Books: Fire Logic

[fullygoldy]

review version 2.0

By Laurie J Marks

I enjoyed this story.  The universe she creates is interesting and the characters are fairly engaging - at least the main ones, so I'm looking forward to reading the next volume.  This is definitely fantasy, as opposed to my usual hard sf, but it was enjoyable.  Also an easy read.  I read the bulk of it while lying in bed with a flu in one day.

My only quibble is with a certain sentence construction.  Nearly every time I encountered it, I would be thrown out of the flow of the story as I struggled with finding an alternative way of stating the point.  The formula goes:  "blah blah blah," she said, adjective-ly.  Where adjective = a word that isn't usually the base of an adverb.  Most of the time I'd notice because there are other, more common, ways to describe that state of being, usually using that adjective.  My struggle was with realizing I'd have to change more than the one sentence to repair the flow.  Then I realized how frequently it happened, so I started noticing it just because it was there again.  It would really bug me.  Plus the realization that the sentence structure was consistently pretty basic - subject-verb-object-modifier.  The weird part about this is that I don't usually parse sentences.  My peeves tend to be spelling, grammar and occasionally punctuation.

Of course, I did have the flu while I was reading it, so perhaps my perceptions are skewed.  There are 4 books in the series, although I believe only 3 are published at this time.  I'll reserve judgement on the whole series until I've read at least one more.

Comments

[half-double.livejournal.com]

The formula goes: "blah blah blah," she said, adjective-ly. Where adjective = a word that isn't usually the base of an adverb.

Examples? I'm having some trouble picturing it.

[fullygoldy.livejournal.com]

you know, I was afraid someone would ask me this! I should have written a couple of them down. This is a made up example: "I guess so," she said, disinterestedly. I'd rather see: "I guess so," she allowed, or even better: After a moment, she sighed, "I guess."

And I guess the true problem for me lies in that that last word always seems kind of tacked on. As if the author thought, "oh yeah, I'm supposed to be more descriptive," when I already find the writing to actually be descriptive. Also, I know there *was* one word that had an 'ly' tacked onto it, that normally wouldn't, so that the word sounded made up.

It probably can be chalked up to taste and style. Fantasy isn't my first love anyway, and I tend to have a hard time finding any style within fantasy that I really like. When I beta, I tend to hammer at stuff until it's stripped down to the bones. No flowery excesses for me! I love the spare stuff.

Oh hey, since I've got you here, do you mind if I adapt your icon for a friend? She's writing her thesis, and says she needs icons.

[sasha-feather.livejournal.com]

I've read all three books, and honestly didn't notice this. There was generally something about her style that felt a little detached, or stilted, or... something that bothered me. I think the basic sentence construction is probably intentional: like an old-time storyteller. I liked the first two books pretty well; the third book I had to force myself to finish.

[aenodia.livejournal.com]

I have not read any of Marks works so I have no idea how they stand up to other fantasy. Your description and example make me think of Tom Swifties. Based on the style of the author of the Tom Swift books such as "Let's eat" said Tom hungrily. Or "my name is Tom" he said swiftly.

My first and most endearing love in the hard science SF but I have come to enjoy some fantasy authors. Some write both such as Lois McMaster Bujold. I recommend reading her works. She just keeps getting better and better.

[fullygoldy.livejournal.com]

No worries there! In fact, I love LMB so much, I've accidentally purchased the same book more than once! LOL