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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

[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."

[panicqueen.livejournal.com]

Katherine Applegate was similar. When I was younger, I was seriously obsessed with the Animorphs books. And there were glaring inconsistencies because, as it got up into the 30s and 40s, with a new book coming out on the same day every month, most of her books were ghostwritten. (And just to be clear, the ghostwritten books were remarkably well-written, exactly like Applegate herself). Whenever inconsistencies were pointed out, they were usually changed in later editions of the books. And Applegate happily referred to them as KASUs--Katherine Applegate Screws Up.

I know this doesn't have much of a point, but it's just another reference to a great author versus a good author. LKH is good (well, she used to be), but she isn't great.