. Though a few of the characters (like Elrond's sons) will feel new to you.

    Knowing the history of Numenor would enrich your understanding of the story.
     
  8. merchantofam

    merchantofam Fifth Year DLP Supporter

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    Taure, I would agree with you in suggesting the story to HP/LOTR lovers but the simple fact we don't hear or see anything from the author regarding the continuation of the story is disconcerting to say the least. I wish she would update more often or at the very least not focus on some many projects at once.

    3/5: For sound writing, believable characters and plot. I would give it a point more if Jess S1 would update more often.
     
  9. Rynonis

    Rynonis Slug Club Member

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    One of the better LOTR-HP crossovers. We really can't be picky with them. If this was a standalone it would be a 3. But because its LOTR I give it a 4/5.
     
  10. Ched

    Ched Da Trek Moderator DLP Supporter ⭐⭐

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    My first impression of this story after opening it is not that good...
    Just reading through that made me cringe more than once, but I'll give it a go anyway.

    *goes off to read*

    Surrey is not in London (first sentence). It's in England, near London perhaps, depending on your definition of near. Or such was my understanding. It's little things like this that often irk me in stories, though in some cases it doesn't detract from the enjoyment. Unfortunately most of Chapter 1 would be enough to turn me off the story if it wasn't for this having 4 stars so far on DLP -- I shall press on.

    It does seem to improve once he's with the Elves, but I'm not a big fan of all the changes he has undergone in the 20 years where we aren't along for the ride. He gets a new name and gains all sorts of Elf-traits, flawless vision, etc. This somehow becomes less irksome as the story progresses however, possibly because Harry ages so much that it seems moot at some point.

    Then he has some sort of "love at first sight" encounter which includes some kind of special bond. Granted some of that is explained by Elvish culture, but even so. "Our Eternity Awaits..." is a pretty good inscription for an engagement ring though -- did the author come up with that? His wife doesn't actually irritate me though. Bland she may be but she doesn't have a large enough role to grate too much.

    I enjoyed Harry wanting to join the army as a regular soldier as well as the rest of that chapter/experience. It was around this time that I finally started to actively have fun reading the story. I especially like the characterization of Elrond for some reason -- plus I appear to be a sucker for the brother/sister relationships Harry has acquired with the Elves. The king is also written quite well, as is his friendship with Harry. I do wish that Harry had been able to tell him Turambar who he really was before his death, but ah well. I just thought it'd have been a fun scene, if not really in line with the story.

    I find myself looking forward to the point when Harry somehow returns to his old world. I'm not at all sure how the author will handle that or if it will go well at all, but I am curious.

    The possibility that Elves are going to learn magic could easily make the story jump the shark. While the argument could be made that Harry's wife could learn some of it because of her bond/whatever with Harry, I find it unlikely that if it was possible for Elves in general to learn it that Elrond/Celeborn/Galadriel/etc. would have figured that bit out by this point, given that they'd been reading all of Harry's books. But eh, whatever.

    So now that I've finished the first several (long) chapters... I am still not sure how to rate this. It's far from perfect but once I got past the initial chapter I did find it to be engaging. There were some parts that I felt were a bit dry but they were interspersed with a few truly great scenes (mostly the ones with Turambar or Elrond).

    I guess that leaves me at a 3.5/5 rating. Given that I mostly enjoyed reading it I'll round up to a 4 for the thread rating, but honestly the story is probably closer to a 3/5 from most standpoints.
     
  11. Hw597

    Hw597 Seventh Year

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    I read about a 15 year old Hermione creating a tome that contained the enitre Hogwartz library and immediately stopped reading. Maybe i'll give it another chance at a later date
     
  12. Richard

    Richard Supreme Mugwump

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    This really just says "no go" to me. Just hearing about this has really just said "pass". Not reading this, sorry.
     
  13. Cxjenious

    Cxjenious Dark Lord

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    This is... passable, but barely. I managed to ignore Hermione's creation of the tome, and focus on the rest of the story. To much telling, in most places, and Harry doesn't seem much like Harry anymore. 3/5 is a bit generous.
     
  14. Andro

    Andro Master of Death DLP Supporter

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    The writing is too mediocre. :/ How does one read 100,000 words of this?
     
  15. Skeletaure

    Skeletaure Magical Core Enthusiast ~ Prestige ~ DLP Supporter

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    Probably the same way one reads the Silmarilion.

    When you're covering thousands of years in timescale, you can't really use the normal show vs. tell rule. What you're writing is closer to a history book than a novel.
     
  16. Andro

    Andro Master of Death DLP Supporter

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    The writing got better in the second chapter. I'm outright skipping the first chapter, because it's trash. The wizarding birthday cake is a stupid, stupid concept, but whatever works.

    I do like how it seems to incorporate this feel of days and seasons in Middle-Earth, lessening the urgency for an overall plot to make itself apparent.
     
  17. calutron

    calutron Unspeakable

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    While the timescale of the story is epic, but the stories writing style isn't really suited for epic stories. There are no major events happening/ or at least we've only seen the start of Harry's participation in major events. (3/5) cause I admire LOTR.
     
  18. Aekiel

    Aekiel Angle of Mispeling ~ Prestige ~ DLP Supporter

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    Got bored half way through the second chapter. The writing is dry as hell and doesn't have Tolkien's 'feel' to counterbalance that. 2/5.