I’m done

[pjthompson]

Crazy busy days lately, at work, at home.  I’m having company for dinner tomorrow night and have spent the day cleaning and organizing.  We’re doing a low country boil and it should be fun.  Shrimp and sausage and halibut and potatoes and onions and spicy crab boil seasoning.  I won’t be able to have any beer with that, which is a great pity, as the only weekend we could all get together was the weekend before an important (but routine) blood test and I’ve given up sugar in all forms.

But none of that is the subject of this post or why I felt compelled to sit down a half hour before midnight to put it down.  I haven’t had much time to blog lately and there’s a build up of effluvia.  I was afraid if I didn’t take a moment now, some vitally important inane information might be lost to history.  So, here it is: what I’m done with is not housekeeping or cooking, it’s Laurell K. Hamilton.

I hadn’t read anything by her in a long time, but I found myself curious to see what was up with her.  The last Anita Blake book I read actually had some semblance of a plot, contrary to several of the ones that had come before.  I mean, a plot having more to do with being “forced” to have sex with dozens of men and endless discussions amongst the characters as to what had just happened, why it had happened, and why the sexcapades were totally, completely against her real true morality, but she couldn’t help it.  She just couldn’t help it.  At heart, she was really a “good girl.”

Uh, anyway, I stuck with LKH a lot longer than I should have, though most of my friends had given up on her, mostly because of the not-Anita characters.  I really loved some of them and wanted to know what was going on with them, although most of the ones I really liked got short shrift in the cavalcade of porn the books had become.  I’m stubborn, I guess.  So I picked up Blood Noir last night and decided I’d wallow in it, to see if that promise of actual plot in The Harlequin meant LKH was finally snapping out of her narrow focus.  The first several chapters were an extended sex scene between Anita and two guys, plus endless discussions of what had just happened, why it had happened, and why the sexcapades were totally, completely against her real true morality, but she couldn’t help it.  She just couldn’t help it.  At heart, she was really a “good girl.”

And I realized that I really no longer gave a damn about any of those characters.  Finding out what might be going on with them was no longer worth slogging through the slush these books have become.  I like me a good sex scene, have no trouble walking on the pervy side, but I do prefer to have my sexy fiction have some actual fiction in it to go along with the ol’ boogaloo.

I moved consequently LKH’s books from the TBR pile to the recycle pile.  I don’t think they’ll be wending their way back out again.

And no telling when I may get to set down more inane content again.  Watch this space.

Mirrored from Better Than Dead.

Comments

[frigg.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I've been eyeing those books for years, not sure whether I should pick them up or not. Now I think I won't. ;)

[pjthompson]

Books 3 through about 8 or 9 were actually quite riveting. It took her a few books to come up to speed (but they were enjoyable), but starting with the book after Narcissus in Chains she started going off the rails.

[darkspires.livejournal.com]

It is hugely disappointing when a series goes down the tubes like this. I have to wonder if this mess is an over reaction to the concept of sex selling? Why yes, it does if one cares about the cararacters involved and if their circumstances pass the plausibility test.

I note there is a BNA out there, who's book I read on the glowing recommendation of another BNA, only I didn't get past the first couple of chapters. It was a pure sexathon and I completely failed to discern any form of a plot, unless that would be how to get character A to perform with character B more frequently, longer, and with more kink.

I do enjoy a good sex scene and the build up of sexual tension, but if I wanted a book purely about the physical act, then I would have bought me a copy of the Karma Sutra, which in reflection, would probably have been more interesting.

[pjthompson]

Yeah, it's definitely a balancing act. I can read books that are heavily sex and enjoy them (!) if there's characters I like and a plot moving its way through on some level, but LKH has finally lost me there.

[stillnotbored.livejournal.com]

I gave up on LKH long, long ago. The last book I finished was Narcissus in Chains, only because of Edward. I might have gotten half way through Cerulean Sins, maybe only a third, before I stopped reading and never picked up another one of her books.

What hooked me on that series to start with was the world building, the characters--especially Edward--and the mysteries Anita needed to solve. Plot and character all went by the wayside in favor of sex, sex and more sex, and then a little more sex with extra kink.

Frankly, I got bored. If I wanted porn instead of dark fantasy, I'd buy porn.

Or, you know, bodice rippers. *g*

[pjthompson]

Yes, exactly. The sex was fine as long as it was an accompaniment to the worldbuilding, the mysteries, the characters, but she really took a great series and flushed it down the commode, imho. Very disappointing.

However, she does still seem to be doing all right for herself, so not everyone has given up on her, it seems. As I said, I hung on out of pure stubbornness for a lot longer than I should have. I kept hoping that she'd get back on the rails, and especially after The Harlequin, which definitely had strong echoes of the way the series used to be. But I just wasn't willing to go there with her anymore.

[kmkibble75.livejournal.com]

I've been on the fringe of that series for a while, but have never actually read one. I don't think I could take the whinging about the deeds afterward, because, honestly, if you keep doing something past the first time, well, you're the type of person who does that thing! Accept it and move on and we'll all be happier for it.

[pjthompson]

Exactly. But the first 9 books were a different world altogether and a very groundbreaking dark urban fantasy and quite enjoyable. I still enjoyed a couple of books after #9 but after Narcissus in Chains it really started to change for the worse.