C. L. Norman

I finished a very good book yesterday. Cast in Silence by Michelle Sagara is the fourth book in a series featuring a character who I think can be classified as a rogue. 

Kaylin Neya is part of law enforcement but she wasn’t always. She also performs her duties in a way unique to her and not necessarily by the book. She has a funny way of opening her mouth before she thinks things through. A tendency I can heartily empathize with. Just ask my coworkers, family, and friends.

Kaylin lives in a world that is very different than many other fantasy genre settings. Her world is peopled by races you don’t usually see in other places. No elves or dwarves here.

One thing I particularly admired about this book, now that I can’t help but read with an eye toward writing technique, is the dialogue. In many places the dialogue provided exposition. However instead of explaining every little thing, I noticed that there were “holes” in the exposition. Places where the characters involved had figured out something but didn’t belabor the point or spell it out to the reader. This encouraged me to keep thinking and wondering and brought me deeper into the scene.

I have a terrible and chronic leaning towards overexplaining things. I hope to one day master or least reach journeyman level in holding back from my reader enough to keep them guessing and engaged.

Thank you, Ms. Sagara, for a great read.

        

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 25th, 2009 at 9:47 am and is filed under On Writing, Rogues In Books. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.