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.

[lucilla-darkate.livejournal.com]

So... who said it?

*ducks and runs*

lolz!

[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?

[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.

[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.