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railentheBecause the 100 Things project was on hiatus for so long, I’m skipping the segment interlude post. We’re changing our topic now to the written word, be it in blog or book format, and today we tackle one of my favorite authors.
TV Tropes says it better than I can:
David Eddings wrote the series after taking a course on literary criticism, digging out all the tropes he could find, and decided to build a world that was simultaneously Strictly Formula and really, really good. Because Tropes Are Not Bad. He also deliberately focuses on the characters rather than the tropes, injecting liveliness and sardonic humor into stock situations. The end result is a series that's incredibly popular and well-loved by fantasy fans the world over.
So basically we have BIG EPIC FANTASY NOVEL that is AWARE of this…and so it runs with this. Tropes are lampshaded, played straight, and outright parodied left and right—sometimes all at once, which is brilliant. The dialogue is snarktastic, and there are moments like, much like another favorite of mine (The Hobbit) where you KNOW what’s happening and what it’s gonna do …and the character doesn’t know and you’re just going “Oh, nonononono…OMGHAHAHAHAH!” when the consequences happen.
The series in total is twelve books, and they fly by fast. Especially with moments like the following.
Belgarath (speaking of the Grolim they've captured): What did you hit him with?
Garion: My fist.
Belgarath: Use an axe next time, you almost killed him!
Any series where your expected Merlin archetype is a sometimes-thief, a braggart, a drunk, and kind of a perv is amazeballs in my book (haha!).
What's your WebStory today?
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Date: 2013-02-27 06:03 am (UTC)payday loans 11141
Date: 2013-02-28 11:40 am (UTC)