Yesterday I finished the massive apocryphal novel The Last Ringbearer  which retells the War of the Ring with the premise that everything you learned from The Lord of the Rings  is  the victor’s propaganda.

Man, I really enjoyed this book!

To the terror of many a Tolkien purist I enjoyed this book much more than I enjoyed The Lord of the Rings.While to book is not without it’s flaws, towards the middle the plot becomes quite tangled with a vast cast of characters working on wildly different agenda. In its themes, the love of reason and science over magi and superstition, it’s commitment to competence over heredity and lineage, and it’s steadfastness to the reality that wars make monsters of us all, this tale spoke to me and many of my core philosophies. Written by Kirill Eskov a Russian scientist who started with his dissatisfaction at Tolkien’s geography and geology he explored his own world building albeit via revisionist version of Tolkien’s grand construction. I found Eskov’s interpretation of the likely type of interaction between immortal Elves and mortal men much more ‘realistic’ than Tolkien’s smug and wise benefactors. It was quite amusing that in many ways the author painted the Elves, their methods, and their motives much like the Communists that rule the USSR.

Depending on how deeply beloved The Lord of the Rings  is to you will be the principal factor in how much you may enjoy this novel. There are those, and I an no way disparage these people, who adore tales of the ‘chosen ones’ like Aragorn who is who is destined to be out unquestioned ruler by right of birth, or who despise the reveal of Rey’s parentage in The Last Jedi  because she comes from no noble bloodline but I find such ideology    at odds with my passion for equality and that brings The Last Ringbearermuch more inline with my commitment that all persons can be great or greatly evil and that the heroes and villains lie within us all.