What genre did she invent?

[karmyn75.livejournal.com]

Just what genre did LKH invent? Vampires? Nope, that's been around for centuries. Just about every culture on earth has tales of vampires. Same with werefolk, ghosts, zombies, and other supernatural critters. Horror? Nope, again been around practically forever. Porn? Nope. That's another old one. Cavemen probably had porn. Supernatural romances have been around quite a long time, too.
I can name several books about vampires that were published before LKH. Chelsea Quinn Yarbo started publishing her St. Germain series in the 1970s. Stephen King published 'Salems Lot in 1975. Kim Newman started her series in 1992. Even Terry Prattchett has done a vampire book.
So, what genre did she invent?

Comments

[cassildra.livejournal.com]

Easy. The "I'm better than you so I'll write what I want" genre.

[shadwing.livejournal.com]

Strong Female Action Lead?

That's also been done to death, her WORLD is somewhat original but the genre itself is not.

[cookie-wolf.livejournal.com]

Even vampire and werewolf porn's been around... So that's not it.

[carabosse.livejournal.com]

Kim Newman is a man (kim newman). :-)

[windiain.livejournal.com]

Yes, I just had a picture of him with boobs in my head. It was a... disturbing thought, especially given his facial hair. XD

[xtricks.livejournal.com]

Well, the two things that she really broght to public conciousness were:

1 Open modern supernatural stories - things where the world at large knows and belives in vampires/monsters/ghosts/magic etc and the stories are set in a slightly alternate world to 'ours'.

This is significant, there have been plenty of modern horror novels and a few that mixed it up with strong women/dtective fic but the publicly known aspect was new to large scale publishing.

2 Soft core horror porn with strong romance novel influences aimed at women. Her stuff, until relatively recently, wasn't defined as a sub-genre of romance novels but as horror with an explicit romance thread.

Of the two, the first is more significant.

[deire.livejournal.com]

1: Charles De Lint beat her to that by a lot, as far back as Mulengro.

[xtricks.livejournal.com]

DeLint's work wasn't a world where supernatual creatures were widely and publicly known, with effects on law, politcs etc. His stories are about a small number of peole who come to belive in the supernatural. Mulnegro, as an example, involved a minority groupd (gypsies), who belive in magic, but the world at large, generally did not.

[ladymina.livejournal.com]

01 stories where the world at large knows about vampires, and vampires are having high positions and stuff has been done before - anno dracula for example

[lyo.livejournal.com]

Anno Dracula (even though I don't much like it) >>>> Anita Blake

[shadwing.livejournal.com]

And while not in a prose format, mythical creatures living openly in a modern world has been done in several long running RPG games. ShadowRun for example was first published in then 1989 and features magic, vampires, ghouls, and weres living openly in a modern setting. Heck a 'nation' of ghouls is trying to become reconizes as a legit country by the UN. A Dragon ran for President. Elves have their own nations ect.

[clover-elf-kin.livejournal.com]

Do any of these have much in the way of history books? It was the alternate-history details that impressed me the most when I first got into Anita Blake, like the line about how France liked beheadings so much because it killed the living and the undead alike.

[shadwing.livejournal.com]

Well I personally have about 30+ ShadowRun sourcebooks mostly setting books, so yeah there is alot of material out there. Not much in terms of alternate history though since the timeline of ShadowRun starts around 1999 and runs through 2070.

The premise is that Magic comes and goes in cycles lasting about 5000 years each, with the new magic cycle starting in 2011. Vampires (along with a gaggle of other magical/supernatural creatures) re-emerge during this time and in this more modern socity they deal with various levels of acceptance and oppression.

[deire.livejournal.com]

The mainstream publication of the Mary Sue? Oh wait, that was better done in Star Trek. Huh, dunno.

[freyalorelei.livejournal.com]

In a nutshell? Supernatural romance. It's expanded into an actual genre, although since it's so variable, it can be found under sci-fi, fantasy, horror, mystery, and/or romance, depending on which genre the individual book most closely resembles. LKH is in the sci-fi/fantasy section of my local Barnes and Noble, although I've heard others say that she's shelved with horror and romance. It depends on the store. They really need to give Laurell and all the little clones their own section (although calling them "clones" really isn't fair...the ones I've read are better than she is).

[ladymina.livejournal.com]

supernatural romance, in a vampire and witch novel has been done a lot, hell even by Pratchett,

[deire.livejournal.com]

I seem to rememember the "Star Crossed" series or something way back in 1997 or so though. And it wasn't new then. The idea was sci fi, fantasy or horror type romance. Maggie Shayne has been at it a while too.

[foxfire74.livejournal.com]

I find it very, very amusing that all of a sudden all the new LKH clones are being blurbed with "If you liked early Anita Blake, you'll like this."

[grave-tidings.livejournal.com]

Supernatural romance?

Um... I think the Romantics began that. Back to Keats, Shelley, Poe, FeFanu, Stoker, D. H. Lawrence, Coleridge, Wordsworth, Wilde, James, Byron, the Brontes. There are Continental writers as well.

[ladymina.livejournal.com]

How about badly written mary-sue pr0n?

[witchwillow.livejournal.com]

Cave girl 12 yr olds did it first. Though they did RPF.

[coffeehouse.livejournal.com]

Hans Christian Anderson.
He was all about supernatural romances.

[tonights.livejournal.com]

Well, there's not really any such thing as a "caveman," but archaic hominans surely did carve Venus figurines which some paleoanthropologists think are portable pornography. :) So yeah, that genre's been around for quite awhile.

*steps back into the anthropological shadows*

[charmed1ofdoom.livejournal.com]

*squee anthrolpology*

Actually now that you mention it, the woman of wilndorf kinda resembles the comic book art of Guilty Pleasures....In the total disportional sort of way.

[tonights.livejournal.com]

Yes, except the Venus of Willendorf has a pot belly instead of a waist just a little less thick than her thigh, like Anita does. ;)