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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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.

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This ... is sadly true. I enjoyed the recent books, but admittedly this is probably because I speed-read them. And when

hbpspork pointed out the ridiculous Hermione character-assassination, I just couldn't go back to reread, it was so depressing.

The Books of Magic, right? I'm still trying to gather up all of that series, but when I started reading the ones my boyfriend has, I was really annoyed. Much as I love HP, it was frustrating to realise that Gaiman, Rieber and co. had been exploring the teen wizard concept for years with more bite, but less recognition, at least outside the comics world.

The last one was meant to be some sort of darketydark psychological horror re-imagining or re-launch, apparently. I don't think I'm gonna buy it.

And yeah, Lucifer is what I'm going to move on to after I've read all of TBoM. :)

Sandman is awesome; it's hard to imagine anyone being disappointed with it. And I think you'll like seeing certain overlaps with TBoM; for instance, John Constantine shows up in the first collection, and of course you'll already know Death from Tim's encounters with her.

Oh, glad I'm not the only one who thinks that! When I read book 6 I kind of thought "what did they do with JK Rowling and who is the fanfic writer that wrote this?". I never thought I'd dislike Ron Weasley as a character, not to mention Hermione who was seriously out of character there. Also, I didn't buy the whole 'I'm-Harry-Potter-and-I-spent-five-years-ignoring-Ginny-but-now-I-so-want-her'.

I admit I do like Harry Potter, but let's be serious, it's not great literature. It's just somewhat interesting modern fantasy. Still, superior to LKH, because: 1. there is still a plot; 2. there is character development!; 3. characters die!; 4. I have a sense that the story will have an end and that there is a purpose to all that happens; 5. YAY for foreshadowing (??), which LKH simply can't do!!!!!!

Yeah, that was another one. I was left blinking after reading about Harry's chest monster. Not to mention Ron/Lavender. Yuck! And it kind of bothered me to think of 14-year-old!Hermione with 18-year-old!Krum. I also think JK Rowling's writing is... too simple? but I don't have much to compare to. I usually don't read in english and the portuguese translations change things a bit, because it takes more words to say things than in english, sometimes. But when I read the books in english, yeah I was surprised by how simple and unadorned (lol) her writing was. Still better than LKH, although I wouldn't put much money on JKR if she had to write a sex scene (judging by her the way she wrote her romantic scenes). I could be wrong though. ^__^

Lil is a real badass chick. ^___^

One could assume that even if she has adult readers, the majority of her fanbase is children so she has to simplify a little. Still, I agree with you, I think Rowling writes the only way she knows how I doubt the reason is the children. But at least she admits it (or never denied it). Rowling is not so much a great writer as she has a great imagination. That's why the HP have some worth. And she created some rich, well developed characters (like Dumbledore) even if others are a little plain. Which is always good.

I dislike elaborate prose as well (so boring), especially if it's too descriptive. Of course there are very interesting works, but generally I find elaborate prose too pompous and a bit boring. ^__^

I think we're not supposed to get it all. EP is an okay anime but it tries too much at being all intelectual and psychological and I don't think it succeeds all that much. I liked it, but it was a bit confusing and I reckon it was not confusing on purpose. :D