Currently reading....
The "Fools Gold" trilogy, by Jude Fisher - never heard of him, apparently his other book credits are "Illustrated Guides" for the LOTR movies. Only the first two books are out - both are decent reads, with a creative plot and interesting characters that aren't buried under too many layers of stereotype.

Most high fantasy trilogies get the hero out into the wilderness as fast as possible, and march him into the maw of hell by the scenic route, hitting all the major map points on the way. Fisher keeps circulating his characters around the same small world. This works - the same issues arise between characters as they meet up in different places, or as they return to their families, only to strike off again, and return once more. Only a few characters are out of their natural element - but they've been thrust into human civilization, rather than Darkest Fantasyland, which only heightens the foreign nature of these characters. The rest of the cast is dealing with their known world, but the times, they are a-changin'....

Fisher's prose style is a little like the original Star Trek series' music, unfortunately - something important just happened? Time for a grim fanfare and a zoom-in on the captain:

....On its very apex, a detached rock stood out, balanced precariously on its seaward lip. He narrowed his eyes, and as he did so, the sun crested the mountains of the island's interior and cast their [sic] light across the cliffs so that he was suddenly able to make out - instead of a rock - a tiny figure, its red hair haloed by the sun.
    Katla!

Ignore the weird pluralization mistake - this kind of crap sneaks into every book now that we've outgrown full-time editors and have the keys to the spellchecker. The real sin is in that final microparagraph. There is only one redheaded character in this saga who goes rockclimbing. Her name is Katla, and she is the first character we meet in book one (Sorcery Rising). Nine hundred pages into the story, we don't need the reminder "Katla!" to tell us that her father (no dummy) has figured out who's on that cliff. Read it again, without the excess:

....On its very apex, a detached rock stood out, balanced precariously on its seaward lip. He narrowed his eyes, and as he did so, the sun crested the mountains of the island's interior and cast their light across the cliffs so that he was suddenly able to make out - instead of a rock - a tiny figure, its red hair haloed by the sun.

Which choice holds the tension better?
- posted by Scott @ 11:14 PM