The Story of Middle Earth told through the Eyes of the Losers
There are two sides to every story, and up until now we've only heard the story of J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle Earth told through the eyes of the those that won. Now there's a book out that's been written that tells the story of the Ring of Power through the eyes of the losers, and those evil loathsome orcs, goblins, trolls and foreigners that were pretty much wiped out by the virtuous and noble elves, dwarfs, ents and human beings, aka the "free peoples", of Middle-earth.
The story was written by a Russian paleontologist Kirill Yeskov, and the book is called The Last Ringbearer. It takes place during and after the end of the War of the Ring (the climactic battle at the end of The Lord of the Rings) and it's told from the perspective of a human field medic and an orc scout who have pledged their allegiance to the Dark Lord Sauron. But, they don't see him as a dark lord at all, Sauron is the savior. These two characters are "given the task of destroying a mirror in the elf stronghold of Lorien before the elves can further use it to infect Middle-earth with their alien magic. Meanwhile, the remnants of Mordor's civilization fight a rear-guard guerrilla campaign to sustain the "green shoots of reason and progress," in opposition to the "static" and "tidy" pseudo-paradise of Middle-earth under the elven regime."
In this story "Gandalf is a war-monger intent on crushing the scientific and technological initiative of Mordor and its southern allies because science "destroys the harmony of the world and dries up the souls of men!" He's in cahoots with the elves, who aim to become "masters of the world," and turn Middle-earth into a "bad copy" of their magical homeland across the sea. Barad-dur, also known as the Dark Tower and Sauron's citadel, is, by contrast, described as "that amazing city of alchemists and poets, mechanics and astronomers, philosophers and physicians, the heart of the only civilization in Middle-earth to bet on rational knowledge and bravely pitch its barely adolescent technology against ancient magic."
Thats definitely a different way at looking at things. Copyright laws, and the Tolkien estate have kept this story from being published in English, but it's been available in Europe since its initial publication in 1999. Apparently that all changed last year when Markov posted his English translation of the book as a free download that you can read here if you're interested in checking it out.