Opening Lines
The novel opens with imagery as the dominant literary technique used to draw the reader in. Not a single line of dialogue. Not a verbal establishing shot from a distance that tells the informs the reader of the fantasy world in which the story takes place. But plain and simple imagery that invites you to look around, inhale the smells and even imagine the taste of a certain place. Welcome, dear reader, to what seems like might be a work by Bukowski or some probably Russian port city-based barfly:
“Retvenko leaned against the bar and tucked his nose into his dirty shot glass. The whiskey had failed to warm him. Nothing could get you warm in this Saints-forsaken city. And there was no escaping the smell, the throat-choking stew of bilge, clams, and wet stone that seemed to have soaked into his pores as if he’d been steeping in the city’s essence like the world’s worst cup of tea.”
Waffles
Waffles as imagery? It has worked before, certainly, so why not try it again? Waffles pop up in unexpectedly robust numbers in this fantasy world populated by some typically fantasy-genre freaky characters. In fact, there is nothing particularly freaky about the characters because they are populating what is, after all, your standard fantasy world. It’s the waffle imagery that gets weird:
Jesper headed up the stairs after Wylan, then poked his head back into the read- ing room. “If I live, I’ll buy you waffles.”
“You don’t have enough money to buy her waffles,” Wylan grumbled.
and
But Nina couldn’t think about any of that with Colm Fahey standing there mangling his hat, and Jesper looking like he’d rather be eating a stack of waffles topped with ground glass than facing him...
not to mention
She rested her head on his shoulder. “You’re better than waffles, Matthias Helvar.”
This imagery is so interesting on account of its weirdness that it doesn't even have to mean anything. Though it probably does.
Them
Specifically, “none of them” or “one of them” or “two of them” or, especially, “three of them.” Psychologically, the division of a group of characters into a collective “them” means either “they” are one of us or belong to the Other. Somewhat amazingly, nearly every single reference to the collective which includes the image described by one of the four phrases mentioned above are all related to the concept of togetherness rather than the Other. “Them” in this case is thus imagery which is literally synonymous with “us.”
The Grudgekeeper
Unlike waffles and "them," some imagery in this massive work of fiction comes down to a single isolated image. What sets them apart from the other descriptive prose is the concentration of metaphor or sensory details which makes the description more vivid. For instance, one example that pops out is Kaz’s description of himself relative to an insulting characterization of himself as holding on too tightly to a grudge to focus on the job:
“That’s where you’re wrong,” said Kaz. “I don’t hold a grudge. I cradle it. I coddle it. I feed it fine cuts of meat and send it to the best schools. I nurture my grudges, Rollins.”
