Sera opened her eyes. She was staring at the exact same wall she’d been facing when she’d closed them just a moment before. Her stomach tightened with anxiety. “That can’t be right,” she murmured.
The author throws the reader right into the middle of the action. No slow buildup or character exposition. Tension begins immediately with the conundrum for the reader that it is obviously a thing capable of inducing anxiety in the character. It is the book in miniature: tersely written with focus on providing pertinent information and avoiding unnecessary filler. The genre is action and adventure and the pacing meets the conventional expectations of that kind of story.
“This is incredible! There have always been debates about how many boats the Vikings attacked Paris with. Some scholars said they stretched for two leagues but others argued there weren’t that many based on the application of operational space in a stationary—”
Here is an example of the author’s economy of language. Although out of context this may seem like wordy filler, it is fulfills a number of different purposes. Firstly, it provides plot information: how the Vikings are attacking Paris. Secondly, it reveals that Dak, the speaker, is a history nerd. Third: a little lesson in historical debate is snuck in. And that part there at the end also hints at the suggestion that perhaps Dak may be a little too smart. Maybe. Not a spoiler; just showing how the author can use very few words for multiple purposes…or not.
But now it felt like the words he’d read had always been dry. They’d tried to capture past events, to trans-port him there in his mind, but as he stood on the Île de la Cité, the Island of Paris, Dak realized that the books had been mere ghosts. Reality was so much cooler. Smellier, too.
This is a really quite beautifully written passage showing the author’s grasp of both the possibilities and the limitations of literature. Books have the capacity to transport readers to any place on the planet, but it will never quite the same as actually experiencing. And then, with a deft lightness of touch that does not to corrupt this truth, but still pushes the pro-literature agenda, comes the reminder that not all experiential elements are necessarily an improvement over imagination.
“The king’s foot has been kissed and Rollo’s fealty given.”
Within this one single quote, the author brings together the past and the present, history and fiction, the Middle Ages and the 21st century, dramatic tension and ironic humor. All the aspects which have permeated throughout the narrative reach a point of sublime integration at this moment. Out of context as presented here, such an assertion may seem unlikely but it’s true.
