Re: Glass raising time

On Sat, 6 Dec 2008 16:11:10 +0000, Jacey Bedford
<lookinsig@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

In message <493a5efb.1858262@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Jonathan L Cunningham
<spam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes
If it would only keep still, he could probably hide under it, too,
while any giant riders looked around puzzled. :-)


Hiding under a horse that's being ridden by someone else is a bit
problematical. For the purposes of fiction (i.e. don't try this at home,
boys and girls) hiding under a horse in a stable or one tied up to a
picket line is perfectly possible if you're desperate as long as a) the
horse is fairly docile and b) you approach it quietly (talking gentle
nonsense) ease yourself into position approaching from the forequarter.
There would be some small danger from it stepping on you if for
instance, your feet or fingers were close to its hooves. And you
wouldn't want to startle it in that position or accidentally poke its
belly with the spiky point on your tin hat if you were armoured.

Thanks. Kept for reference.

A horse that's known to cow-kick is not recommended for this exercise -
(i.e. kicking forward to up under its belly with either hind leg.)

The ones in the novel I'm reading are trained to trample the enemy
anyway.

I suspect, given the overall tone of the novel, the horses have been
trained to crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear
the lamentation of the women. :-)

I'm reading "House of Chains" by Steven Erikson, it's over a 1000 pages,
not counting epilogue, appendixes etc. and has a cast of thousands...
there are 138 named characters, with a short description of who they are
in a list at the beginning. But not every minor character is in the
list.

A lot of the characters are apparently from previous novels in the
series. Some of the scenes I have no idea who the characters are, or, if
I remember their names, what they are trying to do (despite the list at
the beginning - a reminder that a character is "an assassin" doesn't
help much when she's wandering around in a desert not trying to kill
anybody).

I suspect the novel is of more appeal to people who have read the
earlier novels. I'm mainly continuing with it because one character (out
of 138) has caught my interest, and a few others I can remember well
enough not to be utterly confused; and it's well written, if you like
epic fantasy with a cast of thousands - some do[*]. And the
world-building is (clearly) very complete - which is something I do
happen to like, and can puzzle out even when characters and the writer
assume the reader already knows it... which is a sign of doing it well.

So, in part, I'm reading it to learn from it: not least, all the things
I don't want to do if *I* ever get a chance at writing a sequel, or a
series! :-)

Jonathan
[*] I gave up on George R R Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fire" stuff,
again because I generally don't like "cast of thousands" novels -- but
obviously many people do.

.

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