A long time ago I read the six, very long, volumes of the fantasy series "The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant". Recently the author, Stephen Donaldson, has added two more volumes in the form of a sequel. They are entertaining enough, though they have serious flaws. One flaw is the constant references to the other six books. The characters can't walk from one room to another without an internal monologue recalling previous rooms they have left and entered.
Another flaw though, and one it shares (in my view) with the over-hyped Captain Corelli , is that Donaldson does like to show off his erudition by using long words. Today, on my journey to and from work I read around forty pages. All of the following words (not all of which I know) appeared in them.
cerements
percipience
viridian
aliment
viands
malefic
argence
chrism
The problem is compounded by the author's tendency to invent his own words (the glossary of made up words for this volume alone runs to 22 pages!).
I have no idea why authors do this, making words up seems to be a particular failing of fantasy authors, but I wish they would show some restraint. Aliment? Viands? What's wrong with food, a word that I haven't come across anywhere in the book.
I'm reasonably certain he also made up "argence". It's not in any dictionary I own and not in One-Look, but its also not in that ridiculous glossary so maybe it really is just a real, but very obscure, word.
And, to give you just a flavour of the extent to which words are being created, here is an entry from the glossary.
Waynhim: tenders of the Waymeets, rejected Demondim-spawn, opponents and relatives of the ur-viles
Not terribly helpful, I think you'll agree.
Another flaw though, and one it shares (in my view) with the over-hyped Captain Corelli , is that Donaldson does like to show off his erudition by using long words. Today, on my journey to and from work I read around forty pages. All of the following words (not all of which I know) appeared in them.
cerements
percipience
viridian
aliment
viands
malefic
argence
chrism
The problem is compounded by the author's tendency to invent his own words (the glossary of made up words for this volume alone runs to 22 pages!).
I have no idea why authors do this, making words up seems to be a particular failing of fantasy authors, but I wish they would show some restraint. Aliment? Viands? What's wrong with food, a word that I haven't come across anywhere in the book.
I'm reasonably certain he also made up "argence". It's not in any dictionary I own and not in One-Look, but its also not in that ridiculous glossary so maybe it really is just a real, but very obscure, word.
And, to give you just a flavour of the extent to which words are being created, here is an entry from the glossary.
Waynhim: tenders of the Waymeets, rejected Demondim-spawn, opponents and relatives of the ur-viles
Not terribly helpful, I think you'll agree.
1 comment:
I could never read those original books, for the same reason, the made-up words. I was quite keen on SF and Fantasy at the time, and although I'd expect some coinings, Donaldson's were just too distracting from the narrative.
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