Recommended Author Pages.
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The purpose of the Dark Prince AU webpage, is not simply to have a place where I could gather the DP AU into one place, along with the works of other authors whom have so kindly used their considerable talent to write within it. It is not to self-indulgently post pretty images. (Although that is fun!) This page also gives me the space to advertise other authors who write in the Tolkien fandom, as promoting excellent fanfiction writers is something I feel passionately about. You will rarely, if ever, find works here that are classed by purists as 'canon-friendly.' I have read the canon for a long time, I do not want any more. What I wish to read, I call Alternative Arda, where authors who do know the canon have the imagination to see how it can be changed, and the skill to create their own reality, while still retaining the pillars needed to uphold those realities. These stories challenge, they take one of of the canon safety zone; they are birthed in the star-forming nebulae of highly intelligent and creative minds, and their works truly do become 'parallel universes' of Tolkien's legendarium. In fact, they use his legendarium rather as he himself used mythology, and their own mythologies deserve recognition from minds who appreciate such talent. Fanfiction is real writing. It is not a poor excuse for original fiction, not when set within what is essentially a mythic history spanning thousands of years, and one in which many characters were left as well-nigh blank slates. Bringing those characters, their actions, thoughts, desires and relationships with others to believable and vivid life is creativity at its finest. ~~~ On each Author Page I will post links, excerpts of their stories and podcasts. ~~~
Whether their stories are set in Third Age Imladris, or First Age Beleriand, in Second Age Eregion, when Sauron as Annatar was planning to control the Elves, or in Rohan or Gondor in the Fourth Age, these people have enriched Tolkien's Middle-earth with their works.
And somehow, although the stories may take us to regions unexplored by Tolkien himself, and the characters and even realms may not be how Tolkien envisaged or wrote them, it is still Middle-earth, and, because of superb characterization, and wordsmithing, it is a richer, grander, more complex Middle-earth than the original author explored. This is writing within mythology, and to do that well, requires brilliance.
Please note:
This is an adult-rated site overall. That being said, not all the authors I recommend write NC17/Adult, but some of the excerpts on their pages will contain sexual content, both M/M and heterosexual.
I would therefore advise checking the author's archive profiles via links on the Recc's Page if you wish to gain an idea of what you may be likely to read on their pages on this site.
Thank you.
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