Last month saw the release of Perhaps the Stars, the final volume of Ada Palmer’s highly-respected Terra Ignota series. I’ve been meaning to read these books for years, but somehow they kept sliding down Mount TBR. Then Mayri the BookForager suggested we buddy read Too Like The Lightning – and friends, I’m so glad I didn’t tackle this on my own.
world-building
Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish, and is now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. It’s all about books, lists and sharing the love we have of both with our bookish friends. This week is all about the worlds that won our hearts – although we wouldn’t necessarily want to live in them…
Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature created and hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, in which we all talk about a bookish topic and have fun making lists. This week we’re enthusing about settings we’d like to visit.
So, yesterday’s ranting aside, a number of totally random thoughts on world-building and detail stay with me on this read of The Silmarillion.
I have loved The Silmarillion for far too long to be able to write a candid review, so I’m not going to try. Reading it adds texture and delight to reading The Lord of the Rings. And while it can be both turgid and erratic, it still makes me cry. However, I couldn’t get through it this time without gritting my teeth in a few places. Today I’m going to indulge some of my pet peeves.
Tolkien is at least partly responsible for my ongoing love affair with detailed world-building. I’m the irritating beta reader who says things like ‘I love the characters, but how does the economy work?’. Middle-Earth is saturated in detail, its history embedded into its landscape; the stories studded with songs and legends. But I still have a few questions…
onemore.org 