Into and a Rant

[akisora.livejournal.com]

Hi! I'm new (obviously), but I have to be here for a reason, right? :)

I just started reading the Anita Blake books about three weeks ago. A friend of mine has been trying to get me to read them for a few years, and I never bothered to try until after the 10th issue of the comic was released. I'm only as far as Obsidian Butterfly, I just finished that one yesterday. So, if I may, I would like to state a few gripes/annoyances/confusions I have, please and thank you for putting up with me.

1. Spellcheck...for the love of god, spellcheck. I understand LKH may be busy....but shouldn't an editor catch this?


2. Why does it seem like everyone under the sun is all drooly over Jean-Claude? There's nothing impressive there - the seductive French vamp has been done before.


3. Too many blondes.


4. Anita gets sueier and sueier as the books go on - I hate it when God Mode is turned on.


5. . Her (Anita's) religion. I don't have anything against Christians...I really don't. And that's not to say AB is all uppity about it...but she is a snot when it comes to other religions (though it's mainly just been hints towards Wiccans). As for her faith...well frankly I would have thought it to have been challenged more often/in depth than it has been. But maybe that's just the WoD gamer in me talking.

There's other things. I just can't think of them right now. Honest :)

I went in knowing that the books were fluff, and not expecting a lot out of them. Anita has gotten to be, for me anyway, an unrealistic character. So largely I read the books for the secondary characters - Edward and Zerbrowski mainly, with spatterings of Jason and the wereleopards. And to an extent, I do like the way lycanthropes are handled.

That's my rant. At least for now.

Comments

[no-ron.livejournal.com]

many people got pissed off by the series after 'Blue Moon'.
for me personally everything up to 'Obsidian Butterfly' (including) was readable, and the books managed to meet my expectations.

if at OB you already have gripes about the series, just wait for the next novel and every single one after that! you'll love them! :ppp

[akisora.livejournal.com]

3. What I meant by that was it seems like all people not main character or wet dreamness has to be blonde. Boo....Give me the baldies, teh brunettes, the redheades and hell, what about funky dyed colors? Like purple. Gimmie purple.

5. Snowflake Alert. WTF?

I may end up reading the other stuff, for lack of anything else to do. Well, besides take care of my little ones.

[akisora.livejournal.com]

I've enjoyed bitching about them with one friend of mine online here (not the same that recommended them to me). I've tried explaining/bitching about it to my husband, but he's been stuck on the whole pasty nipples thing from a few books ago.

[bluesauce.livejournal.com]

No, seriously, don't read the rest of them; they're really very terrible, and why waste time with terrible books when there's so much good stuff to be had? Dresden Files, Happy Hour of the Damned, Bryon Morrigan, Brian Keene...too much good stuff to read to waste time on the bad, in my opinion anyway.

[gehayi.livejournal.com]

Seriously, read The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher. Ten novels and three short stories, all of which hang together beautifully. There are actual consequences in this world which last for book after book after book. Magic has limitations. A solution that solves one problem can easily spawn three more. The hero can be (and has been) wrong on more than one occasion, and has has to recognize it. There's humor and courage and tragedy and love and friendship. It's a wonderful series. I wish it were more widely known.

[dragon-mouse.livejournal.com]

You've read to OB?
GO NO FURTHER!
Trust me.
Just pretend the rest don't exist. That LKH took a sabbatical and has not written anything else. ANYTHING to keep you from picking up the rest.

Try the Mercy Thompson series by Patricia Briggs for a strong female lead, or The Dresden Files for an awesome series period. Much more worth it.

[dameruth.livejournal.com]

I'll add my voice to the mob -- you've just finished the last good book in the series. There were some problems with the earlier books, true, but I enjoyed them for the popcorn fun stories that they were. Once you hit NiC, though, ew.

Another vote for Dresden Files and Briggs' Mercy Thompson series for much better stuff in a similar vein (no pun intended). ;)

[albinowolf.livejournal.com]

I just bought Small Favor yesterday and am about to sit down and start reading right after I finish checking lj. I have 'em all and can't wait to start this one!

[drygo.livejournal.com]

I loved the series up until Obsidian Butterfly and read them voraciously, amazed at how addictive these books were. So, if you're already not liking them, you really shouldn't read any further because from here on out they degenerate into nothing but pornography and everything you already mentioned times ten.

[lovedstrangely.livejournal.com]

check out kim harrison's rachel morgan series. if you want something similiar to lkh but, like, AWESOME and in so many finely detailed ways...more "real" READ her!

[gwynethfar.livejournal.com]

What do you mean, she gets Sueier? Just because she has flawless skin and "rarely wears base"? *blinks innocently*

[ladymuttly1.livejournal.com]

Go ahead read the next few books as long as you read them for the snark. It's kind of like reading (instead of watching) a pornographic Ed Wood fest.

[mizmalice.livejournal.com]

Im up to Obsidian Butterfly too and I swear to G I cant go any further.

Also I'm a roman catholic and I'm telling you now Anita is the worst kind of catholic.

[easol.livejournal.com]

Ditto here. It's actually kind of funny to watch her pretend to be a Catholic beyond the whole no-abortion thing, when it also has various tenets forbidding random wanton sex, rape, murder, torture, etc.

And LKH seems to have misunderstood the whole "if you're forced into it it's not a sin" idea. Your pet wussy wereleopard being threatened does not count as "forced." Being angry and provoked does not count as "forced." Lust does not count as "forced." You have a choice in most of life's situation, and merely having the pressure cooker put on does not mean that what you do isn't wrong.

(For examples, note Harry's dealings with Lasciel where he refused to use the coin even if his friends and him were going to die)

[aine-de-danann.livejournal.com]

I love Dresdon. Really. In a "would have his baby" kind of way. Just don't decide until you hit book four whether you want to keep going, it takes that long for Butcher to really hit his stride.

[gehayi.livejournal.com]

On the plus side, it's a definite joy to run into a series that gets BETTER as it goes along.

[frabjously.livejournal.com]

Isn't Anita Episcopalian?

[gehayi.livejournal.com]

(And Harry Dresden was facing the possibility of permanent brain damage resulting in virtual mindlessness, even if he did survive.

Harry's got integrity, boy.)

[gehayi.livejournal.com]

She converted after the Pope excommunicated necromancers and animators. But she didn't stay an Episcopalian--she went off into Wicca after a while, and now I think she's making up her own religion.

[akisora.livejournal.com]

Heh. I just mean she keeps getting "speshul".

[akisora.livejournal.com]

I have been reading for the snark. I've enjoyed the last few becuase of snark. Granted some stuff was good, or at least okay.

[moonsinger.livejournal.com]

I have to agree with what others said read something better first then go to LKH as a last resort. I have kids, too, and when I want to read good paranormal fluff I'll pick anything else over LKH although I have read through Harlequin for lack of interest in others. Jim Butcher, Kim Harrison, Kelley Armstrong, Katie MacAllister, MaryJanice Davidson, Charlaine Harris, and the Kitty werewolf books, Patricia Brigg's coyote skinchanger. Those are a few I can think of off the top of my head. Some are more romance than paranormal, and the best of the bunch are Butcher and Harrison.

[morriganscrow.livejournal.com]

Don't forget her Mexican granny mind-fucked her into a truck-load of guilt about sex being dirty, and animating being evil.

[deadroman.livejournal.com]

First: HI! Nice to meet you!

And wow, you read to Obsidian Butterfly! Myself, I couldn't even get that far. I had to stop in the middle of Blue Moon. My brain was threatening to melt; I couldn't take it anymore.

And really, I only even read THAT far because I liked Jean-Claude. OK! Sue me! He was my favorite dude. I'm a complete sucker for the sexy French vampire type (no pun intended). And although LKH's writing skillz prevented her from ever managing to portray Jean-Clause (or any of her playthings, for that matter) with anything that might resemble talent, I think his character had lots of potential in the first book. He was *OMGOSH* a REAL character! Not just some servile prick with a dick. In my imagination, I still see him as a ruthless cunning self-serving vampire and I love that. :)

[deadroman.livejournal.com]

Eep, misspelt Jean-ClauDe. XD

/end paranoid self-correction obsession.