Channelknight Fadran

People talk about "The Hand of the Author" a lot, and how you want to avoid it. Stuff like plot convenience, pointless exposition... you know the type. Something so blatantly put in there for technical reasons that it rips you right out of the story.

You're supposed to avoid it in writing, which is good advice. Immersion is powerful and breaking it kinda sucks. And one of the sucky things about becoming an author is that you recognize it in things you read a lot more: that's kind of why Sanderson's works have moved from my old "these are the best books" awe and into my new "yeah these are pretty good" acceptance.

But there's an exception here that I need to point out because I've been completely incapable of reading anything for months now (depression sucks, guys), but finally found my copy of The Two Towers that I'd started a few months ago and just absolutely consumed a chapter like it was nothing.

J.R.R. Tolkien isn't a god among men because you're completely surrounded by his story at all times, constantly fed plot and character development - J.R.R. Tolkien is a god because you can see his hand. And it isn't creating a product; some story following a template or format. It isn't like you're drawn away from the immersion and into the printers manufacturing every page, but rather it's as though he's writing every word with such loving devotion as you read them, covered in the smell of ink and pipe smoke, dictating the story with such passion that it's almost as if it's being crafted just for you.