In unfortunate side effects,

[3rdragon]

I think that working on the Ridiculous may be spoiling me for reading. At least, some reading.

I started Michelle Sagara's Cast in Secret this morning, and it's not bad, but some of the literary devices are clumsy, and I notice. Perhaps clumsy isn't quite the right word. Some of them seem so transparent. Descriptions, infodumps, settings . . . I've noticed this with other books, too (although I'm noticing pretty strongly with this one). Not everything, but more than I used to. I've become more sensitive to the technical aspects of writing, now that I do more of it myself, and I'm more aware of when someone is handling them suboptimally. I don't know if I would have noticed the weaknesses in this book if I'd read it a year ago, when it was first given to me. (Maybe I would've. Some of them feel pretty obvious. But I wouldn't have noticed as much, and it wouldn't be such a trial to my suspension of disbelief.)

I am hopeful than there's less of it when she's finished setting the scene and characters. I hope so. I only have four paper books with me, and I'm much more inclined to be dubious of one of the others than I was of this one. (When your mother, who doesn't read sci-fi, says, "Hey, Miriam, this is sci-fi, you might like it." . . . )

Comments

When your mother....

[miriams-mom.livejournal.com]

What's your mother, who doesn't read sci-fi, to think when she reads this?

Re: When your mother....

[3rdragon]

Have I said anything that's untrue? Recall that you needed to look up necromancy (which, admittedly, is a fantasy element, but still).

[vorindi]

I've been trying to track down some plot-notes for Good Cleric, Bad Cleric (which I'm beginning to be sure are in a journal that is at home, if they exist anywhere), and found my LJ-reaction to the only one of these books that I read:

Cast in Shadow. One of those books that randomly caught my eye in the bookstore. I wasn't highly impressed upon reading it, however. The civilization seemed to want to be Draegaeran (I don't know if I have those vowels right), but it was nowhere near managing it. There were a lot of inexplicable conversations, and a lot of inexplicable withholding of information from the viewpoint character, and a lot of confused reader. Also I had a lot of trouble believing that the protagonist was observant and really devoted to being a Hawk (which seemed to be somewhat like being a policeman, although this was not entirely clear either). I'm not going to be getting the sequel any time soon, if ever.

And this was before the Ridiculous.

[3rdragon]

Ah. Possibly the logical flaws would have bothered me, but the writing style wouldn't have, quite so much?

You seem to have been bothered by the same things as me. But it was useful for killing some hours in the Philadelphia airport, and on the plane, and in Heathrow, so I can't complain too much. I can't say that I really regret the dustbin, though. Particularly since it was actually recycling.