Under-Caffeinated and Cranky

[rolanni]

I'm currently reading Hammered by elizabethbear, and in general, I'm liking it a lot: illicit drugs and street gangs on the hellish streets of Hartford, Connecticut; a cyborg with more than one secret, or I miss my woman; a charming alien spacecraft that behaves something like a Clutch ship on Serious Speed -- what's not to like?

One thing -- not enough to ruin the book, unless things go desperately downhill in the last 90 pages -- but certainly enough to make me rap it sternly on the table more than once.

More crankiness

The main characters, see, are French-Canadian, and in times of emotion they revert to speaking Quebecois. I understand perfectly why they do this, and it is good characterization that they do so. However, and unfortunately, I do not read French. Not even for Peter Wimsey did I learn to read French, to establish a range on Just How Lazy I am. And, since the characters in Hammered revert to their comfort tongue in times of stress, and since the author does not paraphrase or otherwise slip the reader a clue about what they're saying, I feel like I'm missing Big, Honking Chunks of character development, and it's making me nuts.

To put this in perspective -- what would happen if I wrote an entire, emotionally rich conversation between Val Con and Pat Rin in Low Liaden (which I could do, though it might take me a week), and just left it there, trusting that the reader would be able to scope out what had been said without the benefit of any other clues? I'd have my head handed to me, that's what would happen -- and rightly so.

I do wish someone would have asked the author to do a little more for the monolinguists of the world before Hammered was released into the world. As it is, it is a recurring minor annoyance which mars an otherwise excellent story.

Comments

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

Get Steve to learn French. That should satisfy the laziness quotient.

That's how I dodged -- Wife had French in high school. She even proofread my Nouveau Brunswick Franglais in GHOST POINT to make sure I gendered the adjectives correctly, once I pulled stuff out of the French-English dictionary....

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

We both took Spanish in high school. Now, I did work for years in a university modern languages department, and could at one point, laboriously work my way through very simple sentences in French and German, and slightly more complex sentences in Spanish; never could warm up to the Cyrillic alphabet. But, that's been half a lifetime ago and I never was anything approaching fluent.

[haikujaguar.livejournal.com]

That is... strange. :P

[nlbarber]

How very frustrating. I treasure my Lord Peter Wimsey Companion with all the French (and Greek, and whatever) bits translated, not to mention giving all the cultural referants that I, an ill-educated American of mid-twentieth century vintage, would otherwise miss. (And I still miss a number because I don't know enough to go look 'em up in the LPWC. Luckily, during my several years on the LordPeter list, many of these have been discussed and I have a much deeper appreciation of the books as a result.)

I'm willing to do the looking up for Sayers...not at all sure I'd do anything for a new author but throw the book at the wall. I haven't tried Bear's stuff yet.

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

I treasure my Lord Peter Wimsey Companion with all the French (and Greek, and whatever) bits translated, not to mention giving all the cultural referants that I, an ill-educated American of mid-twentieth century vintage, would otherwise miss.

I had no idea such a companion book existed. And me with a birthday coming up...

I haven't tried Bear's stuff yet.

Hammered is, I think, her first novel -- and in so many ways, it's a good novel. I really like the characters, the mysteries they've got going, the tech, the conceit, the world (well... "like" probably isn't the word I actually want here -- say instead: the worldbuilding is meticulous). Ninety-eight percent of the book, I like. A lot. Which probably only makes this one thing so much more frustrating to me. And I can't figure out why her editor didn't insist that it be dealt with.

[jerusha.livejournal.com]

Thank you for linking elizabethbear - I'd somehow overlooked that one, though I've been reading her more-personal journal, matociquala.

[nlbarber]

I had no idea such a companion book existed.

It's OOP, unfortunately. The DLS Society printed a fairly limited number (fearing to be stuck with a large inventory), which sold very quickly. Now the author is working on the third edition, which will be a CD version--but as he keeps adding stuff, it may be like Miss Lydgate's never-ending work. (It was Miss Lydgate, wasn't it?)

If you can find one, the 2nd edition LPWC is a beautiful thing. Don't accidentally buy a first edition, as it is a much smaller work and had an even smaller print run, so it commands ridiculous prices from collectors and those who don't know about the second edition.

If you'd like to drool over a copy, I can bring mine to one of the days of DragonCon.

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

If you'd like to drool over a copy, I can bring mine to one of the days of DragonCon.

I'd love to see it, but you might not want to risk losing it.

[dancinghorse.livejournal.com]

As far as I can recall, the French bits don't add up to much. You're certainly not missing much if any character development. All the Way Kewl Stuff happens in English.

If that helps any.

Signed, Someone who was once guilty of dropping in bits of medieval Latin and Old French (we outgrew it, yes we did)