_To Clear Away the Shadows, David Drake, 2019, Simon & Schuster

I'm enjoying this book very much, but the point of view shifts
frequently, and with, at best, only a blank line to signal it.

I'm learning to catch on quickly. Perhaps it's like Dr. Kolitshev,
who was incomprehensible at first, but quite clear before I'd finished
my first physics lecture.

I wish I could remember his exact words when he ordered us not to ask
"why". In Dr. Webber's class, and in Dr. (hey, it's been sixty
years)'s class we could ask "why", but in physics, we ask "how".

--
Joy Beeson
joy beeson at centurylink dot net
http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/

On Mon, 19 Jun 2023 23:33:37 -0400, Joy Beeson
<jbeeson@invalid.net.invalid> wrote:

> I'm enjoying this book very much, but the point of view shifts
> frequently, and with, at best, only a blank line to signal it.

I finally twigged that there are only two points of view, and one is
narrated in first person and the other is narrated in third person.

We tend to call any book-length work of fiction a "novel", but to my
mind, a novel, no matter how complex, is a single story.

This is not a novel. I wasted many pleasant minutes thinking up names
for what it *is* and rejecting all of them.

"Picaresque" was first down the trash chute.

The Oddesey had a goal, and each of the incidents along the way were
important primarily because they hindered the reaching of that goal.

There were many stories along the way, but this is definitely not a
collection.
----------------------------------

"To Clear Away the Shadows" has been back in the library for ages, and
the current occupant of my go bag is close to the end of its final
renewal, so I don't think I'm ever going to remember where this post
was headed.

"Adventure" isn't the right word either.

I can't spell "sui generis", and I'm pretty sure I've seen this
structure before.

--------

I never saw a picture of David Drake until recently. He was a very
good-looking man.

Past time to shut down the computer, do my sciatica exercises, and go
to bed.

--
Joy Beeson
joy beeson at centurylink dot net
http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/

On Thursday, December 28, 2023 at 2:41:48 AM UTC, Joy Beeson wrote:
> On Mon, 19 Jun 2023 23:33:37 -0400, Joy Beeson
> <jbe...@invalid.net.invalid> wrote:
>
> > I'm enjoying this book very much, but the point of view shifts
> > frequently, and with, at best, only a blank line to signal it.
> I finally twigged that there are only two points of view, and one is
> narrated in first person and the other is narrated in third person.
>
> We tend to call any book-length work of fiction a "novel", but to my
> mind, a novel, no matter how complex, is a single story.
>
> This is not a novel. I wasted many pleasant minutes thinking up names
> for what it *is* and rejecting all of them.
>
> "Picaresque" was first down the trash chute.
>
> The Oddesey had a goal, and each of the incidents along the way were
> important primarily because they hindered the reaching of that goal.
>
> There were many stories along the way, but this is definitely not a
> collection.
>
> ----------------------------------
>
> "To Clear Away the Shadows" has been back in the library for ages, and
> the current occupant of my go bag is close to the end of its final
> renewal, so I don't think I'm ever going to remember where this post
> was headed.
>
> "Adventure" isn't the right word either.
>
> I can't spell "sui generis", and I'm pretty sure I've seen this
> structure before.
>
> --------
>
> I never saw a picture of David Drake until recently. He was a very
> good-looking man.
>
> Past time to shut down the computer, do my sciatica exercises, and go
> to bed.
> --
> Joy Beeson
> joy beeson at centurylink dot net
> http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/
Drake describes its structure in https://david-drake.com/2019/newsletter-109/

Furthermore, the book has an episodic structure which I’ve used infrequently in the past. (Ranks of Bronze and Starliner were built that way, but not most of my recent ones.) This takes a bit more work than a unitary plot because the physical and human environment change every time the setting does, but if a writer doesn’t practice different techniques, he gets stale. (And so does his work, which is what matters for readers.)