#esp when they incorporate old folklore into fantasy and sci fi?? Like esp from their own cultures and incorperate it I love that sm
Explore tagged Tumblr posts
brick-van-dyke · 11 months ago
Text
I'm not very far through it, but 'The Library of Broken Worlds' by Alaya Dawn Johnson is delightfully new and inspiring.
Maybe this is a little pessimistic to say, but I always figured that most stories have already been told to some degree, in the sense that we will all inevitably write using a pre-existing archetype in world building regardless of if we intend to, and only different variations on these archetypes were left to tell, but this book is proving me wrong left and right; showing a world that is so thoroughly unique and beautiful in its creativity and world building that I can't help but reevaluate that mentality. I have yet to know more of the story or the overall theme, but so far this book has proven to be wonderfully delightful in its handling of a whole new and distant world and incredibly original. It's written in such a compelling way that reveals its lore and rules spectacularly and uses a very unique method of writing that, while has been done before, feels fresh in its delivery. It's one thing to tell a story, but another to tell it to a god. I highly recommend it even if I'm only going from the first one and a half chapters; that was all it took for this book to blow me away.
#alaya dawn johnson#the library of broken worlds#I need to get into more of her(?) novels and short stories#what an incredible writer to be able to reveal such a refreshing new world in a way that is understandable and coherent to the audience#it's such a remarkable skill to be able to go down the show as is route rather than conveniently translate#which isn't to say the latter is at all bad in fact I love it and it's very helpful#but it's an amazing skill to be ABLE TO show a world and its rules without using translation and simply SHOWING a world so different to ours#it's actually very effective in showing readers how little we know and much more we can learn of a new culture and world(s)#it's so interesting and compelling#idk how to even word this in a way that gives it justice#but it's just so good#actually tangent but it's part of why I love the writing done by some friends of mine who do similar things#esp when they incorporate old folklore into fantasy and sci fi?? Like esp from their own cultures and incorperate it I love that sm#Amd the way they disgard translation to SHOW that culture in its beauty rather than try to water it down?? I love that so much#And it just takes a really skillful writer to be able to pull people in who don't understand or may even refuse to leave what they know#That's such a wonderful skill and I will always love it when a writer takes us from what we're used to into what we don't#and what we SHOULD learn if only we had the courage to leave the comfort of what we know and understand#Anyway yeah don't mind me I'm jusy gushing again
1 note · View note