In other complaints

[conuly]

this is now the second fantasy writer I've encountered who thinks "lambent" is a fine adjective and should be applied to fantasy eyes. What, was this on everybody's word-a-day calendar or something? Is this going to be the "violet orbs" of the future?

If you insist on using it on eyes of all things, you gotta set that up. Say that the eyes are lambent like something that is actually lambent - a warm fire, a candle, something along those lines. Don't just toss it in there, because if your readers don't know what it means - and there's a good chance they don't - they'll think you're talking about sheep. And if your sheep are lambent, there is something very badly wrong with either your sheep or your worldbuilding.

*****************

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Comments

[dine]

and now I'm picturing sheep glowing gently in the fields at twilight. it's an intriguing image, but would likely alarm the farmer

[conuly]

As well it should!

[bibliofile]

Unless of course the name of the field and/or sheep is some variation of "I'm/it's/we're fine"?

[dine]

hee!

[brokenallbroken]

Oh, but the clothes that could be made from glow-in-the-dark wool!

Bioluminescence is cool.

[dine]

oh wow - that would be so amazing! talk about your visibility/safety bonus, as well as style and just plain terrificness

[conuly]

It doesn't much improve your safety if you're trying to sneak around.

[mtbc]

Scotland had some radioactive sheep after Chernobyl.

[dine]

I wonder if their wool glowed?

[fred_mouse]

Not quite what you are describing, but I can't resist temptation to share this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6KXECVl3lc

[delight]

I love Palamedes Sextus, but now I cannot unsee this.

(If Tamsyn Muir's recent works were not one of the two, it's an even bigger problem! Sextus is the character I associate with this word.)

[conuly]

They were not. Haven't even read them!

[delight]

There is a character described with lambent grey eyes multiple times (it's signaling an answer to a mystery, there's a reason to use identical description in the narrative repeatedly rather than being bad writing) - his name is Palamedes Sextus - but now on reread I will just think of lambent sheep.

[conuly]

BAAA.

[frith]

My sheep are what? Oh ewe! That happens every Spring.

[conuly]

Baaa, humbug.

[greghousesgf]

rama lama ding dong

[larryhammer]

Oh, I don't know -- a jeb_ sheep in Minecraft kinda looks like it's lambent, even if it isn't actually a light source. Enough so, I'm startled they're actually dark at night.

[conuly]

That's disturbing.

[larryhammer]

Naming every sheep in sight jeb_ is the only worthwhile use of name tags.

[asakiyume]

The fantasy-book word that does this to me is "susurrus." That word really seemed to have a vogue among writers of my acquaintance--there a while when positively everyone was sure to include a susurrus of silk at some point in their stories.

[conuly]

Another and larger part of Tiffany’s brain was thinking of the word ‘susurrus’. It was a word that not many people have thought about, ever.

[asakiyume]

EVIDENCE

[offcntr]

Maybe they're Dylan Thomas Sheep from Janet Kagan's Mirabile.

[sporks5000.livejournal.com]

That's like hellbent, but with Lambs, right?

[conuly]

It is not.

[sporks5000.livejournal.com]

But given that vocabulary is an ever evolving thing and that the meanings of words frequently shift over time, it might SOMEDAY be.