Is the Wars of Light and Shadow by Janny Wurts Right for You? Let's Look at the Writing.
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 9 เม.ย. 2024
- If you like Epic Fantasy then the Wars of Light and Shadow might be your next big read. But, in addition to genre, one of the most significant factors in whether or not we enjoy a book or series concerns how it is written. If you don't enjoy the style, quite often it doesn't matter how good the story is, you just can't get into it.
So this video is a look at a non-spoiler section of Grand Conspiracy by Janny Wurts, and a brief discussion of some of the elements she puts in her writing.
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Intro and Music by Professor Trip.
Excellent video, A.P.! One thing I love about Janny Wurts' prose is how I have grown as a reader and a student of literature as a result of engaging with it. Every work of literature that has become a favorite of mine has started at least in part by challenging me in some way. There's a joy in growing as a reader, and also in witnessing something done expertly with attention to craft. Also, at this point I think it's fair to say that A Critical Dragon has gone to the birds. 😁
I am convinced that the birds are your sinister agents, dispatched to interfere with my recordings all so you can maintain your publicly innocent façade. You are a villain of the highest order, sir. A villain, I say. I name thee NEMESIS!!!
AP, I have you to thank for discovering this series. It took me the first two books to really appreciate Wurst’s writing, but I now understand why you have such praise for her writing. One aspect of her craft I really enjoy is her ability to manipulate my reading pace. She makes me slow down (a good thing since reading should not be a race to the end) only to take me through a wild ride that leaves me breathless with a pounding heart. Thanks for another great video. Cheers.
That is a great point. There is a brilliant illustration of this at the end of Grand Conspiracy when it is a breathless action sequence, and yet there are wonderfully timed moments that slow the action, manipulate the pace, and give the reader time to slow down and process what is occurring.
Excellent look at another great passage! I am still continually amazed at how much information Wurts packs into a couple of paragraphs. She has a nearly 20 page action sequence near the end of this volume and I know I read it too fast and probably missed some details that will haunt me later, but I couldn't stop. Going through it I was amazed at how she kept me reading while still conveying such intrisic detail about her world and everything in it. I think the birds make for a great score for your videos. They are quite musical. 😂
That whole sequence is brilliant. Really frenetic pace, but never felt out of control or breathless.
Thank you for shining another brilliant light on Janny Wurts' work. The wars of light and shadow will always be my favourite series as nothing else so far has managed to reach the bar Janny has set for me in fantasy literature almost 30 years ago. I'm truly excited for the last volume. :)
Also, that bird is becoming somewhat of a sidekick to your dragoness!
An exceptional video AP! Janny's prose is such a wonderful gateway to her incredible worldbuilding, compelling themes, and fabulous characters. She displays genius in all those facets, yet I believe her prose sets her apart, even among the top fantasy authors who write great prose. Guy Gavriel Kay, Erikson, Scott Bakker, Ricardo Pinto come to mind as writing phenomenal prose, yet Janny, for me, is the gold standard. It is such a pleasure to experience her work! I find myself challenged to read anything else for a bit, and experience the same level of enjoyment after I have read one of her books. A true book hangover, in a good way. Thank you for yet another incredible video.
Yup! The Wars of Light and Shadow is my perfect cup of tea.
And I think I would sell my soul to be able to write like that.
An 11 book fantasy epic series that is meticulously crafted and expands in a controlled and measured way. Interesting characters, wonderfully realized world, and beautiful wordcraft. It is a great series, and Wurts is a phenomenal writer.
This was such an amazing video. Thanks so much for this AP. I have Hell’s Chasm coming up next month and I will be starting Wars of Light beginning of next year and I could not be more excited to get into this adventure and prose.
Thank you very much. I am glad that you enjoyed the discussion. I love looking at different types of writing, even within fantasy, as it illustrates how many different ways there are to tell a story.
@@ACriticalDragon such a great thing to look at the singular artist’s voice. Part of the alchemy that goes together to make that lighting in a bottle that touches a soul.
I am on the second book now and still having trouble with the writing style. Flourishes I become impatient with. Listening to this lecture is very helpful and i will continue my reading of this series with that in mind.
I am glad that I could help. But there is nothing wrong with not enjoying this particular style. When it comes to what we enjoy, we are the final arbiters of that, regardless of how good it is or how well done it is. I enjoy this rich style of writing, but I especially enjoy Wurts' writing because this is done well. Not everyone enjoys it, and there is nothing wrong with that.
I do want to become a better reader and after reading P. Chase’s comments and listening to this lecture I have some hope!
Never listen to the Nemesis. That Philip Chase is clearly evil personified and is enacting nefarious plans with every breath. 🤣
But all the very best on your journey to become a better reader. You are in good company as most of us are on that journey.
Thank you for your prompt and thoughtful reply!
Glad you don’t assume I’m sexist (phew). I’d be horrified if I was.
The Mara stories are so well written, so sympathetically written that I think I was expecting this series to be of a similar style: your reply has made me think about that: for some reason I had assumed that the majority of those 3 wonderful books was written by her and thus when I started reading the Mistwraithe series (hoping I spelt the name right but I have a fast asleep spaniel on my lap and can’t get up to check lol) I struggled with what appeared to be a completely different style. Again I emphasise I’ve loved reading them (am currently on Initiate’s Trial) but am struggling through what has felt like wading through the sort of sticky mud you come to in a salt marsh! I live in the fens of East Anglia so sticky mud is part of the landscape :-).
Thinking about what you said….I like the story as my imagination unfurls the words on the page; too much on the page hampers the mind’s visualisation maybe? Given that our consciousness builds the world that we experience in everyday life; that holding a tomato doesn’t mean there really is a tomato…which there isn’t means, at least for me, that the pleasure of reading is the story in my head not the illusion that is the book by another consciousness who goes by the name of Janny Wurts who may or may not be a part of the illusion that is human life :-) I’ll give up now I promise. And many thanks again for the reply
Tony
still on book one. reading very slowly but it's really starting to get interesting. glad to see Dakar makes it to book 5 and the skies are blue 😛 (also love videos where you do this kind of analysis. thanks and great work!)
Glad to hear from you again. I hope all is going well.
@@ACriticalDragon dealing with some tough times but hopefully still gonna make it down to Florida this July with the family
This is amazing and detailed breakdown, Mr. Dragon. Kudos! Clearly the birds agree with you too!
I am glad that you enjoyed it. There is still so much more to talk about in just those short passages, and I am really grateful that Wurts has produced work that can sustain close scrutiny across almost every single sentence. It is a major achievement.
I think it's an important distinction that you made here. "No adjectives and adverbs" is an over-used mantra, and for it to have an actual meaning it should be something like "no adjectives that don't add anything to characterisation, scene immersion etc." A writer who knows what they are doing will add one word and convey enough information to fit a whole sentence. Indeed, an author who forcibly restricts themselves only to sentences with fewer words would likely spend much more space to cover the same amount of information.
I have only read the first book in the series and I'm definitely planning to continue. My impression was that there is a lot in common between how Wurts writes her character interactions and how authors like Jane Austen would do it. It's how they strive to make any description of inner feelings as precise as possible. It's very typical of Wurts to add attributes to words that describe emotions, something like "stubborn anger" or "reluctantly decisive", to show that the characters are experiencing a nuanced emootional state.
I think that like many other sayings and 'rules' there is truth to them, but the nuance gets thrown out when the rule is simplified down. Beginning writers often over-indulge in adjectives, adverbs, and redundant description due to inexperience in judging what is necessary to convey the information, so a shorthand rule is shared 'Don't use X' because it is simple, direct, easy to enforce, and generally gets the author to practice techniques to convey the information or create the effect in other ways. But the rule is generally, 'Only use X when necessary to create the effect or convey the meaning that you intend' and its successful implementation relies on the author already knowing and understanding what they are doing, why they are doing it that way, and that this is the best way for this particular narrative. In essence, a much more difficult 'rule' to get beginner writers to understand. The problem is that the simplified didactic rule gets shared widely as a de facto state and applied as if it is an objective metric of 'good writing'.
I'm close to finishing Peril's Gate, so I'm well and happily entrenched in the series. For me, her prose is an immersive experience into the perspective and imagination of an artist. It's as if she paints scenes with words. Though it's more than visual because she adds visceral descriptions representing all senses. And I think she's a true master of the English language, precisely using the right words in the right way. Also, her prose forces me to slow down as a reader, which is a good thing because I sometimes read too fast.
Adding sensory information, beyond sight and hearing, is something that is surprisingly uncommon in a lot of fantasy writing unless it is the one sense that is being singled out (for instance the 'smell' after a battle or in a sewer) in which case the author remembers it there and forgets about it elsewhere. yet it is such a simple trick to make writing more immersive.
I am so pleased to hear that you are enjoying the series. I am thoroughly enjoying the read.
I get 90% of my books from these two used book stores in my town. I found the first two of this series in mint condition for $.50 each. I can’t wait to start. This is the kind of writing I like. I just read Octavia Butler’s “Parable of a Sower”. It was harrowing and I honestly think things are going to go that way in the US, but I don’t think she ever used an adjective or adverb in the whole book. I didn’t know what anyone or anything looked like as nothing was described. It was just a story, which is the kind of novel I hate the most. Her writing was bad. In my opinion, if you’re writing a book, you need to show expertise in your writing. That’s part of it. I don’t watch a lot of movies because I feel the same about those. In my opinion, it is a visual medium and needs to have action and stunning visuals and explosions and all that. Watching two people just talking back and forth is not compelling to me and is a misuse of movie making. Just write a book instead if you’re not going to have any action and just people talking.
I hope that you enjoy the series. I certainly am.
As to Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower, she is writing in a very different style. The reason it is poignant and powerful is partly due to the simple style that takes you closer to the protagonist. It is reflective of who she is, and gives us her world view.
That doesn't mean that you have to like it, but there is power in that simplicity, and it achieves a level of raw authenticity that serves the narrative that Butler created. On a technical and narrative level, it is very well written, and it drives the characterization of Lauren. So I wouldn't describe it as badly written.
That doesn't mean that you have to enjoy it, we all have certain styles and approaches that we like more or less than others. That is the nature of preference when it comes to art, and "in matters of taste and preference, the customer is always right", but when it comes to evaluation of whether or not it is 'good' we tend to move beyond enjoyment and preference and start thinking of the work itself, rather than our experience of reading the work.
Thanks for commenting, I really hope that you enjoy the Wars of Light and Shadow.
I absolutely agree that she uses language like a scalpel. However, when I read Curse of the Mistwraith I couldn't help but feel that she used it like a scalpel in instances where a shovel would have been better. When the scalpel approach is called for I think her prose is some of the greatest I've ever read (the descriptions of magic I found particularly powerful). But there were also times where I thought that a less refined approach would have served the story better, and it would also have made those moments of heightened prose stand out more.
Interesting point. I think some might argue that varying the type of prose would lead to accusations of inconsistency, and it might even annoy certain readers when the prose drifted to the prosaic and then back to the poetic. The style is consistent throughout (and we generally regard that as a good thing), but there are moments when it truly shines, and others when it is the baseline of the narrative style.
As someone who really enjoys this particular style, especially when done expertly (as Wurts does), I am glad that it is consistent throughout. There are enough workmanlike fantasies out there that I can dabble in them if I want a touch of variety in approach.
@@ACriticalDragon That's a fair point, but I will say that I'm not necessarily saying that the prose should be workmanlike. Just that a sentence or two without alliteration wouldn't go amiss. But of course that just comes down to personal taste in the end.
Interesting commentary :-)
I have, at the date of writing this, all the books in the series and reading them all in sequence. Her writing is magnificent I concur….and can I add a ‘but’! (Well of course I can :-) ). I have to admit I struggle with her, what I see as, over flowering use of adjectives and adverbs; it strikes as over feminine…I know that could be considered sexist and I promise it’s not meant to be…I just compare it to the Mara series co-authored with Raymond Feist where the writing is more ‘concise’ and ‘measured’. I’d love to have your thoughts on the comparison.
I’ve said all the above and I want to balance it with the truth that I really enjoy the story as a whole….I just find that there are times, in reading the books, that I have to plough through some passages, like the one you illustrate, ignoring all the flowery prose. It feels superfluous to me, muddy and unnecessary: there are plenty of passages where she doesn’t write in this style; where she lets the reader illustrate situations and actions in his/her own imagination do you not think?
How we feel about a text, what we like and enjoy, and conversely dislike, are highly personal. If we enjoy narratives with greater reader freedom to interpret, sparser language, and a more direct, straightforward approach, then Wurts' style in WoLaS is not going to 'feel' as pleasurable.
Describing it as 'feminine' is unfortunately unavoidably a sexist commentary, although a remarkably common one. It is coded with assumptions and presumptions of prescriptive definitions of masculinity and feminity. Not that I am saying you are sexist, far from it. This is a common aspect of interpretation we see year after year, decade after decade. Many of the greatest male poets in Western canon used this style. Celebrated male authors use this style. It is not specific to one sex. So assigning a gendered norm to it is not borne out by the history of literature. That is why modern assumptions about styles being masculine or feminine can be very problematic territory to venture into.
I would be very wary about deploying that approach, particularly in contrast to the Empire trilogy, as we have no idea which words Wurts penned, and which Feist wrote.
But you raise a very common issue, which is a lot of readers feel the writing is over-embelished.
I would hazard that this has far more to do with the modern reader's desire for and familiarity with a more sparse style, a more direct style, and a focus on a reduced and limited vocabulary.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with feeling that, but attributing it to sex as the explanation is possibly a misstep.
Again, just to reiterate, I am not calling you sexist. The underpinnings of that critique are founded in sexist assumptions and have been promoted and propagated for decades.
You have a new convert here.
Brilliant. I hope that you enjoy the books.
As an avid grilling / smoking / barbecue /outdoor cooking enthusiast I'm going to quibble about smoke not usually smelling good, 🤣
I knew someone would point that out. 🤣🤣
Admittedly, if your barbecue is smelling of sulphur, I am definitely not asking for a piece of brisket.
@@ACriticalDragon Never had a sulfur smell thankfully 🤣🤣
Well, not during the barbecue... maybe sometime afterwards, depending on the volume of beans served as a side.
@@ACriticalDragon 🤣🤣
I have so far only read book one in the Wars of Light and Shadow and while I was fine with the prose some things kept me from reading further.
SPOILERS for Book 1:
For one I did not like how the book portrayed the civilian government that had replaced the Monarchy as clearly evil and a return to aristocracy a much preferable form of government. I realize that this might be addressed in later books but I am skeptical.
The second thing I did not like was how prophecy was used as a plot driver to make the do things that were obviously detrimental for the world and the characters, but had to be done because otherwise much worse things would occur, without any indication why or how.
And lastly I found the main character to be whiny and annoying („I don’t want to be a king, I just want to be a Musician“ seems like an absurd complaint in a world where most people would be peons without any rights or prospects at all).
Other than these points the book was good enough to continue if there was some indication that at least one or two of theses issues would be resolved as the series progresses.
I think a number of your points get explored as the series progresses, and I don't believe that they are as simple as you might think they are. But it is fine not to enjoy the series and find something else that you might enjoy more.