Really, LKH?

[http://users.livejournal.com/belladonna_/]

Okay, so I checked LKH's Ravenloft book out of the library.

I know, I know, but I had about 10 minutes, really needed a book, couldn't find my first 60 choices, and it was right there, staring me in the face. So I'm reading along, and it's pretty bad, but I think par for the course for a DnD tie-in? I dunno, I don't have much experience with them.

For those of you not familiar with the Ravenloft concept, it seems to be a fantasy world where there's magic and wizards and evil vampire things and monsters and stuff, and the Very Nature of Magic is Bad Bad Bad. The main character is a young girl named Elaine with Special Spooky Powerful Powers. Like I said, it was pretty crappy, but marginally readable... until I get to page 178, and this little gem of a chapter closer:

"A house divided upon itself cannot stand. Elaine couldn't remember who had said that. She hoped that whoever it was was wrong."

*HEADDESK*

Seriously, y'all. It's only, like, the most famous presidential speech ever in the history of ever - a presidential speech which I do *not* believe took place in Ravenloft. And yeah, okay, Jesus said it first, but I don't think he's a character in the Ravenloft universe either.

(*headdeskx2*)

Also - and this was a minor irritation, comparatively - she hyphenates "thank you" throughout the novel. As in, "thank-you."

Really? Really, LKH? Really?

Comments

[freyalorelei.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't blame LKH for the "thank-you"...it's the editor's fault for not catching and correcting it before it went to print.

And I kinda want to get her Ravenloft book, but only used.

[http://users.livejournal.com/belladonna_/]

My closing "Really LKH?" was meant to reflexively encompass the entire post. :)

The "thank-you" business was just mad annoying, no matter whose responsibility it was - I swear, someone says it every other page. I have never seen the phrase so many times in a novel.

Read the novel at your own risk - it was bad. Really bad. But hey, that's what libraries are for?

[freyalorelei.livejournal.com]

Oh, I totally agree that blatant (or even minor) grammatical/spelling/whatever errors are irritating as heck. >.< And--every other page? Ai-ya. My sympathies.

I doubt our library would have it in stock (although it's been re-published, maybe it's easier to get hold of now), but I'll see if I can order it in.

[pith]

it's the editor's fault for not catching and correcting it before it went to print.

In defence of editors, this is not always so. With a series like Ravenloft, probably: LKH didn't have the status yet. But still, she probably got a chance to have a second look before it went to print. Besides, she's the writer. She saw it FIRST. She should have made her manuscript as flawless as possible before sending it out.

[lucilla-darkate.livejournal.com]

So... who said it?

*ducks and runs*

lolz!

[http://users.livejournal.com/belladonna_/]

:P

[pandorasblog]

I would only hyphenate 'thank you' in a descriptive context, eg. a thank-you letter... but now I'm not even sure that's right. :o

Also, further to LKH's tendency to self-insert (ew; that sounded wrong), when I read, 'Elaine couldn't remember who said that,' I think, 'Laurell couldn't be bothered looking it up.' I'm not familiar with the Ravenloft universe, but it seems elementary that if a story's set in a wholly different world, cultural references should be tailored to fit that. LKH could even have adjusted the phrase to suit different imaginary origins, since similar sayings tend to crop up in various languages and cultures.

When did she write this, anyway?

[catskin.livejournal.com]

I noticed a copy of her "Death of a Darklord" book in my Forbidden Planet the other day and was tempted on the basis that it was written waaaaaaaaay before Anita came along and spunked all over everything and therefore was unlikely to be loaded with tedious sex and wangst about tedious sex.

Anyone read it, before I hand over any more of my money to LKH?

[catskin.livejournal.com]

Okay, I'm an idiot. I didn't realise Ravenloft and Death of a Darklord are one and the same. *slaps self* Feel free to point and laugh.

[brandiweed.livejournal.com]

I think they're reprinting Death of a Darklord to go with the updated reissue of the vintage Castle Ravenloft adventure.

Why they didn't pick I, Strahd, which is supposed to be one of the best of the Ravenloft tie-in novels, is beyond me.

[dwg.livejournal.com]

You made it a hell of a lot further through the book than I did. I know I read it years ago, back in high school - or at least tried to read it. I didn't know what Ravenloft was, I didn't care, I was just starting out with LKH and thought it was pretty kickass - and then I started to read DoaD and couldn't get to the end of the first chapter without being horribly confused and bored. So I returned the book as fast as I could.

And yet, I still managed to read four and a half Robert Jordan books that year. Aiii.

[rantingmule.livejournal.com]

Robert Jordan...oh god, is that the Wheel of Time series writer? D:!!!!

[dwg.livejournal.com]

Yah-huh. I swear, that guy put me off high fantasy FOR LIFE! Urban fantasy or Terry Pratchett/David Eddings is my level of coping these days. Asking me to deal with Some Epic Adventure tghat Goes Across An Entire Other World to find the magical whatsit and restore the rightful heir to the throne (who just so happens to be the Unsassuming Farmer's/Butcher's/Blacksmith's son/daughter and has magikal powerz liek woah and sparkly things THAT WILL SAVE US ALLLL!) and take it seriously over umpteen books that are big enough to kill a man with? That's wayyy too much to ask of a mere mortal.

[rantingmule.livejournal.com]

I know. O.O My aunt got me the ENTIRE SERIES as a gift once. I got about three chapters into the first book and had to stop. I could actually hear the ragged, horrified screams of my brain cells dying one by one.

Also...wasn't the Bad Thing named something very similar to "Satan?" :P

[dwg.livejournal.com]

...mercifully, I can't remember. I do remember having the biggest crush on Lan, though. And Lanfear was awesome before she got stupid and so easily defeated. *headdesk* WTF? SHE WAS A GREAT FEMME FATALE AND JORDAN MADE HER DUMBR! *sets fire to things*

I'm never reading those books, ever again.

[world-of-eos.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure I got that book from the library as well, at one point. I know it was a Hamilton book that had something to do with an RPG, or something. I got maybe three pages in and dumped the book because it stank of failure.

The other pre-Anita book that I read (Night-something. Nightseer? I think?) fared a little better by me. Not by much, though. Nothing in that fucking book was ever resolved. It was like LKH had written five or six books with the same characters, than selectively ripped out chunks of each book and stapled them together to make a Franken-novel.

[klmorgan.livejournal.com]

*g* It was Nightseer, and LKH did that deliberately. I remember reading in an interview somewhere that if the book had sold (it didn't), she was going to expand it into a series. Instead, she wrote Anita, and it sold.

[safrialailo.livejournal.com]

I've got the rerealised "Castle Ravenloft" adventure of the more vintage kind. I have no idea what LKH's contribution was like but it better NOT have involved making strahd mr uber sexy, because he just totally ISN'T that was kinda the point. I'm planning on running the original adventure starting next wednesday, should be awesome fun.


As to david eddings, his books aren't thick enough to kill a man and come ON people at least he's FUNNY. (I started out on fantasy in david eddings and whilst he's someone i feel i've ...outgrown to a certain extent I still have a soft spot, i just wish he didn't constantly recycle his characters.