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[ilovelouisxiv.livejournal.com]

Hello, I'm new to this community, and I'm really excited I discovered others like me. :) Please be gentle.

I've read most of Laurell K Hamilton's books, but in Hungarian. I slogged through the later stories because I was fascinated by Jean-Claude, and vampires in general. As the series progressed, all I did was flip to the pages that had Jean-Claude speaking. I ignored the wretched 'ma petites' and completely unexplainable scenes and tried my hardest to imagine him as he should be. Well, my imagination can only go so far. 

The books have so much potential, the original idea of vampires and werewolves living out in the open is wonderful, but Hamilton seems like a very stubborn, vengeful type of person who has a difficult time separating her real life from her stories. There was an interview, I remember, where she was asked what her background was and how it impacted her writing. She immediately said "I have two degrees: English and biology." I found that a bit of an odd answer. She spoke so much of her DEGREES, her profound knowledge of political science and history (ha!) it's almost like she was bragging. She also speaks so much of how she defied and challenged her detractors, and the English professor that didn't like her. I've formed a picture of Ms. Hamilton and unfortunately it is a very negative picture, and it makes it even harder for me to enjoy her writing. She is smug and cannot keep her series steady. The series has no point! I couldn't believe my eyes when I read her response to a question about her future plans with Anita Blake; she said she didn't KNOW what she wanted to happen. So is it any wonder that the stories have so many mistakes and inconsistencies? Just compare the Harry Potter series to Anita Blake and all Ms. Hamilton's mistakes become glaringly apparent. J.K Rowling is in firm control of her characters, she kills characters that need to be killed, and has an amazing and developed purposeful plot, while Laurell K Hamilton seems to be haunted and controlled by the voices of these fantasies she created. They are just fantasies. They have no breadth.

If I weren't such a sucker for sexy French vampires, I would stop reading now. I miss Jean-Claude. I wish Laurell K Hamilton was smart enough to give him a plausible history ... and a surname!

Comments

[dan-lian.livejournal.com]

I'd be very curious to see if her writing improved with the translation to Hungarian. ;)

Welcome to the club!

[ilovelouisxiv.livejournal.com]

I think the translated version is slightly better. Few words are repeated ad nauseum, and I'm spared the innumerable "spills" and other grammar problems that I've heard are in the English versions.

Thank you so much for the warm welcome!

[allova.livejournal.com]

Oh my god, they translated the books into Hungarian?? Oh god, the poor translators. I've got to find these books, reading them would be even more surreal than reading Harry Potter in Hungarian.

(Also: Hello, fellow Hungarian speaker!)

[ilovelouisxiv.livejournal.com]

Szia! Narcissus in Chains was the most recent book to be translated. I'm still trying to read it, but it's difficult.

I've read Harry Potter in Hungarian, English, and French. Yes, I'm weird and obsessed.

[quizzicalsphinx.livejournal.com]

Hang around here long enough and you will get very, very tired of hearing about those damn degrees. Glad to have you aboard!

[belleweather.livejournal.com]

...plus, when JK Rowling makes a mistake with math/continuity/whatever, she generally says "Oh, yeah. Oops!" Rather than something along the lines of "OMG I'm perfect, how dare you impugine my masterpieces?!?"

[freyalorelei.livejournal.com]

*nods* She admitted on her site that she wrote Hedwig wrong because at the time she didn't know that snowy owls are diurnal. She explains her mistakes, and if she really screws up she doesn't go "OMG I meant to do that!", it's just a simple, "Whoops, my bad, sorry."

[ilovelouisxiv.livejournal.com]

Wow ... is there something I'm missing?

Also, I live in the middle of nowhere, and I'm satisfied with enjoying just the stories. So, I'm safe from whatever you are insinuating. I think. o_O

[found-then-lost.livejournal.com]

It amazes me that LKH brags about how she knows so much about History. I got really annoyed because in a blog a long time ago she was saying something about France and Germany fighting over Alsace-Loran(sp?) for hundreds of years. If she is so wise in History, shouldn't she know that Germany hasn't actually been a 'country' for hundreds of years. It was made in the late 1800s, in the German wars of unification, when Germany stole Alsace and Loran from France. France got in back afetr the Treaty of Versallies in 1919. Unfortunately my knowledge of the subject ends there, but still.

If you say you know history, know history. Don't say hundreds when you mean hundred. Big difference.

[ilovelouisxiv.livejournal.com]

To me it seems that Laurell K Hamilton's knowledge of history is something she got from briefly researching certain points in time that she needed to understand to make some of her vampires more real. To give them simple back stories. However, I find Jean-Claude's history ridiculous. None of her vampire characters have that depth, that intelligence and cunning and worldly experience that would be expected from beings hundreds, hell, even thousands, of years old.
The terribly stupid vampires and Ms. Hamilton's smugness about her knowledge of history bothers me the most because vampires and history are what I LOVE the most.

[cicipsychobunny.livejournal.com]

Alsace-Lorraine, and Germany dates its country-hood from 1870. /German major

Hence why Alsatian dogs are sometimes called German shepherds, apparently.

[windiain.livejournal.com]

To be fair, there's only so much historical information that you can fit on a sanely sized calendar. ;)

[fashi0n-mistake.livejournal.com]

I miss Jean-Claude.

I miss Richard...

Lol. Welcome to the club! I completely agree with you about LKH's maturity level. She does seem to have a problem with grudges. Problem being she can't let things go. Which, of course, reflects badly in her writing. *sighs* A little revenge, like naming the bad guy after the person who annoyed you in high school, is fun but revenge like destroying the character you based on your ex-husband when you divorced...Understandable but it only alienates the fans of that character.

*sniffs* I always look to Tolkien for a strong plot/world/theme/characters/etc but I do have to admit that Rowling, despite being a 'children's' author, has a much better grasp on her world than LKH does. Quite a shame since the Anita Blake books used to be extremely interesting.

Anyway, welcome to the little cluster of sanity amidst the insanity! *laughs*

[ilovelouisxiv.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much for the welcome. :) At last, I have a place to talk to others that feel the same as I do! I can't even tell you how relieved I am.

I think the biggest problem with LKH's stories is that there is no central goal in them. There is nothing to strive towards. With LoTR, obviously we know the destruction of the one ring is the goal and the story centers around that, with neat little side plots added. With Harry Potter, the goal is to defeat Voldemort. There is no goal in Anita Blake, just whispers of evil things to come, that never do materialise. *sigh*

[cicipsychobunny.livejournal.com]

Waitafuckingminute. I was about to post that, "At least Voldemort isn't defeated by the power of Twue Wuv, which is incomprehensible to him", and then, you know, I thought about what I was writing, and had to facepalm.

I guess at least the last three books weren't just "Harry develops a new power and conquers the bad guys by having orgies with every single female Gryffindor", but I'm sure there's a fanfic of that somewhere.

[ilovelouisxiv.livejournal.com]

The inconsistencies in Harry Potter are minor compared to those of Anita Blake.
And JK Rowling remains humbles when made aware of them.

[baeraad.livejournal.com]

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. THANK YOU! :D

I can't believe how common it is for someone to explain the failings of some book by comparing it unfavourably to Harry Potter. I mean, Harry Potter isn't the worst series out there by any means, but it gives me a headache when people treat it like some ideal to aspire to.

[ladyravana.livejournal.com]

I've formed a picture of Ms. Hamilton and unfortunately it is a very negative picture, and it makes it even harder for me to enjoy her writing. She is smug and cannot keep her series steady. The series has no point! I couldn't believe my eyes when I read her response to a question about her future plans with Anita Blake; she said she didn't KNOW what she wanted to happen. So is it any wonder that the stories have so many mistakes and inconsistencies? Just compare the Harry Potter series to Anita Blake and all Ms. Hamilton's mistakes become glaringly apparent. J.K Rowling is in firm control of her characters, she kills characters that need to be killed, and has an amazing and developed purposeful plot, while Laurell K Hamilton seems to be haunted and controlled by the voices of these fantasies she created. They are just fantasies. They have no breadth.

You know, with this, you've REALLY hit the nail on the head when it comes to our many, MANY grievances with the later books. And my advice? You might want to stop at NIC. CS is marginallly readable. Incubus Dreams is a disaster. (I burned my copy, and it was a freaking HARDBACK.) Danse Macabre...I sincerely hope you haven't read it, because that's a book I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy.

Anyways...welcome to the comm! You will indeed find a save haven here among us former fans. Come sit by the fire and have some tea and cookies! We are the voices of reason fighting against the sanity.

I, like you, was (and admittedly still am) a JC fan. I have a softspot for that vampire, in spite of myself, and it's a pity that his great potential as a character has been so terribly wasted. *le sigh* However, I find solace in the PDS archive. May I point you over there? It has some excellent AB fics, and the forum isn't bad either. It's a mixed bag of fans and former fans, and overall, the people there are pretty nice.

http://www.pommedesang.com/efiction/index.php

There's the link. :) And if you want to try your hand at fanfic, sign on up! Your English is very, very good, if I may say so myself. I've figured that hey, if I don't like canon, I'll go read fic instead! It's better written and best of all, FREE.

[ladyravana.livejournal.com]

Fighting against the INSANITY.

Bah, I fail...*HEADDESKS*

I just caught that error.

Stupid LJ for not letting me edit comments. OOooops. :p

[ikona-rakasha.livejournal.com]

i thought everyone knew Jean Claude last name.... van damned of course

[windiain.livejournal.com]

Oh god. That's baaaaaaaaaad. XD

[fangedsekhmet.livejournal.com]

Her English teacher hated her? Can't think why...

Series has no direction

[ladymuttly1.livejournal.com]

I'm actually okay with the idea that a series can start, and in theory finish with no direction. I mean I enjoy network television and firmly believe that shows like CSI, NCIS, or Law and Order intend to go on for freakin ever without coming to a conclusion. Shows like Friends or Everyone Loves Raymond took YEARS and hundreds of episodes to progress character arcs. Better yet, use House as an example. The Cuddy/House/Wilson/Cameron relationship circle could go on for YEARS without resolution. The key to the show is that while the relationships are interesting, the medical mystery give the show a structure and keeps it from being a soap opera.

LKH could have written each Anita book as though it was a murder mystery while following the House format and been very successful. The books that we all loved, GP, CotD etc all read more or less like that. My problem is that now the individual stories have no freaking purpose or outline. I mean, come on every author should have a goal, message or outcome in writing an individual story,

Re: Series has no direction

[freyalorelei.livejournal.com]

THANK YOU. That's pretty much what I tried saying earlier, only you explained it better. :)

[baeraad.livejournal.com]

Howdy. :)

Jean-Claude used to be pretty awesome, I agree. All polite and civilised and reasonable, and such a complete machiavellian asshole beneath it all. And beneath that there was someone who was human and injured and devoted to never being denied anything he wanted, ever again.

I really loved Anita's phone conversation with him in Bloody Bones.

ANITA: I need an escort to talk to the Master of the City. Can you send me one?

JEAN-CLAUDE: My goodness. You're going to need a very powerful escort... and I don't really have anyone powerful enough except for myself. Are you asking me to drop everything I'm doing and run to your rescue?

ANITA: If I did, I'd owe you big time, wouldn't I?

JEAN-CLAUDE: Oh, I would never dream of insinuating any such thing.

ANITA: But I'd feel like I owed you big time. It would make it all the harder for me to refuse any request you might make in the future.

JEAN-CLAUDE: Why, yeeees, it would, wouldn't it?

ANITA: Grrrrrrrr... yes, Jean-Claude, I'm asking you to drop everything you're doing and run to my rescue.

JEAN-CLAUDE: Why, your wish is my command. By the way, did I mention that I'm going to have to stay in your hotel room, which means I'm going to get plenty of opportunities to expose my hot, half-naked body to you, thereby straining your already so strained decision not to sleep with me?

It's so sad that he turned all nice and supportive once he and Anita got together for real. He turned from a great character into pretty much a non-character. What a waste. :(

However, though I admit that LKH compares very badly to JK Rowling, I think she'd compare even worse to some author who was actually, well, good. :P

(*sighs and winces*) Cranky anti-Potter heretic, nothing to see here... ;)

[ilovelouisxiv.livejournal.com]

Jeez, if I knew how many people disliked Harry Potter, I would have compared Laurell K Hamilton to, say, Umberto Eco or Émile Zola. I only made the connection between Harry Potter and Anita Blake because they're two series that hold a similar place in my heart. I read them for pure fun. The other books I read are mostly historical and classic fiction. Now, THESE would compare even worse to Anita Blake simply because they are so so vastly different. :/

You described Jean-Claude so well. :)