Do I like the setting? Well... sort of. I like the way she describes ordinary people trying to deal with the supernatural, like that Christian family in Bloody Bones that didn't want their daughter to rise as a vampire. I like there being vaccins against lycanthropy, people going to vampire stripclubs, that there are college courses in the supernatural. I like the feeling of weirdness intruding on normal life.
However, while I like the humans dealing with supernatural stuff, I don't like most of the supernatural stuff in and of itself. Vampire politics are stupid, since the rules never get reinforced except when it's convenient for the plot - Belle Morte plays slavishly by the rules when the plot demands it, and breaks them without a second thought when LKH wants to demonstrate how evil she is. The vampires themselves are icky, walking corpses, not sexy in the least. Werecreatures seem never to do anything but grunt and growl at each other, except when LKH wants them to be sexy and endearing, at which point they stop acting like werecreatures at all.
And let's not forget my pet peeve, the issue of "power." LKH loves that word. Someone's "power" is forever filling the room and crawling over people's skins and pulsing through their grip. What can you do with "power"? Apparently, everything and nothing. I have yet to have it explained to me (within the books) how a vampire's "power" is different from a werewolf's "power" or a faerie's "power." LKH loves to make those swooning descriptions of overwhelming, all-consuming "power," but she seems to have little use for it except as a device to show that her characters are incredibly cool and unique.
This is the complete opposite of how I want things to be in fantasy. I want people to have discrete abilities, not some faceless, shapeless "power." There is some of that in AB:VH, and I enjoy it - vampires being able to "roll people with their eyes" is very cool, for instance - but all in all, LKH seems not to be very interested in what her characters can actually do, but rather more interested in explaining that they're, like, really powerful and stuff.
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2007-05-04 06:31 am (UTC)However, while I like the humans dealing with supernatural stuff, I don't like most of the supernatural stuff in and of itself. Vampire politics are stupid, since the rules never get reinforced except when it's convenient for the plot - Belle Morte plays slavishly by the rules when the plot demands it, and breaks them without a second thought when LKH wants to demonstrate how evil she is. The vampires themselves are icky, walking corpses, not sexy in the least. Werecreatures seem never to do anything but grunt and growl at each other, except when LKH wants them to be sexy and endearing, at which point they stop acting like werecreatures at all.
And let's not forget my pet peeve, the issue of "power." LKH loves that word. Someone's "power" is forever filling the room and crawling over people's skins and pulsing through their grip. What can you do with "power"? Apparently, everything and nothing. I have yet to have it explained to me (within the books) how a vampire's "power" is different from a werewolf's "power" or a faerie's "power." LKH loves to make those swooning descriptions of overwhelming, all-consuming "power," but she seems to have little use for it except as a device to show that her characters are incredibly cool and unique.
This is the complete opposite of how I want things to be in fantasy. I want people to have discrete abilities, not some faceless, shapeless "power." There is some of that in AB:VH, and I enjoy it - vampires being able to "roll people with their eyes" is very cool, for instance - but all in all, LKH seems not to be very interested in what her characters can actually do, but rather more interested in explaining that they're, like, really powerful and stuff.
End rant. =]