InsaneJournal

Once more Eddings
My post.



Some of the times that he writes himself into corners are really sloppy and irritating - the one that annoyed me most all the times it came up was Bhelliom. In E , it's said it can't be moved without the world chiming like a bell (or like the bowl it is), and Aphrael says sort of carelessly that every god in the world could tell the moment they fished Bhelliom out of the lake - but we're also told that Sephrenia's red-thread-stitches and, later, the iron box/whatever it is, can suppress it or "hide" it. However, in T, there's some confusion about whether it needs to be iron or gold - because apparently the rings can be felt as well (so why didn't Ghwerig, who was absolutely nuts in the first place, go after Sparhawk and Ehlana's ancestors and steal back the rings, if they could be felt like that? Or maybe only gods could feel them? It's so confusing.), and the rings can be hidden by engineering a gold lid for them out of an old ring.

And - I might be confused here, so feel free to correct me - I seem to recall that in T, the box in which they hide Bhelliom is also made of gold. Is there as much "red dust"* in gold as there is in iron? Or am I getting confused because Eddings doesn't care to explain things and keep 'em consistent?

As far as Patriach Bergsten (I want to write Bergnes, which is the Swedish name - I can see Berit => Beril, but Bergsten=>Bergnes? WTF is that all about? It's not as if Bergsten is more complicated to say than Bergnes...) is concerned, he did used to be a Genidian Knight. So, if he had said that the Genidians knew about Aphrael/Setras/Hama/Romalic, then that'd be perfectly fine (and his knowledge, in and of itself, can be attributed to his past as a Knight), but he does say that the Eosian Church has known about Aphrael for hundreds of years. Which is where he shoots himself in the foot, consistency-wise.

*Eddings seems to have a preoccupation with rust, iron and the making thereof. In B/M (or possibly one of the prequels) I think Beldin experiments with magnets and red rocks; in E/T it's Bhelliom and the encapsulating powers of iron, and in TRoA a section near the beginning of the book when Althalus first comes out of the House at the End of the World, where he and Dweia/Emmy discuss the forging of iron and how Plakand is "red from one end to the other".

And oooh, yes, that Beril-is-clueless-scene is sooo suspenseful, now isn't it? It's not as if David "Haw, haw, haw, I will invent a nation full of topless wimmins, and it shall be hilarious!" Eddings beats us over the head with how it's going to end, no matter how Beril tries to avoid it.


Support in canon is fun - in the Final Fantasy IX fandom, I ship Amarant/Freya (Big Blue Monk Guy With Red Dreadlocks And Bad Attitude/Rat-Woman Knight With Short Temper), who if not supported in canon is at least plausible, and Senel/Chloe from Tales of Legendia (which is supported liek whoa), Sephrenia/Vanion makes my black, shippy heart squeal with joy and so on and so forth - but there's something to be said for crack pairings. The ones no one else thinks of. The ones that don't make sense in any logical way (they are never in the same place at the same time; age gaps and rivalries and animosity and plot complications, etc., etc.) but are fun to think about. The ones that, if I ever chose to write them (which I don't, except as drabble-exercises), would take a lot of effort to get to work. Yes, they're crazy, but it's outweighed by the sheer fun of it.

But we were talking about Eddings, weren't we?

Khalad/Beril. Yes. Oh yes, are they ever slashing themselves - at least if you've got the sort of brain I do. Beril certainly seems to spend a whole lot of time looking at/thinking about Khalad, and Elysoun is only mentioned once, and in a rather "Oh yes, her," kind of manner. It is odd to think that they would manage enough personality beyond the immediate plot to ship themselves rather merrily off, and I don't think it's conscious action on Eddings' part - the man has no clue how to write subtle when it comes to character-relationships, after all. Aside from Khalad/Beril, consider if you will Velvet/Sadi, which we've touched on previously - Eddings himself writes Velvet/Silk, but it's so bloodless and tell-y that Velvet/Sadi works out better on a pure emotional level. Again, I don't think it's conscious - I think it's Eddings trying to emphasise something about the character (in Sadi's case, the fact that he's the Man Who Is Not A Man, and how even though he's got all the relevant bits removed he misses what could have been - in the case of Khalad/Beril, perhaps he wanted to show Beril's attitude changing) and then being very unsubtle about it, because he thinks we won't get it unless he beats us over the head with it.

Regardless if I've corrupted you into seeing ships where there really are none (or at least nothing more than friendship) the fact remains that there is an extraordinary amount of time spent on Khalad and Beril in THC which comes sort of out of the blue. It's logical for it to be there, but the series has had Sparhawk so firmly in the POV seat for so long that the sudden switch in POV-holders sort of throws us off for a bit. Whereas the Ulath/Tynian/Whatever that troll's name was (it began with a B, I think?) plotline has more to do with actually moving the plot along (getting the Troll Gods to agree to help them, catch the men working for Scarpa/Zalasta/Cyrgon, etc., etc.), the Khalad/Beril side of things sees more time spent on them chatting to one another without much plot happening, aside from the odd message delivered.


YES! The anti-climax! In E, despite its many flaws, Azash was actually kind of scary. The interlude with Bellina, the liberally dropped references even in the first book of the trilogy, the Seeker and the Damork and the fact that he's mentioned to have more of such beasties stowed away somewhere - it all builds up a threat, and makes Azash a sort of disgusting, if pathetic, villain. Killing him achieved something, even if Eddings fumbled most of it. Cyrgon, on the other hand? Barely mentioned until halfway through the second book, and he doesn't actually show up until the third book, and dies pitifully easily. Klael, while crushing a whole lot of knights and breaking a lot of stuff, was just a mindlessly violent beast. But enough about my disappointment with T's villains - you're right. After T, there really is nothing left to do. He exhausts the worlds, and moves on and builds another with another Shiny Blue McGuffin and does it all over again.

The veils and moon rites and Arasham's crazy proclamations - it all fell flat, just like you say. Apparently, Rendor is a great center of trade - or at least Cippria is, what with the cows and all, and Sparhawk spends ten years there being a merchant - and apparently all merchants have mistresses - why? We don't know. We're not told. Lillias is talked about a lot, and even shows up for a very extended (and ridiculous) scene, but said scene is absolutely pointless because it has no impact on the plot. Anton Chekov's pistol ought not to be there if it ain't going to be fired, so to speak. There're all these things mentioned but never used, and then there's the Eosian Church's conflict with Rendor that has a great impact on the plot (if not for said conflict, there would be no Arasham, and if no Arasham, there would be no rebellion, and with no rebellion, no Rendor forces at the siege of Chyrellos*) but is never truly explained. It makes me want to tear my hair out.

I'm not demanding that E/T ought to have been about the church politics and Rendor instead (though I certainly wouldn't mind if it had been), but it is an example of Eddings' sloppy worldbuilding and flawed writing.

(*Regarding the pronounciation of this - I can't decide whether I should pronounce it Chyrellos with the Ch as in "church", or if the Ch ought to be pronounced "k". I usually go for the former, but the confusion is there because I read them in Swedish, and "church" in Swedish is "kyrka", and, well...)



What bothered me with B/M's geography wasn't the general layout of it - even though we weren't shown all of Cthol Murgos at once, there were liberal hints dropped that the continent didn't even where the map did, and Mallorea has an equator and everything - but rather the inconsistency of it. Algaria, for example. How much time does it actually take to travel across it? Weeks, days, months? Crossing from the border of Ulgoland to Mishrak ac Thull seems to take quite a while, and yet at some points, the journey from the Drasnian border to the Vale of Aldur takes about a week, despite Algaria being taller than it is wide. It gets confusing.

I hadn't noticed him changing cartographers/mapmakers so frequently - I did notice how little I liked the map in TRoA, though (even though the world did extend beyond the borders of it). The naming of the countries irked me especially - it was like he wasn't even trying any more. Regwos, Nekweros, Kweron, Kagwher, Equero; Arum, Ansu, Meusa, Medyo - the cities Weros, Agwesi, Mawor, Akwan (aarghEddingsstopabusingtheletterW!). To say it gets confusing and irritating after a while is an understatement.


Now that you mention it, what will we discuss once we've finally finished abusing Eddings? What else has both of us read? ... Have you read any of Mercedes Lackey's novels? I've read quite a lot of her Valdemar-verse (though I've missed a couple of the latest ones), having held out despite the screeching mediocrity, and there's a lot to discuss there (worldbuilding, characterisation, authorial convenience, message-fantasy, etc., etc.). Paksenarrion? Fantasy in general? Specific bits of writing - characters, plotting, clichés we're tired of, things we'd like to see more of, etc., etc. Genres? I'm open to suggestion - we can talk about it when you get back.

Have fun, wherever you're going!