In Shade and Shadow: In-Game Misgivings
Jan. 7th, 2009 04:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lunasariel Well, I'm plugging on through Barb & J.C. Hendee's latest, In Shade and Shadow.As I had hoped, it features our dear, mousy, scatterbrained little sage, Wynn Hygeorht. Our old friends Magiere, Leesil, and Chap haven't put in an appearance, nor do I think they will (I'll touch on this again later), although they have been mentioned a lot, which is only natural. Chane has been lurking around, which I'm not too happy about. As usual, he's pining over Wynn and generally just sitting around being morose, instead of actually, you know, helping or anything. Chane was an interesting character in the beginning, but now he's becoming an extremely predictable vampire in love. He adores her: check. He can never be with her: check. He's afraid she'll think he's a monster: check. He thinks of himself as a monster and abhors his undead existence: check. He is an Inherently Good Person and hates killing: check. He is a Tender Soul and Very Sensitive: check. Endless and needless self-flagellation: check. Edward Cullen, anybody? *eyeroll*
I'm hoping that one of two things will happen: either the Hendees will forgo the Chane/Wynn pairing they seem to be setting up in favor of Osha/Wynn (I'll get to that in a moment), or barring that, Chane will develop some character depth. Osha is a kindhearted, slightly bumbling elf who acted simultaneously as Wynn's bodyguard and linguistic student for a time. He and Wynn have developed romantic feelings for each other, born mostly of his saving her scholarly little butt from ancient evil vampires, shipwrecks, and actively malevolent weather, and her teaching him Belaskian, the dominant (human) language of his continent. He is also training as an assassin under an immeasurably ancient, increasingly psychotic master.
However, within In Shade and Shadow, there are a few points of inconsistency, or at least little things to give me pause. The mysterious orb that became the focal point of the first series was supposed to be safely interred by Wynn in the heart of her guild of magicians and scholars, but at the last minute, Magiere, Leesil, and Chap take charge of it again and head off. This leads me to believe that we might be seeing more of the Terrible Three later on. Second, and this one has been on my mind for a while, the Osha/Wynn thing. On the surface, it seems as though the Hendees created an innocent little romance to give Wynn and Osha a few extra facets to their characters, and then nixed it when it no longer became convenient or useful. But from what I can tell, Barb & J.C. Hendee aren't that kind of writers. They aren't what I like to call "Puppetmasters": authors who manipulate their characters into contrived and inconceivable situations, regardless of what the character himself or herself would do. They understand their own characters pretty well, and know that neither the methodical, studious Wynn nor the devoted, loyal Osha would be given to casual lusts. Wynn was raised among an order of, basically, studious monks, so the concept of romance, let alone the application thereof, would be a fairly foreign concept to her, leading her to be fairly non-susceptible to the common malady of "being in love with being in love," of falling in and out of love at the slightest provocation. For Osha, as well, romantic attachment doesn't seem to be on his radar. He is a genuinely good-hearted person, but as an anmaghlâk, romance, especially with a human, would be severely frowned upon.
My point is, I think Osha and Wynn have a valid relationship, and it seems a tad arrogant of the authors to ignore this and shoehorn in a cookie-cutter case of obsession and try to make it equally emotionally resonant.
Plot quibbles aside, I'm starting to notice a few linguistic blunders. Although no culture in the Noble Dead world speaks a Latin-like language, words such as "scriptorium" and "laboritorium" abound. Of course, the book has to be in English, and the characters have to speak English, otherwise we couldn't understand a thing. That's expected. But the two examples mentioned above are more blatantly Latin. Substituting words such as "scribe-house" or "scrivener's" for the former, or the simple "laboratory" for the latter would circumvent this awkward and jarring linguistic oddity.
I had also come across the word "Êdän," which originally gave me great cause for worry. I had thought it plagiarized from, and clumsily disguised from the fans of, J.R.R. Tolkien. But upon further research, Tolkien's word turned out to be either "adan" or "edain," translating to "human" and "humans" respectively, while the aforementioned "Êdän" is an ancient Elven system of writing. While close enough to make me not trust it entirely, it is too far in both form and function to delineate a clear case of plagiarization. Listen to me, sounding all Tolkein-like!
That's it for me now. Maybe I'll update this when I've finished the book, or maybe I'll do an entirely different entry. Or maybe, on the off chance, I won't do anything at all. Guild of Sagecraft awaaaay!
I'm hoping that one of two things will happen: either the Hendees will forgo the Chane/Wynn pairing they seem to be setting up in favor of Osha/Wynn (I'll get to that in a moment), or barring that, Chane will develop some character depth. Osha is a kindhearted, slightly bumbling elf who acted simultaneously as Wynn's bodyguard and linguistic student for a time. He and Wynn have developed romantic feelings for each other, born mostly of his saving her scholarly little butt from ancient evil vampires, shipwrecks, and actively malevolent weather, and her teaching him Belaskian, the dominant (human) language of his continent. He is also training as an assassin under an immeasurably ancient, increasingly psychotic master.
However, within In Shade and Shadow, there are a few points of inconsistency, or at least little things to give me pause. The mysterious orb that became the focal point of the first series was supposed to be safely interred by Wynn in the heart of her guild of magicians and scholars, but at the last minute, Magiere, Leesil, and Chap take charge of it again and head off. This leads me to believe that we might be seeing more of the Terrible Three later on. Second, and this one has been on my mind for a while, the Osha/Wynn thing. On the surface, it seems as though the Hendees created an innocent little romance to give Wynn and Osha a few extra facets to their characters, and then nixed it when it no longer became convenient or useful. But from what I can tell, Barb & J.C. Hendee aren't that kind of writers. They aren't what I like to call "Puppetmasters": authors who manipulate their characters into contrived and inconceivable situations, regardless of what the character himself or herself would do. They understand their own characters pretty well, and know that neither the methodical, studious Wynn nor the devoted, loyal Osha would be given to casual lusts. Wynn was raised among an order of, basically, studious monks, so the concept of romance, let alone the application thereof, would be a fairly foreign concept to her, leading her to be fairly non-susceptible to the common malady of "being in love with being in love," of falling in and out of love at the slightest provocation. For Osha, as well, romantic attachment doesn't seem to be on his radar. He is a genuinely good-hearted person, but as an anmaghlâk, romance, especially with a human, would be severely frowned upon.
My point is, I think Osha and Wynn have a valid relationship, and it seems a tad arrogant of the authors to ignore this and shoehorn in a cookie-cutter case of obsession and try to make it equally emotionally resonant.
Plot quibbles aside, I'm starting to notice a few linguistic blunders. Although no culture in the Noble Dead world speaks a Latin-like language, words such as "scriptorium" and "laboritorium" abound. Of course, the book has to be in English, and the characters have to speak English, otherwise we couldn't understand a thing. That's expected. But the two examples mentioned above are more blatantly Latin. Substituting words such as "scribe-house" or "scrivener's" for the former, or the simple "laboratory" for the latter would circumvent this awkward and jarring linguistic oddity.
I had also come across the word "Êdän," which originally gave me great cause for worry. I had thought it plagiarized from, and clumsily disguised from the fans of, J.R.R. Tolkien. But upon further research, Tolkien's word turned out to be either "adan" or "edain," translating to "human" and "humans" respectively, while the aforementioned "Êdän" is an ancient Elven system of writing. While close enough to make me not trust it entirely, it is too far in both form and function to delineate a clear case of plagiarization. Listen to me, sounding all Tolkein-like!
That's it for me now. Maybe I'll update this when I've finished the book, or maybe I'll do an entirely different entry. Or maybe, on the off chance, I won't do anything at all. Guild of Sagecraft awaaaay!
