Tom Bombadil is the best NPC in the Lord of the Rings Online MMO, if only because he yells “HEY DILLY DILL-O!” every time you click on him. Every time, with no limit to how many times the sample will play simultaneously (beyond what your hardware can handle). So if you spam-click the ever-loving shit out of him, it summons a cacophonous nightmare into a brief yet painful existence.
It was damn better than al the minute by minute descriptions of their forest travels.
Or the extensive geological report on various rock strata in Helm’s deep.
My favourite part of the books.
Was Bombadil supposed to be a Creator analogue or what?
That’s not an uncommon theory, but I personally interpret him as just a part of the world that is outside the knowledge/mythology of the elves. He wouldn’t be the first character that’s true of. For all of her impact on the story, the Elves don’t really know what Ungoliant was, exactly.
Tom Bombadil fits more with the lighthearted Hobbit than the brooding LotR, though the fact that the ring has no power over him, unlike every other character, is cool.
The Old Forest is one of my favorite parts though. The ancient graves alive with deadly magic unrelated to Mordor - scary stuff.
It’s funny how much China Miéville hated Tolkien cuz I’m pretty sure LotR and Perdido Street Station had the same creative process. Dude creates fictional universe he really likes and characters for it, puts all his energy into the world then realizes he doesn’t have a good idea for a story set in it, creates some boilerplate disaster narrative that’s basically an excuse for the more relatable characters to go in a walking tour of the world where just happen to bump into all the cool shit.
I mean, I’ve only read two other books by China and I quite liked both of them so I think he has some chops as a writer. We should keep in mind PSS is one of his earlier books.
And heck I’ll even say I found a good amount to enjoy in PSS, to the point me and a friend made a whole DND campaign inspired by it. But yeah I think China is kinda cocky and seemed to inject a lot of unneeded edgy shit in the story. I get it’s supposed to be all GrimDark, but come on dude.
spoilers
Also I saw the fucking reveal of bird dudes crime from like a mile away. Thought maybe he’d make it something more clever and morally ambiguous but no, just go for the worst crime of passion you can thing of!
