They come in sets of 3. For a gold-plated no-prize (Marvel comics style: you may know there is truly no prize)—let’s hear your ideas.
We are at a crisis. The Foreigner books are running out of titles.
by CJ | Jun 10, 2018 | Journal | 78 comments
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Arpeggio, decrescendo, crescendo, coda.
Chantey, gavotte, pavane.
I think you are reaching orchestral heights, so musical terms come to mind, though it also reminds me of a ballet or an opera.
Crescendo, sostenuto, decrescendo?
I’d suggest, but I have no idea where it’s going from here.
Love the musical ones.
Something based on Machimi but the reference needs to be something a new reader can relate to.
Title patterns: it has to be one word.
It has to be verb-based, and have a similar ending at least per trio, if possible.
We’ve had the whole row of -or and -er person-doing-something-words at the start, and the most recent ones were verb-based action-denoting nouns ending on -ence.
Best fit would be another three verb-based words on -ence, -ance, or -once.
If those are impossible, look to other endings to those action-based words: -ment, -ing.
Engaging, undermining, succeeding.
Travelling, arriving, building.
-ing is easy, but doesn’t have quite the same ring to it as a title.
-ment might be better: Engagement (with the enemy or for Geigi’s nephew in the East), Deployment (of strategic game pieces across the board); something along those lines might work.
Leavetaking, En-route, Arrival; Confusion and Enlightenment: not a neat word-shape correspondence.
I can’t think of anything just now, except for a trio that would only be useful if you were 100% sure it will be the final trio of the series: deployment – deferment – conclusion.
The second and third are not really useful, especially as when I wrote down deferment I suddenly read it as being about fermenting beer or wine instead of delays…
Sorry, I’ll think some more.
Emergence, Resurgence, and maybe Divergence?
Hard to know what to suggest without some vague idea of plot direction.
Just some off the top of the head ideas, FWTW.
Descendant, Ascendant, Legacy? (maybe more to do with Cajeiri and Irene and that bunch, and torch-passing, and less to do with Bren?)
Symbiosis, Synthesis, Synergy – Around a theme of a society based for centuries on the (teeth grating to the Atevi) duality of the Atevi and the Mospheirans cultures morphing into to the triad of the Atevi, Mospheirans and Phoenix cultures and how to integrate it and build on it (Which would be Cajeiri’s aim.) And how the people from Reunion integrate into Mospheiran society and change it.
Emergence et. al. has already been used for another series I hold in less-high esteem.
Let me chew on this a while, although some of the other suggestions aren’t half bad. Problem being that the titles should be relevant to the books, and nand’ CJ probably doesn’t want to tip her hand that far (nor do we necessarily want her to!)
negotiator, mediator, intercessor
overseer
trailblazer, torchbearer, pathfinder
Migration, Conflagration, Integration
Wayfinder, Conductor, Scout
Auditor, Orator, Counselor
Wayfinder (Pathfinder) and Scout remind me of the Liaden Universe.
I’ve continued thinking about this, on and off. The more recent arcs have already changed your titling pattern – you’ve got a set of three very similar sounding names overlapping the end of arc 6 and arc 7 so far (they’re all wonderfully evocative when considered in isolation, but I always have to check which follows which chronologically). If you need titles starting with completing / pivoting from that sequence of loose thematic titles to tight rhyming consistency, i.e.
Tracker / Visitor / Convergence
Emergence / Resurgence / ?
How about ’Vergency’? Say,
… / Convergence
Emergence / Resurgence / Vergency
Vector / Venturer / Verdancy
(Or, depending on where the series plot is actually headed: Venifice, Vassal, Variform, Vascular, Velocity, Veracity, etc. could be swapped in)
Some other sets, in no particular order:
Navigator, Enumerator, Reckoner
Messenger, Defector, Implicator
Warrior, Accountant, Reconcilor
Matronage, Alienage, Heritage
Not knowing which words might fit, I’ve created four groups of words that could provide a threesome (or more):
Enervate, Stagnate, Denigrate, Obviate, Postulate, Escalate, Regenerate, Placate, Reintegrate, Migrate, Celebrate
Marginalize, Ostracize, Hypnotize, Magnetize, Paralyze, Analyze, Minimize, Organize, Specialize, Maximize, Generalize
Viscosity, Velocity, Perversity, Veracity, Precocity, Pacify, Adversity, Strategy, Diversity
Degrade, Upgrade, Parade, Evade, Masquerade
Also: Imitation, Limitation, Prevarication, Hesitation, Motivation, Estimation, Violation, Pacification, Activation, Convocation
Else: Imitator, Limiter, Prevaricator, Hesitator, Motivator, Estimator, Violator, Pacifier, Activator, and Convenor.
Honestly thought before reading WOL’s good suggestions, Deterrence, Deference, Recurrence. (-rr-, -r-, -rr-??? I heard a French-Canadian complaining about English spelling; I wanted to respond, “Yes, the problem started in 1066….” [Je suis un Huguenot].)
Trying for inspiration from each series:
#1 Founder, Builder, Governor; Planner, Architect, Constructor.
#2 Discoverer, Explorer, Penetrator (-er, -er, -or?)
#3 Upheaval, Revealer, Leveler.
#4 Spymaster, Counterspy, Intelligence.
#5 Plotter, Planner, Executor; Reverent, Regent, Regnant (thinking of the heir, of course).
#6 Explorer, Cartographer/Mapper/Mapmaker, Conqueror (not necessarily in the military sense).
#? Buyer, Seller, Trader; Collector, Researcher, Curator.
#? Felicitous, Duplicitous, Serendipitous*.
#? Division, Rescission, Admission*.
#? Atevi, Human, T’ca. (I forget the name of the third species, though how can you resist those wacky T’ca? Maybe the Atevi could figure them out.)
Please give us some hints on what is striking you well or poorly. I rather like the rhyming or near-rhyming words, but a different third word implies conclusion to me for some reason.
*(I should point out a good tool: onelook.com — this dictionary allows wildcards, so to find Admission I looked for *ission and clicked on common words, and I should have followed with *ision; Collision might have been more dramatic, or circum–nevermind! That’s a tool I didn’t use much for this list, but it’s handy to find words of a pattern, though you have to watch out for alternative spellings, of course(!) in English. At least since 1066. 😉
*([cont.] Try: https://www.onelook.com/?w=*itous&ssbp=1&scwo=1&sswo=1 — that is, *itous, common words only, sorted by commonness, however OneLook defines it.)
Wash, Rinse, Repeat. (Had to. Detergence, Immergence, Recurrence? 😉 Deterrence, Immergence, Recurrence and see if anyone makes the connection?)
[All readers, please insert as many happy faces as necessary to escape Poe’s law in the direction of humor!)
Psst, Walt — { Atevi, Human, Kyo }; Kyo was the word escaping your memory.
Though I do wonder still about the t’ca/chi connection and what the knnn are up to, besides the hani, stsho, kif, mahendo’sat, and humans.
Confluence, Influence, Effluence?, Suffluence? (uh-oh, I’m not sure “suffluence” is a word; now I’ve
got to look it up; )
Benevolent, Malevolent, Ambivalent — though I’m not sure what is most dramatic in which to order these, and perhaps any order works fine, dramatically;
Interlocutor, Colloquitor, ….
Splitter, Merger, Joiner;
Conjurer, Quaestor, Verifier, Essayer or Assayer or Examiner or Tester;
Supplicant, Applicant, ….
Complicant, Replicant (oops), Duplicant, Triplicant, Multiplicant… oh dear….
Allayer ?
Sojourner — I still like this one; — Roamer! Voyageur, Builder, Attractor
Jumper, Lander, Flyer, Fleer, Runner, Walker, Climber ?
You’ve put your finger on it for me by mentioning Chanur universe species. When/how/if do all three universes combine? It seems clear to me that the same humans in Chanur are in Alliance-Union, and now we have a human in Foreigner who appears to be from Alliance-Union. I realize that this is the penultimate spoiler question that likely doesn’t have an answer. And honestly I don’t really want one.
This is actually one of the things that first drew me to CJ’s work. Reading Foreigner for the first time (the first of hers I read) I always had the sense that there was a host of things going on “behind the scenes” in a way that viewpoint characters had no clue about. After quite some time I learned that keeping on reading and being patient would reveal what had been behind the curtain would be revealed. Although there would be new subtle hints.
The other (and the one that finally resulted in a new favorite author after decades) is the creation of species with new psychological processes that are both realistic and consistent. I’ve been a clinical psychologist for 35 years, and from that perspective that ability is incredible. Reminds me of my childhood dream to be the human who makes First Contact. At my age not likely anymore. 🙂
It’s been a while since I played this game. I’ll think on it and get back to you.
But in addition to Hanneke’s suggestions for suffixes, I’d say: -ANT, -ENT, -IANT, -IENT in their Latinate “-ing” senses of present participle, gerund, or adjective markers. I don’t know if Latin carried the vowel into -ONT, -UNT, -IONT, -IUNT; I don’t think so and can’t think of any such forms carried into English, but just in case, those too. (-UNT and -IUNT, I do know were 3rd person plural markers, but that’s different.) (-ing is the only survivor into Modern English of the Old English forms, so that would work.)
There’s also -OUS, -IOUS, or going at it another way, -ESE, -OSE, for the adjectival / adverbial senses, or else the French-inherited, “person of/from a country or language” sense, -ESE or -OSE or -OUS coming from -eux/-euse, -aise, -oise, -oux/-ouse, or back to -er/-or with -eur/-euse and -rice/-rix (from -rix).
In the -er/-or range: Harbinger. Or maybe, Annunciator / Announcer, Denunciator / Denouncer, Renunciator / Renouncer. Or Acclaimer / Declaimer / Reclaimer, though to declaim is simply to state in English and French, about like Declarer. Then there’s Proclaimer.
We’ve had Precursor, but what about Recursor? Predecessor and Successor, but then you’d get into Pointer and Handler, Creator and Destroyer, and Iterator and (OK, enough with the Computer Science puns, there.) Acquirer? Possessor? Repossessor?
How about simply, Trader? Merchanter? Hauler? Seller? Buyer? — Or for a different noun form, Commerce, Industry. (I seem to have wandered into Alliance-Union story territory, there.)
Territory? Mercator? Marchand or Merchant? Supplicant? Diversant? (OK, that last might be too close to Divergent, sorry.) Obversant? Observant or Obseerver?
Wanderer, Wayfarer, Palmer, Pilgrim — At least the Wayfarer was a piece from Medieval English literature, and the others were character types from then.
How about endings in -IVE, for an adjectival ending? (-if(s)/-ive(s)) Pour un tôme Declaratif, Racontif, de poids Substantifs!
Oh — Raconteur, Trouveur / Troubadour, Chercheur / Searcher / Rechercher / Researcher (or the feminine -euse, as needed). Rapprocheur ?
Conviviator? Cohabitor? — Or maybe just Neighbor or Voisin, Vecino, or whatever the Latin form was; Vecinus, Vicinus? — What’s the Greek word for Neighbor or Voisin?
Nuts, I can’t recall: Just recently, I saw a Greek word I hadn’t known, for non-Greeks or for antecedents of Greeks within the Greek lands. Pels- or Pesl- something. Pelsagros, Pelsagrinos? Or swap the -ls- to -sl- ? It implied pre-Greek people displaced and/or absorbed by the Greeks when they entered what became the Greek lands; used in Homer and elsewhere. Nuts, now I’m going to have to look this up. I just came across the term last month.
Antecedent? (There should be a Post(e/i)- -cedent, but that doesn’t look right in English.) Succedent?
Enlightenment. Renaissance. … Sun-Aiji (hmm, that would really need the Rage word for sun or home-star, or just star. … Aiji-of-the-Heavens ? (Ooh, that has an exotic ring to it.)
What would be the term for Aiji-among-Aiji ? (one among several) — Or Aiji-of-Aiji or Aiji-above-Aiji? (implying an aiji who leads other aijiin?) (meaning, Tabini-aiji, as leader of the Western Association, leads regional aijiin; or an “Aiji of the Heavens” or a “Sun-Aiji” might lead other aijiin in space. With, yes, a nod to Louis as the Sun-King, since there’s somewhat a parallel with both Henry and Louis and others such as maybe Elizabeth or Catherine the Great, or maybe Peter the Great, inasmuch as some who were enthusiastically modernizers of their countries.)
Proponent, Opponent, Supponent, Component. Compositor. (Oh, dear, but not Suppositor. Hahaha, sorry.)
Ahem, I think I’ll look for those Greek antecedents….
Aha, brain woke up — Pelasgians, Pelasgos, Pelasgoi. (For some reason, that evokes Polaski, for a Polish name, but I would presume(?) that’s sheer coincidence, rather than a survival or offshoot that then became their group. Or maybe…? I don’t know.)
Peregrinator?
For some reason, I want to work in a Dolphin, Delphinos, here. Or a seahorse. Except there’s nothing (so far) on the atevi world that would suggest that, and for Mosphei’ humans, those would be only Library Archive records, practically the equivalent of fanciful heraldic beasts from a medieval bestiary.
Oh, and I ran across a reference yesterday: It seems someone’s kid, around Kindergarten or elementary age, had never seen a rhinoceros before, and so the kid invented a word the writer thought was just great:
“Battle-Unicorn!” — to name a rhinoceros.
Anglo-Saxon kennings, alive and well in young kids.
So, you know, if you lead your battle-unicorns and frost-bears (polar bears) into battle, that elementary school kid seems to be the go-to boy or girl.
I’m still wondering what an “Ælfbeorn” was to the Anglo-Saxons: I ran across that as an Anglo-Saxon given name on a naming site. It is, yes, an “Elf-Bear,” with ælf, elf, there in the sense of a supernatural and either benevolent, ambivalent, or potentially malevolent if riled up, sense. Whether they meant a were-bear or something else, I don’t know, but every since I saw it, I’ve been wondering what an elf-bear would be like and look like. — Just for your edification and amusement.
I’m still a fan of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, so I think I should reread that. Wow, brain’s gone wandering far afield….
Maybe elf bears are slender and have pointed ears?
For reasons about which my subconscious is remaining steadfastly silent towards my conscious mind, somehow, I find that both amusing and attractive. A skinny, pointy-eared bear, huh? I’m probably connecting it to the old “Fuzzy-Wuzzy was a bear / Fuzzy-Fuzzy had no hair” rhyme in some way. A little children’s nursery rhyme (Golden book or similar) was evidently a favorite when I was little, and the little book remained over at my grandmother’s house in the guest bedroom into my young adulthood. At some point, I guess she gave the book away or moved it elsewhere. But somehow, this wants to connect to the idea of a slim bear with pointy ears. Don’t ask me, my subconscious isn’t telling my conscious mind. I’m not particularly aware of a fondness for ursine, though I did enjoy Gordon Dickson’s two books as a young guy.
And now that I think a little more about it, I wonder: would an “elf-bear,” an ælfbeorn, be the Anglo-Saxon cousin of a Celtic / Gaelic pooka? I had not thought of this. Then again, Harvey from the Jimmy Stewart movie was a pooka that liked to appear as a giant rabbit. So, elf-bears, pookas, giant anthropomorphic rabbits…one never knows.
Auto-incorrect wants a pooka or pookas to turn into ether books or polkas, so there you go, another thing altogether. (I have no objections if the fae beasties wish to dance a polka and read fine books in silvery runes or ogham; though I would’ve suspected they’d go in more for bagpipes and reels and jigs. But possibly, being less constrained by time as they are, their musical tastes may be broader than I would have presumed.)
This is what happens with too little sleep and a vivld imagination and a little free time! Hahaha.
Also, Tommie, I really like your musical titles. If they don’t quite do it for what herself is after for Foreigner, she might have fun using those titles, or the general idea, for other stories. As with the new upcoming A-U stories, hey, we fans would welcome whatever comes to mind.
(I do wonder why my subconscious likes that slender pointy-eared bear idea so much. But it’s a great idea.)
Not touching this one with even the proverbial 10-foot pole. Since the titles tie into the plot. . .
Suspicion, Intelligence, Stealth
Unless I know what the 3 books will pertain to its hard to come up with a word. Just don’t stop writing about Bren please
CommentTranscendence
Let me try that again…Transcendence.
You’re all being helpful.
Off-Topic I’m nearly to the end of my rewatch of Stranger Things and oh, enjoying it just as much or more the 2nd time around. I’m saving the last episode for tonight. It is likely to be less than a year, maybe less than nine months, until season 3 is ready to air. Oh, the wait!
But Netflix gave me a surprise: A clip for a live-action version movie of Fullmetal Alchemist. Now, I haven’t seen all the anime, 1st or 2nd series or others, but one thing stood out from the clip. Well, two things.
One, it’s in Japanese with English subtitles. Subtitles can be hard for me to read; I’m not sure there’s an English voice track. It is really something to hear these very earnest, very Japanese and stylized actors, knowing there’s much going on, but not entirely sure what. 😀 Even so, I’m sure I’ll give it a go. There could be much pausing for reading dialogue.
Two, lol, from the episodes of the anime, even without having seen all of it, the voice actors for Edward and Alphonse are so fixed in my mind as the characters’ voices, Vic Mignogna as Edward and the boy who played Alphonse, who’s long since outgrown his pre-teen voice, into his 20’s or so now. “Brother!” 😀 I’m amused that I could be so convinced of these manga / anime characters and their voices. So the live action film, with Japanese actors, neither the drawing style nor the voices, and yet still in the style of the series, will be a big adjustment. I find my reaction so funny.
Of note for fans of Stranger Things, I see they have three more 7 inch action figures coming out for Halloween and the holiday season, Will, Mike, and Eleven in her season 2 Punk Black look. Very cool. There’s also a line of smaller figures, about 3.5 to 3.75 inch size. They already have Dustin, Lucas, and Eleven in her 1st season look, plus Chief Hopper. No Demogorgon yet in the bigger figures, usb the smaller ones. (Two different makers, by the way.)
rather no book titles than no books. You could call them book 37 or book 91 and I am sure it will be worth reading.
In honor of the Moody Blues song “One More Time to Live”…
Desolation / Creation / Evolution
Hard to say not knowing where things will go. Maybe we should pick conflict free words and give Bren a vacation.
Emergence, Resurgence, Convergence?
What would be converging? My head cannon is far too active on that front lol.
Concert?
Ilisidi is the hunting horn
Damiri is the flute
Michigi is the oboe
Tabini is the base viol
Bren is the clarinet
Geigi is the bells
Tatiseigi is the drum
Seimiro is the glockenspiel
Cajieri is the theme that flows between them all
Poetic, I like it.
Sounds like the Boston Pops / Tanglewood version of the 12 Days of Christmas!
On the twelfth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me:
Twelve cymbals crashing,
Eleven cellos plucking,
Ten fiddlers fiddling,
Nine oboes cackling,
Eight piccolos a’trilling,
Seven trombones sliding,
Six drummers drumming,
Five golden strings,
Forty flat cornets,
Three french horns,
Two one-ton bassoons,
And a bell high up in a pear tree.
___
I like the music idea, borrowing from Tommie and BCS, below:
discord/dissonance/cacophony, counterpoint/fugue, harmony/symphony
A possibly dated list of past books:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreigner_universe#Works
(I think the third title of the 7th trilogy is decided, but I don’t recall it.)
Impasse, Trespass, Surpass, Compass (Encompass), Bypass;
Passe-Partout. Panglosse. Gargantue ou Gigante. — hmm, I suppose those are taken 😉
Communicator, Translator / Transducer / Interpreter;
Companion / Copain, Confrère, Ally, Opponent, Neutral, Ambiguous.
Diplomat, Statesman, Public Servant, Advocate, Compromise, Consensus — Things and people we could surely use lately.
Variety, Differences, Similarity;
Harmony, Melody; Rhyme, Meter; Verse, Chorus; (Also, Greek Chorus)
Symmmetry, Asymmetry; Curvilinear, Fractal, Net / Web / Reticule / Linkages / Foam;