Favourite Janny Wurts Passage

[Grimward]

Or a Fosters ad

Then again, we haven't been seeing many Fosters ads over here recently; are they still in business?

 

[Clansman]

Perhaps we might try to wrench this ailing thread back on topic with an actual passage from the esteemed Ms. Wurts? Hmmm?

 

[Grimward]

Perish the thought!

*Sees Clanny stamping his foot impatiently....*

Oh, all right, this still isn't my favorite (cuz friend Ross has much more reading to cover yet), but it's up there....

The revealing sleeve cracked away as Traithe raised his hands. His expression no longer reflected the calm of a sorcerer in control of his craft, but revealed a man in abject agony. Thunder reverberated, cut through by his scream as storm and mist tightened down into a whirlwind that battered him to his knees. He rallied in an extremity of effort. Power answered. Raw, white and wild as elemental lightning, it stabbed down at his call, wrapping like light-jagged wire around his wrists and arms. It flowed untrammeled into his embrace, flowering into dazzling brilliance that slapped the eyes like a nova, blinding, impenetrable, and wholly dedicated to ruin. The Mistwraith recoiled, radiant with an afterglow of live charge. Its coils rolled back and separated, to lay bare the pearlescent span of South Gate. During the moment while its invading flow was interrupted, a charred figure in spark-shot robes dragged itself up from prostration. It raised hands seared with burns and traced a seal of binding on the air. Broken with agony, Traithe croaked out the Names that composed the chant of ending. And like a sling cord released from great tension, spells sheared asunder; the webwork of time bonds and engergies that enabled South Gate as a grand portal parted like singed silk and dissipated.
The Mistwraith's connection was severed, its vapors denied further invasion. Rain lashed across the soil between the dead gate. It pocked light-edged arrows in the puddles that interlaced into streamlets of runoff. Traithe remained, a cramped silhouette that could have passed for a pile of discarded rags, but for the fact that he wept with the deep, shaking sobs a child might utter in pain and terror.

Sheer magic, that.

 

[Clansman]

Oooooo. Good one. That is one of my faves, too. I need to bring a book or two in to put down my passages.

The tragic figure of Traithe is one that has always intrigued me. That part of his essence, his very soul, had to be burned away to prevent an F7 sorcerer from becoming corrupted by the Mistwraith, and to actually close the South Gate against the invasion of yet more wraiths, shows the self-sacrificial ethic by which the F7 live.

That passage shows the sacrifice, the abject pain and terror, of Traithe actually carving part of himself away. Amazing writing.

 

[GOLLUM]

Aw, c'mon, Gol, or we'll have to hit you with inclusion in Australian drinking songs, thusly:

"I love to have a beer with Gollum
I love to have a beer with Gol
Oh, we drink in moderation,
And we never ever ever stay past last call
We drink at the Town and Country
Where the atmosphere is great!
I love to have a beer with Gollum,
'Cause Gollum's me mate!

So, pony up with the prose!

Hey that's cool, you really should be helping Janny with her next book......

 

[Clansman]

Actually, Gollum, all credit is due to the Procrastinator, who first cited the song with reference to the drinking habits of Dakar (who certainly never drank in moderation, except in Ships of Merior, and not willingly). I believe the writer and performer of that bit of high verse was one Slim Dusty.

 

[Grimward]

Perhaps we might try to wrench this ailing thread back on topic with an actual passage from the esteemed Ms. Wurts? Hmmm?

Alas, Clanny my friend, what goes around must come around.....

(truly sorry, couldn't resist, not sure what came over me, the dog ate my.....)

 

[GOLLUM]

Actually, Gollum, all credit is due to the Procrastinator, who first cited the song with reference to the drinking habits of Dakar (who certainly never drank in moderation, except in Ships of Merior, and not willingly). I believe the writer and performer of that bit of high verse was one Slim Dusty.

Correct weight Sir.....

 

[Althain's Warden]

Nice choice Grim, very nice indeed. I'm going to have to delve back into the earlier books to try and find one to match ! Just in re reading that passage it evokes a desire to devour every page she's ever written all over again, if i could have half of JW's way with words i would be a happy man indeed!

 

[Ross]

I want to find the Caolle, Arithon and Dakar section when Morriel Prime "fools" Arithon into believing Lysear is close by but can't remember where it was.

I'm sure people understand which bit I mean. Will have to try and find it again.

 

[dekket]

the Caolle, Arithon and Dakar section when Morriel Prime "fools" Arithon into believing Lysear is close by

Lirenda forces the mistwraiths curse to overwhelm Arithon with a fetch (made from Lysaer's hair) at Riverton. It is the chapter entitled 'Spring Trap'.

 

[Ross]

Lirenda forces the mistwraiths curse to overwhelm Arithon with a fetch (made from Lysaer's hair) at Riverton. It is the chapter entitled 'Spring Trap'.

Lirenda, sorry.

I'll take a look