Lips!

[greylin]

I recently finished all of the Farseer/Liveship/Fool books and kept asking my friends - why haven't I discovered this writer before? Her plots are fantastic. My adult children are now squabbling over who gets the next book first, which is something of a coup, as one of them generally loathes fantasy.

I've got just one problem with her style. Why, oh why, do her characters keep "folding their lips"? That phrase would appear the moment anybody's face had to be described as expressing disapproval, and it stuck out like a sore thumb. I wish her editor had picked up on that. I had never heard the expression before anyway - "tightened" or "pursed", yes, but I hadn't come across "folded".

Incidentally, I've just finished "Shaman's Crossing", which was good enough for me to have ordered the sequel, but the UK paperback edition I read contained several typographical errors. Must have been a rush job! This made me wonder if they edit Hobb's books for a British audience - you know, change "color" to "colour" and that kind of thing. I don't think I came across any American spellings of that nature although I did spot one "fit" instead of "fitted", but that was all. (And nobody folded their lips, thank goodness - LOL!)

[I, Brian]

Sounds good and welcome to chronicles, greylin.

[the_faery_queen]

yeah, i'd noticed a lot of errors in shaman's crossing and i'd only read 100 pages!

i hadn't noticed the lip folding thing tho, to be honest.

[elvet]

I loved the 3 trilogies, having just recently finished them. I'm holding out on Shayman's Crossing and The Forest Mage as what comments I've read so far haven't been that positive.

Oh, and welcome to the forum!

[dwndrgn]

Welcome to the Chronicles!

I never noticed the 'folded lips' as being overly used in her works but I have heard the expression. It describes when you fold both bottom and top lips into the mouth so that they are hidden and your mouth becomes a straight line. Sort of the physical opposite of 'persed'. Anyhoo - I notice the word 'whilst' like crazy - it is like a ticking clock, you never know it is there until someone points it out. I've pointed it out to myself and now I see it everywhere and it sticks out like a sore thumb.

[greylin]

Thank you for the various welcomes - how friendly!

"Whilst" is a word I often use myself, like "unbeknownst", so I never noticed it in the books. But maybe those words are getting a bit old fashioned now.

Could anyone with an American edition of a Robin Hobb book confirm whether she uses American spellings? I'd love to know if the books are "translated" for the UK market. Frankly, I was relieved not to come across "color" and "center" etc, as, being a Brit, they always jolt me out of whatever universe the book has transported me into.

[Mouse]

She uses the word 'peruse' far too much for my liking!! I've never really noticed the 'lips' thing before though!

Yeah I agree about the American spellings thing, I'm reading The One Kingdom by Sean Russell and that's full of American spellings, it does suddenly make me, as you put it, jolt out of the universe I've been transported to!!

[Clockwork]

Hi, I'm a new user so bear with me...

As for the lips thing I never actually noticed however 'knit her brows' was beginning to drive me insane in the Live Ship Traders.... funnily enough I don't think it is used in any other of her books.

[greylin]

Originally Posted by Clockwork

Hi, I'm a new user so bear with me...

Welcome!

As for the lips thing I never actually noticed however 'knit her brows' was beginning to drive me insane in the Live Ship Traders.... funnily enough I don't think it is used in any other of her books.

I shall have to look out for knitted brows now. You know, we all run the risk of ruining the books for each other if we carry on like this. The folded lips are back in "Renegade's Magic"!

[Clockwork]

Yes... like the time I was frantically trying to cut down the number of words in a history essay and discovered an amazing amount of the unnecessary word 'that'. I was paranoid for ages... I appear to substitute them in while I am thinking in essays...

[Laydee_S]

I can never spot mistakes or reocurrences (sp?) like these in any book, I'm normally to absorbed in the story line that i just overlook them

[murphy]

Originally Posted by elvet

I loved the 3 trilogies, having just recently finished them. I'm holding out on Shayman's Crossing and The Forest Mage as what comments I've read so far haven't been that positive.

Oh, and welcome to the forum!

I had a problem with The Forest Mage and put it aside. However, when Rengade's Magic came out, I restarted it and by the time I finished, I was thoroughly hooked. Also found the ending of the trilogy in Renegade's Magic to be most satisfactory.

[SpaceShip]

Welcome greylin - I love her books, though like elvet I have picked up those two latest books from the bookshop shelf and put them down again - not really being grabbed by what's written on the cover. Though she uses peculiar words (well peculiar to her probably) I find that I, too, have some favourite words when writing - paraphernalia being one of them; however, I have to admit that I do like old fashioned words and think they should continue to be used. My son tells me that I should never use modern fashionable words when writing (e.g. "random") as they soon go off and then in later years look "naff" (sorry) to the current reader.

[Aniri]

Greylin-
As far as I know, she uses the American spellings in my books

[sam250]

Originally Posted by greylin

I've got just one problem with her style. Why, oh why, do her characters keep "folding their lips"? That phrase would appear the moment anybody's face had to be described as expressing disapproval, and it stuck out like a sore thumb. I wish her editor had picked up on that. I had never heard the expression before anyway - "tightened" or "pursed", yes, but I hadn't come across "folded".

Hmmm.. i never notcied that, but there always does seem to be somthing in each book that annoys me. I think it was Fools Quest were her over-use of metaphors drove me crazy! She would use paragraph long metaphors on what seemed like evey other page.. Grr!

There was somthing else that annoyed me also... It was in Fools Fate, but i honestly can't think on what it was... I'll get back to you. Mabye its because i enjoyed Fools Fate so much more then Fools Quest, that my mind wants to overlook it.