Kevin's Watch

There is nothing wrong, as far as I can see, with the story Daughter of Regals. My personal problem is that I have tried five times to finish it and never have. Something always comes up when I'm half way through, it's weird! Maybe, subconciously, since it's really a novella I'm not used to that form coming from SRD--so I zone out--I don't know why really...I'm going to have to sit down soon w/a strong pot of coffee and tear into that story until it's done!! Possibly it's because I'm not used to SRD talking about dragons--I don't know--I do see one similarity w/Daughter of Regals and George R. R. Martin's A Game of Thrones, however. Martin uses the same "human clan decended from dragons idea" that SRD, somewhat, pioneered in D of R, but then again Ursula K. LeGuin also poses that idea in the Earthsea books--and the general "idea" has been around for ages...In any case I do see similarities between D of Rand A Game of Thrones, so far: but remember I've only read half of D of R and am now only 120 pages into AGOT. I am totally enjoying that book and I think all SRD fans will REALLY like it!!!

I have only read the first book in a Game of Thrones by G. R. R. Martin, but they are supposed to be a very good fantasy book series.

Now I, however, do not see any similarities between the way the Regals are described in Daughter of Regals and the way the relationship between dragons and humans are described in LeGuin's work. (For those of you unfamiliar with this; read "The Other Wind" to get better informed.)

I guess I have not read far enough into a Game of Thrones to see where this dragon/human relationship comes from.

R

LeGuin poses in The Farthest Shore and Tehanu that some humans are dragons transformed--like the healing woman, or the artist's painting--or decended from dragons.--and no it's not until the end of Thrones and the beginning of A Clash of Kings--that you begin to see that.

I remember being really disappointed by Tehanu when I read it. Possibly because I had such high hopes for the book.

Now that I have read "Tales from Earthsea" and "The Other Wind" I am seriously considering going back to Tehanu and rereading it to see if it is as bad as I originally thought.

I have thoroughly enjoyed reading your insights Ryzel .. I want to read 'The Other Wind' for no other reason than your summation and critique re: the above books.

any other books you care to critique would be greatly appreciated ..

That story bogs down in the middle. Keep reading and it gets a lot better! I don't see any similarities between these dragons and Martin's, possibly a bit with Le Guinn's. I hated Tehanu, too!

I liked Tehanu better than all the other Earthsea books, but that's just me...You might be right about that Ryzel...again I've never read the second half of DoR. Trying to drum up conversation and not be spoiled at the same time is ruff!

If you can get through the middle part, you'll proabbly like the end. Hang in there!

As short apropos I see that "Tales from Earthsea" has won the Endeavour award.

And one of the stories in it was nominated for the Hugo. (The story is called the bones of the Earth and is about Ogion, Sparrowhawks teacher if you remember him.)

The Other Wind has won the 2002 World Fantasy Award. (Another story from Tales was nominated in the novella category.)

Cool! I love Ogion!!!

He was cool in Wizard of Earthsea!

The thing that I found interesting about the story the Daughter of Regals was that Donaldson took some of the same "power elements" as he used in the Land

Spoiler

stone, wood, blood

and used them as sources of power in a completely different way, setting, and world...and he throws in a lot of the same sort of court intrigue he used in the Mordant series...it was sort of neat seeing him use the elements from the Land and Mordant in a different setting and a different way...

I read DoR once, and the Sir Visal's Tale twice, and the rest of them about 20 times.

Neither caught my interest anything like as much as the shorter ones.

I have read them a few times each, and I like DoR because of the unique metaphysics in the story. (The images of the real as a form of magic and all that.) I do notice a connection to Mirror of Her Dreams in this aspect but I have never considered it beyond that.

I didn't think of the images vs. reality...thanks Ryzel. Gives me something to look for next time I read that story!

Nothing like being a year late to a conversation.....but I read DoR for this first time this week. I have to admit that the story started out very slow for me. I almost stopped reading it twice, but at some point (I don't really know right now just when) the story just kind of grabbed me. By the time I was 2/3 through the story I was turning pages as fast as possible.

Chrysalis' struggle to actually be a ruler captivated me. I loved the way she strove to be worthy of the legacy of her father and her family, how she worked to be equal to the Mage Ryzel and the three monarchs.

I also thought SRD perfectly captured the idea of the off-screen movie. He gave just enough information about the world of Nabal, Lodan and Canna so that I knew what was going on, but not so much that I was swamped with useless facts.

My measure of this is that I could understand what was happening in the story, and it felt complete so that I didn't feel the need to know more about how magic worked in that particualr world.

Sum sui generis
Vs

I have Monday off so am making a serious attempt today and tomorrow to tackle and finish DoR!!!

Wow! I'm 1/2 way through and enjoying this story immensely! I have no idea, whatsoever, why I could never finish it before, sleep deprivation perhaps? Later! I must (**ahem**) "scour" the pages.

Perhaps you were just not in the right mood for that particular story when you have tried to read it previously. I am glad you are enjoying it this time around.