LKH, seriously. W.T.F.
Oct. 15th, 2006 11:22 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
nightangel486.livejournal.com posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
lkh_lashouts I thought maybe I'd try to read the rest of your Anita Blake series, just for the heck of it, and to see just how horrible this book really was. But man, I had no idea just how bad it really was. I'm over halfway through this book and there has been no considerable plot whatsoever. Just Anita getting the ardeurerur and having lots and lots of sex with lots and lots of guys. And I never really noticed before, or maybe have just forgotten, how incredibly annoying and hypocritical Anita is. She admits she's self-deluding and a burden on everyone with her stubbornness and whatnot, but won't do anything to change it.
It really makes me mad and sad at the same time that instead of making up one or two strong, solid plotlines and following them through to the end, instead she creates five or six of them but gets so wrapped up in the sex and bickering b/w Anita and, well, everyone else, that those poor little plotlines fall to the wayside and are never resolved. What a serious waste of potential. I mean, come on she's met at least one or two people in the book thus far (I'm not finished with it yet so I can't speak as to whether she does resolve these plots) that could serve as major villains--Narcissus, who has definite cool bad guy or at least meddlesome semi-ally potential, and the werelions/snakes whatever they are. She introduces them at the beginning of the book, and as of where I am in the book right now we have yet to hear from them again. It makes me kind of buy into the whole LKH's-divorce-ruined-her-writing theory, since I believe the whole debaucle was going down while she was in the middle of writing this book, correct? It seems like she started out in the right direction, then the divorce came along and she decided, "hey! now I can get over this by writing all that "kinky" sex I've always wanted to write but my mean old husband wouldn't let me!"
Or what about Damien? I haven't gotten past the lupanar yet, so I don't know if she makes good on her promise to come retrieve him, but just his whole presence in the book pisses me off. Not because I have anything against Damien, but because the way she glosses over his whole ordeal made me realize what wasted potential lay in his story too. Asher briefly asks Anita if she remembers anything about a couple who were seemingly killed by a rabid beast, and tells her it was Damien. I, for one, would have really liked to see LKH scrap NiC altogether and instead, maybe write a book where Anita is in St. Louis when all of this shit is going down and--gasp!--actually does some policework and Executioning to hunt him down and maybe even, dare I say it, be forced to do her job and kill him??? Imagine what fun Anita could have had wangsting over that whole ordeal! Imagine a book with no PWP and where Anita finds out Damien is the one doing the killings and must decide if he can be saved or must be executed! Where Micah and the ardeur have yet to exist! The fact that LKH chose to casually bring up such a topic and cast it aside pisses me off. What happened to vampires that attack or kill humans being executed by Anita? Because if you ask me, here is a clear-cut case of a vampire killing some humans, and I don't care if it was Anita's fault or not, it could have made a kickass book.
But yes, the ardeur. I actually had no idea that it turned up as early as NiC. If this plot-device had been handled in a different manner, I could see it having at least some value and adding something to the books and Anita becoming more like "the monsters", but no, of course Anita must be her stubborn self, keep maintaining she is not and will never be a slut (at which I point and laugh at her) and try to fight the ardeur instead of doing something, oh, I don't know practical for once and feeding it when it needs fed, and going to Jean-Claude for help in controlling it so that she doesn't end up doing something stupid or just downright wrong. Then maybe we wouldn't still be putting up with this crap several books later.
*sigh* okay, I'm done. Just had to get that off my chest. I've been making note of amusing quotes as I've been reading, when I finish I plan to post them complete with snark. SOme of them provide some startling insight into Laurellita's oh-so-dark head.
It really makes me mad and sad at the same time that instead of making up one or two strong, solid plotlines and following them through to the end, instead she creates five or six of them but gets so wrapped up in the sex and bickering b/w Anita and, well, everyone else, that those poor little plotlines fall to the wayside and are never resolved. What a serious waste of potential. I mean, come on she's met at least one or two people in the book thus far (I'm not finished with it yet so I can't speak as to whether she does resolve these plots) that could serve as major villains--Narcissus, who has definite cool bad guy or at least meddlesome semi-ally potential, and the werelions/snakes whatever they are. She introduces them at the beginning of the book, and as of where I am in the book right now we have yet to hear from them again. It makes me kind of buy into the whole LKH's-divorce-ruined-her-writing theory, since I believe the whole debaucle was going down while she was in the middle of writing this book, correct? It seems like she started out in the right direction, then the divorce came along and she decided, "hey! now I can get over this by writing all that "kinky" sex I've always wanted to write but my mean old husband wouldn't let me!"
Or what about Damien? I haven't gotten past the lupanar yet, so I don't know if she makes good on her promise to come retrieve him, but just his whole presence in the book pisses me off. Not because I have anything against Damien, but because the way she glosses over his whole ordeal made me realize what wasted potential lay in his story too. Asher briefly asks Anita if she remembers anything about a couple who were seemingly killed by a rabid beast, and tells her it was Damien. I, for one, would have really liked to see LKH scrap NiC altogether and instead, maybe write a book where Anita is in St. Louis when all of this shit is going down and--gasp!--actually does some policework and Executioning to hunt him down and maybe even, dare I say it, be forced to do her job and kill him??? Imagine what fun Anita could have had wangsting over that whole ordeal! Imagine a book with no PWP and where Anita finds out Damien is the one doing the killings and must decide if he can be saved or must be executed! Where Micah and the ardeur have yet to exist! The fact that LKH chose to casually bring up such a topic and cast it aside pisses me off. What happened to vampires that attack or kill humans being executed by Anita? Because if you ask me, here is a clear-cut case of a vampire killing some humans, and I don't care if it was Anita's fault or not, it could have made a kickass book.
But yes, the ardeur. I actually had no idea that it turned up as early as NiC. If this plot-device had been handled in a different manner, I could see it having at least some value and adding something to the books and Anita becoming more like "the monsters", but no, of course Anita must be her stubborn self, keep maintaining she is not and will never be a slut (at which I point and laugh at her) and try to fight the ardeur instead of doing something, oh, I don't know practical for once and feeding it when it needs fed, and going to Jean-Claude for help in controlling it so that she doesn't end up doing something stupid or just downright wrong. Then maybe we wouldn't still be putting up with this crap several books later.
*sigh* okay, I'm done. Just had to get that off my chest. I've been making note of amusing quotes as I've been reading, when I finish I plan to post them complete with snark. SOme of them provide some startling insight into Laurellita's oh-so-dark head.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2006-10-16 07:33 am (UTC)However, your post makes me think of a fic that a friend of mine wrote a good while back. It's called "Asher's Kiss" and it takes place after NIC, and it addresses the whole Damian thing.
http://beellegee.tripod.com/purplepassions/id16.html
It's written by BeElleGee. You can read it, if you're interested. She's quite well known in the fandom for her work. She's an excellent writer.
That link might be of interest to you. :)
no subject
Date: 2006-10-16 07:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-17 12:55 pm (UTC)so it was like totally ok that he killed them ... as he was teh mad from missing teh specuhl Anita
no subject
Date: 2006-10-16 11:54 am (UTC)I'd love to see Anita have to kill some vampires again, rather than shag them into doe-eyed submission, but I doubt it'll ever happen. I might add Damien to my Free Asher/Sholto Campaign.
no subject
Date: 2006-10-16 01:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-16 03:10 pm (UTC)Seriously, that thing never sat right with me. Damian went on a killing spree but oh -- okay, Anita kinda likes him so it's all right that he goes off and kills innocent bystanders. I can understand if Anita has a moral quandary over JC killing a bunch of people because she's omginlove with him, but Damian? C'MON, he's a flunky. Flunkies can totally be replaced. Show the other vampires that Random Killing Sprees aren't tolerated in JC Inc, or that she's still got her independent streak and not JC's pet. Wayyy more interesting than getting him out of the coffin, reaffirming that she is his Master and he's her servant and all that other sticky crap.
Not to mention, we never get much of Gretchen after this either. I like Gretchen. I likes me some crazy.
I've been wondering if there were any other vampires in coffins down there because we find out a bunch later that JC didn't execute any that used to work for Nikolaos. Usually, in a new regime, you get rid of the old guard and restcok everything with loyalists. JC just called home some of his old pals and those he created, but didn't go about filling the positions left behind. So I have to wonder if A) he liked (which I'd like to think so) B) he's got the Nikolaos cronies locked up - and if so, you'd think Anita would crack a fit about that and demand that they get defrosted or C) has them running around on a short leash, which would be amazingly cool because surely they'd be pissed as fuck with the way the city is being run.
...and after all that ranting - if you think you're pissed off with lack of plot potential now? Just try to get yourself through the next two books. OMG SO MUCH STUFF THAT SHOULD BE AWESOME is left by the wayside in favour of more of the sex. Carefully plotted out, meticulously wangsted, boring porn that must happen because somehow, it hinges on life-and-death.
All this is totally why I want to rewrite the books, or open a comm for everyone else to rewrite the books and take up all that potential that LKH has just let slide.
no subject
Date: 2006-10-16 03:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-16 03:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-16 03:43 pm (UTC)Slut in Chains
Date: 2006-10-16 07:25 pm (UTC)First big thing was Anita acting like a lycanthrope. Of course she maybe acting that way. She just married the marks with Richard (getting a charge in power) and the same can be said with Jean-Claude (hint the ardeur). But everyone was all worried that next full moon she would be furry. Oh hello people ... she is Jean-Claude's HUMAN SERVANT not ANIMAL SERVANT. She can not get the virus to become a lycanthrope. The many nice things about being a HUMAN SERVANT.
She wakes up naked in bed with two strange men. You would have thought Anita would have gone for her gun but that didn't happen. Anita not have threatening anyone is a shocker. Not only did she let them live but went right ahead and had sex with one of them. A WTF moment. Anita and casual sex does not happen.
The book pretty much went on with more sex because of the ardeur.The final scene was so rushed and slapped together it appeared as an addendum, not the final slam-bang ending. And she wound up all the issues that had run through the entire over-long book in the epilogue! Was Anita really going to be "furry" at the full moon? What about Richard? Was she going to be kicked out of the werewolf pack (and, by the way, is EVERYone in St. Louis a were-something? It must be quite an event every full moon) Can JC accept Anita being a total slut? All these things were dragged endlessly through the book and were dealt with in 2 pages. Reeeaaallly bad. I guess you can say there was a mystery to the book. It was called find the plot.
Anita Does St. Louis or my other favorite Slut in Chains should have been the title.
Anita used to be a really cool character. A female character, that was strong and brave. She had a fierce personal code that applied to her professional life, and her sex life (what a wonderful novelty in most novels). And she had a vulnerability that was touching. She loses that a bit more with each book, and now its gone forever with this book. And giving her all this magical power just means she no longer has need to actually use her brain. The "ardeur" garbage should be incredibly offended...especially to women. Anita had morals when it came to sex....not anymore, lets give her this curse that makes it impossible to resist sex. What next? A curse that makes it impossible to keep her clothes on? Why hasn't Anita taken responsibility for her sexlife when you can just remove her freedom of choice, and put in plenty of meaningless and badly written sex scenes?
Now for the other characters The terrific Jean-Claude is now Anita's faithful little pet; merely one of her many lovers, he dutifully shows up to explain stuff and help out a little when needed, and then scampers back to his coffin at daybreak with a pat on his head. What a waste! Richard is slashed and burned as a character. Richard, who showed signs in Blue Moon of finally coming to grips with his bad furry self, is once again the self-loathing bleeding-heart trapped in a predator's body... another waste!
And speaking of cardboard characters, Micah shows up on the scene. He is Anita's "Nimir-Raj" (I think thats wereleopard for "he who kisses Anita's backside"). According to the writer in an interview, he was brought in to "simplify Anita's lovelife". So, I guess instead of working through issues with the characters already introduced and developed, its easier to take the cheap and easy way out and write in a character that should have "the perfect mate in every way for Anita" stamped on his forehead. Disappointing, very disappointing.
Than there is the Downward Spiral comment LKH said to fans. Which I will leave that for later.
no subject
Date: 2006-10-16 07:37 pm (UTC)Because I was happy when he took charge at the lupanar, it showed he was capable of acting like a true Ulfric. But no, LHK has to take that a step further, because Richard can't be a dominant but capable Ulfric, he has to storm in and become a total jealous ass, followed by a nearly bi-polar reversal into pathetic crying pussy. There is seriously a part in NiC where Anita realizes that Richard has accepted his beast and is finally ocmfortable with himself, then not even TWO PAGES later he's ranting and raving about how much he hates being a werewolf. What gives?
no subject
Date: 2006-10-16 07:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-16 08:03 pm (UTC)LKH has said in several blogs that when she finishes a book in one series (OB, in this instance) she writes the next few chapters of the next one to give herself a jumping-off point. So she wrote the first few chapters of NiC (popular speculation is the first 100 or so) immediately after she finished OB. Then she wrote the first Merry Gentry book.
It was during this time that she married Jon, while she was working on KoS. And then when she went back to NiC, Micah suddenly appeared--the short red-headed King Wereleopard-to-Anita's-Queen, the soulbeast instasoulmate. (Or solemate, depending on how you look at it.) LKH has always loosely based Anita on herself, provably and increasingly so recently, and Richard's fortunes turned at the same time Gary's did, and have SUCKED ever since.
This all just goes back to the idea of how life imitates art in my opinion.
no subject
Date: 2006-10-17 05:34 am (UTC)