But that approach definitely has its ups and downs. Wait until you read book 4… that could be quite discussion-worthy along these lines.

Ben Bartletts last blog post..People and Sadness

And yeah, Vonnegut does do an excellent job keeping things accessible. In Cat’s Cradle, he introduces sci-fi terminology (with Ice Nine*) and new religion with Bokononism, but the way he introduces them makes it all very easy to swallow. If I recall, Siren’s of Titan behaves similarly.

As far as Martin, you’re right. Once one comes to terms with his terms, everything flows along smoothly. After about the third or fourth chapter, I was pretty okay. (Though I was a bit perturbed that it takes him ’til the end of the book before he reveals that “bed of blood” is his common idiom for a woman’s childbirthing experience—it would have been great had he mentioned that earlier, like in all the references to Lyanna Stark death.)

Really, my only frustration with the series (I got halfway through the second book and put it down for a while) is that because it follows multiple characters as perspective narration, it ends up spending whole chapters narrating events from the perspective of a character that I just don’t care about. I think I ran out of steam by the time I hit the third Theon Greyjoy chapter. I just couldn’t be bothered to care about how he saw things. The Arya, Jon, and Tyrion chapters were all engaging (especially Arya and Tyrion). Bran was okay and Danaerys was tolerable. But Theon? And that pirate guys seems interesting but he’s stuck with that intolerable Stannis crew.

*note: incidentally also one of Joe Satriani’s best songs)

The Danes last blog post..20090417.teaParty

In the case of Game of Thrones, he’s really going for an audience that will stick with his world for 7 very long books. So I have found that over the course of several books I don’t mind it so much.

However, generally I agree that it is frustrating, especially in a stand-alone book that leaps right into the story.

One fascinating example of this is the Jeffrey Overstreet books, “Aurelia’s Colors” and “Cyndere’s Midnight.” The first books had so many of these unusual terms and phrasings that I struggled to get through the book at all.

In the second book, not only are you more comfortable with some of the key terms, but he actually backs off of a lot of the offending language. Suddenly they are running past trees instead of pricklecone trees, eating fish instead of greenscale fish, etc. (those aren’t actual examples, there just seem to be a lot of things like that). I found the second book to be far better as a result.

Kay is definitely over the top in this area. However, the gal who recommended it to me finds enjoyment in that lush sort of language, so who knows.

A great anti-example is Kurt Vonnegut. Though his plots can be (intentionally) nonsensical at times, his language is so sparse it’s brilliant. He communicates impressive complexity in language I could read and understand in third grade.

1) Presumably the characters are not native English-speakers and yet the bulk of the book is translated into our language from whatever faerytale language they are meant to speak, so why not their jargon too. Do I really need to investigate for six chapters before I get solid evidence that kaelfis is just a funny word for military police or that a welgir is a tribal lord?

It’s even worse with names. You know how when you read the Bible in English, the translators see fit to call the messiah Jesus even though his name was really, what, Yehoshua? And the Greeks called him Iesu? Or how the Bible in Spanish calls John, Juan? Why do sci-fi/fantasy authors think we need everything in English save for names like F’lar, which could easily be rendered Fehlar. Or Fullahr. Flar. Or whatever. Really, I can only see using an apostrophe in a name if the apostrophe represents so real phonetic device that has no unique expression in our language, like a click or something.

2) Unless the introduction of these fakey terms is done incredibly well, they serve nothing so much as to tear the reader out of the book until such time as he grows comfortable enough with the term to ignore it. George R.R. Martin failed at this early in A Game of Thrones. (Of course, once I became accustomed to his jargon, the book became a rollicking good time despite the earlier misstep.) Since sci-fi/fantasy authors usually tend to not be the most skilled authors (otherwise, they’d be writing real books, right? ^_^), the bulk of them should just abandon the habit and write, instead, to be read.

All that said, Kay’s book sound worthwhile regardless.

The Danes last blog post..20090417.teaParty

As you said, it lags a little in the middle, as the cast of characters — and their various side stories — grows. But the opening is strong and the way in which Kay eventually wraps up all of the loose ends is very satisfying. I’ll still pick the book off the shelf just so I can revisit the last few chapters.

And FWIW, I enjoy the alternate terminology that Kay employs. It might take a little getting used to, but for me, it solidifies and deepens the world that Kay is creating.