Sucker punch

Novel: Labyrinth
Author: Kate Mosse



Let's leave aside the questionable use of passive voice here and concentrate on this bit:

...Pelletier's fist slammed into his stomach. It was not a hard punch...

So Pelletier "slammed" his fist into poor Guilhem's stomach, but it wasn't a hard punch. Certainly not hard enough to knock him off his feet or anything like that. Oh, wait:

...it was forceful enough to catch him off balance... Guilhem stumbled back against the wall.

So the punch is hard--or should I say not hard--enough to knock Guilhem back several feet into the wall. Guilhem, a man who two pages before was described as so large that his wife could only "fasten a brooch" on his shoulder after standing on tiptoe, even after he leaned down to make it easier for her. I'm five feet tall, yet I can reach the shoulder of a six foot man without much trouble. Hence, I think it's safe to assume that Guilhem stands well over six feet tall, and that Pelletier must be approaching Wilt Chamberlain territory, considering he can knock the lights out of Guilhem with a soft punch and then strangle him half to death with his "massive hand."

Wow, people in medieval France sure were big.