dragonlady7

So the Internet at my house went out Thursday night, and I... didn't care.
How can this be? As I mentioned in my previous entry, it was because I was reading something so interesting I didn't actually care about the Internet. Given that I've spent about 75% of my life for the last decade or so online, this is unusual.

What was I reading so intently, you ask?
Do I really have to answer? More Martha Wells. Two original Gil and Ilias stories.

I have some very long post brewing about what makes something worth reading, what makes it worthwhile for me to entirely submerge myself in a world, and sucks me in to read and reread and reread. Some authors who I like a great deal don’t do this, and I read the book twice or three times and then am done. This is more and more often the case. But some authors, I can read them and even if I can find flaws, I still come back. But now is not the time for that essay.

Instead I will yet again pitch

marthawells. I believe it was

forodwaith that led me to her. I cannot thank you enough for that.

marthawells has published a pair of stories (with at least one more to come) in Black Gate Magazine. I got a one-year subscription just for them, and Issues 10 and 11 arrived Wednesday night.
Issue 10 contains a story by Wells called "Reflections", which is an excellent little piece featuring a pre-trilogy Giliead and Ilias hunting a wizard. It takes place probably five years or so before the trilogy (by my admittedly underdeveloped math) and has some excellent interaction with the two characters, showing their younger but by no means carefree selves. Ilias fans will be particularly satisfied, as it's his POV and he does some great detective work mid-fight, and also gets punched a lot (I lumme some brainy action heroes, really I do). He's one of my most favorite fictional characters ever, braver than Boromir, smarter than Aragorn, complex and human and sweet, and also hot. If you haven't read the trilogy, it's still pretty entertaining as a straight-up action piece, and the rest of the issue has some pretty cool stories in it. (There's a really good one about an undead sorceress, which is entirely not as you'd expect it to be. Apparently it's a sequel to something, although I only know that from the table of contents intro text-- dammit, now I have to find the prequel. Also there's a fairly charming action/adventure piece about a middle-aged pseudo-Chinese con man.)

Issue 11, however, is a genuine treasure. The story here is called "Holy Places", and you cannot miss this if you have the slightest interest in these characters in particular or excellent character development in general. It is the story of how Ilias came to Andrien house. He is 8 in this story, and much of the foundation is laid for his later complexity— he is a smart, good-natured child, possibly too sharp for his own good, and his family is poor, but worse than that, poorly-managed and beaten-down by circumstance. Giliead is six or so, and his father, while only briefly sketched, is a vivid character— Ranior, who is barely mentioned in the trilogy and then only for his dramatic end, is here a sensible and kind but firm man, in the fullness of his character, and you can see where Giliead gets his Giliead-ness later on. It is fascinating to see Giliead as a small, sweet boy who talks to gods and fights wizards in his pyjamas (and cries when Ilias is mean to him), to see Karima and the Andriens already established as a household of strong, brave, resourceful, and kind people. (Karima gets a brave yet sensible moment or two, as well.)
But Ilias is the real treat in this piece— he experiences his first betrayal, and is forever changed by it. I'm not exaggerating when I say that it made me cry— not by being sentimental, but by making this real to me, and making me sit, after I had finished it, and really think about how it would be to have truly witnessed it in real life.

And that's the power of Wells's writing, to me. She has a relatively unexceptional writing style— at its best, it is a transparent vehicle for conveying action— and its real power lies in its plausibility. She creates these vivid places and scenes, and overall these completely real characters, and puts them into impossible situations that are compelling not because of their complexity, but because of their plausibility. The dead innocent bystanders wring at your heart, not because she writes them sentimentally, but because she mentions them almost like a journalist— you truly come to believe that there really were five dead bodies by the road if she says there were, because you truly believe these events have happened. They're just so damn plausible, every detail rings true, and every character reaction comes across as genuine. You care about her characters not because she tells you to, but because they speak for themselves— even the minor characters. Vivan in Element, Arites in Ships of Air, Ranior in "Holy Places"— they are people you believe in, and even if you don't particularly know them well, you come to think of them as real people.