[Confused Azath]

Greetings all,

Right when I encountered this forum, I had to make an account because I have so much to say already (I'm only in MoI). Also, I know only a handful of people who are reading/have read Erikson and ICE books. 97.8% of the time, though, no one has heard of it, much less desire to read it by it being such a commitment.

I just wanted to point out two things that I haven't seen mentioned much:

1. The sheer amount of new vocabulary I'm learning from these books. I mean, wow. People joke about some words that occur too frequently (potsherds, ochre, etc.), but there are a ton of words I've never seen as a native English speaker, and it makes me wonder how translators tackled this. I feel like my vocabulary is becoming richer by the contact. It's not a case where Erikson is overusing a thesaurus, but the words seem to be better than their synonyms. He's also really good at using unique words to describe the geography and geology, such as with arroyo and menhir.

2. Quotable lines. Starting in DG, I started dog-earing the pages with quotes that I wanted to revisit and write down later. I stopped because every other page had one. The "children are dying..." quote is heartbreaking and a great one. A few others that are written next to me:

"Stumbling, that heart. Flowing, fading like a pale hose riding away down a road. Farther, fainter, fainter...." (this one is poetry to me).

"The lesson of history is that no one learns."

"We are history relived and this is all, without end that is all."

The last two (plus the "children are dying" one) seem to come from Erikson's background in archaeology and anthropology. The last one could sum up all of the history of life on this planet, in my opinion.

[worry]

Wait till you read ICE. His word choice is truly...uh...cyclopean.

[nacht]

Potshreds, is a very important word

[Zetubal]

As a non-native speaker, I can definitely see what you mean. Actually, I'm currently having a similar experience reading Mieville's Perdido Street Station. I think what both Mieville and Erikson have going for them is how their choice of words is not only broad/diverse but that it is very evocative. Although I guess the difference between the two is that Erikson is moreso about using phrases and rhetorical devices to that end whereas Mieville has a knack for finding the right (obscure) terms to descibe very specific sentiments.

[Confused Azath]

worry, on 14 June 2019 - 07:28 PM, said:

Wait till you read ICE. His word choice is truly...uh...cyclopean.

By cyclopean, do you mean big? Because I'm halfway through MOI and now I just keep a dictionary tab open on my phone and within reach. But as a word nerd, I love it!

[HoosierDaddy]

Simpler.

[HiHaFiZi]

Zetubal, on 15 June 2019 - 09:04 AM, said:

As a non-native speaker, I can definitely see what you mean. Actually, I'm currently having a similar experience reading Mieville's Perdido Street Station. I think what both Mieville and Erikson have going for them is how their choice of words is not only broad/diverse but that it is very evocative. Although I guess the difference between the two is that Erikson is moreso about using phrases and rhetorical devices to that end whereas Mieville has a knack for finding the right (obscure) terms to descibe very specific sentiments.

mieville was my first take on 'modern fantasy' and i was overwhelmed by the bas-lag trilogy, the ideas of the world, races, characters... erikson makes baslag seem like a shortstory
still, i think mieville is a better wordsmith (as far as i know he's making up a lot of new words that still make sense, and i'm not a native english speaker, and thats kind of amazing), with eriksen there are still lot of things that i probably do not or misunderstand,i guess it isdue to the complexity ofthe timelines and theinsane amount of characters