lkh_lashouts | (no subject)

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!

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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*

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*

*grins* I could wax on for hours about Tolkien but I wouldn't do that to you. Yeah, along with PlotWhatPlot? in the Anita books, it's VillianWhatVillian? I mean, I can't remember the last time there was a bad guy smackdown!

Oh tragedy and woe.

*laughs* Always a pleasure to welcome a new member!

Well, there was a brief police vs vampires battle in Incubus Dreams, but by the time you get to it you're already so numb from the 500 pages of pointless sex scenes and angst that it's a little hard to appreciate it... also, the main villain never showed up on stage. He just disappeared, and Anita let him go because "I can't waste my life with the corpses and the horrors and the darketydarketydarketydarkness! Let him go off and kill some more strippers, that's not my problem - I have to go snuggle with my sweeties and forget that the big bad world exists!"

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It's more a series of moments that the characters are forced to enact.
Nicely put.

It's more a series of moments that the characters are forced to enact

You know the first time I read this I read it as erect and not enact.

I think I need more sleep.

It's possible to have an ongoing, open-ended series of books that don't have a finalized goal, but instead have a single contained adventure in each one, like TV episodes. It's a different medium from those series that have a defined plot-arc, but it can be done successfully. The key is having an actual plot and end goal for each individual book, instead of endless debate and non-productive events like sex scenes.