Birthday wishes and an open letter to Laurell K. Hamilton

[rivkat]

Happy birthday, MustangSally! May the geckos be with you.

Also, no spoilers for Cerulean Sins, just a rant. Review to follow shortly.

Dear Ms. Hamilton,

I hear you're a New York Times-bestselling author. I think that's nifty. I've always liked Anita, though she is despite all protestations a bit of a clotheshorse. But please, for the love of God --

Use a spellchecker. Taking someone to the hopsital? I'm embarrassed for you. And that's by no means the only typo. I thought the preview chapters I read online were unedited, and that's apparently true, except that they never did get edited. Also, punctuation is your friend. Okay, the comma apparently isn't, but most of the other little fellas are. I know there are pot-kettle issues here given what MS and I have perpetrated, but that just gives me the experience to tell you: the readers notice.

Yours sincerely,
RivkaT

A clotheshorse and a sociopath: sounds like a pretty good match for Lex, actually. But Anita already has more hot men than she knows what to do with.

Comments

I was disappointed in Cerulean Sins

[raveninthewind.livejournal.com]

But not surprised. The Anita Blake series has been going downhill for years now. Besides the crap editing, the tired/thin plot, and the airing (yet-again) of LKH's various kinks/fetishes, there is a bigger problem.
And I say this as a devoted fan of the series in the early days...
Her work has become overpriced, hardbound fanfic—and it's mediocre fanfic.
It's shiny and pretty at times, but it's unsatisfying now as nonalcoholic beer. She needs to wind up the series soon; the sequelitis is terminal.
LKH's books always had some weaknesses in writing and plotting, but the basic premise was so fun and her character Anita was so likeable that readers could overlook the general Mary Sue-ish quality. It's pretty darn near impossible to suspend disbelief now.

Re: I was disappointed in Cerulean Sins

[rivkat.livejournal.com]

I know what you mean. The trouble is, I really want to see Anita address the fact, oft mentioned but never much examined, that she's made herself into a sociopath, abandoning even the rigid sexual morality that was her one area without compromise. One of the opening scenes of Cerulean Sins, where she nearly goads a hit man into drawing on her just to see who's better, was very promising, but that thread, and the hit man, just wafted away from the plot. I will still be reading, because I hate to give up (I did in fact at least fast forward through every episode of the X-Files' final season), but I now think any insights about what it is to fight monsters will have to come from my own interpretations, not hers. Oh, Edward, how the mighty have fallen!