I have to say that I actually really like River of Gods so far. I'm not as far in as I should be, but I'm coming along. It's pretty tough to understand at times, but overall I think it's really good. Is anyone else loving the glossary at the end? I'm using it so much, and it's so much faster than having to look up words elsewhere.
Ernest pointed out to me that A Clockwork Orange used a similar idea, but I had never seen a fiction book with a glossary in the back to help with understanding what is going on. Is this a common occurrence?
4 comments:
I too am enjoying the glossary. It's so helpful! I haven't read A Clockwork Orange in years so I can't remember if there is a glossary. As far as I know this the only book with a strange language that I've ever read that does contain a glossary. I'm sure there are others, but I don't think it's common.
The glossary intimidated me before I started reading. I was thinking it would be a super tough read because it needed it's own glossary, but I freaked out for no reason. It is easier to read than the Windup Girl even though it too has strange, foreign words. The glossary is very helpful.
I read your post a while back and was trying to remember the obvious answer to if I had ever seen glossaries in fiction before and then it all of a sudden hit me: ERAGON. If I remember correctly, the series had all sorts of glossary translations for the languages, etc. And I've seen it before, or something similar, like the indices in The Lord of The Rings. And yes I have found the glossary a necessary tool.
I definitely like books with glossaries. This one, Eragon... It helps a lot and saves the author time in having to explain every little thing. Still, other books and series with foreign terms and ideas have don't always have trouble with it. I think it's easier when the main character in the story is learning new things along with the readers, in things like Harry Potter and even Boneshaker, for example. But for books like this, where the characters are well-established in their world already, it helps for us to know what they know without taking the time to have to explain it in the text, I guess.
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