The Elven Blade by Nick Perumov
The other day I went to the bookstore to buy some good pool-side fantasy books for my upcoming holiday in the sun with my family.
I didn’t have time to go to the Sci-Fi Dork Shop, so I went to my local bookstore, where the range of books offered aren’t all that great.
Then I found this. “Alvklingan”, or The Elven Blade in English. This book takes place in Middle-Earth 300 years after the War of the Ring!
Of course, I had to buy it! I later Googled the author, and found out that he’s Russian. Apparently, he had translated LotR back in the Soviet days, when it was considered forbidden literature, and longing for more adventures there, he had started to write his own fan fiction just for himself. The manuscript spread in the underground fantasy world of Soviet, and after the Perestrojka in 1991, he got an offer to publish the book. Which he did. And now it’s published in Swedish, Polish and some of the Baltic countries. But not into English, so that’s unfortunate for you English-speaking people.
I started reading yesterday, and I must say I like it. It’s not Tolkien, but darn close, and this guy knows his Silmarillion. I think it’s a tad darker than Tolkien also, but I’ve only started so we’ll see where this goes.
But it’s cool! Back in Middle Earth on NEW adventures!
How they have sorted this out with the Tolkien estate, on the other hand, I do not understand.
Nerd-O-Mancer of Dork 