Reading high fantasy

[cimorene]

I am resisting reading the new Murderbot book still because then I will be out of Murderbot again.

But that reminded me that I had another book by Wells waiting. I bounced off Witch King the first time I picked it up because it starts with a three page glossary of characters with exotic fantasy names, and those always annoy me. It's useful to have a list, but I think I prefer it as an appendix. I don't have any patience for homework that I'm supposed to do before I start reading. If your book is prose, and it's elaborate enough to require reference lists (is my feeling), you'd fucking better be able to write exposition skillfully enough to introduce your characters and places in the text! And Wells is skilled enough to do that. You don't need to read the list before you start reading.

Not knowing how to pronounce the names is also very annoying, but I have to say that on balance, the fantasy novels that try to explain the pronunciation in a folksy way are even more annoying, so I think I agree with her choice. It would just be nice to have an appendix with actual phonetic symbols, or a whole thing explaining the phonology of each invented language (Wells isn't Tolkien. I don't think she actually invented the languages). In things that are set in the real world, or very close to it, it's usually possible to identify the places and languages and thus get at least a good guess at pronunciation, but Wells' fantasy cultures are not (to me) merely identifiable Earth ones with the serial numbers filed off (which is a point very much in her favor in terms of world-building, but it does make pronunciation more challenging). But my mind's ear has to decide what it thinks for each name or I'll be stumbling over them every time, and I cannot actually stop myself from getting distracted wondering about it nearly every time the names come up. Of course this is a set of eternal dilemmas in high fantasy.

This book is more recent than the Ile-Rien trilogy and much more mature and well written, but I still prefer her sf to her fantasy.

Comments

[princessofgeeks]

I enjoyed Witch King and the sequel very much but the parallel plot lines annoyed the shit out of me and I am waiting eagerly the third book someday and then the chance to get an omnibus or paperbacks of all of them so that I can read ALL THE TIMELINES IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER because that's how I roll.

[cimorene]

My first reaction was to say that I really like multiple timelines in general, as a structure or device. But actually, thinking about it, it was bothering me in this case. I think partly it's because it has cliffhanger chapter breaks and leaves the action in both timelines at the same pitch of tension.

[princessofgeeks]

Personally I could not understand why the author wanted to structure the books that way. It didn't add anything to my reading experience.

But maybe it just went over my head. That can definitely happen.

[cimorene]

Maybe just for the increased suspense and to point up the parallels.

[barbaratp]

Já tive raiva por tais coisas e às vezes me leva a abandonar a leitura também. Irritante ter que ficar dobrando a mente pra entender o que poderia ser dentro daquela obra.