tactics and slinging slang
by Naomi Novik on Jan.11, 2010, under Naomi Novik
Before diving into some questions, I wish to report that it is perilously easy to lose track of time playing Dragon Age: Origins.
Laura asks: (easy question first!)
When is the audiobook of Tongues of Serpents due out?
I can’t guarantee this, but if I recall correctly, my publisher has gotten the audiobook out at least in digital form pretty much at the same time as the print publication, so sometime right around July 13 is when I would expect it to show up!
Alaron asks:
I love reading your stories and identifying modern aerial tactics with the actions of the dragons (fighter aircraft vs. bomber aircraft, for example, or using helicopters for rapid troop deployment). I’m curious: how much tactical research do you do in advance?
The truth is, I don’t do much research into aerial tactics specifically. Generally what I do is research the historical tactics of the period and the particular nation or culture, and then try and make up aerial tactics that I feel carry on those tactics into the air, to preserve the period feeling. I think that’s generally better in the case of my books because of course, dragons are living, flesh-and-bone creatures, who can’t work like these newfangled flying machines of ours *g*, and so try and keep the tactics closer in spirit to infantry tactics of the era — trying to think about physical and also psychological/instinctual limitations that feel as though they would make evolutionary sense for creatures like dragons (I have cobbled a bunch of inspiration out of dinosaur research).
Erika mentions:
Language is hard enough as it is, but inventing slang and cadence that removes us from our world at the same time it invites us into the new is difficult.
This is a great description of another important function of language in fantasy fiction, signaling how far we are from our own world. <3
I am always wary of invented words and slang. The huge problem with them is, you know, as a writer, you’re not inventing an entire language to tell your story in, not even if you’re Tolkien, so as a reader, I don’t experience your carefully devised slang word integrated into the whole of some mysterious different language that has lots of different rhythms. Rather, I’m bopping along enjoying this story in my native language, and all of a sudden you hit me with a word that doesn’t fit, and I think nine times out of ten, rather than making the world seem richer, it only breaks the mood. But using period or stylized language can serve to break the reader’s natural expectation that they will recognize and understand every word you use, and make those invented words both feel more natural and also achieve their effect.
And so to bed. Tomorrow, Araminta goes up, and I will ramble about it a bit, as well as some other nifty projects I am working on!
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- On Anachronisms Yours truly has fallen down on the posting today thanks to some OpenOffice formatting issues with the promised short story, whose resolution was interrupted by out-of-town visitors, but on the other hand, I can now tell you that Mole at 205 Allen Street downtown makes truly fabulous margaritas, fajitas, and...
January 11th, 2010 on 3:57 am
“The truth is, I don’t do much research into aerial tactics specifically. Generally what I do is research the historical tactics of the period and the particular nation or culture, and then try and make up aerial tactics that I feel carry on those tactics into the air, to preserve the period feeling.”
Really? Well, now I’m very impressed! The tactical advances Lien and Napoleon introduce in Black Powder War are very close to the sea changes in aerial thinking that occurred between WWII and later conflicts, mostly having to do with the increased use of the helicopter to move troops and equipment very quickly, as well as more accurate targeting allowing the more extensive use of ground strikes against enemy foot soldiers rather than simply striking entrenched positions. The British way of fighting is very similar to the early WWI/WWII style of aerial combat - large squadrons of slow-moving bomber aircraft escorted by fighter squadrons (although in their case they were largely hampered by the total lack of ability to hit anything they were aiming at with their bombs). Roland’s strategy of scrambling Temeraire and Iskierka to basically meet any and all challengers in Empire of Ivory is similar to the way the Battle of Britain was actually won - although the RAF was outnumbered in a global sense, they managed to have just enough of a numerical majority in each individual fight to carry the day. I could go on, but yeah, you’ve probably heard enough on the subject by now
. In any case, greatly looking forward to Tongues of Serpents!
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