Great article. A nice taster board for the action prose genius of these writers. I've read the Blade Itself and the other books, and loved them. Could not put them down.
I agree that in Abercrombie there's horror tropes, and feel it galvanises the story in a way that Tolkein's work could apparently never do. Despite that Tolkein fought in trench warfare.
Also in Abercrombie's worlds it feels one could easily turn a corner and wind up in a back alley of our grimy cities here on earth - the noir connections are all there. Somehow it's fantasy, but relatable.
How do we get a taste for this kind of writing? Is it just wish fulfilment? Secret blood-thirst?
My own books use combat and physical tension constantly. I'm not sure what it is about it that I find compelling. And I am intrigued to see the names of other women writers that you recommend in the article. Will have to track these writers down and take a look.
My parents holidayed in places that had piles of pulp novels stacked in the common lounge area. While they were fishing, I read. Have not (yet) read Howard's work, but read a lot of hmmm: H Rider Haggard, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Conan Doyle, Alistair Maclean, Ian Fleming, HG Wells, Heinlein, Asimov.
Authenticity: now there's a word. I did Tae Kwon Do for 15 years, was an active duty police officer for 4, and worked in policing for another 4 years. I've fought against people who really meant me harm, and struggled against others who were truly insane, in the back of a police car blue-lighting down the freeway. I trained with a tonfa, and with firearms. It was traumatic, at times life-threatening. I also did CPR for real twice. With a 50% success rate.
I feel like a physical conflict, a fight, a threat, a stance: all of these are the methods of those who would use their whole person to prosecute a goal. In a villain, we must see their twist on reality, and why it's sensible to them to use force, to achieve what they wish.
Intentionality is what a fight is about, and the words must communicate the minds as much as the muscle, I think. So I don't think writers need to have experienced combat to write it well, they just need to understand violent people, and study the craft.
The details of authenticity: It's not just about staying alive, but staying alive for what? What does that drive bring to hand, in the real world, scrabbling for a hand-hold in an alley; or reaching for a fallen weapon? These are signals for what the fighter feels, desperation, anger born of fear. There's a through-line from details, intention and action, in my opinion.
Anyway - great article, love to see it. Thanks Alec.
Thanks so much, Sarah! Especially for the digi-coffee! So kind.
I feel like there’s a strong influence of crime fiction and warfront reportage in Abercrombie, which lets him put such a great spin on the genre. There’s also a heavy dose of Pratchett-esque humour! But you’re right, it all serves to ground the fantasy and make it feel more relatable.
I do feel like we have a slightly troubling relationship with violence through pop culture, which I think I might have written about elsewhere (possibly in my post on Durham Red ‘The Return of the Problematic Vampire’).
I think it comes down to never straying too far from the reality of violence – of which you seem to have abundant experience, Sarah! What I’ve seen/experienced of it is that it can come out of nowhere and can break lives. It’s horrible and we need to be reminded of that at least on some level in a story or else it becomes either too detached and abstract or else you’re revelling in it. (I must confess I feel this way about the later series of The Boys.)
Ultimately, though, yeah, a fight scene is just a continuation of character – just like “war is the continuation of politics by other means.”
I'm glad this is a massive introspection of how Howard's writings and Abercrombie' instead of a boring duel. As a fan of both it's good to see the differences laid out.
The Witcher fight scene you linked the video of is actually one of my favourite swordfights in fiction. Unfotunately the tv series did a version of it that wows viewers, but doesn't really adapt the fight as written. In the book it's seemingly one of the ones where the writer goes into details of fencing jargon (amusingly - Sapkowski completely made it up, but it doesn't matter. It sounds and feels real - you feel like you're reading about expert swordsmen), but actually it's a horror story written mostly from the point of the enemies. Geralt is so alien and terrifying and there's just enough description to make you understand he's methodically and strategically dismantling a group of elite mercenaries with relative ease. (but it's not JUST supernatural brute strength, plowing through them while moving in a straight line like in the show, there's a method and tactics and elusiveness that allow for this.) Pretty much a slasher movie, yes - the point of the scene is not whether or not Geralt will win, but the fact that he's even forced to fight them, and what it ends up costing him as a person. (the show again simplified this greatly)
The Witcher books also contain probably my favourite ever large scale battle scene - the battle of Brenna. Told through vignettes focused on individual characters (important and unimportant alike) more so than dry descriptions of unit movements, it's incredibly emotional. The reader is both horrified and elated by the end.
If only the English translation wasn't somewhat lacking, I'd have an easier time recommending them.
Thanks, Jan. Which book is that scene from then? I’ve only read ‘Blood of Elves’ and I understand it’s not a great translation. :P
It’s all about how you frame the scene, right? That idea of him being this Terminator-like monster through the eyes of the people he’s scything his way through is a really great idea. So much better than just sitting back and taking it all in with a cinematic full-shot.
The swordfight is in the short story "The Lesser Evil", in "The Last Wish". (I think there was confusion among the English language publishers and they started publishing the witcher with book 1 of the so called "saga", Blood of Elves, but you're supposed to read two books of short stories before that.)
I re-read it in English - it feels clumsy and too wordy, somehow. But even so, the whole scene reads like a jidaigeki movie from the bad guy's POV.
Some time ago I had a go at translating this myself, but I can't find it right now, unfortunately.
The big battle scene is in the "Lady of the Lake", I think.
Great essay. Not an abercrombie fan but absolutely loved how you highlighted Howard's prose and the magnificence of it. Going to have to come back to this essay as a reminder on how to write action scenes.
You're so right about the "rules". REH could break every one of them, but he's a master storyteller and there's no formula that can make a writer that. I often cite the opening page of "Rogues in the House" to anyone who aspires to write a tale that grabs you from the word go.
(Btw I also thought at first that Howard was speaking figuratively when he says that Conan was better protected than most of his foes, but on second reading it's literal -- they're unarmoured assassins -- some in bare feet, indeed -- as they expected to find their target asleep.)
REH really wrote form the gut, I think. He’s got such an instinctual grasp of structure, it’s quite uncanny. Thanks for reading, Dave. (Might have another look at that 'better protected' line. :P)
It's funny that he told HPL he didn't think he had a great talent for poetry, and Lovecraft wrote back, "One could pick powerful and apt images by the dozen from any one of your best stories or poems. Take your rattlesnake prose poem, for instance: 'Let him dare to walk where the rank grass quivers without a wind.' If that isn't poetic imagery of the first order, then I'll resign from the NAPA Bureau of Critics."
Great article. A nice taster board for the action prose genius of these writers. I've read the Blade Itself and the other books, and loved them. Could not put them down.
I agree that in Abercrombie there's horror tropes, and feel it galvanises the story in a way that Tolkein's work could apparently never do. Despite that Tolkein fought in trench warfare.
Also in Abercrombie's worlds it feels one could easily turn a corner and wind up in a back alley of our grimy cities here on earth - the noir connections are all there. Somehow it's fantasy, but relatable.
How do we get a taste for this kind of writing? Is it just wish fulfilment? Secret blood-thirst?
My own books use combat and physical tension constantly. I'm not sure what it is about it that I find compelling. And I am intrigued to see the names of other women writers that you recommend in the article. Will have to track these writers down and take a look.
My parents holidayed in places that had piles of pulp novels stacked in the common lounge area. While they were fishing, I read. Have not (yet) read Howard's work, but read a lot of hmmm: H Rider Haggard, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Conan Doyle, Alistair Maclean, Ian Fleming, HG Wells, Heinlein, Asimov.
Authenticity: now there's a word. I did Tae Kwon Do for 15 years, was an active duty police officer for 4, and worked in policing for another 4 years. I've fought against people who really meant me harm, and struggled against others who were truly insane, in the back of a police car blue-lighting down the freeway. I trained with a tonfa, and with firearms. It was traumatic, at times life-threatening. I also did CPR for real twice. With a 50% success rate.
I feel like a physical conflict, a fight, a threat, a stance: all of these are the methods of those who would use their whole person to prosecute a goal. In a villain, we must see their twist on reality, and why it's sensible to them to use force, to achieve what they wish.
Intentionality is what a fight is about, and the words must communicate the minds as much as the muscle, I think. So I don't think writers need to have experienced combat to write it well, they just need to understand violent people, and study the craft.
The details of authenticity: It's not just about staying alive, but staying alive for what? What does that drive bring to hand, in the real world, scrabbling for a hand-hold in an alley; or reaching for a fallen weapon? These are signals for what the fighter feels, desperation, anger born of fear. There's a through-line from details, intention and action, in my opinion.
Anyway - great article, love to see it. Thanks Alec.
Thanks so much, Sarah! Especially for the digi-coffee! So kind.
I feel like there’s a strong influence of crime fiction and warfront reportage in Abercrombie, which lets him put such a great spin on the genre. There’s also a heavy dose of Pratchett-esque humour! But you’re right, it all serves to ground the fantasy and make it feel more relatable.
I do feel like we have a slightly troubling relationship with violence through pop culture, which I think I might have written about elsewhere (possibly in my post on Durham Red ‘The Return of the Problematic Vampire’).
I think it comes down to never straying too far from the reality of violence – of which you seem to have abundant experience, Sarah! What I’ve seen/experienced of it is that it can come out of nowhere and can break lives. It’s horrible and we need to be reminded of that at least on some level in a story or else it becomes either too detached and abstract or else you’re revelling in it. (I must confess I feel this way about the later series of The Boys.)
Ultimately, though, yeah, a fight scene is just a continuation of character – just like “war is the continuation of politics by other means.”
Thanks again, Sarah!
I'm glad this is a massive introspection of how Howard's writings and Abercrombie' instead of a boring duel. As a fan of both it's good to see the differences laid out.
It honestly took me by surprise just how cleverly both are put together. Thanks for reading, PB!
The Witcher fight scene you linked the video of is actually one of my favourite swordfights in fiction. Unfotunately the tv series did a version of it that wows viewers, but doesn't really adapt the fight as written. In the book it's seemingly one of the ones where the writer goes into details of fencing jargon (amusingly - Sapkowski completely made it up, but it doesn't matter. It sounds and feels real - you feel like you're reading about expert swordsmen), but actually it's a horror story written mostly from the point of the enemies. Geralt is so alien and terrifying and there's just enough description to make you understand he's methodically and strategically dismantling a group of elite mercenaries with relative ease. (but it's not JUST supernatural brute strength, plowing through them while moving in a straight line like in the show, there's a method and tactics and elusiveness that allow for this.) Pretty much a slasher movie, yes - the point of the scene is not whether or not Geralt will win, but the fact that he's even forced to fight them, and what it ends up costing him as a person. (the show again simplified this greatly)
The Witcher books also contain probably my favourite ever large scale battle scene - the battle of Brenna. Told through vignettes focused on individual characters (important and unimportant alike) more so than dry descriptions of unit movements, it's incredibly emotional. The reader is both horrified and elated by the end.
If only the English translation wasn't somewhat lacking, I'd have an easier time recommending them.
Thanks, Jan. Which book is that scene from then? I’ve only read ‘Blood of Elves’ and I understand it’s not a great translation. :P
It’s all about how you frame the scene, right? That idea of him being this Terminator-like monster through the eyes of the people he’s scything his way through is a really great idea. So much better than just sitting back and taking it all in with a cinematic full-shot.
The swordfight is in the short story "The Lesser Evil", in "The Last Wish". (I think there was confusion among the English language publishers and they started publishing the witcher with book 1 of the so called "saga", Blood of Elves, but you're supposed to read two books of short stories before that.)
I re-read it in English - it feels clumsy and too wordy, somehow. But even so, the whole scene reads like a jidaigeki movie from the bad guy's POV.
Some time ago I had a go at translating this myself, but I can't find it right now, unfortunately.
The big battle scene is in the "Lady of the Lake", I think.
Thanks for that, Jan! Really useful!
Great essay. Not an abercrombie fan but absolutely loved how you highlighted Howard's prose and the magnificence of it. Going to have to come back to this essay as a reminder on how to write action scenes.
Cheers, BK! Thanks for reading. I always felt that REH had an instinct for this sort of thing and breaking down this scene only proved it for me. :D
Agreed, and cheers to you also Alec! I loved reading this essay, mind if I include it in Warrior Wednesday?
Sure. Hope it helps.
You're so right about the "rules". REH could break every one of them, but he's a master storyteller and there's no formula that can make a writer that. I often cite the opening page of "Rogues in the House" to anyone who aspires to write a tale that grabs you from the word go.
(Btw I also thought at first that Howard was speaking figuratively when he says that Conan was better protected than most of his foes, but on second reading it's literal -- they're unarmoured assassins -- some in bare feet, indeed -- as they expected to find their target asleep.)
REH really wrote form the gut, I think. He’s got such an instinctual grasp of structure, it’s quite uncanny. Thanks for reading, Dave. (Might have another look at that 'better protected' line. :P)
It's funny that he told HPL he didn't think he had a great talent for poetry, and Lovecraft wrote back, "One could pick powerful and apt images by the dozen from any one of your best stories or poems. Take your rattlesnake prose poem, for instance: 'Let him dare to walk where the rank grass quivers without a wind.' If that isn't poetic imagery of the first order, then I'll resign from the NAPA Bureau of Critics."
Haha! There’s so much to be said there about working-class diffidence vs. educated, middle-class confidence.
Conan wins by a sword's blade, for Crom's sake. -500 odds vs. any takers!