You think the contrast had to do with the author's use of language as well? I have not read much King, but I remember reading Eyes of the Dragon by him in some ridiculously short period of time. It was like cutting butter with an appropriately heated knife, and I didn't even like it that much. For some reason though, I couldn't get It to hold my interest, though I remember it leaving the same impression language-wise. Just very accessible and quick. Like you don't need an oar when you're reading him.
No, 'cuz I cranked through Watership Down with no issues and its language is just as byzantine, the concepts just as foreign, and the conceit of "elven languages" is front and center. Watership Down, however, was an exploration of society, religion, mortality and warfare as seen through the eyes of rabbits as opposed to "a bunch of dudes go slay a dragon." Stephen King wordsmiths a lot. His rule of thumb is to leave 20% on the cutting room floor between first and second draft. It makes a difference.
For me, things like the elven languages didn't read so much as conceit as eccentricity and individual passion. I guess conceit is actually a good description in the sense that it felt like Tolkien was doing it because he loved it, without regard for the reception as much (not that he had to worry it turns out, -he had an audience). He was on his own jam, that's for sure. I appreciate that, but tbh, the end result is I skipped some of that shit. I don't care if it's an Elvish ballad, Ishmael's cetological aspirations, or Rand's Galt taking 60 pages to do what the rest of the novel was already doing, but a thousand times more boring...I reserve the right to hit the space-bar.its language is just as byzantine, the concepts just as foreign, and the conceit of "elven languages" is front and center.
"I try to leave out the parts that people skip." - Elmore Leonard I read this two weeks ago and ended up nuking a 5800 word chapter down to 1800 words. In the script it had been important to have this big bolus of exposition because I only had 110 pp double spaced to work with. Following the script, that chapter was where the big bolus existed. But in the novel I'd been able to work it in without any effort or exposition whatsoever - it was all first person discovery. Fuckin' liberating - The book went from 192k to 187k in an afternoon.