I've read this novel twice now for two reasons. One, it's a classic that demands repeated reads, and two, my first manuscript was influenced by this period, as is my sequel-in-progress. So I wanted to immerse
myself in the cast's diction again.
Most writers of fantasy
fiction set their stories in a period that mirrors our own middle
ages. Yet despite their adherence to its form of government
(monarchies), its mode of transportation (horse, mule, wagon,
carriage), its architectural structures (castles, towers, temples),
its tools of war (sword, spear, bow), and its dress (tunics, robes, bodices, armor), when it comes to dialogue, these same writers
tend to assign their characters the contemporary colloquialisms of
today. This has always struck me as lazy. Granted, creating dialogue
that approaches the lexicon of a begone era is a challenge. But ever
since reading the gracefully worded dialogue in Donaldson's Covenant
Chronicles, Ben-Hur,
Don Quixote, The
Iliad, as well as Ivanhoe,
I've been enamored with that lofty, archaic speech and have wanted to
reproduce something similar, what I refer to as the pseudo-authentic,
namely not the diction people of such a period spoke (since we can't
know for certain), but certainly something we as readers come to
expect from knights and courtiers of a similar age. I'm convinced that contemporary
writers of this genre who dismiss this important element do their characters and
their setting a disservice. Five out of five stars. PG-13
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