Bitchin' Blog Posts
Use me, use me, ‘cause I ain’t that average groupie
by Candy | by Candy | August 22, 2006 | Tuesday at 7:41 pm | 194 CommentsBookseller Chick made me snort-laugh with this entry about authors you know you should give up, but just can’t.
I have two:
- Stephen King - he started to suck the almighty hairy nut starting around Gerald’s Game, but I can’t stop buying his books. I don’t even read them. I just have them. Sometimes, I cave in and attempt to read one, like that time I tried to read Black House because I love The Talisman so damn much, but when I found out King and Straub had perverted it into yet another goddamn motherfucking Gunslinger-related book, the book dropped from my nerveless fingers and I had to break into my emergency stash of scientific non-fiction just to calm my nerves. The books, they taunt me. I can hear them. And sometimes, I cry in the cold, unforgiving dark for the love that used to be.
- Robert Jordan - The less said about that habit, the better. No, really. I’ve stopped reading, but my heart stops and I pause dead in the bookstore every time I see a hardcover book with his name embossed on the dustjacket, and I pick it up, hope singing in my heart, and the refrain, it hums is this it, is this it, is this FINALLY it, will you finally find peace? only to find that no, the saga isn’t even close to coming to an end yet.
Deep in my heart, I know this to be true: they hurt me only because they love me. I can leave them any time. No, I swear it.
Filed: Random Musings, The Link-O-Lator
Madd said on 08.22.06 at 08:12 PM • [link]
Robert Jordan ... yessss ... the man is sick now and he’s saying not to worry because he’s planning to write for thirty more years and I just keep hoping he doesn’t mean he’ll be writing this series for the next thirty years! I want the ending! Please!!!
And I’m still waiting for the end of Melanie Rawn’s Exiles trilogy ... how many years has it been?
Christine said on 08.22.06 at 08:19 PM • [link]
Right now I am so very grateful I have not read any of the books in that series.
December Quinn said on 08.22.06 at 08:26 PM • [link]
My fingers always hover over Black House, because The Talisman is one of my fsvorite books ever…I just wasn’t sure about the idea of a sequel, and the more I heard about it the more unsure I was.
Now I know I was right not to buy.
Ann Aguirre said on 08.22.06 at 08:34 PM • [link]
Robert Jordan kills kittens with his writing alone.
Madd said on 08.22.06 at 08:43 PM • [link]
Truth ... but he hooked me young and I just want to be there at the end ... you know?
Ann Aguirre said on 08.22.06 at 08:51 PM • [link]
Hee. I read the first one. And the second. I think I gave up when I realized that the “relationships” in the books were nothing more than adolescent wish-fulfillment. Rand nails Min (who I loved!), Rand nails the princess, Rand nails the barbarian chick. Rand loves them all! I began to see a pattern.
I realize I didn’t address this topic, though. To be honest, I don’t do author loyalty. Certain authors become auto-buys for me because I have consistently loved their writing, but if they fuck up and disappoint me with crap, I may not buy them again. One stinker puts them on probation; two puts them on the “I used to like that guy / chick a lot” list.
I have to disagree with with Koontz, though. Someone listed him over on Bookseller Chick as having jumped the shark. They need to read Lightning, Odd Thomas, and Life Expectancy. Those are some seriously kick ass books and I didn’t even like his horror shit. I would say he’s getting better, not worse.
Alisha said on 08.22.06 at 09:01 PM • [link]
Ugh. Robert Jordan. You’re better off reading Terry Goodkind’s Sword of Truth series. Goodkind’s a much better writer, in my opinion.
Madd said on 08.22.06 at 09:09 PM • [link]
I’m not big on being a “fan” in most categories. If I like something you write, I’ll give something else you write a chance and if it sucks I’ll be wary the next time, but I’ll give something else a try if it sounds interesting. I’m the same with music and tv/movies. Though there have been a few musicians, writers, etc that have yet to let me down, so I kind of consider myself a fan, but I’m definitely not the rabid defender type. I like what I like until I don’t like it anymore.
Beverly said on 08.22.06 at 09:13 PM • [link]
While I agree that King has become a hit-or-miss author, I actually really enjoy the Dark Tower series, and was very happy to see him finally finish the main storyline. I actually like to see the little threads of that story/world show up in small ways in his other books.
And I completely agree about Jordan. Can you believe I actually kept up with the series until book 8? Now, my husband skims them, I ask if anything interesting or productive happened, he tells me no, and I wait to see if the next book will finally be “the one”.
E.D'Trix said on 08.22.06 at 09:21 PM • [link]
Diana Palmer loves me…I swear!! What’s—? Oh no, no, I just fell down some stairs—I’m really clumsy.
Shut up, our love is pure!
Kimber said on 08.22.06 at 09:30 PM • [link]
Noooooo! Not Terry Goodkind! I stuck with him for 3 books too many. That is to say, four books in total. The first one has an interesting/disturbing S&M digression which I thought was pretty cool. By the second book he had developed this into a major theme and it was obvious what he really wanted to write about—not to mention turning his kick-ass heroine into a simpering girly girl. By the fourth book it had completely devolved into some kind of Ayn Randian screed. I just picked up the back cover of his latest book (#6, #10?) and it seems his two main characters are STILL after umpteen books, separated and trying to find each other. Jeebus!
Also, Ken Follett. His first 3 books are great. Everything after that is lousy pulp fiction.
Stephanie Laurens. I swear there are more Cynsters in Regency England than Wayanses in Hollywood. After a while she even starts mentioning in the books that they’re all the same.
Nora Roberts said on 08.22.06 at 09:38 PM • [link]
I couldn’t get through the second chapter of Black House. But King’s upcoming Lisey’s Story? I thought it was brilliant on too many levels to count.
Hit or miss, maybe. But this one was a whopping bull’s eye for me.
Candy said on 08.22.06 at 09:56 PM • [link]
Nora: damn you and your enabling ways!
*looks at pile of unread (and largely unreadable) Stephen King*
*looks up Lisey’s Story on Amazon*
*starts weeping*
Ann Aguirre said on 08.22.06 at 10:13 PM • [link]
Kimber, I’m with you on Terry Goodkind. His writing comes off as misogynist to me; he writes female characters, but he doesn’t seem to like any of them. He’s no Louise Cooper, that’s for sure. My fantasy A-list consists of:
Richard Adams
Lloyd Alexander
Clive Barker (giving him a nod for Imagica)
Terry Brooks (he entertains me, he’s sort of a guilty pleasure)
Stephen Brust
CJ Cherryh
Louise Cooper
Charles de Lint
Stephen Donaldson
Dave Duncan
David Eddings (he veers into Jordan territory but I don’t hate him for it)
Raymond Feist
CS Friedman (Coldfire trilogy, mmm)
Neil Gaiman
Guy Gavriel Kaye
Katharine Kerr
Katherine Kurtz (I get these two ladies mixed up but I like both their stuff)
Tanith Lee
Ursula LeGuin
George R.R. Martin
Patricia McKillip
Sharon Shinn
Sean Stewart
Tad Williams
Connis Willis
Terri Windling
Roger Zelazny
Victoria Dahl said on 08.22.06 at 10:28 PM • [link]
I can’t believe no one has metioned Her yet. You know. . . Laurell? Maybe because no one is actually hanging in there anymore?
I’m not sure if I’m ashamed of this or not, but I hung in longer than most. Danse Macabre (the latest) is the first one I didn’t buy. But I made a clean break. Wasn’t even tempted. I just stood in the bookstore and sneered at it. You’re not taking me down this time, bitch. I’m saving my money for GOOD porn.
Okay, the truth. I’m still hooked on Merry Gentry. :down:
Steph said on 08.22.06 at 10:30 PM • [link]
I’ve never read Robert Jordan, but my father used to read him, and every time he sees a copy of one of his books, he launches into this thing about how he never stops publishing them, and it makes me want to keep a lookout for them so I can veer him away before he sees it. Or just keep saying “It’s okay, Dad, it’s okay…”
Victoria Dahl said on 08.22.06 at 10:32 PM • [link]
Wait! I’m better than that. I didn’t read Micah. I repeat: I did not read Micah. Yeah!
Sara said on 08.22.06 at 10:40 PM • [link]
I didn’t mention Laurell K. because she’s so, well, obvious. She’s the queen of bad but addictive books. She’s the patron saint of “why does a tiny flicker of hope spark in my soul when I see that you’ve published a new book?” That flicker is always quickly doused, of course. But it’s always there.
Another reason I didn’t mention her is that I have given up on her. I don’t buy her books anymore. I don’t even get them from the library. Life is to short, Laurell! Too short!
Ann Aguirre said on 08.22.06 at 10:44 PM • [link]
I am proud to say I have never, ever read a Laurel K. Hamilton book. But I caved on Janet Evanovich when stranded in Elmhurst, IL this July. (whispers) It made me feel dirty but I kinda liked it.
Chicklet said on 08.22.06 at 10:45 PM • [link]
Ugh, Robert Jordan. I got sucked into that never-ending series back in college, summer of 1993 or so. I read the first four books and realized I’d read about 3200 pages and jackass hadn’t even declared himself the Dragon Reborn yet. I promptly gave away the paperbacks and washed my hands of the whole business. As I said to my friend, “There’s Epic, and there’s Get Over Yourself.”
Lorelie said on 08.22.06 at 10:46 PM • [link]
I swear to god Stephen King has some kind of mystical power over people. I’m thinking he’s researched so many creepy crawlies he found the ultimate reader-enchantment spell. I do happen to like the Dark Tower series and I re-read them lately. . . and then bought another King book. Because he still has the gift, right? Um…maybe not.
I hung on with Anne Rice for a looooong time too. My poor Mayfair Witches. Gawd she fucked up Mona.
As for romance? Jude Deveraux is my crack. I wanted to boot Darci of the Forever series in the head. Yet I still buy.
Victoria Dahl said on 08.22.06 at 10:49 PM • [link]
Oh, GAWD, the Forever series. WHAT WAS THAT?
As for Stephen King, I’ve sort of gotten over him. For now, anyway. But The Stand haunts the attic that is my mind. It pops into my head all the time. Every single time I drive through a tunnel, for instance. And I live in the mountains, so that’s a lot of tunnels. God, that was good shit.
Ann Aguirre said on 08.22.06 at 10:53 PM • [link]
Oh God yes.
Anne Rice should be publicly paddled for the steaming heap that was Lasher.
Lorelie said on 08.22.06 at 10:58 PM • [link]
Oh The Stand! I went to Vegas recently and at various points I kept thinking “Ceeeeebbooooollllaaa”. Not even sure if that’s the right phrase exactly. (What that firebug screamed as he ran through the streets.)
You know, I’ve had a recurring nightmare involving rats because my Sophmore english teacher (who even looked eerily like King) read us the short story “Night Shift” in class one day.
Lorelie said on 08.22.06 at 11:00 PM • [link]
Anne Rice should be publicly paddled for the steaming heap that was Lasher.
She’d probably like that too much. Reference the Beauty books.
BTW, how do y’all do that quote thing?
Rosemary said on 08.22.06 at 11:02 PM • [link]
Ya know, I’ve always been able to drop authors when they bore me. I might give them one chance past the suckfest that was but not one has ever redeemed themselves.
I’m very good at dropping boyfriends as well.
I just like to pretend that they are dead and don’t exist anymore.
Madd said on 08.22.06 at 11:04 PM • [link]
I’m with you guys on the Mayfairs ... but I have to make a confession ... I picked up Danse Macabre at the library ... *sobs*
As for Jordan, I have an enabler at home. The man was also hooked early and we enable eachother. It’s all so very co-dependant.
Maggie Robinson said on 08.22.06 at 11:05 PM • [link]
Danielle Steele…haven’t read her in years but just checked out her latest from the library and skipped thru it in about 30 minutes. Ghastly. Did no one ever tell her “show, don’t tell?” How can she continue to be published? Cardboard characters. Clueless.
Can’t do Stephen King anymore, altho The Stand remains a favorite.
Johanna Lindsay. I canna read the lassie nae more.
Have lost track of which alphabet letter Kinsey Milhone story I should be reading…surely the English alphabet is just too long. Blocking on author’s name.
No more Dan Brown. Never, never, no matter how many upside down and backwards puzzles he sticks in there.
Now, if we were gonna list our must-buys, that might make some interesting reading….
Madd said on 08.22.06 at 11:07 PM • [link]
you do the [ brackets with quote between them to start and /quote to close it out.
Ann Aguirre said on 08.22.06 at 11:19 PM • [link]
It’s pretty hard to find books in English here in Mexico City so I picked up a book by Danielle Steel called ImPossible. I think I had read something by her, years ago. And from what I can tell, her formula appears to be: young woman marries man who provides her with monetary security and paternal love, but no passion, man dies, she gets it on with a hot guy.
This book was really no different, except she made her heroine a bit older. To reflect her life better? I dunno. The book was dreadful, though. It ran 300+ pages of nonsense just to have the protagonists decide that an older woman / younger man relationship is possible. Say what? Duh. We already knew that.
Candy said on 08.22.06 at 11:21 PM • [link]
Well, I’ll be hornswoggled. I had no idea that our comments accept UBB code as well. Nifty!
Another acceptable way to do this is so the old-fashioned HTML way, i.e. start off with <blockquote>, then paste the relevant text and close off with </blockquote>.
Ann Aguirre said on 08.22.06 at 11:24 PM • [link]
I do it the html way. (Like that matters)
Victoria Dahl said on 08.22.06 at 11:25 PM • [link]
You have to actually WRITE the word Quote between the [ brackets! Cool. I have always wanted to do this. Always. Thank you SmartBitches. *wiping a tear from my eye*
Lorelie said on 08.22.06 at 11:29 PM • [link]
Me too!
And I will also take this opportunity to admit that I still have signed copies of Lasher and Servant of the Bones.
You know this all feels kind of freeing. Like standing up in an AA meeting, I imagine.
Ann Aguirre said on 08.22.06 at 11:29 PM • [link]
When I get done with my current WIP about Samoans, penguins and hot sex (not necessarily all in the same scene), I’m gonna write a nonfic called “All I Ever Needed to Know about HTML I Learned on Smart Bitches.”
Miri said on 08.22.06 at 11:39 PM • [link]
My list of Never Again authors:
Danielle Steele. I just…just can’t do it anymore! No more heroines who I yell at saying ” Well no shit you dumb bitch! ”
Sue Grafton: Kinsey Milhone drove me Crrrrrazy! Bitch had some severe OCD! Always washing peoples dishes and freaking out about smelling like smoke! I don’t care for it either yet I don’t run home and wash my hair after I walk through a puff of it.
Johanna Lindsay: After I lost my virginity and saw the reality of sex I just could’nt read them with a straight face any more!
Stephanie Laurens: Read my lips! NO MORE CYNISTERS!!! That and i’m still pissed off that she never wrote Eric’s story (that was SL right?)
Laurell K. Hamilton: How she would describe what the heroine was wearing Always ALWAYS the little pom-pon or the tiny strip in that bitches sock would match the swoosh in her Nike shoe! Fuck-me!
KariBelle said on 08.22.06 at 11:39 PM • [link]
Patricia Cornwell anyone? “Trace” sucked so bad I don’t know where to begin. I used to like Kay Scarpetta. She knew her shit, kicked ass, and her personal life was always just screwed up enough to make her interesting. She has been going down hill slowly for quite some time. Cornwell took what I thought was a pretty big risk with “Blow Fly” when she changed the format of the series. She changed from 1st person narration with Scarpetta to multiple POVs. I thought it worked because there was a lot of stuff going on in that book that Scarpetta could not know about. I was hopeful that this signaled a positive corner she was turning. Hah!
She has gone entirely too far now. The only characters in “Trace” who don’t have a POV are the dead ones and I seriously kept expecting the next paragraph to begin..“Gilly didn’t like being in a body bag. It was cold and it was dark.”
The worst part was the ending. It is as if she used all of her writing and investigative skills to purposely write the most anticlimactic ending in the history of modern literature.
I have no doubt I will buy her next Scarpetta novel because I just keep thinking, surely she knows. Surely she will do better. She can’t be satisfied with how she has left things. Maybe she and Laurell K. Hamilton need to do some group therapy on how not to destroy perfectly awesome characters.
Don’t even get me started on LKH.
Nica said on 08.23.06 at 12:03 AM • [link]
LKH. Sue Grafton. Piers Anthony. LKH. LKH. I read one Stephen King and thought it kicked sand. Rhonda Nelson.
Darlene Marshall said on 08.23.06 at 12:03 AM • [link]
Authors who are no longer an autobuy and I get the library copy: L.K. Hamilton, Janet Evanovich. I’m still buying Linda Howard, but it’s been hit-or-miss. Jude Deveraux’s feeling more and more like a guilty pleasure.
thera said on 08.23.06 at 12:26 AM • [link]
Christine Feehan (not sure if that’s how you spell it cause I sold all her books at a yard sale and I felt really bad about it, too, because I’m not sure the person I sold them to realized it was the same book over and over and over). And she does more than one series. And they’re still the same book over and over and over. First book was interesting and I’m thinking, “hey! how interesting!” and it took me a few books to realize she never changes anything except the names. The way she describes her heros is the same each book, the women in her books are roughly the size of sixth grade school girls, which gives off this weird vibe like the hero is getting a leg over with someone who is underage, every single damn time, and no matter what color their hair is it’s long, luxurious, and gets in their eyes…A LOT! I think this writer has a writing program that asks her to fill in the blanks. Her characters and plots are interchangable and then suddenly she’ll do something that’s original and brilliant (very rarely) only to ruin it by going right back to the formula. She needs to get a clue or be stopped.
Tonda/Kalen said on 08.23.06 at 12:28 AM • [link]
I can’t believe no one has metioned Her yet.
I so outtie on Her. How can that much sex be that boring? When it’s bland-goth-wanabe-pseudo-porn. I mean, I’d still be reading if only it was GOOD pseudo-porn, but when I’m flipping past 2/3 of the damn book cause I just don’t care how big Schlongo’s magic dick is or how much Anita/Merry likes to take it up the ass I start to feel cheated . . .
I’m also WAY over Amanda Quick, which really bums me out, cause I loved her books (and I still like her writing). I just can’t take the Varna crap ever again. Bad pseudo-history just chaps my (and not in a good way). If I want to read fantasy, I’ll buy a fucking fantasy book, ‘kay?
I’ve also fallen off the C.J. Cherryah wagon (heresy, I know!). I just don’t care what happens to Bren (though I’m still hooked on Banachi . . . maybe if she wrote a whole book about him?).
Wendy said on 08.23.06 at 12:41 AM • [link]
Amen on Patricia Cornwell. She needs to quit her pet projects (Jack the Ripper, the Hunley) and concentrate of writing a decent Scarpetta novel. I’ve finally broken myself of the habit of buying her books and wait for a library copy now. Every time I think about what she’s done to the Marino character I see red.
That said, I liked the last 100 pages of Predator a lot. Before that - uhhh, not so much LOL
Victoria Dahl said on 08.23.06 at 12:41 AM • [link]
Oh, I forgot Christine Feehan. And Patricia Cornwell. *sigh* This is making me sad.
But you know who still makes me happy? Charlaine Harris! Okay, I feel better. Then again, my favorite show Deadwood is ending soon. *sigh* Why do only the good die young?
Has anyone read the definition of “Jumping the Shark” at wikipedia?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jumping_the_shark
I could never quite get the meaning until I read the origin. The accompanying explanation of “Growing the Beard” is even funnier.
Victoria Dahl said on 08.23.06 at 12:46 AM • [link]
Exactly! How can that much kinky sex with powerful/strange/midnight-blue/tentacled/silver-haired/blood-thirsty/lycanthroped/dead men be boring? I mean tentacles, people! Jesus, you got to work hard to make that a yawner. Good God, I wanted a piece of that pitch-black half-stallion muthafucka. *sigh* *weep*
Stef said on 08.23.06 at 01:04 AM • [link]
I’ve yet to read Anita Blake, and I’m way behind on Amanda Quick, and I’m only up to number 8 of Evanovich, so I’m still living in fairy tale world, I guess. I’ve read maybe 4 Feehan books and loved them all - but may be prejudiced bcause she sat next to me at an RT booksigning - my first! - and I thought she was an amazing human being who was kindness and light and joy and I would read her grocery list. I confess, however, to resisting recent Laurens books.
Re: series books with one character…
You can always pray their house will chop the head right off the character by showing the author the door. Lotsa series Bombshell Babes runnin’ around headless right now. Although I don’t think any of them were around long enough to get annoying. I hope not anyway.
Stef, dressed in black, mourning Pink, eyeing vodka while questioning decision to give up alcohol…..
kardis said on 08.23.06 at 01:04 AM • [link]
Sara, that is beautiful. If I swear to make it my mantra I may just recover from this abusive relationship she and I have! I’m glad I found the support I need here. Terry Pratchet lost me for awhile, but I feel like he finally got back on track…for now.
Victoria Dahl said on 08.23.06 at 01:11 AM • [link]
(Okay, to be truthful she hasn’t done the tentacled guy yet, which is why I’m still hooked on Merry Gentry! HA!)
kardis said on 08.23.06 at 01:19 AM • [link]
Beware then, it seems very likely that she’ll get to him in Merry 5. But maybe not? No, it’s the addiction speaking, it’s not me!
Nora Roberts said on 08.23.06 at 01:31 AM • [link]
The Stand is far and away my favorite King book. Lisey’s Stort (I did a review at the request of Amazon—and that is Hard Work)and it jumped straight to second place.
Just saying.
Now you guys will probably hate it, and blame me.
Uneasy lays the head of a book pimp.
Soni Pitts said on 08.23.06 at 01:51 AM • [link]
I’m still enjoying Cherryah’s series enough to be curious as to how it all comes out (I love the alien cultural background tapestry she’s created), but I have to admit that my addiction to Stephanie Plum’s repeating nightmare of a life is almost to the point of eating that last slice of pizza, even though you’re sick stuffed and you don’t like black olive/pepper anyway, just because, like, it’s there sitting out on the counter. that and the teasingly danced-around potential for hot Ranger sex.
Michelle said on 08.23.06 at 01:51 AM • [link]
I gave up on Kathleen Woodiwiss, even though I love A Rose in Winter.
I too gave up on Anne Rice, but her Cry to Heaven is one of my favorites.
Robert Jordan is on my TBR pile but I don’t want to start them till I know the series is finished.
I tried to read a LKH story in a J.D. Robb anthology (go Nora!), but just couldn’t get into it-now I am glad after reading all the comments about her books.
Now to pimp a great fantasy author check out Lynn Flewelling- her Nightrunner series stars a bisexual hero, and her Tamir trilogy deals with some serious gender issues. Great reads.
Mary said on 08.23.06 at 03:05 AM • [link]
J. Deveraux went the way of the Dodo, for me, with the Forever books.
C. Feehan went way back when.
I’m done with Brockmann, C. Coulter, S. Drake, J. Garwood, (with a caevet, because if the news about the newest historical is true…) K. Hooper, I. Johansen, S. Johnson, S. Kenyon, and J. Quinn.
The biggest surprise to me is I’m waffling over Linda Howard’s books. Didn’t ever think I’d want to give up on reading those.
I know there are more, but I’d be here forever.
As for LKH…No rocks, if you please. I’ll hang my head in shame, and, sure, I’m enabling her to continue to write books, but…Yes, I bought DM. Yes, I bought Micah. Yes, I will buy Mistral’s Kiss. I Can’t. Help. It. It’s a habit. I’ve got to find out what happens. *sob* *wail* *moan* *whimper* *etc.* I’m just not ready to give up yet. Sick, I know. But truth.
Great topic, ladies.
ine said on 08.23.06 at 03:39 AM • [link]
I think that whenever people who have read Robert Jordan meet each other they need to rant. The frustration is unbelievable. Add him to the growing pile of fantasy authors that started out good and then realized they could make more money off the epic franchise. Goodkind has too much goddamn rape. Brooks went down the tube after the Children of Shannara series. Feist killed it for me after the first few books of the Serpent War Saga. Rice jumped the shark with all the spinoff vampire books.
I can’t believe Stephen R. Donaldson has revived the Thomas Covenant series.
Arethusa said on 08.23.06 at 03:41 AM • [link]
I suppose I’ve never really been that much of a groupie. Once an author starts to suck I drop him/her immediately. Nora Roberts under her Robb psuedonym is perhaps the only exception. I still enjoy her In Death series but they’re not quite good enough for hardcover. However I can’t resisit the urge to buy it immediately so I usually buy it, read it, then return it. :) If I really enjoyed it I can then patiently wait for the paperback.
pbkry2r said on 08.23.06 at 03:45 AM • [link]
I’ve been reading LKH since Blue Moon came out and I glommed the backlist. These days I don’t buy hardcovers anymore, so I only borrowed Danse Macabre. But it was my last LKH. Anita pretty much spends the whole book on her back. The books have turned into Anita getting pimped out to all the supernaturals that come through St. Louis. Can’t she take care of the ardeur with a vibrator and get back to interesting things?
Stef said on 08.23.06 at 03:49 AM • [link]
Sooo, for an LKH Anita Blake virgin, what’s the recommend? Should I go get the first book, or spare myself the frustration I’m reading here? She clearly got something right, at least in the beginning - her fans are legion.
I always feel so clueless.
(if anyone snarks on that, I’ll killya, see?)
Victoria Dahl said on 08.23.06 at 04:01 AM • [link]
Oh, you think we don’t want to get you hooked on the junk too, Stef? Come on. There’s good people here. Join us. Look. . . everyone’s doing it.
You should definitely start with the first Anita Blake book. The first few were GREAT. Hell, I loved the first half-dozen. You’ll do fine, because you are fully informed of what’s ahead. No wide-eyed innocence for you, my girl! There’s bears in them thar woods. And giant crowing cocks too.
Ann Aguirre said on 08.23.06 at 04:02 AM • [link]
Not having read LKH, I wouldn’t recommend anyone else start. I mean, say the first few books are awesome, you fall in love with the character and then she crashes and burns. I’d be pissed.
As a sidenote, I think I’ve got my blog just about ready for public habitation and I’m looking to increase my blogrolling blingage. If anyone wants to exchange links, feel free to get in touch with me.
Shannon said on 08.23.06 at 04:06 AM • [link]
It’s probably bad karma for me to say this, but Stephen King hasn’t been Stephen King since he got sober. As a person, I’m happy for him, but as a fangirl…well, I still have to be happy for him, but the books really started sucking.
Jennie said on 08.23.06 at 04:57 AM • [link]
Ditto many of the authors you’ve mentioned above, and after the ultimate bad experience—
Dara Joy gets added to my “dropped author” list.
I’m sheepishly admitting that I bought That Familiar Touch with hopes of catching a glimpse of the Dara I knew and loved,
but I’m downright ashamed to admit that after reading that trainwreck I somehow found myself clicking the keys to order Wildcat Arrows. And the computer must’ve been laughing at me because for once it didn’t crash during a purchase.
What an utter waste of my money & a smidgen of my time (I flipped through a few random pages and decided that wasting money was bad enough without turning it into wasting time AND money). My sympathies go out to those who ordered, paid and never received their books.
It’s bad enough when an author betrays you with poor writing, it’s quite another when you have to beg and beg and you may or may not see the book you paid for.
Katidid said on 08.23.06 at 06:10 AM • [link]
Oh yes, the first six were incredible, back when Anita was a kick-ass heroine who had her own life, made her own decisions, and bore some semblance to a realistic heroine. Now she’s a big ol’ walking orifice. I gave up on LKH too…
It’s always saddest to watch the good ones crash and burn.
I still buy Amanda Quick, but wait till paperback, but I’ve dropped Suzanne Brockmann, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Stephanie Laurens.
Oh Robert Jordan, but I only made it to book 6.
I’ve given up on John Irving. I worshipped A Prayer for Owen Meaney and The World According to Garp, but the Fourth Hand was terrible, and I haven’t been tempted since…
Katidid said on 08.23.06 at 06:12 AM • [link]
This comment made me snort herbal tea out my nose…quite painful. I don’t recommend it. But I remember thinking exactly the same thing about Scott Weiland and the Stone Temple Pilots. Gee, I’m happy you’re off the smack, but your songs really suck, now!
Angelle Trieste said on 08.23.06 at 06:33 AM • [link]
You also listed some writers I stopped buying a long time ago.
So here’s my question to EVERYONE—
What makes you give up?
bettie said on 08.23.06 at 06:54 AM • [link]
I give up when the author starts phoning it in, watering it down, or regurgitating semi-liquid servings of the same old mush for brand new high prices.
I give up when authors start thinking of themselves as artistes, and of their editors as enemies. I give up when writers believe their own hype - or, worse yet, the ass-licking sycophancies of their most rabid fans.
Conversely, I also give up when authors lose their joy in writing, but type on anyway, hungry for a royalty check and frightened of their deadline.
To be blunt, I give up when the author gives up. Why stay on the line when there’s no one at the other end of it?
Sarah said on 08.23.06 at 08:24 AM • [link]
Lynn Kurland. I loved her books so much, but she’s written so many in the same pair of families now that each new one lately seems like a by-the-numbers parody of her own style. She’s also developed so much history that she can’t keep her continuity straight between books, which is not helpful when she constantly references time travel and ghosts.
Jennie said on 08.23.06 at 08:25 AM • [link]
I give up…
when I find myself skipping ahead in a book by an author whose every word I used to devour.
when I keep reading the author’s catch phrases over & over again. “Been there, done thatâ€. Right now I seem to be encountering the word “hissed†a lot in what I’m reading. I still haven’t met any “part snake†people IRL who hiss while doing it.
when the author’s “world†becomes a burden to keep up with. I don’t want to have to go back & re-read every other book the author published just so I can get the “inside jokes†and references to the past.
on authors who take too long between books. I really dislike having to wait over a year to read part 2 of a trilogy knowing that part 3 isn’t coming out for another year AFTER that. (If I really want to read it, I’ll jot a note and once all three parts are out I’ll take another look & see if I’m still interested).
on author’s who started out in one genre and are now writing in an area that doesn’t interest me.
Lorelie said on 08.23.06 at 08:33 AM • [link]
Um, yeah, so Monday? I got a package from Amazon.com. In it were both Brockmann and Kenyon’s newest hardbacks. So far I’ve read Into the Storm and I have to say, I did like it. It’s not what she used to write and it won’t make my all time favorites but it was good in a different way. Though IMHO Jules’s only appearance being in that shit-ass excuse for a short story at the end was a goddamned cop-out. I’m currently praying she hasn’t bowed under the anti-gay pressure.
As for what makes me give up on authors, I’d have to say boredom. I can normally hang through a shift in genre or even having the characters change behaviour but if I ever get bored I’m done.
Nanna said on 08.23.06 at 11:56 AM • [link]
Nicci French has made it onto my clean-break list after the most recent release. Well, perhaps not a clean break. But I refuse to spend any more money on buying the books. “Catch me…” was just… ugh. And I can smell almost all plot twists from miles away.
Maeve Binchy is walking a very fine line. But not fine enough to stop me from buying her most recent release. Perhaps she will redeem herself. She will, won’t she? I mean, this HAS to be true love.
Keziah Hill said on 08.23.06 at 12:46 PM • [link]
For some reason I got hooked on Iris Johansen even though her writing style is like a series of dot points. No more.
Amanda Quick no more either, even though I find my hand reaching out for her latest then pulling back.
And I am reading a Stephanie Laurens now. What can I say? I like them. But I’ve always found Kay Scarpetta irritating.
And the lastest series from Robyn Hobb? Unreadable.
December Quinn said on 08.23.06 at 12:52 PM • [link]
I’ve given up on LKH…I’m still wavering on Cornwell but haven’t read Predator yet…and I don’t think I will ever forgive Elizabeth George for the ending of With No One As Witness. The very idea of making readers wait five years for the birth of a particular baby only to have…that…happen…urgh!
LKH, I can only echo what everyone else has said. Some people believe their hype a little too much. Some people think we want to read the dullest sex scenes with the most same-y, insipid dialogue ever. Some people base their characters on their husbands and so make them idealized, irritating yes-men. And then, some people implement the craziest rules ever on their message boards—you’re forbidden to say “Mary Sue” in any context, or to say you hate a certain character, or whatever. Arrogance like that doesn’t deserve my continued loyalty.
Cornwell…ugh. They used to be so good! So exciting and involving, and I even believed the crazy conspiracies and stuff because she made me believe it. Then she wrote that completely unconvincing Ripper book, and changed POVs, and everything just fell apart. And Lucy is one of the most irritating characters ever.
thera said on 08.23.06 at 01:02 PM • [link]
Funny how, in my opinion, JK Rowling seems to get better from book to book and now uses ideas I’ve rarely encountered to ideas I’d read dozens of times before.
Why does Janet Daily keep writing? Why does Janet Daily keep getting published? Why have I ignored her since the early eighties?
One of my favorite writers is Robin McKinley but she wrote Sunshine three years ago and it begs, begs, begs for a sequel! Are you reading, Robin! cause I want another book.
Like Stephen Kings short stories. Books not very good. He grew up reading Lovecraft. Explains a lot.
I read and was fascinated by Patricia Cornwell’s Jack the ripper book, because like Jack stories, but I’ve never read anything else she’s written and don’t plan to.
I “discovered” Amanda Quick just like Columbus “discovered” America, thousands of years after everyone else did. As I read her books I was delighted by her characters, at first, especially one where the woman thinks the man is drop dead beautiful and is jealous of every woman around him, but the plot points and quirks she hits over and over began to grow too frequent. She had a passion for certain words that were inconsequential but became glaring the more I read her books, so I quit reading them and feel better for it.
I got tired of the word “lush” a long time ago. It seems to pop up in every romance novel. I will call it the “lush law”, passed by the publishing industry after an exhaustive double blind study to determine what word can be used to describe the entire anatomy of a woman and all her non physical attributes as well. Please stop with the lush! unless you are describing a drunk because every time I come across it I feel like I’ve been slapped in the face, again. I can get pretty bruised up by some writers.
What makes me stop reading a writer’s work? Complicated, cloying dynasties, complete with children who belong on the Disney Channel. I like picking up a book without a legacy. A trilogy is fine but when it gets beyond two digits…stop, drop, and roll even though the fire went out about seven books ago. I know people fall in love with an idea or a family but sometimes you’ve got to move on or you run the risk of getting maudlin, boring, and lazy.
J-me said on 08.23.06 at 02:16 PM • [link]
I’m almost ashamed to admit that I’ve read and own every single LKH book (tho only paperback in the Anita series - Merry is still good enough for HC).
If Feehan would ever come up with a new story, I’d read her again.
Piers Anthony has gotten absolutely silly!
I’m wary of Charlaine Harris at the moment as well - all her characters have run together in my head and I have a hard time keeping them straight when I’m reading.
Orson Scott Card has gone the way of the dodo (looney toons, I mean)-NO MORE ENDER’s BOOKS PLEASE!!!!!!
John Saul used to be really good then he became a Scientologist, and well… what more can I say.
Jayne Anne Krentz/Amanda Quick/Jayne Castle, and what ever else she calls herself, I can’t even look at her books any more.
Elizabeth Peters… love the characters but what something besides egyptology (I know she’s getting old, but I really want another Barbara Michaels).
And last on my current list, Michael Crichton. I think he’s finally loosin it.
Gillian Green said on 08.23.06 at 02:23 PM • [link]
I find it hard to make a clean break with once favourite authors. I went cold turkey on Janet Evanovich - I was so addicted I was buying US hardcover editions but increasingly I just got frustrated waiting for Stephanie to make up her mind. Hadn’t read the last few until I was stuck at Atlanta airport and the latest one called to me. In my case absence has made the heart grow fonder…And now of course I’m going to have to go back and read the few I missed…
I have a love-hate thing going on with Patricia Cornwell - love the early books, think things went wrong when she ‘killed’ off a major character and then spent the next few books trying to bring that character back. And with every book I retain that glimmer of hope that she’ll recapture the glory of the early years…
Oh, James Patterson is another on my list. I used to love the Alex Cross books and would buy one every holiday - this year I ended up donating my copy to the hotel library. (And usually I find it very hard to let books go…)
Love Bytes at Piatkus
Wry Hag said on 08.23.06 at 02:52 PM • [link]
I’ve been on the SK Sucks bandwagon since whatever book came after Pet Sematary—his last great read, as far as I’m concerned. All the subsequent ridiculous monsters, precocious kids, bloodied neighbors yadayadayada caused me major hair loss by my own hands. Anne Rice, who had potential for true greatness, should have quit or gone on to a variety of offerings after Interview and Cry to Heaven, both genuine masterpieces.
BLAME THE PUBLISHERS. BLAME THE EDITORS. They’re the ones who keep the same old same-old assembly line running. They’re the ones who, once an author becomes a cash cow, refuse to say, “Listen up, Steve. You’re beginning to plagiarize from yourself. That means you’re pushing my yawn button. Plus, this fucker is so rambling and discursive it makes Gulliver look provincial. Shave off two-thirds of that rancid fat, and we might just have us a digestible hunk of meat here.”
Read Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House if you want a good case of the creeps. And when it comes to romance? Hell, I’d rather revisit The Great Gatsby over and over again than take a chance on more recent stuff. Oh, and The Madness of a Seduced Woman by Susan Fromberg Schaeffer, which came out in the early 1980s. Not THAT is a true modern classic. There are many used copies to be had; read one!
Jacqueline said on 08.23.06 at 03:11 PM • [link]
I don’t think I will ever forgive Elizabeth George for the ending of With No One As Witness. The very idea of making readers wait five years for the birth of a particular baby only to have…that…happen…urgh!
I so agree with you on this! My mother told me after she’d read it that she wouldn’t have if she had known what was going to happen at the end. I immediately knew what that meant and the book still sits, unread, on my shelf. I refuse to read it and won’t.
On another topic, I have liked every book of Tony Hillerman’s I ever read until this last one (Skeleton Man). Very disappointing. I haven’t given up on him yet, but he’ll have to win me back with his next one.
Meg said on 08.23.06 at 03:25 PM • [link]
I finally am cured of the LKH thing. I used to have it with Christing Feehan, too, but that one is cured as well. I haven’t even looked at either one of them in two years.
But I keep buying Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum books even though I could basically tell you what happens before reading (the wackiness changes but everything else is always the same).
I keep reading Sandra Brown even though I always end up throwing the book at the wall. And Linda Howard. And I haven’t enjoyed a Heather Graham book since before Dead on the Dance Floor but I keep reading those too.
Jacqueline said on 08.23.06 at 03:28 PM • [link]
With regard to Dan Brown: Did anyone else think Angels and Demons was, like, 100 times better than DaVinci Code? I read A&D first (in preparation for a trip to Rome) and thought it strained credibility but had such a wonderful sense of place. DVC was such a letdown after that!
shaunee said on 08.23.06 at 03:32 PM • [link]
Wry Hag I was JUST wondering why writers let themselves go the way those mentioned have.
I suppose editors/publishers are the problem, but I’m not sure Laurell K. Hamilton can make that excuse. A recent offering of hers, not Danse Macabre or poor, poor GINORMOUS penis Micah (I didn’t read it, heard about it from some majorly disgruntled folks. I gave up on LKH after Obsidian Butterfly), but an Anita novel before them had so many errors—I’m talking misspellings/typos/grammatical issues due to laziness—that I kept thinking to myself, “okay wait, at the very least most books get line edits, don’t they? What the hell kind of kerfuffle went on here that they/she couldn’t take the time to run a spell?”
I know editors can be relentless, i.e. a certain formula makes money so they want the author to stick with it, but isn’t there something an author can do, some bit of magic or a quick commune with the devil, to make the dreck they’re forced to write be less dreck like?
I mean, most of the books mentioned here are part of a series which once was good.
I guess I’m wondering why an author would just give up. Baring time constraints, rabid editors, and chronic poverty, why do some writers just let themselves go?
Meg said on 08.23.06 at 03:34 PM • [link]
Oh and I may need an intervention for John Irving. The last two I read were the Hotel New Hampshire and the Fourth Hand, and I HATED them. Now I’m coveting Until I Find You…please please let it be good!
I generally give up when I can skim the back of the book and tell you everything that happens. Or when the writing degenerates to the point of being ridiculous. When the author gets too repetitive like LKH or Sandra Brown. Essentially, when it gets boring.
John Irving is different- I hated Hotel New Hampshire for some basically ridiculous squickiness. The Fourth Hand was just depressing and there seemed to be no point (and yet it dragged on and on…)
Robin said on 08.23.06 at 03:36 PM • [link]
I see it the other way; the paperbacks are, IMO, just better books—edgier (and I’m not talking about Eve getting a little softer, either), fresher, cleaner in terms of the writing and the editing. The hardcovers are a scandal in the copyediting area, too, IMO.
Otherwise, I guess I don’t read enough books of enough authors to really get to the point where I’ll suffer bad books. I actually still do enjoy the Evanovich series, but I only started it last year, so maybe no time yet for burnout. Oh, and I’m fascinated by the fact that I think Evanovich has written herself into a corner where Joe and Ranger are concerned; it’s become a perverse pleasure to watch her try to work her way out of the dilemma without pissing off a whole bunch of readers (and FWIW, I think she’s on Joe’s side, but no one will heed the warnings about Ranger; she may need to actually get Stephanie involved with him to show how much more controlling he would be than Joe).
I can’t imagine giving up on Charlaine Harris’s Sookie Stackhouse series, but you never know. I prefer to remember a series and an author fondly than have a bad taste in my mouth after too many spoiled experiences.
The most interesting answer to this question on Bookseller Chick’s blog, though, was, IMO, Nathaniel Hawthorne.
Ann Aguirre said on 08.23.06 at 03:43 PM • [link]
Good points about Janet Evanovich. I’m not sure what she’s trying to do with the love triangle. Maybe she gave in to fan pressure? I can definitely see why, as I find him a lot more interesting than Joe, myself.
I loved the Sookie Stackhouse books, but she lost me at the end of the one where there was so much going on with Eric and then he just forgot it all and turned into a prick again. That was too much like the infamous, “It was all a dream!” defensed mounted by that really craptastic season of Dallas. I haven’t read her since, but I’m giving her another with the new series with Harper and her step-brother. Ordered Grave Sight off Amazon last week.
Madd said on 08.23.06 at 03:44 PM • [link]
Cry to Heaven was beautiful. It’s one of my favorite books. I gave up on her not long after The Vampire Lestat. I really liked that book and the ones after just didn’t really measure up for me.
I’m still into Kurland and Kenyon. The Dark Hunter books. I’m a bit of a sucker for vampires.
I picked up Danse Macabre at the library. I guess I just keep hoping that the old Anita will resurface, you know? She’ll get thi ardeur thing under control and get her stuff together. Kind of like I keep hoping my sister will get her shit together and leave that abusive airhole she’s with. It just never quite seems to happen.
Madd said on 08.23.06 at 03:51 PM • [link]
Dang it! I meant to hi the preview button instead of submit!
Sookie’s been kind of hoping from supe to supe lately and that’s a bit annoying, but so far, I’m still hooked. I’m liking that weretiger fellow ... he’s hot stuff. I was cheesed about the whole Eric thing, but mostly because I liked him better when he was sans memory.
Gypsy said on 08.23.06 at 04:03 PM • [link]
I’ve given up on Anne Rice and Stephen Kingl. But I can’t give up on Robert Jordan. Not yet. I’m so hooked.
AnimeJune said on 08.23.06 at 04:13 PM • [link]
Wow, lessee:
-Robert Jordon: I got hooked on him, too, but I dropped out after book six. Since everyone knows what’s going to happen (it’s been in the freakin’ prophesy since BOOK ONE), and the characters become more repetitive with each volume (Nynaeve + constant braid pulling = baldness), it just wasn’t worth plugging through twelve 600+ page doorstops.
-Laurell K. Hamilton: My mum has just jumped off the bandwagon on those. Before I turned seventeen, she wouldn’t even LET me read the series past the third book. Now, she says, they’re all about the porn. Porn, porn, porn. Animal porn, shapeshifter porn, faerie porn. No more, she says!
-Robin Hobb: Absolutely, hands-down, one of my favourite writers - her three trilogies (Liveship Traders, Farseer, Tawny Man) were all brilliant. But I have to agree that her new Shaman series did not have a very good start. I’ll still get the second volume, but in paperback.
-Tad Williams: Ana! I love him too! But his last book (Shadowmarch) seems like a major rehash of Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn. We already had a story of how the elves want their land back, and how a redheaded boy with mysterious potential can save the world! Give us something else! (but read his upcoming short story collection Rite, I had to review it and it’s very good).
-Melanie Rawn was another author I had to dump. Her Sunrunner series started out good, but then the main characters started doing genuinely creepy and immoral things (like, um, stealing babies from women they’ve stabbed and set on fire, and raising them as their own) and explaining them away far too easily (yeah, like, the mother we stabbed and set on fire was totally evil, y’all - no matter that she was naked, unarmed, and weakened from childbirth when we killed her).
Man, are there any instances of authors whose books have become increasingly BETTER with time, instead of the opposite?
DT said on 08.23.06 at 04:44 PM • [link]
I had to laugh reading through these comments. Yep, gave up on her, yes, that one too, nope still read that one…
Dara Joy, her earlier works I must admit fall under the guilty pleasures category. I can’t bring myself to read her last self-published work, even though I managed to actually get the copy I paid for. Never again. (can we drop an author that will likely never be published again?)
Jayne Ann Krentz/Amanda Quick. Used to love her stuff but more recent works had me skimming through them. The characters/plots just didn’t catch me. As petty as it sounds, in some of the last ones I read, I kept going back over the beginning chapters trying to figure out what the characters looked like. (hair eye color even?)Did I miss it completely somehow?
Still go for the Jayne Castle stuff, just wish it came out more often then every couple of years or so.
Johanna Lindsey, a library read, maybe.
What happened there? Her earlier works still captivate me.
There are others, so long ago, that I can’t remember their names. I believe in buying new when I can to support my favorites, in the hopes that they keep on publishing. For the ones that don’t make the grade anymore, my book buying dollars are sadly limited, and I can only spend on those who don’t let me down.
EvilAuntiePeril said on 08.23.06 at 04:48 PM • [link]
Lindsay, check. Deveraux, check. Kenyon, check. LKH, check (stopped at Micah, and haven’t touched her since). Evanovich, check. Palmer. Sigh. Oh, the humanity. I’m with E.D’Trix on the Palmer. Although after my most recent adventures in Palmerville (there’s your monogrammed hankie clew, Candy) I think I may finally be onto a saturation cure. You have to read, like, six of them in a row. That works. So far. But heaven knows what’ll happen when I finally get near a bookstore that actively sells romance.
The most recent major fall from grace for me was Kasey Michaels’ most recent “Maggie”. The series started out so well, but I was acutely disappointed by the last one, and it’s left me very wary… I’m a little scared of what will happen next, but I still hope.
Mostly it’s just this nagging feeling that things used to be so much better that eventually wears me down until I give up on a writer. The thrill of seeing a new release, or counting the days until I can get my hands on their book fades to annoyance. I know a lot of people really liked Madeiros’ last vampire book, but I found it really flat and have had the same feeling for the last few of hers, particularly after re-reading books she wrote in the mid-90s. Lately things just seem to have lost their spark. They’re still pretty good reads, but just feel a bit bland and same-y. Same for Brockway, Dodd, McKenna and Robinson. (Although she hasn’t published any romance lately - *wistful sigh* Lady Valiant was so good).
Karen said on 08.23.06 at 04:59 PM • [link]
You know, I gave up on her for a long time, and then on a whim, I bought her most recent one, and I really enjoyed it. I went back and read the one before and liked it as well. Maybe she just had a slump?
Authors I’ve given up on:
LKH ... which is too bad because the first ones were amazing.
Janet Evanovich—it wasn’t even the love triangle agnst that did it for me… it was the same plot over and over again. There’s a point when a running joke (like the exploding cars) stops being funny.
David Eddings - I loved, loved, loved the Belgariad and the Mallorean. I liked the Starhawk (was that what he was called?). There was a stand-alone fantasy that was ok (but some of it seemed like retread ideas that had gotten cut from the Belgariad). But when it came to the Elder Gods series, I just gave up.
Authors I should have given up on. Kate Elliot. The “Crown of Stars” started out so well, and each book (which promised to be the last one… it was supposed to be a trilogy… but she wrote four books too many) got worse and worse as instead of untangling plot lines, she added more of them. I kept with it to see what happened with one of the characters introduced in book 1, and by the end, she still didn’t explain his origins. Grrr.
Jaimi said on 08.23.06 at 05:13 PM • [link]
All of the authors I have given up on are already listed with the same opinions I have. Although Stephen King did pretty good with Dreamcatcher. The book made so much more sense than the movie.
Dean is still an auto buy. I have a not-so-secret fantasy that Odd Thomas and Chris Snow are brothers and will reunite.
Robin KcKinley has yet to disappoint. Same with Madeleine L’Engle.
I want more from Robert McCammon. Swan Song is still an all time favorite. I liked it better than The Stand.
Melanie Rawn’s Exiles (?) series died after the second book, and that was looking to be awesome.
Madd said on 08.23.06 at 05:38 PM • [link]
She has sadi more than once that she’s planning on finishing it. I wonder, is he does, will they republish the first two before it’s released? I still have The Ruins of Ambrai and The Mageborn Traitor in my bookshelf ... talk about not giving up.
Nora Roberts said on 08.23.06 at 05:59 PM • [link]
~I want more from Robert McCammon.~
Oh God, me, too!
Boy’s Life, my favorite. But I pretty much loved everything of his.
Nora
Nicole said on 08.23.06 at 06:00 PM • [link]
I really hope the whole Jordan series gets finished. I haven’t bought the last few books and have told myself I won’t until the last book has been published. Then I’ll go back and read the whole thing through. I did still like the series when I stopped, but I wanted it to end.
I stopped reading a lot of fantasy and sci-fi when I went to college (and started reading more romance), but I’ve been starting up again. And some of the same series are still going on. Uff da.
Susan Wilbanks said on 08.23.06 at 06:06 PM • [link]
I gave up on Crown of Stars about four books in, but I still want her to get back to the Jaran books! I hate it when an author gives me Seriesus Interruptus.
Lorelie said on 08.23.06 at 06:26 PM • [link]
What I’m about to say is off topic a bit but this brought it to mind.
Has anyone else read Tara Janzen’s Crazy series? I’m like 80% sure I’ve read her under another name but I’m sure it’s not the “Glenna McReynolds” she admits to. So does anyone know who it might be???? It’s driving me crazy every time I read another.
Wry Hag said on 08.23.06 at 06:27 PM • [link]
Good point, shaunee. It is ultimately up to writers to keep their work fresh. But I suppose that once those greenbacks start rolling in by the truckload, it’s very tempting to keep pushing the REPEAT button. And why not? It’s easier than striking out into new territory. And as long as undiscriminating, Pavlovian readers keep buying “dreck,” pushing that REPEAT button is pretty damned profitable, too.
Darla said on 08.23.06 at 06:33 PM • [link]
You have read the 2-volume Speaks the Nightbird, yes? Wonderful, intense story.
What I do when I’m not sure whether I want to stick with an author or not is to put their new book directly in the TBR pile. If it’s still there by the time their next book comes out, chances are I’m over them.
SB Sarah said on 08.23.06 at 06:40 PM • [link]
Jacqueline: I’m with you on Angels & Demons being much better than DVC. No question!
Ann Aguirre said on 08.23.06 at 06:42 PM • [link]
I would posit that there is a certain amount of pressure on writers to ‘write what sells’. Seem to remember Piers Anthony saying he wanted to branch out but his editors only wanted Xanth books. On the other hand, I’ve seen some of his later stuff and maybe they were right in making him stick to Xanth! Probably there comes a point where the writer is sick to death of writing what sells and that begins to show in lackluster books.
The solution would be either to take a hiatus (but many writers need the money) or to write something completely different as a palate cleanser, even if she didn’t think she could sell it. I do this from time to time. It helps bring me back rejuvenated, less jaded.
bungluna said on 08.23.06 at 07:04 PM • [link]
I make no apologies for still loving LKH and JAK/Amanda Quick.
I stopped reading mysteries because I got tired of the psychic cats and cutesy cosies. I also got sick of the on-and-on detailed forensic stuff being crammed down my throat.
That said, I read series for various reasons, but mainly because I like revisiting characters and seeing what the author has in store for them. I still read the Evanovich’s but don’t keep them, (got tired of Steph doing the same dumb things over and over again.) I’m still entranced by all the weird stuff LKH comes up with. Linda Howard, Nora Roberts, Julie Garwood, Mary Jo Putney, Suzanne Brockmann: these are all authors that I have enjoyed before, but that are no longer auto-buyes. I get their books on a book-by-book basis, waiting for reviews and recommendations to make sure that the latest offering is going to be something that I will personally enjoy reading.
Books have gotten too expensive. I only buy the ones that I’m reasonably sure will be satisfying reads. The rest come from the library, if at all.
shaunee said on 08.23.06 at 07:06 PM • [link]
I do get the “repeat” button thing. Money is a great motivator, after all. Truth be told if I was broke (which I am) and in the midst of contract negotiations (which sadly I’m not) and my mythical editor suggested I write a fantasy/romance series about a fairy (sorry, Faerie. Fae?) cardboard box and a feather duster, I’d likely say no problem and get right to it.
I do like the idea of “cleansing the palate.” Even jotting down ideas for another book helps to get me flowing again.
Estelle Chauvelin said on 08.23.06 at 07:10 PM • [link]
Am I the only one who disliked LKH from the start? Okay, I liked some scenes that a friend who is a fan had me read. But then she loaned me the first Anita Blake book, and I haven’t touched the stuff since reading it straight through.
And I’m fully aware that I *am* the only one who likes Robin Hobb’s new series.
Ann Aguirre said on 08.23.06 at 07:21 PM • [link]
Thing about ‘cleansing the palate’ writing, Shaunee, is that maybe you’ll be in demand enough to be able to dust that stuff off, polish it up, and sell it, because by that point, it’s your -name- that’s in demand so much, not necessarily your formula. A little bright spot.
Okay, this made me giggle. I would totally read this. An idea came to me spontaneously (and I friggin’ hate paranormals in general).
Advertising copy: Gilly Quirk has been demoted for indiscretions best left unnamed. Before she can return to the fairy court, she has to demonstrate penance for her misdeeds in the most degrading situation imaginable: cleaning up after a human male! As for writer Jack Cameron, Jilly’s new charge, he can’t figure out why his stuff keeps disappearing. Can a messy man and a naughty sprite find true love?
I smell a bestseller!
Or maybe that’s the garbage truck outside…
December Quinn said on 08.23.06 at 07:22 PM • [link]
Elizabeth Peters… love the characters but what something besides egyptology (I know she’s getting old, but I really want another Barbara Michaels).
Totally, J-me! I’ve never been an Amelia fan anyway. If she’s gonna do Peters books, at least give us more Vivki Bliss—but I’d love another Barbara Michaels too.
Jacquline, I think the worst part about WNOAW is that the way I heard it, she wrote that because the A&E movies of the books are so different and the producers wanted her to make them more similar.
Arethusa said on 08.23.06 at 07:31 PM • [link]
- Robin
Well that’s what I meant in a roundabout, unclear way. If I were just coming to the series and it was the first oh…8 books I guess in hardcover I would have no qualms about paying the new price. But when I have to fork out $30+ (the Poor Canadians :() for books in a series that is still good or ok but not quite as consistently fabulous? I’m a poor student after all.
Robin said on 08.23.06 at 07:57 PM • [link]
Wow. Its amazing to see so many of the same authors on here repeatedly. most of them are also on my list:
LKH: I loved the series up till Obsidian Butterfly. I still read after that, but I didn’t buy. Now, I have DM on my coffee table, and its been there since release day. I picked it up from the library, but haven’t cracked the cover. I should bring it back…. The Merry Gentry books are even worse because they (in my opinion) didn’t even start off good. I think its just my general disillusionment rather than her writing.
Evanovich: I love Ranger, that’s why I read. The rest of the characters (and the books) can go hang.
Grisham: Yawn. He’s writing a non-fiction this time around so many THAT will be interesting.
Cornwell: I may be the only librarian on planet earth that has never read a Patsy Cornwell book.
Jordan: I didn’t like the first one, haven’t been back since.
Eddings: I also loved the Belgariad and Mallorean. I just couldn’t get into anything after that.
Weis/Hickman: Another painful one. After awhile, you don’t even miss it, though….
shaunee said on 08.23.06 at 08:10 PM • [link]
From your lips…
Maybe I’ll hit big with my 50-book cardboard box/feather duster series. All that passion… an epic story of love, lust, and lies.
LurkerGurl said on 08.23.06 at 08:37 PM • [link]
108 comments I’m reading and reading and wondering if anybody was going to have the nerve to raise one particular name. So now I have to.
Am I the only person in the whole wide romance world who has given up on Diana Gabaldon? Because after the third one, it was all downhill. Down down down down down hill. It’s like she forgot everything she ever knew about what makes a romance good. I swear you could have cut six hundred pages of fat from the last one without touching meat at all.
I’ve been looking all over the www but I can’t find anybody or anyplace whos willing to do anything but praise every word Gabaldon has ever wrote. I just don’t get it. Is there some unwritten rule protecting her from getting her feelings hurt or something?
Desertwillow said on 08.23.06 at 08:46 PM • [link]
I was with Stephen King since 1976 when I walked into a bookstore in San Diego and saw that copy of Salem’s Lot staring at me. I was hooked. I stuck with him thru the next 10 books I think, then I fell behind and never caught up. I did pick up Pet Semetary years later. Read it and enjoyed it but the magic was gone. Nothing against him, just got bored.
I think the same thing has happened between me and Christine Feehan. Haven’t tried to get her new books lately. Maybe someday…
Sherilyn Kenyon - Her heroes are whiny and wimpy masquerading as alphas. Don’t get the attraction.
Now LKH - Jeezzz! I am so sick of the woman’s books I’m tempted to unsub from my other book lists everytime her name is mentioned. I’m not even that interested in checking out LKH Lashouts. I won’t even check her out from the library anymore. What’s the point? Badly written, badly edited, overly long, nonsensical, creepy crap.
There, I said it all. I feel much better.
Ann Aguirre said on 08.23.06 at 08:59 PM • [link]
No. With a caveat. I read Outlander and I loved it, even though it was long as hell (editing anyone?) and broke a number of rules. Ms. Gabaldon says she does not write romances, so I guess it’s okay to separate h/h for seventeen years or something dumb, right? Whatever. I still liked it.
I read the second book and hated it almost as much as Lasher. Not since Anne Rice’s Witching Hour have I adored a first book so much and loathed the follow-up so fiercely. Therefore, I never read another Gabaldon book. Anne Rice met a similar fate. In general, I give authors one stinker and a probationary period before writing them off (pun!), but sometimes the crime against literature is so heinous that they go immediately to my “never again†list. So I don’t mention Gabaldon; I don’t criticize Gabaldon because in my mind, she has ceased to exist.
Lorelie said on 08.23.06 at 09:47 PM • [link]
Do you people have any idea what this discussion has done to me? Every time someone types “Witching Hour” again, I want to read it a little bit more. But I don’t have a copy anymore. I do however have a copy of Lasher that I kept because it’s hard cover. Do you know what horrid thoughts I’m having?
I am thinking about reading Lasher AGAIN!!!
You women are evil. Eeevil, I tell ya.
Lorelie said on 08.23.06 at 09:48 PM • [link]
PS. I’ve never read a Diana Gabaldon book. Please don’t kick me outta the club.
Shannon C. said on 08.23.06 at 11:07 PM • [link]
Coming out of lurkdom in order to post this:
I tried reading LKH with Merry Gentry because honestly the urban fantasy aspect appealed more to me than Anita Blake. After the second book, I’ve decided the woman holds no power over me. As for SK, he’s never really been a favorite.
Some people on Bookseller Chick’s entry mentioned Anne McCaffrey and Mercedes Lackey. I have to agree with that statement, and, at least with Lackey, that makes me sad because I loved and adored her Valdemar stuff when I was a teenager. Recently I tried rereading her Last Herald-Mage books and had to stop every fifteen pages to scream at Vanyel to shut up already, please for the love of the havens, shut up!
Hmmm, another author like that for me now is Charles de Lint. I loved his early Newford short stories, and The Little Country is one of my all-time favorite novels eva! But the last few of his books I’ve tried I haven’t been able to finish. Probably because he does this thing where he switches from first to third-person POVs, which sometimes involves him writing in different tenses. It jars me out of the book, as does the fact that his later Newford novels are just too self-referential.
As for romance, I have all of Christine Feehan’s backlist and occasionally pick up
Dark Prince
. I keep thinking that if an author has that many rabid fangirls, there has to be something in there I like, and a friend whose reading tastes I generally trust says there are better Feehan books than that one. i’m beginning to think I don’t believe her. And Kenyon? Well, I started to read one of her books as Kinley MacGregor, met the TSTL heroine and the whiny hero who really needed to get over himself and haven’t picked it back up, even though I did skip ahead to a sex scene which was kinda hot.
Meg said on 08.23.06 at 11:08 PM • [link]
I’ve never read Gabaldon either
Ann Aguirre said on 08.23.06 at 11:20 PM • [link]
Yep, he’s on my A-list of fantasy writers, but I think he really shines in short stories. In novels he wanders around a bit, looking lost, considers asking for directions, and then continues to shuffle toward Cleveland, hoping he’s headed for Wisconsin. I also think he’s got too big a boner for Jilly Coppercorn.
Shannon C. said on 08.23.06 at 11:29 PM • [link]
Well, I like Jilly, myself. And I have a similar stupid crush on Geordie Riddell. But he’s never going to let those two get together already, which pisses me off. LOL in
Spirits in the Wires
he has Geordie with some faerie chick, and that felt really… random and stupid to me.
AnimeJune said on 08.23.06 at 11:33 PM • [link]
I agree about Mercedes Lackey! AGH!
Her first trilogy had so much going for it - lots of strife in the kingdom, lots of bigotry and rivalry and evil plots.
But as the series progressed, it just got tamer and tamer, which usually happens in fantasies that contrive some sort of magical excuse to ALWAYS have a morally perfect King or Queen.
When I was a kid, the first author I used to adore that I dumped after a while was Brian Jacques - y’know, the author of the Redwall books? I got so tired of the fact that all members of certain species were inherently evil (stoats, ferrets, foxes, rats) and all members of certain species were inherently good (mice, moles, squirrels - and OWLS, for some reason) that all the suspense just went away.
I gave up after Taggerung (which had an otter [good animal] be adopted and raised by a stoat [bad animal]), because what looked to be an original premise for once (stoats can have hearts too! Otters can be bad-ass!) ended up another trite nature-over-nurture statement. (Otter, good at heart, refuses one order given by dear ol’ evil daddy, and they immediately hate each other for all time).
Ann Aguirre said on 08.23.06 at 11:49 PM • [link]
Don’t even get me started on that book. Suffice to say I was -only- interested in Suzy and Aaran, and he fubar’d it.
cassie said on 08.23.06 at 11:50 PM • [link]
I didn’t like the second book either. I liked the fourth and fifth ones, though (I thought Outlander was okay, but it’s not my favourite of the series). I’ll probably still read whatever she writes next, but then I tend to skip over parts I don’t like, and long, rambling tangents don’t seem to bother me.
LKH - I think I read one or two of the Anita books, after hearing so much about them, and didn’t like them very much, so I haven’t bothered reading any of the others.
Other series I’ve lost interest in: Stephanie Plum (I think around book 7), Scarpetta, Eve Dallas… and that’s all I can come up with right now, but I’m pretty sure there are more.
Me too. Although I’d read anything she writes. I wonder if she’s still writing or working on anything now. Her website hasn’t been updated in a while.
Jo said on 08.24.06 at 12:56 AM • [link]
Given up on:
Terry Goodkind after book 5
Robert Jordan book 4, 5 or 6 - so long ago that I can’t remember
Terry Pratchett
James Patterson
Jeffrey Deaver
Amanda Quick
Buy but don’t know why - habit I suppose
Christine Feehan
Sherrilyn Kenyon - but haven’t bought the latest (yet)
Laurell K Hamilton
S.L Viehl and Lynn Viehl
but the one I’m surprised no one else has mentioned is MaryJanice Davidson, I loved the undead series at first and bought her other books as well and even hooked my daughter on the Jennifer Scales young adult series, but have promised myself no more, enough is enough.
I still buy and enjoy Evanovich, Charlaine Harris and Lois McMaster Bujold (anything she wants to write about Miles Vorkosigan - I will read)
Jeri said on 08.24.06 at 03:04 AM • [link]
I’m whatever the opposite of an addictive personality is. I’ll stop buying authors (or recording artists) I’m perfectly enjoying simply because I want something new. And I always want something new. (Not that I haven’t enjoyed the exact same BLT for the last four days’ lunch. mmmmm….)
I don’t understand the “comfort read,” the desire to digest the same thing over and over again, even if the quality doesn’t decline. For me, each book, CD, TV season, whatever, has to be better than the last, or what’s the point?
Maybe I am addicted, to newness. There’s nothing better than discovering a fantastic new author, and there are so many of them out there right now, sitting in the shadows of the bestsellers. There are some bad ones, too, but in general, I think any kind of artist reaches a peak freshness when they’re writing just for themselves, without the massive weight of fan expectations.
Robin said on 08.24.06 at 04:18 AM • [link]
I love the entire ride from Naked right up to Conspiracy, which I wasn’t very fond of. I adore Loyalty, though, and was, perhaps, more excited when McNab and Peabody got together than I was for Eve and Roarke. Witness is also one of my favorites. Glory, Vengeance, and Holiday are the trifecta, as far as I’m concerned. At Divided, though, I was ready to file for separation, and in Visions when Eve said that after everything she kind of liked that snake Celina, my book almost hit the wall. I’m glad that Eve is starting to get some shades of gray, but that was like multiple personality disorder. IMO something more than the price and the binding changed when Remember When was published.
As for MaryJanice Davidson, how could I forget her! I will NOT buy her in hardcover now, and get her Betsy paperbacks either new or used depending on how in the mood for another Betsy soundbyte I am. Someday maybe I’ll glue them all together and have one nice reasonably sized book. It’s such a shame, too, because some of her early books were so fresh and even filling.
I haven’t read a Gabaldon book yet, and Outlander just rests its big old self on my shelf waiting to be read. I’ve picked it up a couple of times, but none of them have been THE time, I guess.
As for Sookie Stackhouse’s multiple lovers, I find that issue interesting, because I really read those books as about Sookie and the development of her independent identity. When she was with Bill, her sense of self was becoming merged with her comfort in that relationship (with being wanted and accepted at a certain level, by another outsider). Then I think she really came to a place where she was struggling between wanting to define herself and wanting the comfort of a relationship, and finding neither remedy sufficient. And, of course, so many of the supes want to claim Sookie. So she basically thought she had this choice, I think, between being an outsider to the human community, or being a sort of insider to the supe community (which is an outsider community to humans). Now, though, I think she’s finally starting to move toward a place where she’s invested in defining her own place and not trying to be feel worthy based on anyone else’s judgment or acceptance of or attraction to her. Sookie’s interactions with men are often dangerous, too. There is always the threat of sexual violence in Harris’s world, which is such an interesting and powerful aspect of her books, IMO. I love love love that she’s taking her time in working Sookie’s story, because it just feels so much more authentic that way. She’s actually one of the few fictional characters I feel protective of, you know, like a real person.
I tried Brockmann’s books, but damn, there is so much internal reflection/monologuing/dialogue, whatever, every time the characters get ready to kiss or fuck, it just plain tires me out to read some of her books. The writing is certainly competent, but it’s not, IMO, dynamic enough to survive the overnarration. I understand the TDD series is actually better than the other one (it’s the longer one I’ve tried to read).
And what can I say about Evanovich—I haven’t yet gotten to the point where that particular shell game bores me. And while I totally understand why some readers love Ranger, I can’t wrap my head around any argument that posits that he would be less possessive and controlling than Joe. I think it’s only because he keeps Stephanie in the non-mate role that he deals with her independence. Personally, I wish Evanovich would throw in some competition in the form of a woman who peaks Joe’s interest. I like watching Stephanie when she gets all whacked and jealous.
Ann Aguirre said on 08.24.06 at 04:37 AM • [link]
I’ve never read MaryJanice Davidson. Just don’t understand the lure of vampires really, not even Anne Rice’s first two efforts that set the world on its ear. I can’t tell you how many times someone said, “You’ve got to read this, it’s the best thing ever!”
So I finally did and was like: Huh. Best thing ever? Not in my opinion. I felt that way about the Mayfair Witches, though, and a lot of people seemed to think I was on crack. I think it’s a couple of things. First, I was ahead of the curve and was really into vampires in high school / early college. Lemme tell ya, that was quite a while ago. I got my fill then and I’ve moved on. Plus, I can’t quite wrap my head around the necro-factor of it. I just go, “Dude, he’s dead.” How is he getting that boner? Forcing the blood to his weenie via the power of his ancient mind? Pfft, whatever.
laurad said on 08.24.06 at 04:55 AM • [link]
I’m lurking and howling laughing…but as a huge de Lint fan I just want to let both Discerning Reader and Ana know that Geordie and Jilly have their story in de Lint’s new book “Widdershins”. Yep, still buying de Lint.
I’ve let a lot of authors go. Sometimes it reminds me of breaking up with someone you’ve been dating….you see the new title at the bs, and you just kind of go “eh”.....just like you do when you’re about done with what’s-his-name. Or maybe that’s just me.
Ann Aguirre said on 08.24.06 at 05:01 AM • [link]
I won’t buy Widdershins in hardcover. *muffled sob* He’s just hurt me too often; I don’t trust him anymore.
My issue with Jilly is that de Lint writes about her like he is in love with her. I can actually feel his love and longing and tenderness and admiration gushing off the page for this amazing artist who overcame her tormented past to evolve in this generous, loving, playful, wise, kind…
You get the point. If he would just write about her and not canonize her with peceptible adoration, I might feel less like, okay, when Mr. de Lint gets done with his Jilly-gasm, the story might proceed…
Estelle Chauvelin said on 08.24.06 at 05:12 AM • [link]
No, here’s another one.
Keziah Hill said on 08.24.06 at 05:15 AM • [link]
Origin in Death was my favorite - the one about cloning. I think that series just gets better and better.
Victoria Dahl said on 08.24.06 at 05:33 AM • [link]
This argument always cracks me up. The fact that he’s dead yet thinking/feeling/walking around talking doesn’t trip you up, but the question of blood pressure does? HAHAHA I mean, how are the muscles working without oxygen via bloodflow? What about his brain? *grin* There’s just something about that blood pressure line that people can’t cross.
But my vampires aren’t dead, so I never had to go there. Lucky me! :cheese:
Robin, I’m totally with you on Sookie Stackhouse. I just want to squeeze her till her head pops off. Then have sex with one of her exes. She’s never dated before, and she suddenly has a whole dating pool opened up for her. It’s almost like reading an adult YA as far as these new feelings/conflicts she has to go through. Plus, she’s only made out with the two were-hotties if I remember correctly. So far she’s had sex with exactly two men over five (?) books. I think.
Ann Aguirre said on 08.24.06 at 05:35 AM • [link]
Well, now that you mention it, I’m not a fan of that either. I do kinda think that dead things should stay in the ground. That said, my ideas about vampires render them monstrous rather than romantic.
Mary said on 08.24.06 at 05:44 AM • [link]
I wrote earlier about the authors I had given up on. What I failed to mention was the authors I listed were ones I had the same problems with when I gave them up.
I bought 4 of Iris Johansen’s books before I could finally give up on her writing, I bought 3 of C. Feehan’s, I bought 3 of Kenyon’s, etc.
The only author I’m still having the same trouble with, (like Candy has with Jordan) is LKH. I’m still hoping.
Victoria Dahl said on 08.24.06 at 05:45 AM • [link]
Yeah, I’m not sure it’s the blood pressure tripping you up. I think it’s the having sex with a dead thing. Hee.
Robin said on 08.24.06 at 06:19 AM • [link]
Yup, that’s right—two men IN HER WHOLE LIFE!
Two of my favorite scenes from the series are
1) when Sookie is in the shower with Erik, thinking about how she won’t take for granted someone who gives her some moments of ease and comfort, since the world is not always so kind to her. I think Harris’s genius is really in the understated way she portrays the bittersweet reality of Sookie’s life. Plus the allegorical quality of her work just blows me away. She is, IMO, a really incredible wordsmith and craftsperson.
2) When Sookie wanders out of the emergency room and realizes that she needed to wipe the slate clean of Bill. I know some readers thought that whole thing was contrived, but if you look back through the series, I think Harris was plotting it several books ago (remember when Pam wanted to tell Sookie something terrible about Bill—beyond what he did with Lorena?). I don’t actually think she’s done with Bill, but he had really infected her heart, and she needs to purge him so that she can take residence there herself.
I heart Sookie, and I definitely want to do Erik.
smoorman said on 08.24.06 at 06:43 AM • [link]
I just had to add Chelsea Quinn Yarbro’s Saint-Germain series. They aren’t really any kind of romance though. The main character is a vampire(all the comments about vamps made me think of these). The first several books were unbeliveable, but the last few just feel like rinse and repeat. The only thing that keeps me reading them is all her backgrounds are incredably well researched, and it shows. I read them, don’t buy them.
dl said on 08.24.06 at 09:17 AM • [link]
Authors that have dropped off my auto-buy list, inc. MJ Davidson (stuck on herself & stories getting tired), Freehan (a new plot pleeeaase), Lisa Kleypas, Rachel Caine, Suzanne Forrester…and many more already mentioned.
Others, like Evanovich and Putney, have been downgraded to library authors. Stephanie CANNOT eat that much without becoming an absolute fat cow.
Who’s getting better with age? Kim Harrison’s newest (#4?) IMO is her best yet. Laura Kinsale probably belongs here also.
Glenna McReynolds & Tara Janzen are the only two names I know she writes under.
dl said on 08.24.06 at 09:38 AM • [link]
PS. Agree with the rant about books in a series being published a year or more apart. For example, Gail Dayton’s blog says she completed edits for her third Rose book in late June 2006, and returned it to her editor. I believe the book is scheduled for release about March 2007…uuughh! It’s annoying and make readers want to throw the whole series out the window.
Ciara said on 08.24.06 at 12:35 PM • [link]
i’ve given up on quite a few series because i didn’t enjoy the sequels or where the story was going.
Kate Elliot
MJ Davidson
Terry Goodkind
Philip Pullman
Laurell K Hamilton (die Anita die)
But I don’t care what Jordan writes, I’ll read it. I’ll never give up.
(Sad to say i own every WOT book in hardback including the World of the WOT)
Cam said on 08.24.06 at 12:40 PM • [link]
Kristen Britain drives me crazy, not because her books are rubbish (au contraire), but the wait between books.
Green Rider 1998
First Riders Call 2003
Book 3 Who knows!!
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Jeri said on 08.24.06 at 01:47 PM • [link]
PS. Agree with the rant about books in a series being published a year or
more apart.
I have the opposite reaction. When books in a series follow each other too quickly, I get overwhelmed and wish they would slow down. But as I mentioned before, I’m not a glommer—I like to take a break between books by the same author. I’m weird.
And re: Dayton’s books: How long do you think it takes to write a quality complex epic fantasy like hers? It’s not something someone can crank out in a few weeks. We’re talking 100-120K words, not 70-80K like the average paranormal romance. To try to write more than one epic fantasy a year would probably result in a half-assed effort.
I suppose they could save them up and release them more frequently once they’re all written, but publishers like to recoup their investment a little faster than that.
Jeri said on 08.24.06 at 02:31 PM • [link]
Hmmm…didn’t mean for my last comment to sound dismissive of paranormal romance, if it did. I love reading and writing PNR and epic fantasy, and can only speak for my own experience, which is that the latter takes more time, what with the worldbuilding and all.
And not being able to use profanity. That alone adds an extra 50% more time at the keyboard.
Back on subject: My husband said Tom Clancy jumped the shark with his anti-environmentalist screed, Rainbow Six. Before that, his politics were more of a background hum in his books, but now they’ve taken over the story.
robin said on 08.24.06 at 02:32 PM • [link]
Love Gabaldon, but I came to these late. Very late. Like just last year. Therefore, I didn’t have the wait that drove people nuts. There was one that I didn’t care for so much, but I loved the rest.
As far as the Evanovich threesome goes—I really don’t think Stephanie deserves Ranger. But, then, I’m not a Stephanie fan. I don’t think she deserves Morelli either.
Geeze, why am I still reading these things?!
Jacqueline said on 08.24.06 at 03:44 PM • [link]
Dang, Ana, when am I gonna stop agreeing with you? I just SO do not care for the vampire thing.
Here’s the thing: I liked _Interview with the Vampire_, which I read when it first came out and I was in high school. I dutifully read quite number of Rice’s books after that, books my mother loves enough to buy in hardcover, but after the first one, her writing just got more and more surreal and so hopeless non-linear and illogical as to be impossible to understand. I mean, I could read all the words, understand everyone, and still come out the other end thinking “What was that all about?”
I’ve decided maybe the problem is that I haven’t ingested an illegal substance since I was in college. Bet if I went back and read IWTV noiw, I’d find it almost as confusing as the others!
AnimeJune said on 08.24.06 at 03:59 PM • [link]
I’ve read the entire Kate Elliott Crown of Stars series. Every single book entertained except the last - not ONLY because they DIDN’T EXPLAIN WHO THE *^%$ ALAIN WAS, but also because of the rather silly last-minute jump into the future they showed at the ending.
Alain was a great character - why make him into the medieval equivalent of The Littlest Hobo?
Madd said on 08.24.06 at 04:22 PM • [link]
I wrote this whole thing yesterday and the my internet conncection went and I lost the darn thing. Anyway! I love Sookie and I don’t think she needs a guy to make her interesting. It’s just that I see this new-guy-every-book thing getting old fast. I know she hasn’t had sex with everyone one of them, but it’s been more than two, if we’re counting Bill, because she had sex with him, Eric and Quinn. I don’t remember if she actually had sex with Alcide, but she was really considering it.
Me, I love vampire stuff, doesn’t matter if it’s romance, horror, sci-fi, fantasy, etc. I’ve had a facination with the supernatural from a young age. I blame insomnia. I remember being 7 years old sitting infront of the tv at 3am watching the classics with Bela and Lon.This is also wherefrom stems my insane love of Fred Astaire. Instead of giving me nightmares the vampires, the werewolves, the Frankenstine’s monsters, they sort of became my night time companions. So, I don’t care if vampires are dead, undead, living, genetic mutations, aliens, Atlanteans, or infected by parasites, I love watching/reading about them.
I loved Sunshine and I hope Robin McKinley comes out with something new soon. I’ve loved so many of her books. *eyes the hardcover copy of The Blue Sword that she’s had since 1989*
Victoria Dahl said on 08.24.06 at 04:31 PM • [link]
Damn it, Madd, stop screwing with my bad memory. I just read the last Sookie Stackhouse book, and I STILL can’t remember shit. But, no. . . I went downstairs and got the book. Sookie didn’t have sex with Quinn. They just made out. And came. She’s trying to be smart and take it slow. And stay away from dead guys. Ha.
And I’m trying to arrange for a brain transplant. I hate to think what I’ll be like when I’m seventy. On the other hand, if you need money, it’s easy to convince me that I owe you some.
Still, I wouldn’t care if she was doing all of them. Frankly, I’d be right in there. “Hmm. I wonder what it’s like to have sex with a hot weretiger? Hmm.”
Madd said on 08.24.06 at 05:02 PM • [link]
Hey, if someone’s shoving it in you, cloth covered or no, you’re having sex. Plus, there was the o. In my book, if someone is physically there with you and causing you to orgasm, you’ve had some form of sexual encounter whether there was intercourse involved or no.
I don’t mind if she does them all either. I’m pro-sex for Sookie. I just don’t want to have to add another ex to the list every time a new book comes out. You know? Plus, I’m partial to Quinn at this point and I’d like to see him still involved with Sookie in the next book.
Victoria Dahl said on 08.24.06 at 05:10 PM • [link]
Shit. Does this mean I have to adjust my personal recordkeeping? No, no. I have to draw the line somewhere.
Victoria Dahl said on 08.24.06 at 05:12 PM • [link]
Btw, I was devestated by what Bill did (in the third book?). Totally didn’t see it coming despite his distraction in the previous book. I was covering my face with my hands. Made it hard to read.
Ann Aguirre said on 08.24.06 at 05:22 PM • [link]
I wasn’t a big fan of Quinn, but I might give Sookie a second chance, I dunno.
Jacqueline, because you agree with me so much, I am adding you to my blogrolling list, which means all four of the people who read my blog may come to yours as well. (I know, it’s too much, isn’t it?) Feel free to link me back.
Jacqueline said on 08.24.06 at 05:36 PM • [link]
Hay, Ana, thanks for linking my blog (which reminds me I really MUST post; I missed last week on account of my paying work and now I am behind schedule). I am linking to yours forthwith.
Hmmm, shall this week’s entry be about my non-love of vampires or my non-love of Forbes magazine? Decisions, decisions!
Sanachan said on 08.24.06 at 05:37 PM • [link]
First I gave up Mercedes Lackey. I got so tired of perfect people. And of her re-arranging her character’s personalities to make them fit a new storyline.
And then came LKH… which I not only loved, but addicted two men to. I was the enabler. I have an autographed copy of Narcissus in Chains that I won at DragonCon back in 2001. (It was supposed to be an autographed ARC, but the box of them got stolen, so I got an advanced autograph copy of the hardback instead.) I gave my friend my autographed copy of Obsidian Butterfly, which I sincerely regret, because that was the last one I liked. Narcissus disturbed me, Cerulean Sins annoyed me and Incubus Dreams bored me to tears and pissed me the hell off, so I quit, cold turkey. The fact that she misspelled deity through the ENTIRE FUCKING BOOK may have had something to do with it. I also dropped Merry Gentry like a hot rock, because I am sick and tired of a book covering only one day, when you have a 6 month time period to make things happen. I still think the second book in that series is the best one. I hate when writers get lazy and start to rest on their laurels. (Yes, pun intended ;-p)
As for Jordon… never got past the first chapter despite my husband owning almost all of them (though I give him credit because he only buys them in paper back or off the bargain book rack.)
I read a chapter of Goodkind and went “You have GOT to be shitting me! Some chick running around the woods in a trailing white gown with her hair down, and not getting stuck on every twig, branch and rock? Bitch, please.”
Madd said on 08.24.06 at 05:52 PM • [link]
I’m there with you. That was a big WTF?! moment for me. I was all “Noooo!Not Bill!!!” because I really liked him there at the begining and now I just want to kick his fangs in for bringing whats-her-face around Sookie all the time. We won’t even go into the Bill bomb that got dropped in the last book. *gives Bill the finger*
Michelle, the Diva said on 08.24.06 at 06:17 PM • [link]
Ooh, my hell. Great topic, ladies.
*big, lusty sigh* Incredibly wordy rant ahead. You’ve been warned.
Sadly, many of my former-favorite authors have gone the way of the “Hell-no-never-again” phenomenon that seems to be sweeping the inhabitants of Bitchlandia. Including, but not limited to:
Steph Laurens - Now, I never met a Cynster I didn’t like. I even liked the girl ones (!), mainly because of their deliciously manly hunks. But, Stephanie, it all became a bit…well, like we’d done all that before. Over and over. I was slightly cheered by the Bastion Club books (or rather BOOK) until I read book two and me-no-likey. Hello, E-bay.
Janet Evanovich - Alas, Stephanie…once you were also great. You solved cases in your own likeable and bumbling way. Your cars blew up with astonishing regularity. You were poised on the pinnacle of a luuuuurve triangle of the most lovely proportions, supported on one end by the dark, mysterious Ranger (*drool*) and on the other by the safe-and-stable-but-still-naughty Morelli. Lula, Grandma Mazur, Sally Sweet, your taciturn father, your Meg Ryan-lookalike sister, your horsie niece, even your mother—all entertaining and funny as hell. What the fuckles happened?? I’ll tell you: you kept the triangle going about 4 books too long. I got bored. I got sad.I saw the light. I stopped buying and sold all of my Plums to some poor schmuck on Ebay who was probably delighted…until they finally realize that IT’S THE SAME GODDAMNED STORY OVER AND OVER AND OVER ad nauseum until…until when??? Vicious circle, Plum is thy name. In trying to keep everyone happy, she’s alienated me completely.
Amen, sister. Preach on! And super ditto to all infinity about the stallion dude. I got the goosebumps an inordinately large period of time when I read that shit. Hottie boombalotti, mount up and RIDE, BAYBEE!
Laurell K. Hamilton (*sob*) - Ahhh, Anita. I gave you oh-so-many chances. Book after book, I really liked you and tried to keep you close to me, but I finally just had to say no. NO MORE, and ESPECIALLY NO MORE HARDCOVERS. DM was the last. Never has para romance had such a deliciously conflicted and terminally slutty lead such as yourself. You bang, you boink, you screw indeterminately until I’m truly fearful that your vagina (and other orifices) shall never be the same, in spite of its supposedly elastic capabilities. Your once-sterling morals have deteriorated into (sadly) your unending search for the next best and newest raunchiest thing you can do with the most people (live AND dead) and/or animals (and not always in un-furry form, either). I was fascinated, but now I’m just appalled. The ardeur is a thinly-veiled excuse to scrump anything with a penis and, while initially erotic, wore a bit thin. Like hearing that you were looking in the Kama Sutra in researching your next book. Girl, please. Sex should have to be something you STUDY to write, for fuck’s sake. I shouldn’t need a damn diagram to figure out how on God’s little green earth Anita got her partner(s) of choice to insert their Tab A’s into her slots 1, 2, AND 3 over the course of EVERY FLIPPING SEX SCENE in the book. And the triumverates…one = good idea, novel even. More than one = sadly cliched and we’ve-SO-been-here-before. Solve a mystery, for crying out loud, and claw your way to the top of the pile of your lovers’ naked or partially-naked bodies so that you can EXECUTE SOME EFFING VAMPS ON OCCASION. Cat a circle. Hell, even tell us more abotu Edward and his guns for a change of pace. I’m SO done. Let me also just say that I hate that whining, asstarded, pseudo-alpha, wussified, pusshead Richard, too. And I’m still TOWERINGLY ENRAGED about you wrecking him like you have. He had promise. He had a chance.
Merry Gentry, you’re still doing ok. I’ll admit to a morbid obsession with how you’ll do the tentacled guy, because I know it’s coming. And I love me some Stallion Shapeshifter Man, too. I’ll say that Merry is on Black-List Probation. She’s got a couple more strikes to go before she’s consigned to the Ebay Pit of Despair.
Christine Feehan - Here’s a little hint as to why these didn’t fly for me: it’s the dirt. I can’t get into the Carpathian dudes crawling into the dirt to regenerate. GAK! Maybe I have Kinsey Milhone’s OCD a touch here, but DAYUM. NO DIRT!!! Add a recycled story told in a tired manner, and I’m outie. SO OUTIE. E-bay, help!
Catherine Coulter - Three letters as to why I quit reading these: FBI. That series sucked a stinky schlong. I have all her historicals, including the infamous I-raped-a-bitch-and-became-a-hero book. CC historicals (not the rapist ones) are pretty good. Love her Sherbrookes and her Legacy series. Magic ones aren’t bad either. But I can barely GIVE those FBI stinkers away.
I read about 200 pages of Gabaldon once; also, never again. Can’t see why everyone is interested in blowing the smoke of rabid fangirl-itis up her hoohah. I have things to do with my life that don’t include reading a HUGE ASS BUNCHA BOOKS as thick as treetrunks. My God, lady. Think of the puir weedle twees who unselfishly gave their lives so that your wordy, weighty fiction could go forth.
Linda Howard, Dan Brown, Brockmann (recycle much???), Anne Rice (except those naughty Beauty books), King (he’s calling one in even as we speak), and that effing Danielle Steele (Queen of the ReUsers) et al on and on and on.
Two VERY refreshing lights at the end of the tunnel for me have been Kelley Armstrong’s Elena books and the Robbs. I’m completely hooked. I’ve pared my autobuy list down to Nora, Robb, Armstrong, Kim Harrison, and a few others.
I didn’t even buy the last MJD in HC yet. Sadly, I heard it wasn’t that memorable.
Any questions?
Madd said on 08.24.06 at 06:27 PM • [link]
You are evil women! You know. I was so disappointed with the way Anita wes heading when the Meredith books came out that I didn’t bother to pick them up. My brain was all “Don’t do it! She’ll just get you hooked and then you’ll be sorry!” Only all this talk of tentacles (has LKH been watching hentai?) and stallions has me mighty curious. If I pick it up and get hooked, you have onyl yourselves to blame ... and you should be ashamed!!
;_;
*lol*
Shannon C. said on 08.24.06 at 07:08 PM • [link]
Ana, I think I want to be your fangirl. Feel free to blogroll me, too, so that you, too, might get inundated with spam selling you free ringtones.
I didn’t even know about
Widdershins
until I came over here. Wow. Well, I’ll wait until my local library gets it, because, yeah, he’s hurt me once too often. As for Jilly, I see what you mean. I’ve always figured that Jilly is basically his way of writing about his wife, Mary Ann Harris, who is also an artist, and, I’m told, looks like… hmmm… every one of De Lint’s heroines.
In other topics: I read
Outlander
and have copies of the rest of the series. I just don’t really feel any great need to dive into weighty fiction right now.
And I never got through even one of Jordan’s books. I read his novella in one of the
Legends
anthologies, found the plot really boring and the characters stilted and trite, and decided to move along.
Besides, George R. R. Martin is a much better writer of epic fantasy.
Ann Aguirre said on 08.24.06 at 07:24 PM • [link]
Complete agreement there. I really love his stuff, even though it agitates me when he swings away from characters I adore. I hated that he killed the Hound. I loved that character! But I liked that he had the balls to do it. I loved the budding storyline between the Maid and Jamie, too. I hope he doesn’t let that drop.
My first fangirl. Squee! I’ve added you to my blogroll and as First Fangirl, your obligatory Godiva chocolates are in the mail! Just give me the email you use on your Amazon wishlist.
PS - Being my fangirl could be good for you. Yesterday, an adult toy company contacted me about offering freebies in exchange for product placement in my books. Hee! Dildos for everyone!
Victoria Dahl said on 08.24.06 at 07:24 PM • [link]
Heeheeheehee.
If it makes you feel better, I think I’m going back in. “Where is my Darkness? Bring me my Darkness.” Oh, yeah.
AnimeJune said on 08.24.06 at 07:31 PM • [link]
Hey, I like George R. R. Martin too (he came to my town! He signed my book!), and while “A Feast for Crows” was generally good - you can sorta tell the wheels in his brilliantly complex narrative machine are starting to come a little loose.
And it’s not only that he had to cut his HUGE manuscript in half (which is what happened to the last two volumes of Kate Elliott’s “Crown of Stars” series, remember), although that’s a large part.
I hope he comes together after “A Dance of Dragons”.
Shannon C. said on 08.24.06 at 07:43 PM • [link]
Oh, I loved the storyline between Jaime and the maid. I really hope that cliffhanger doesn’t end the way I suspect it’s going to. And the hound! Man, I loved that character, and harbor some tiny shred of hope that he’s not actually dead. Of course, I’m just delusional. And, no, I didn’t think
A Feast for Crows
was nearly as good as the first three and agree that I hope he comes together after
A Dance With Dragons.
I don’t want his series to be another long, self-indulgent epic.
And in other news… Clearly I don’t remember the tentacle dude in the Merry Gentry books. But now I find myself tempted to read the latest ones because the comments about the stallion dude intrigue me. And I did kind of have a slight crush on Doyle, too, and should be ashamed.
Victoria Dahl said on 08.24.06 at 07:58 PM • [link]
And I did kind of have a slight crush on Doyle, too, and should be ashamed.
Doyle was descended from Hellhounds, but his grandfather was also part horse. Hint, hint,
SandyW said on 08.24.06 at 08:08 PM • [link]
I am in total denial about the Anita Blake series, enough that I still buy them in paperback. I read each book in the hope that Anita will come to her senses and give the Wolf King and the Master Vampire their testicles back, then they can all live happily ever after in a messy, semi-functional, ménage a trios. All those wussy girly-boys can hit the road and take their Giant Body Parts with them.
Deeper in denial than David Livingstone.
Doyle, from the Merry Gentry series, gets my vote for fairy I’d most like to be kidnapped and thoroughly used by. He’s sort of what Richard the Wolf King should have been. Doyle is sexy, tortured, competent, sexy, a genuine alpha, sexy… Sigh.
Any time now, Hamilton is going to turn him into an emasculated jerk. It’s almost inevitable.
Liv said on 08.24.06 at 08:08 PM • [link]
Lurkergurl,
I came across your post and thought, “Did I post something in my sleep?” I feel exactly the same!
Books 1-3 in the Outlander series were the first books in a loooong time that I absolutely loved, was totally immersed in, and that stayed with me for weeks after I closed the back cover. I mean, I skipped class and ignored my husband and forgot to take showers I was so wrapped up in them.
I should have stopped there.
The rest of the books are just horrible, in my opinion. Absolutely no plot whatsoever, just random scenes strung together. And we all know how much Gabaldon likes to do her historical research, but talk about infodump!
And what’s up with EVERY major character being kidnapped/imprisoned AND raped/brutalized. I read another comment somewhere about Gabaldon being so obsessed with sexual perversion that the next step was exploring Ian’s very special relationship with Rollo.
And I’m getting so sick of the so very, very tender section-closing scenes. You know, the ones where she describes the nature, the sun-setting, the crickets chirping, and a main character stares off into the horizon before uttering the so very, very poignant and touching and precious and humorous last sentance. Blegh.
And the worst part about all of it is, I will probably have to finish out the series just so I’ll have closure!
PHew, I feel so much better for ranting.
Liv said on 08.24.06 at 09:51 PM • [link]
Question re George R.R. Martin:
I do not read SF/F, but I picked up my husband’s copy of Martin’s first book in the Song of Ice and Fire series and LOVED IT. Then I started the second one, and quit 3/4 through. NOTHING had happened. The plot hadn’t advance at all.
I do not want to get sucked into some Jordonesque never-ending series (I haven’t read Jordon, but after reading the comments here and listening to my hubby bitch, I feel the pain). So, is it worth picking up the series again? Does anything happen in the third and fourth book in the season? Or should I just save my sanity and leave them alone?
I guess I’m wondering if the plot advance at all after the second book. I loved his writing and the world he created, and I don’t mind a bit of long-windedness or a slow book here and there - but give me SOMETHING.
Ann Aguirre said on 08.24.06 at 09:57 PM • [link]
To be honest, Liv, so much time has passed since I read the first novels, I can’t answer that. I want to say people died and circumstances changed, but I wouldn’t swear to it. To date, I wouldn’t compare him to Robert Jordan, but if he keeps rambling for the $$$$ and doesn’t start wrapping shit up he will soon hit the saturation point where a wonderful series turns into a bloated, toothless hag.
Robin said on 08.24.06 at 10:17 PM • [link]
I wasn’t a big Bill fan, but then my friend who got me hooked on the series explained that she liked Bill because he was so normal (beyond the obvious, of course). Until I had read more paranormal stuff, I didn’t realize how true or how unusual that was. So I’ve revised my opinion of him over the course of the books. I think Bill gave Sookie the experience of being wanted by a man, and now she’s having to truly understand that such a thing is not the secret to her own happiness. The fact that she’s had a number of men enter her world as potential lovers has, IMO, allowed Sookie to see that her attractiveness isn’t something that she needs to have proven to her anymore. Let’s face it—she started late on that lesson (thus the YA comparison you made in another post).
I really, really hated what Bill did to Sookie, but at the same time, if Harris eventually settles her in a long-term relationship, I’d like it to be one in which she doesn’t have to make some really heavy compromises. Because Bill was her first love, it’s been so hard for her to move past him, because if what he did in the middle of the series didn’t do it, what was going to? So finally Harris has made it impossible for Sookie to look past some serious differences between the way she sees the world and the way Bill does. The sad irony, IMO, is the fact that I really think Bill loves her (and I don’t think he understood this until Sookie was gone). But whether he’s good for her is another thing.
I also don’t think she had what I would call “sex” with Quinn, who is certainly pleasant but hasn’t wowed me yet as a character worthy of Sookie. My sense is that now Sookie is going to be more focused on herself for a while.
Another great thing about this series, IMO, is that Sookie isn’t perfect either. She has had to overcome her own prejudices—about women who hang with supes, about her cousin and all that entailed, about her own gifts, about her own prejudices and issues.
dl said on 08.24.06 at 10:23 PM • [link]
Jeri…my complaint is not with how long an author takes to complete a quality book (such as Gail Dayton). My grouch is when the publisher sits on them for long periods of time just to satisfy their one a year timetable. My example was that Ms. Dayton’s blog seems to indicte that she finished book #3 in late June 2006 when her revisions were returned to her editor. But, the book is not due to be released for 9 more months, March 2007 I believe. That’s what bugs me.
I totally admire anyone who can write a coherent novel, I’m challenged writing a coherent letter. But I would rather the release dates were dictated by the authors writing schedule, not the publishers marketing timetable.
Rosemary said on 08.24.06 at 10:39 PM • [link]
Thank GOD I can finally come out of the closet on this one. I really have never understood the lure of the vampire, particularly of the Anne Rice variety. I tried to read Interview with a Vampire so many times I can’t even tell you. I would read half the book in an afternoon and then set it down & not pick it up for two years. I can’t remember a thing about the book other than the narrator being a whiney bitch and damn four page descriptions of f’n ivy growing on a damn wall. And I knew a guy in high school who was born with absurdly long “vampire teeth” and had to get them filed down he looked so freaky. And he looked freaky, not hot.
And centaurs? Hell no, huh-uh. I’ve known too many people who’ve actually been to the Donkey Show in Boy’s Town to consider it. . . non-traumatizing.
Boy’s Town is a big whore-town on the Mexico/Texas border. And when I say whore-town, I mean an entire town of bars & whores.
Nora Roberts said on 08.24.06 at 10:40 PM • [link]
Dl, if a ms was turned in June 06, a March ‘07 publication is actually right on the mark, and in some cases pretty brisk.
The publisher has to work the schedule—as this book isn’t all they have to publish. They have to proofread, typeset, print, design and create a cover, write the copy, sell it in to accounts and bookstores.
To publish a book with less than a six-month span between final ms and pub date is called ‘crashing’ the book, and costs the publisher a lot more money. It’s usually nine months to a year from final and accepted ms to publication.
The book you spoke of hits that nine-month mark. While I wouldn’t say publishers never sit on a book (though there might be lots of reasons why they would), it really doesn’t sound like this is the case with this one.
Ann Aguirre said on 08.24.06 at 10:50 PM • [link]
You said it, sister!
Repeat after me:
“We will not buy garbage about undead critters with boners. It does not matter if they attempt a chick lit crossover or put fluffy bunnies on the cover. Down with the undead!”
Madd said on 08.24.06 at 10:53 PM • [link]
I just want him to have the chance to wow me, you know? I don’t want to pick up the next one and some other supe has come to town and is now looking to woo her. Meanwhile Quinn will be off out of town somewhere on a job and become history before he knows it. Plus, I don’t know about anyone else, but I find him rather hot. So that’s my ulterior motive for wanting him around at least a little longer.
Christine said on 08.24.06 at 11:21 PM • [link]
The Sookie series has me very depressed right now. I am a Sam fan, although I think that affair with the psycho demi-goddess or whatever she was was totally out of character for him. He is the only male character in the book who who has never physically hurt her, and his come-ons are not boarderline rape like with so many of the other characters. He is also her friend and isn’t trying power games with her.
And he is probably never going to get anywhere with her.*le sigh*
Michelle, the Diva said on 08.24.06 at 11:22 PM • [link]
*snarls* Back off, girlie. I WILL fight a bitch for some o’ dat Darkness, which is completely odd, as I’ve never been even remotely attracted to a black man before.
I’ll take a double helping of Doyle, please. If she emasculates this one, she’s need some heavy-duty, sharp tools methinks.
Victoria Dahl said on 08.24.06 at 11:56 PM • [link]
shhhh. my critique partner dropped in and saw that “there are, like, 150 posts and your name’s on half of them”. shit. i’m not only supposed to be writing, i’m supposed to be critiquing her awesome-ass book. so just one more post. and keep it quiet. . .
Michelle, there’s enough of Doyle to go around. HAR-harharhar That is one sexy/scary man. With that midnight skin and black leather pants with no shirt and the total, icy control over himself and his role as the queen’s torturer. *shiver* Totally terrifyingly hot.
Christine, I understand about Sam. Everytime he shows up, I think, “Why isn’t Sookie dating Sam.” But come to think of it, why isn’t SAM dating Sookie? He’s clearly holding back.
Robin, I think you and I could talk about this series for hours! I agree with everything you said about Sookie. And Bill loving her. And he’s not really supposed to feel love, so I think just the IDEA that he feels something for her is now breaking his heart. Good. Dickhead. *sigh*
*victoria tiptoes away*
Ann Aguirre said on 08.25.06 at 12:01 AM • [link]
I hate you bitches. Now I want to read about this hot-ass hunk of man-meat.
Definitely Not Victoria Dahl said on 08.25.06 at 12:17 AM • [link]
Ana, there are no vampires in the Merry Gentry books! They are all live, throbbing faeries, so go for it!
But, alas, Doyle maintains his icy control for many books. Be warned.
Ann Aguirre said on 08.25.06 at 12:27 AM • [link]
Aw, c’mon! Ya’ll got me all ready to read this, so I went to Amazon, looked up A Kiss of Shadows and got excited when I saw two digital editions. Yippee! Clicked on ‘em and “This item is currently not available.”
Well, what the hell, why’s it listed under available formats then? And I just made my gi-normous purchase from Amazon last week too. It’s like 60 bucks for shipping here so I have to wait a while for placing an order to make sense.
*grumbles* I need a personal shopper in the States.
Definitely Not Victoria Dahl said on 08.25.06 at 12:39 AM • [link]
But, alas, Doyle maintains his icy control for many books. Be warned.
Oops. It was only 1 1/2. Apparently it just FELT like many books.
Ana, that sucks. I’m sorry to hear it.
Sanachan said on 08.25.06 at 04:25 AM • [link]
Someone asked about George R.R. Martin and having re-read the entire series a few months ago I will say that while things move a bit slowly as the many, many threads of plot come together, stuff definitely keeps happening. More to some characters than others, but things do keep moving.
Lorelie said on 08.25.06 at 10:08 AM • [link]
Remember how I said earlier I’d just gotten the new Kenyon in the mail?
Sigh.
Would someone care to explain to me how gunshots can heal over night, yet the man still has bruises around his neck?
Sherrilyn! I wish I could quit yew!
J-me said on 08.25.06 at 01:28 PM • [link]
Ana-
If you want, I’ve got an extra copy of Kiss of Shadows you can have. Just email me the address and I’ll have it in the mail this weekend.
Ann Aguirre said on 08.25.06 at 02:23 PM • [link]
Wow, what a sweet offer. Thank you! (See, Mom, whining does pay off sometimes…)
dl said on 08.25.06 at 06:58 PM • [link]
Nora R…Thanks for the info. There are sooo many smart people on this website. Knowing the facts, I will attempt to restrain my impatience for quality writing! But it’s soo hard, and a year is a loooonng time.
Michelle, the Diva “If she emasculates Doyle…” That would be the final nail in the coffin for me also.
KimD said on 08.26.06 at 06:19 PM • [link]
I can’t believe no one has mentioned Judith McNaught. “Remember When” was the start of her downfall in the late 90’s. Before that, she was gold, GOLD I tell ya (well, at least to me). Which is why it pains me to now skip over her books. The magic is gone.
As for the other mentions—ITA with Stephanie Laurens. I think I’m about 10 books behind in her Cynster series and am not looking to catch up.
Christine Feehan is getting there for me. She hasn’t had a good books in a few years, although the upcoming Carpathian Reunion story looks interesting.
Overall, I’ve found that I’ve abandoned most of my “automatic buy” authors—McNaught, Laurens, Gaelen Foley, Suzanne Brockman, Heather Graham, Linda Howard, Meryl Sawyer, Krentz etc. They’ve either gone too mainstream (Brockman, Howard) or just gotten boring (Sawyer, Krentz).
Miki said on 08.27.06 at 04:16 AM • [link]
I discovered LKH through the Merry Gentry series, and since I never really got the vampire appeal, I didn’t like Anita Blake from book one. So I still like LKH, even if Merry is taking absolutely forever to get anywhere.
Oh, and Ana? The Merry Gentry books are still available electronically at Fictionwise.com and eReader.com.
Reading through the comments, it’s amazing to see so many familiar names that had once been autobuys and are now indifferent passes: Iris Johansen, Patricia Cornwell, Robert Jordan, Michael Crichton, Elizabeth Lowell.
I loved the category of “library read only”. I’m with many of you on these: Evanovich, Kathy Reichs, Linda Howard, Nora Roberts’ standalones (still enjoy her trilogies and the JD Robb, though), Suzanne Brockmann, MaryJanice Davidson, Sherrilyn Kenyon.
This topic has made me think of the series I’ve enjoyed and am becoming disenchanted with. Will these become my next “library only’s”, or even “never again’s”? Kim Harrison (I hate where the last book went and that Rachel is sliding toward black magic), Rachel Caine (I don’t like where the last one ended, but I’m crossing my fingers for the next one), Charlaine Harris (Sookey may have had sex with only two men, but she’s gone from “nobody-loves-me” to “everybody-wants-me” awfully quickly).
Aimey said on 08.27.06 at 04:39 AM • [link]
Robert Jordan is most definatly on my do not touch again with a 20 ft. pole.
I adore Garth Nix, but his Keys to the Kingdom series, with waits a year between hardcover books makes my head hurt. Not to mention the 3ish years between Lerial and Abhorsen. (*sigh*)
I almost gave up on Pratchett when i read his older books, but i am loving the new ones.
LKH, i was going to pick up the book after A Kiss of Shadows, i think Frost is the first book character i ever wanted to jump, but somehow i doubt i ever will.
My dad and friend are attempting an intervention with my mom and i in regards to Nora Roberts/J.D. Robb. needless to say i own many of them and we’re unlikely to stop. even if it does eventually make me broke(*sigh again*)
Dinah said on 08.27.06 at 05:00 AM • [link]
Romance-wise I’m right on board with everyone on the Coulter/Krentz (etc.)/Lindsey/Deveraux/Garland/Garlock droppage (although I recently re-read a Knight in Shining Armor and still love it ridiculously,) and I was with Gabaldon through the first three books (I love me some time travel,) but the last three (the fifth in particular) are just soul-killing.
Over in fantasy, I love deLint ridiculously, but if I never see another Jilly novel again it’ll be too soon. Happily, I got to sit in on his book tour stops for Widdershins and he claims that he’s not going to be writing the Christy/Geordie/Jilly/etc. set of characters again for a good long while. ::cue choir:: Of course, this most likely means he won’t be writing Sophie again for a good long while and that’s really disheartening to me.
I…really dislike Neil Gaiman’s comic work. And that’s very hard for me to say, being a comic book fangirl. Sandman does nothing for me. Stardust at least had the extra-pretty Vess art to look at. But I own them because I feel that I need to for some reason. I do like his prose, though. His shorts in particular.
But most recently I’ve been trying to drop Meg(gin) Cabot and failing. It may be overdose. But you read one Meg Cabot novel and you’ve read most of them. She tends to recycle her heroine (neurotic-but-spunky) and is predictably gimmicky. (Diary entries. Emails. Chats. Lists with smiley faces.) And yet? I am thiiiiiiis close to buying How to Be Popular and am only resisting the most recent Princess Diary becauset the rest of my copies are in paperback and I need them to match.
(And yes, I read way too much YA for a 28-year-old.)
AnimeJune said on 08.27.06 at 07:37 PM • [link]
Almost makes me feel glad about those books that are bad right from the get-go. I’m looking at *you* Jennifer Armintrout, and *you*, Judith Tarr.
Mistress Stef said on 08.27.06 at 10:11 PM • [link]
‘Cornwell…ugh. They used to be so good! So exciting and involving, and I even believed the crazy conspiracies and stuff because she made me believe it. Then she wrote that completely unconvincing Ripper book, and changed POVs, and everything just fell apart.’
I just finished Trace,and it took a serious act of will. I have loved the Scarpetta series all along…she and Sue Grafton were my autobuys. The Southern Cross and suchlike I gave up on first thing, but I never thought I’d read a Scarpetta wallbanger. Changing tense was just the start.
Basically, it switched POV about a billion times, which I hate under any circumstances. In addition, each nuance was explained and repeated over and over in thought and narration until I felt like I was reading a tome written by a speed freak with Alzheimer’s.
It was like “See, Reader? Get it? This is IMPORTANT to the plot. NOTE IT. Okay, I’m sure you don’t quite get it, so this other character will show his perspective in the next chapter. Also, let me repeat the clues over and over so you make sure you remember them. Oh, wait, did I mention that? I better do it again.”
Like, “Unable to look at the problem from any angle that introduces clarity, Scarpetta stops thinking about the painted aluminum and bone dust. She decides she will soon drive herself into complete exhaustion if she continues to obsess about red, white, and blue chips of paint and particles of probable human bone that are smaller than cat dander.”
The entire book is like that. Repeat, repeat, force the point. It’s literally painful to read. 436 pages that if you cut all the babble, would amount to about half that, most likely.
I like my suspense to HAVE suspense. When you know who did it and why by Chapter Five because of everything being laid out in detail, I hate it. I like to get yanked around by the author so when I read the last chapter, I go, “Damn, didn’t see that coming.” That’s why I like Law and Order original and SVU, but hate Criminal Intent.
And I bought the damned hardcover, too.
I think I’ll be going to the library for the next one.
Ann Aguirre said on 08.28.06 at 06:24 PM • [link]
So I read all three Merry Gentry novels this weekend. (I know!) I’m no longer a Laurell K. Hamilton virgin.
Impressions.
Pros:
I love the politics and world-building. Her vision of the faerie is intriguing. She creates the rough outline of something very interesting characters. My favorites are Frost, Sholto and Kitto.
Cons:
Her prose is florid and it reads like fan-fiction. To my mind, Merry is a Merry-Sue. She has too few weaknesses. Sure, we’re told she doesn’t think she’s beautiful, but we are then hit over the head with descriptions of her Scarlet Sidhe hair, “as if garnets had been sput out into her hair” (C’mon!), her ruby red lips, her full breasts. She goes from being the runt of the litter, too weak to survive at court to coming to her (double) hands of power too soon.
While she offers a smorgasbord of hot guys, she doesn’t develop any of them sufficiently for me to invest. I took a liking to Sholto for crying out loud and then he was displaced by Doyle so fast it made my head spin. And just when I started liking him, she was in love with Frost (who I do like, but in subsequent books, she decided to make him a pouting child. Huh?!) And just when I started liking Frost, she told me in a very offhand fashion that Merry had always wanted to fuck Galen.
I dunno. It’s not the multiple men; it’s the lack of depth. I can’t help feeling that Merry is just wish-fulfillment and she comes off as a slut, not because she sleeps with multiple partners but because of her lack of investment. She can’t seem to sustain an attachment. I lost interest in the sex after a while; it became numbing and repetitive.
I guess…overall, the books remind me of overripe cherries. They look delicious and juicy, but when you eat them, you’re left with an unpleasant aftertaste, a faint hint of corruption on the palate, and if you eat too many, it could make you sick.
Ann Aguirre said on 08.28.06 at 06:30 PM • [link]
And there’s too little one-on-one time, not just in the sex scenes. All the three-ways and voyeur scenes didn’t bother me (although it did seem a little gratuitous, honestly) but it did bother me that there was so much time in the novels spent sitting around chatting in groups. I need more relationship building, even if she’s building it with more than one guy. I could handle that fine if it were being done. But it wasn’t. Also, in book 2, HOW fucking times did she answer the magic mirror? They spent more time getting naked and posing to answer a magic mirror call than just about anything else. I was about to yell, “OMG, do SOMETHING ELSE. Anything else! Get off the damn phone!”
Victoria Dahl said on 08.28.06 at 09:44 PM • [link]
You hit the nail on the head, Ana! I think you’d have been better off spreading the books out over a few months. Three in one weekend is a LOT of getting-your-faerie-on. “Good Lord, they’re not doing it again, are they?” (And The Darkness didn’t do anything for you?! More for me and Michelle, I guess.)
But I’m glad you tried the books. Are you?
Ann Aguirre said on 08.29.06 at 12:10 AM • [link]
I read the phrase, “Where is my Darkness, bring me my darkness? And then there would be killing, people would die,” so many times that he couldn’t possibly live up to his hype.
She tried to make him mysterious and deep, but (for me at least) she leeched away his charisma in the second and third books. I loved him at the beginning of the first book, where Merry accidentally gets him off with her uber-fertility magic. I liked that scene. I didn’t find it sexy necessarily, but I liked it.
It’s sort of hard me to get on board with this series, though, when Merry fucking literally has the Magic Hoo-hoo I’ve been joking about for months. It’s not figurative. Bitch fucks someone and suddenly he’s Superman, new magic powers, turning goblins into Sidhe. The idea is cool I guess but underneath it just makes me giggle. I mean I want to be huge and world-altering; she has Danu’s power in her so now she can alter the course of history for the Unseelie. That’s awesome, big destiny right there, huh, girl? But somehow it just boils down something with much less grandeur (like it says at the end of book three) now she has 16 immortal males to satisfy. (Plus she comes at the drop of a hat, and she can apparently make other chicks come with just a boobie touch) Okay, WTF. I thought that a lot, reading these.
So much potential in there, though, crying to get out, just like the thin girl inside me. I usually shut her up with cheese doodles.
Victoria Dahl said on 08.29.06 at 01:43 AM • [link]
Oh, GOD, Ana! I laughed so damn hard at this!!! Luckily my kids aren’t old enough to fear for my sanity.
Nat said on 08.29.06 at 05:34 AM • [link]
Even thought she’s on this list, you’ve all made me want to read at least the first Sookie book just to see what you are talking about.
I swear I’m giving up on LKH with every Anita book, yet I still read ‘em. I stopped buying them with Cerulean Sins though.
I am beginning to burn out on Lisa Kleypas. She was an automatic buy, but since the Wallflowers series, I’ve just been getting them from work (aka the library). I’ve also lost my love for Julia Quinn and hope her next - and first non-Bridgerton book - brings that love back.
I was able to break my Feehan addiction (I had met her and felt bad for giving up on her as she is a very nice lady), but I will read the Christmas one reuiniting all the Carpathians.
Kenyon is beginning to worry me, but not yet. All I know if she had better write the book of her life when Acheron’s story gets published next year.
Victoria Dahl said on 08.29.06 at 07:56 AM • [link]
Oooo, Ash’s story is next!?! Shit. Shit, shit, shit. I had completely whittled down my paranormal reads from many, many authors to two. The two was soon going to become JUST Charlaine Harris. Oh, and moi. But I’ve got to read Ash’s story. Maybe I’ll read the reviews first. Shit.
Ann Aguirre said on 08.31.06 at 03:22 AM • [link]
Hee, glad you laughed, Victoria.
Kenyon, huh?
Dammit, I cannot add anymore authors to my TBR list. I’m supposed to be writing, ffs, and on my desk waiting, I’ve got Stephanie Feagan, Monica Jackson, and JD Robb. I am embarrassed to say what else I’m waiting for from Amazon. Geez.
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