Bravely, I picked through the prologue and am now on page 18 of the first chapter of this 800 page mega novel. Maas seems to be a disciple of classic fantasy, just like Brandon Sanderson and David Eddings. While Brandon afforded his reader breaks to take things in, Maas seldom did and I found relaxation only by the final 2 pages of the prologue. Eddings on the other hand was slow to expound even his most basic concepts.
I was also hard-pressed reading HoFaS, to find anything to latch onto emotionally -it seemed to be there then was taken away / sidelined for a page or half, only to be replaced again with some more meat added on. I do think SJ would have benefited from either exploiting ALL her complications in conversation, or creating a more complicated narrative. In this case she chain smokes each character, each line they say.
Do I want to carry on with HoFaS? Yes. We see eye-to-eye on many things. I like fallen angels and power armor, and the magic vs. technology she implies. I like the main character and am eager to find out more about her.
Nothing probably will change SJ until she hits 70 so readers will have to put up with her style if they want her story. I know I will.
For some reason, altho I do adore dystopia and some graphic violence, the book starts off dark, almost depressing, and that is one hump to get over (no pun intended). For those who love fantasy, you may well be getting 800 fukkin' pages worth of it. And there has to be payoff somewhere in there. More later...
...
[the following is by request of the mind group for my opinion on books in general]
The way I see it, and I have read a few fantasy novels which were well-written in the sense that they were not extreme, but gentle on the mind, never boring --is that there are limits to what is possible to write and what is not nice to read.
By and large authors have to compromise and write something off center their plot, maybe cut out the parts that tho logical, would offend someone reading as reading is like joining 2 minds in friendship, trust.
The literature art form is very YOU. A viewer can judge an artist's talent no problems, but a reader can more easily conjure the wrong image a writer creates between her and her fans. There, a writer has to be careful, more so than even a musician.
The qualities of a would-be writer are 3:
- Patience, Perfection, and Protection (I will explain)
- Quietness, Queerness, Questions
- Reflection, Recollection, Robustness
Patience is not writing lots about little -it's about writing little about lots. It is knowing that writing little makes not a book yet still write that way.
Perfection is not revising many times, but getting it 100% to your liking the first word off.
Protection does not mean hiding behind metaphors or sanitizing your prose. It means taking care that the reader is satisfied and happy no matter what part he is reading.
After a person has these qualities, it's time to see if you have quietness: a desire to stop and rest with the reader, Queerness -anything to say or style of saying it that interests. Questions -things you discover or relate in your text. An author should be genuinely curious.
Finally the 3 Rs: a writer is a reflector, and a recollector. Compare what you dredge up from life and watching others live. A robust personality is also what it takes to tell a story well. A good author is brave, unshakeable, ready to expose the established follies of our time, otherwise to support them if they were so necessary.
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[again, by request, what are the best ways to narrate your story / book?]
There are just 4 tricks of the trade (which I use anyway),
- Delay / Rush (I will explain)
- Whisper
- Raised pitch
- Irony
When you come across certain passages that imply waiting, don't be afraid to insert some delay and when there is a lot to say, maybe a little rush is needed.
Whisper if the script seems conspiratorial, or if there is intimacy suggested. You may find it helps other things like telling somebody something unpleasant.
Raise your pitch to indicate say, a block quote or to introduce a symbol or a question.
Irony is something I use often too. How do you sound ironic -it's up to you. Perhaps it can be a mixture of the above?
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