Ah, got to love the style.

[Loric Vilesilencer]

Has it occured to any of you an interesting fact about much of SRD's style?

Taking the Covenant series for example, I believe the shortest one is about 300 pages long. I can and have plowed through many 300 page books in a single sitting, up to a day in length. However, with SRD's style, it takes at least a month to read a simple book like this! (I am currently about to finish The One Tree.) What about his style slows me down like this? It was the same with Mordant's Need (though I acknowledge that those two are MUCH longer.)

[Infelice]

Could it be his "turgid and gratuitous verbiage" (to borrow dukkha`s phrase)?
I`m not ashamed to say that upon reading the Chronicles for the first time, I spent a lot of time familiarising myself with the dictionary. Mind you I was a teenager at the time, but I had to come to grips with SD`s use of big words - very time consuming.

[Fist and Faith]

For me, the difference is one of substance. One writer will spend paragraphs - if not pages! - describing the scenery/contents of the room/smells from the cooking pot. Sometimes interesting, sometimes not. But if I don't skip it entirely, I sure don't study it.

But in TCTC, that's replaced by descriptions of the mental and emotional landscape. And what the characters are feeling is of supreme importance. I read every single word of SRD, and I make a good attempt to actually understand it.

[danlo]

Xcellent F&F! Besides I just wanted 2 look @ my SRD quote again...

[Ryzel]

But in TCTC, that's replaced by descriptions of the mental and emotional landscape. And what the characters are feeling is of supreme importance. I read every single word of SRD, and I make a good attempt to actually understand it.

Reading this it just struck me that there is something very strange in the second chronicles. Why is it that everybody in the books always just assume that Vain has no emotions and tend to treat him that way? Human beings are notorious for giving human motivations to things that have no substance whatsoever (trucks, dolls, dogs(borderline case) etc.) so why is Vain always treated as nothing more than a robot?

[Ryzel]

For me, the difference is one of substance. One writer will spend paragraphs - if not pages! - describing the scenery/contents of the room/smells from the cooking pot. Sometimes interesting, sometimes not. But if I don't skip it entirely, I sure don't study it.

Believe it or not, I reply two times to the same post. But I consider this okay as long as the replies are different enough.

This time I just want to state my agreement. An example of this which you might want to study if you like militaristic SF is David Weber who writes good books but tend to fill them with far too detailed descriptions of the drive systems and weapon systemes on the spaceships he is about to blow up.

[I'm Murrin]

Vain was treated like that for a few reasons - Vain seemed completely oblivious to the outside world in the chronicles, and then when Linden looked at him she just saw an inanimate object, and after that they just treated him the way he appeared - impervious to outside influences. i guess it started really when he was hit by the Woodhelvennin.

I think most readers found the same thing when trudging through the chronicles - it's a very difficult series to read, and takes a long time compared to others (only one harder is LotR, cos it nearly puts me to sleep for the whole first book), but I find I can't put it down.

[Ryzel]

I have found that when reading the chronicles I usually end up reading more and more intensely. This means that I usually reads them much quicker than most books.

[Skyweir]

David Weber who writes good books but tend to fill them with far too detailed descriptions of the drive systems and weapon systemes on the spaceships he is about to blow up

. .. LOL rofl!!

that is hilarious!! at least SRD appears a little more surgical in his descriptive prowess than that!!

I think that is a very good point about Vain .. and clearly he was no more or less animated than a bloodguard .. he just didnt speak .. which I guess intensifies that view.

I am not sure though that SRD intends Vain to feel - experience emotion ..

yet .. I remember when he embraced Findail .. I recall feeling that he showed findail some expression of empathy ..

he was not unlike the bloodguard tho' .. he was ruled by his purpose .. his design .. governed by his mission if you will ..

[Ryzel]

The Bloodguard were frivolous children compared to Vain. Remember that for the whole journey on the Starfare's Gem he stood motionless on the deck. I remember him moving just twice, once to save Linden and once to confront Findail.

[W.B.]

When I was reading the Chronicles, I did slow down somewhat, because a lot of stuff required some rumination. The writing, also, is pretty dense--a lot of information included in relatively short space, and a lot of significance in relatively brief passages. I think some of the reason for it is that the books tend to deal with ideas and concepts as least as much as they focus on plot, and that requires a somewhat higher level of thinking and comprehension.

When I picked up other stuff written by Donaldson, I found the style was different to varying degrees. Mordant's Need seemed similar but more streamlined. And there's the the "Man Who..." books, of which I've actually just read the first one, and it was quite different. But it still had some stylistic similarities. Mainly I noticed the occasional metaphor still managed to make its way into the text. Can't seem to get away from metaphor!

[Ryzel]

The detective novels are noticeably Donaldson, but what I found most interesting about them is the incredibly condensed time span that they work with. At least the later books, which takes place in the span of a few days with maybe a week or two passing between the third and the fourth.

[aTOMiC]

My first exposure to Donaldson was appropriately enough LFB. That was my junior year in high school and I was still developing my vocabulary. With the first read I noted SRD’s use of rather obscure adjectives, but I tended to unconsciously gloss over the “sticky words” mainly due to the fact that the context of the phrasing made the intent of those words understandable therefore I had no difficulty reading at a normal pace at that time. However as the years went by and I began to re visit the series I found my reading pace slowed by my desire to fully understand his application of language.

[dANdeLION]

My first exposure to Donaldson was appropriately enough LFB. That was my junior year in high school and I was still developing my vocabulary. With the first read I noted SRD’s use of rather obscure adjectives, but I tended to unconsciously gloss over the “sticky words” mainly due to the fact that the context of the phrasing made the intent of those words understandable therefore I had no difficulty reading at a normal pace at that time. However as the years went by and I began to re visit the series I found my reading pace slowed by my desire to fully understand his application of language.

With the first read I noted SRD’s use of rather obscure adjectives

Ha! I've read your fanfiction work, clearfrontier. The use of obscure adjectives seems to be your forte. Does the word "Cerulean" mean anything to you? Apparently it does;-)

[birdandbear]

Well....I've seen it on a crayon.

[aTOMiC]

cerulean

adj : of a deep somewhat purplish blue color similar to that of a clear October sky; "October's bright blue weather" [syn: azure, sky-blue, bright blue] n : a light shade of blue [syn: azure, sapphire, lazuline, sky-blue]