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When you find yourself weak in some area, learn from the best.
I'd heard for a long time that nobody did fight scenes better than Bernard Cornwell, especially in his Arthurian Trilogy, The Warlord Chronicles. And there's plenty of good material here to study: about 1200 pages (depending on what editions you've bought) with at least one bloody bust up in every hour's reading.
I wasn't too impressed at first. You see, Mr. Cornwell is very keen to introduce you to all the mechanics of getting killed in the dark ages and it can feel a bit clunky. But, rather like learning the controls of a video game, the reader soon internalises the rules until they disappear from view, leaving nothing between us and the raw emotions of the combatants.
The battles aren't quite as I would have imagined them, but thanks to the lessons provided by the author, everything soon makes perfect sense: warriors are jammed together in shield walls so tightly they can't hurt each other and are reduced to spitting in their enemy's face, cursing him in a language he can't understand, helpless as the ranks behind him stab over his head with their spears.
Maybe battles in the Dark Ages were nothing like that. It doesn't matter, it really doesn't, because when the author describes the terror of the shield wall, something so bad that most men have to be drunk before they'll face up to it, we believe him. Every move has been thought through, war gamed with toy soldiers or a line of vegetables, or run through whatever simulation software he has installed in his brain.
The same cannot be said, unfortunately, for the fighting in Andrzej Sapkowski's “The Last Wish”. This is a great book, set in a world that gave rise to the Canon of standard European fairy tales. Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella, Rapunzel and so on. It's fast moving, entertaining and constantly amusing. But the fight scenes (of which there are many) are more dreamlike than realistic. Enemies leap to the attack when they're still hundreds of metres apart. The main character, the Witcher, performs feats that are just plain physically impossible -- even taking his special abilities into account. Sapkowski's fight scenes are different in every way from those of Bernard Cornwell, except of course, for the quantity of blood involved.
So, my resolution for Spring? Learn atmosphere and concision from Sapkowski and War from Cornwell. Both of these skills will be needed in spades when the time comes for me to write my third book.
- Mood:
pensive
Comments
I'll give you Cornwell, though. I finished the trilogy recently, and it made a strong impression, even if the world in which not many people have all their teeth left by age 30 and "woman" is the worst insult of all sounds more than a little depressing.
"The witcher came on faster; his fluid walk became a run -- not straight at the group quivering with swords, but circling it in a tightening spiral."
I can't see that. I can't believe it. I am very happy to admit that the fault may well be within me as a reader. And equally happy to admit that there are many flawed elements of my own writing. But that was the point of this diary. Find the problems and try to fix them.
Incidentally, have you played the Witcher computer game (if you're even interested in that sort of thing)?
Btw, I thought the translation was pretty good overall. I'd be interested to hear what Kama_police might have to say, definitely.
if you are ever in scotland give me a shout and well get a few folk together and put you in a shieldwall so you can experience it first hand.
For atmosphere, The Last Wish is a great book (although my ARC's disappeared: I think I lent it to someone and forgot who it was :-( ) and I'm looking forward to the next book in the series. However, it has realism problems. Geralt has that enormous sword strapped to his back which isn't really convenient for rapidly drawing it in combat.
Well you didn't hear it from me anyway, that's for sure ;)
Wert, the big battles are in the gallo-roman books, mainly: Rigante 1 and 2, Stones of power and so on. Also quite a few in the Lion of Macedon.
I don't think Troy has such things. Troy is, after all, a siege (at writing which surely nobody will contest the man's superiority). You may look forward to it anyway.
You have?!?
When I met you you only had read vol 1 of Troy, right? Or I got that wrong
Jesus, over 20 years.
PS: I'm old enough too
In the Witcher fights, it was almost as if the author was missing a continuity editor. Geralt is on the left now, but was on the right a moment ago, and not because of some super leap using mutant powers, but more because it didn't matter to the author what was going on. Or so it seemed to this crap reader :)
It didn't bother me, but I wasn't paying much attention to the fights. You probably were unduly, snce you're doing this fight study thingie
I was able to suspend a lot more disbelief for Sapkowski, and wave away a few colourful smudges for the sake of the broad, sweeping brush strokes. I actually find that a smaller blunder is more jarring in the fine pencil drawing, so to speak.