Reading Wednesday
Oct. 7th, 2015 02:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sally_mariaAgain, a book and a fanfic. :-)
One of the settings I very much enjoy for Middle-earth stories is what happens when Frodo and Bilbo reach the end of their sea-voyage and arrive in Valinor. It has something of the appeal of a cross-over, as two group of characters, widely separated in time, meet and learn to respect one another.
![[archiveofourown.org profile]](https://p.dreamwidth.org/b164c54b26e4/-/archiveofourown.org/favicon.ico)
arrogantemu's whole series is called The Splintered Light, though the first part is a prequel that isn't finished yet. The second story, And What Happened After, though, is a wonderful tale of the effect of the Undying Lands on the hobbits, and the hobbits on the ones they meet there - including the Valar themselves. (One of my favourite tags of all time - "Gandalf and his strategic hobbit deployment".) Fëanor the language scholar, Bilbo, still as impertinent as ever, and Sam and his potatoes. :-)
The second is a book obtained for me by![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
gurthaew (somebody was free-cycling some railway books, and he thought I would like them :-D).
The Ballachulish Line (The Birth and Death of a Highland Railway) by Duncan Kennedy, is actually less about the railway as a going concern, and more about the process of building it - the author came from the area, and was taken on as a trainee engineer, before going on to a successful international career. The line was built between 1898 and 1903, and the book has a wealth of social and engineering history, at a time long after the original railway builders, but which still feels like another age. The navvies still plied their trade up and down the country, engineers learnt their trade on the job, and could turn their hand to anything from black-smithing to diving, then think nothing of climbing Ben Nevis over-night, and back to work the next morning. The author comes over as a likeable, dynamic young man, eager to learn and with a kindly eye for the many different characters he met - well worth spending the time with.
One of the settings I very much enjoy for Middle-earth stories is what happens when Frodo and Bilbo reach the end of their sea-voyage and arrive in Valinor. It has something of the appeal of a cross-over, as two group of characters, widely separated in time, meet and learn to respect one another.
The second is a book obtained for me by
gurthaew (somebody was free-cycling some railway books, and he thought I would like them :-D).The Ballachulish Line (The Birth and Death of a Highland Railway) by Duncan Kennedy, is actually less about the railway as a going concern, and more about the process of building it - the author came from the area, and was taken on as a trainee engineer, before going on to a successful international career. The line was built between 1898 and 1903, and the book has a wealth of social and engineering history, at a time long after the original railway builders, but which still feels like another age. The navvies still plied their trade up and down the country, engineers learnt their trade on the job, and could turn their hand to anything from black-smithing to diving, then think nothing of climbing Ben Nevis over-night, and back to work the next morning. The author comes over as a likeable, dynamic young man, eager to learn and with a kindly eye for the many different characters he met - well worth spending the time with.
