The Last Ringbearer is a 1999 novel, written (in Russian) by Kirill Yeskov, recently translated in to English and available as a
free download. It's a story set in Tolkien's Middle-Earth and told from the point of view of the losers. The hordes of Mordor are depicted as humanists with a society based on science and rationality, in opposition to the barbaric, and at times, fascistic, forces of the West. It's not a new critique of Tolkien, by any means (Michael Moorcock and David Brin have both made basically the same points), but the novel makes for an interesting counterpoint to and commentary on LOTR. It's not without its flaws, but it's not a bad read (I'm about a third of the way through it), especially for the price.
Here's a
review over at
Salon (this is where I heard of it.) Anybody else read the book?
