Ok, there's a few things on that list I actually LIKE in a book, but it really depends, and I don't read a lot of Fantasy.

Thanks for the laugh!

Oh, and about the repeating consonants...

Have you ever read the series by Lloyd Alexander? "The Chronicles of Prydain". We read these books in 8th grade, and I completely fell in love with them, read the whole series a few times! The second book was made into an animated movie, "The Black Cauldron."

That series had a bunch of hard-to-pronounce names, but they were humorous and were supposed to be so. If you haven't read this series....DO! Some of the characters are Princess Eilonwy and Fflewddur Fflam, and he was inspired by Welsh Mythology, which is where he got the names of the characters and the places.

And as we all know, the Welsh language, like the Celtic language, is completely unpronounceable. I think they have often been a source for Fantasy writers.

I just realized I need to hit the local library and see if the have these books...and I need to order them for my own collection when I have a job again.

GREAT books!

Thanks for the reminder. The name of one of the characters has been running around in my mind.

And I just learned on Wikipedia that he passed away on May 17 of this year. That's just sad. I think his books are destined to become classics.

And by the way, the book was better than the movie. It always is.
Julie | Homepage | 08.18.07 - 7:24 pm | #

Welsh isn't difficult to pronounce. Also, Welsh spelling is a lot more phonetic than English.

Admittedly, some people overdo representing glottal stops in "alien languages" with apostrophes. But the vast majority of made-up names are fairly easy to pronounce -- and a good deal shorter than the names of folks' classmates from India!

The opposite trend is just as annoying -- giving people in totally alien cultures the most common American names, or making sure that their names abbreviate to "Jon" or "Beth". Also, totally different worlds where the greenery and animals are exactly like those we know in a small restricted area of North America....
Maureen | 08.20.07 - 5:02 am | #

I can't remember if "The Sparrow" (Maria Doria Russell) violates any of these rules. Even if it does, it is excellent enough that I was able to overlook the transgressions.
Class factotum | Homepage | 08.20.07 - 7:47 pm | #