The Sword and Laser discussion

I think what drove me relefting batty while reading this was the complete lack of world building.

First off, I did enjoy the book. It was light and fluffy which is nice every now and then.

But…. Where in the world are we?? When in the world are we?? The author drops us in media res without any sort of direction. And I just found it extremely jarring that the story kept referencing a world that wasn’t built for the reader.

I don’t know if these questions distracted anyone else, but here are some of mine:

1) Are we in England or is this a totally made up world?

2) What are the basic rules to magic? Fire witches are apparently rare and untrainable. Why? What are these parameters?

3) Householder vs Spouse? It almost sounded like making someone your property but the terms seem used nearly interchangeably.

4) Trolls???????

Thoughts?

1) Maybe; it’s English-ish

2) This isn’t Hard Fantasy, it’s regular Fantasy. Like Tolkien or Martin, the magic serves the needs of the story and works by author fiat.

3) Some Spouses are Householders, not all Householders are Spouses. Like marriages of convenience or arranged marriages, sometimes love happens, sometimes not.

4) Cool!

"This isn’t Hard Fantasy, it’s regular Fantasy. Like Tolkien or Martin, the magic serves the needs of the story and works by author fiat."

I certainly see what you mean. Yet even in fluffy fantasy of similar style like, The Invisible Library or anything by Gail Carriger, the magic doesn't sound so made-up-literally-as-the-author-is-typing-the-sentence. Haha I guess that's more what I meant by 'basic rules' just the impression that the author - if not the reader - has some vague concept of the magical framework of their story. ... Maybe that's just down to poor writing though.

Hm, I mean...I felt like we were slowly uncovering the rules of magic. Delly was always intended as a jewel in the rough, and as we went on we found out just how much the power structure crapped on anyone trying to exceed the social status they were born into. It helps explain her raging alcoholism.