{"id":30394,"date":"2015-10-31T06:30:42","date_gmt":"2015-10-30T17:30:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/?p=30394"},"modified":"2015-10-29T18:00:01","modified_gmt":"2015-10-29T05:00:01","slug":"gorgeous-words-barbara-hambly-the-ladies-of-mandrigyn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2015\/10\/31\/gorgeous-words-barbara-hambly-the-ladies-of-mandrigyn\/","title":{"rendered":"Gorgeous Words: Barbara Hambly &#038; &#8220;The Ladies Of Mandrigyn&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2015\/10\/30\/fantasy-heroines-that-rock-my-world-10-on-sf-signal-sisterhood-is-powerful-part-1\/ladies-of-mandrigyn\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-30390\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-30390\" src=\"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Ladies-of-Mandrigyn-180x300.jpg\" alt=\"Ladies of Mandrigyn\" width=\"180\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Ladies-of-Mandrigyn-180x300.jpg 180w, https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Ladies-of-Mandrigyn-90x150.jpg 90w, https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Ladies-of-Mandrigyn.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 180px) 100vw, 180px\" \/><\/a>On Thursday (Wednesday, US time), my <strong>Fantasy Heroines That Rock My World<\/strong> series on SF Signal <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sfsignal.com\/archives\/2015\/10\/helen-lowe-on-the-fantasy-heroines-that-rock-her-world-sisterhood-is-powerful-part-1-sheera-galernas-the-ladies-of-mandrigyn\/\" target=\"_blank\">featured Sheera Galernas and <strong><em>The Ladies of Mandrigyn<\/em><\/strong><\/a>, from the book of the same name.<\/p>\n<p>But this is more than just <em>&#8220;a strong and exciting Fantasy story&#8221;<\/em> with a cast of interesting characters (a significant number of whom happen to be feisty, determined heroines)&#8212;although those are vital qualities in any top read.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>The Ladies of Mandrigyn<\/strong><\/em> comprises another essential ingredient as well: it has its fair share of gorgeous words, strung together into powerful sentences. Like this, for example:<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\"><em>\u00a0&#8220;They left the magical silence of the foothills to climb the Stren Water valley.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\"><em>Fed by the drowning rains on the uplands above, the Stren Water roared in full spate, spreading its channels throughout the narrow, marshy country that lay between the higher cliffs, cutting off hilltops into islands &#8230; Starhawk and Anyog made their way along the rocky foothills that bordered the flooded lands, always wet, always cold. Anyog told tales and sang songs; of wizardry and Altiokis they did not speak.&#8221;<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s not exactly comforting, but it&#8217;s wonderfully atmospheric, creating a clear sense of the physical landscape, the winter journey, and the mood and preoccupations of the travellers, in just a few short sentences.<\/p>\n<p>In Fantasy and Science Fiction, this is what we mean by &#8220;worldbuilding.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2015\/10\/31\/gorgeous-words-barbara-hambly-the-ladies-of-mandrigyn\/ladies-of-mandrigyn-1\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-30397\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-30397\" src=\"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Ladies-of-Mandrigyn-1.jpg\" alt=\"Ladies of Mandrigyn 1\" width=\"202\" height=\"272\" srcset=\"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Ladies-of-Mandrigyn-1.jpg 202w, https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Ladies-of-Mandrigyn-1-111x150.jpg 111w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 202px) 100vw, 202px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On Thursday (Wednesday, US time), my Fantasy Heroines That Rock My World series on SF Signal featured Sheera Galernas and The Ladies of Mandrigyn, from the book of the same name. But this is more than just &#8220;a strong and exciting Fantasy story&#8221; with a cast of interesting characters (a significant number of whom happen [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,14,46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-other-writers","category-recommended-reading"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30394"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30394\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30401,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30394\/revisions\/30401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}