Reading roundup

[hamsterwoman]

Still on a reading kick, as a means of not thinking about all the other crap.

24. Cinda Williams Chima, The Warrior Heir -- This was a random YA book I picked up just because I felt like some YA fantasy, and I was actually pleasantly surprised (although, admittedly, my expectations going in were pretty low).

Comments

[_grayswandir_]

I know Benedict's bloodlessness, levelheadedness, coolness is supposed to be partially Corwin's perception, but even taking that into account Yama is a much more vibrant figure, again, for all that he is Death.

Yeah, I think that's the main difference; Benedict is rather stony. Yama's vibrancy makes him seem more like the Amberites, in general, than any of the other characters in Lord of Light do, but it still doesn't make him resemble any particular Amberite.

I'm not sure other characters even *get* physical description -- there are references to strong bodies, Kubera's fat, Krishna's (I think) dark skin and so on, but specific details -- not so much.

Okay, so, being as I'm insane, I went back and looked through the whole book for references to Yama's physical appearance. I actually only found them in the first chapter and the third (the one with Rild). The first chapter is where he has the scar. We get: "Tall, but not overly so; big, but not heavy; his movements, slow and fluid. He wore red and spoke little."

"He smiled then, showing even rows of long, brilliant teeth. The smile caught at the edge of a scar upon his left cheek and reached up to the corner of his eye."

"His dark, supple fingers, she noted, always had about their movement that which was like the movements of one who played upon an instrument of music."
And then in chapter three, there's just this: "The One in Red smiled, showing a long row of even, white teeth."
Which is sort of interesting, since Zelazny just described his teeth almost the same way in a completely different time period. There's also a comment about his statue, facing Kali's, "returning her half smile with his twisted one." Which might just be indicative of some underlying sarcasm or dry amusement in everything he does, but it did bring to my mind the scar mentioned in chapter one. Again, a bit odd...

Mainly, though, you get a lot of talk about his clothes: breeches, boots, shirt, sash, cloak, gloves, turban, all red, and some kind of red or ruby-studded weapon, most of the time. Mention of that stuff turns up whenever he does, sort of like Pontius Pilate and his "theme words." Zelazny also frequently calls him the Red One or the One in Red, which is, again, much more physical description than most of the other gods get; I don't think anybody else's clothes get described at all, except the monks' yellow robes and Rild in black before he dies. And there are a few mentions of a "black flame" in his eyes -- though I think that's only when he's wielding his Attribute.

And, of course, there's just constantly him stretching, yawning, pounding his fist on the table, slapping his thigh, laughing, snorting, tossing his head back, throwing his pipe, cursing, swirling his cloak around, and just generally sprawling all over the place... *loves*

And I hadn't thought before of the special problems of describing characters whose bodies are pretty much constantly changing in the background -- I kind of want to reread the whole thing now, focusing on physical descriptions and noting how they change, or don't.

I wasn't quite ambitious enough to do a really thorough job, but I did keep an eye out for anything obvious while skimming for Yama's name. As far as I could tell, there wasn't much. Sam gets almost no physical description, and when he does get any, he seems to be always described as rather unremarkable. The new body he gets in chapter one is a "darkish body, of medium height and age; his features were regular and undistinguished; when his eyes opened, they were dark." As the "prince" in chapter two, he's older and has a mustache, and, again, dark skin. And in the image Tak shows Mistress Maya, Sam's described as a "short, dark, husky man." Other than that, I didn't notice anything. So, he's consistently a bit Middle-Eastern looking, maybe?...

Yama has a scar at one point, right? I couldn't find what chapter it was in (one of the early ones?) or what body it corresponded to, or where it was supposed to have come from, and it's bugging me now...

Yeah, there's... no explanation for it at all. He just has it. Odd, no?