So I have just finished reading The Collapsing Empire by John Scalzi.
Now I am not going to review it more than saying it is a great read and that it is a fun science fiction opera. It is an epic but fast paced story and it is not to long at just under three hundred and forty pages. In summary: I enjoyed and it is well worth you time.
Now what I want to talk about the language used1 and how all the characters use the same language to talk. Only one stands out because of the amount she swears.
The more I think about it the fact that all the characters speak standard english makes it very easy to read. You do not have to parse the sometimes incomprehensible colloquial sentence structure that I have seen a lot of writers use in science fiction and fantasy as well non-genre fiction.
I will add that is not the same as all the characters being the same. They are all have very different motivation and actions. This is the main difference. If you stripped away the he said / she saids and presented this as a series of dialogues you would have a difficult time separating them apart. This point has been a revelation to me. It does help that Mr Scalzi is very witty writer and all his character have some thing funny to say.
Most books I have read and people I have seen talking about dialogue say that the characters need to have completely different ways of talking. You should be able to tell them apart from each other by just the dialogue. And I have found that very difficult.
But with John Scalzi2 who is a very successful author does not worry about that. I have spent so long being paralysised by my difficultly making all my character sound different. But know I just get on with the job of writing the story I want to tell.
And maybe make my characters little sarcastic. Like me.
Ad XO
- I am not looking at you Kiva with you sweary mouth.
- Though my favourite thing about hims is his jar of Fuck to give