[leebor]

If i have to read one more thing about detritus, im going to snap

[Obdigore]

I love the Sgt in Ank-Morpork's City Watch.

[The Tyrant Lizard]

verdigris and potsherds... and banal

[Aptorian]

Is this only in relation to the books or are we talking human vocabulary in general?

If it's the former then I would love to have the words "prolapsed anus" scoured from the internet.

[Defiance]

I notice SE likes to use the word turgid a lot. Doesn't really bother me, though.

That said, if someone gathered all the potsherds in Wu they could probably make their own continent.

[Findarato]

The Tyrant Lizard, on 24 August 2010 - 08:18 AM, said:

verdigris and potsherds... and banal

and how would you describe oxidised copper? thats what verdigris is.

I actually like the special words in these books (like potsherds which is used in archaeology), there are others he uses like 'loess' which is a certain kind of sedimented stone.
personally, I did not object to most of the not so commonly used words in SE's books because it adds to the depth of descriptions. still, he uses 'must needs' a bit too often for my taste. but that does not diminish my loving the series of course.

This post has been edited by Findarato: 24 August 2010 - 05:21 PM

[letheriisteele]

ochre-everything in the malaz world is ochre

[Ceda Cicero]

letheriisteele, on 31 August 2010 - 07:31 PM, said:

ochre-everything in the malaz world is ochre

So much ochre. Yes.

Also there's lots of dessication, especially with an enormous and ever-increasing cast of undead characters.

[Coco with marshmallows]

Mhybe.

[Studlock]

Not really a word but an action: people barring there teeth when they speak.

[Crow Clan Baby]

Steve is an archaeologist; how is he not going to mention potsherds? It's like Robert Jordan not mentioning dresses. Or tea.

[Dave1]

miasma, I get a pang of annoyance every time I see it for some reason, just seems like a word that shouldn't be reoccurring all the time

[Blueiron]

Cocoreturns, on 16 November 2010 - 08:25 PM, said:

Mhybe.

This. I would absolutely forgive SE the use of 'potsherds' in the sentence "potsherds were all that was left of the empty clay vessel."

[Lone Bear]

"gelid" is a word that Erikson seems to like.

I don't mind the use of "pot-sherds" as it really reflects the archaeologist in him; which is one of the things I love about these books.

[MTS]

I hardly never want to see it, but both SE and ICE use coruscating a fair bit. And everyone seems to have lambent eyes or lank, grey hair.

[Traveller]

Pah, try writing ten huge books and not re-using words...

[MTS]

I think the complaint centres around the fact he uses the same words all the time to describe the same thing. I don't really care though, nor do I mind it, I only really notice it when people point it out, like the potsherds thing.

[Tatterdemalion]

No, I agree with Traveller.

Most of these words still come up rarely. He's written gigantic novels that share common elements:

1) description of environments (he's an archeologist, this is a flavour of his writing akin to all his other attributes)
2) epic language (epic shit happens all the time)
3) lots of combat, decay, etc.

Any series of this stature is bound to have similar IF NOT GREATER word use. Maybe you wouldn't notice if SE had characters "grin" instead of giving "feral grins" - and then maybe you wouldn't point out that he uses 'feral grin' a lot - but the books would just plain be shittier because the simpler words would be used in excess instead of his accessing his more-complex terms with a, I'd say, required frequency to maintain the 3 points above.

Everything's ochre? Then everything's ochre. I'm sure the words beige, gold, yellow, bronze and orange come up a lot too if you chalk 'em up. Ochre just stands out more perhaps.

Anyone here trying to write their own born, even fantasy book, might contest that they run out of new words in short order. I wrote 5 chapters about a seige of a dusty city and the amount of times I wanted to refer to the dust and the problems it caused... "plume" "tendril" "billow"... Sometimes the dust simply plumes again.

Also: I'm just laying down a defense here... I know most of ye were just pointing out words you've noticed that SE likes.

[Blueiron]

As of Stonewielder: feyness.

[Grace]

As I reread Dust of Dreams I've noticed that skirling is used somewhat often. Not nearly so much as to be annoying, but I do find it interesting that it appears so often in this book when I've never seen (or at least noticed) it elsewhere, Malazan or not.