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lkh_lashoutsIs JRW following in LKH's crazy-assed footsteps?
A quick explanation of how I found lkh and the lashouts: new to the genre last fall, introduced to the Dresden Files by my step-Dad, I came across this list: amazon top picks of 2007, which, at the time, had lkh's THE HARLEQUIN ranked #1, to Kim Harrison #2 and Jim Butcher #3. I thought, "damn, she must be awesome and look at how many books are in the serious" and headed to the local library. CS was the last book I was able to stand and, afterward, said to myself, "self, there must be some chatter about this decent series becoming porn somewhere...quick! to the internetz!" Found the amazon discussion boards, *snort* at the tags, and then to here. To ask a Hamiltonesque rhetorical question, why is this important? Because I had pretty much nothing invested in this series and lkh was, to put it plainly, crazy when I met her. I wasn't there when she began her slippery slide into whackjobosity.
Now, my best friend gave me J.R. Ward's Black Dagger Brotherhood serious at book 1 and I have been following along ever since. Now I am feeling she is just barely on the rails and ready to veer off into lkh's neck of the woods.
Yes, there are vast differences in editing, prose, punctuation, spelling...but did you notice those when lkh first started sliding?
Let's look at the similarities: jrw writes about vampire men with parti-colored hair and eyes, that are have been either sexually abused or damaged at some point. They just need the love of one woman (yes, at least it is different women for each man) to 'cure' them and bring them true love. Each 'hero' is getting progressively more misogynistic, yet each finds his one true love (though the amount of story time put into this and it's logic is becoming less with each book). Oh, each schlong also gets progressively bigger, including someone's (I think it is V's) being described as, and I quote, the size of a "louisville slugger." Apparently all you need is to add an "h" to a word or a name and viola! it is special and foreign. Lest we forget, there are rapes and rape-fantasy sex. The plot holes are becoming glaring and confusing, including a character who was introduced on the BDB message board and just plopped into the last book. Ghosts, wizards, fallen angels...oh my! When the original cannon is being left behind and things that happened in Lover Unbound are forgotten and re-written differently in Lover Eternal.
To the real life: she says, and advertises, these are paranormal romance. But really, they are become vampire war/urban fantasy. I honestly can not remember where I read it, maybe someone can find it, that she is 'changing direction' but still says it is romance, and I don't know if there is a "dear negative reader" out there, but that she implied that anyone who didn't like the new direction could, I really can't remember...stop reading? Rumors abound that jrw is now writing for her "cellies," (read: troo equivalent) and is surrounded by yes-men and sycophants. She said the brothers tell her what to write and that she just puts her fingers to the keyboard. She writes sit down interviews with them. She shows up, in character as a brother, to have conversations with her cellies who apparently squee over this, that they are really talking to a brother. I wish I could be more thorough and look this stuff up and give you guys links, but my girls are awake from naps and not too forgiving about Mommy computer time.
Like I said, lkh was batshit when I got here. I wonder when she started if it was like this. Does anyone else see this? Am I reading too much into it?
*discuss*
A quick explanation of how I found lkh and the lashouts: new to the genre last fall, introduced to the Dresden Files by my step-Dad, I came across this list: amazon top picks of 2007, which, at the time, had lkh's THE HARLEQUIN ranked #1, to Kim Harrison #2 and Jim Butcher #3. I thought, "damn, she must be awesome and look at how many books are in the serious" and headed to the local library. CS was the last book I was able to stand and, afterward, said to myself, "self, there must be some chatter about this decent series becoming porn somewhere...quick! to the internetz!" Found the amazon discussion boards, *snort* at the tags, and then to here. To ask a Hamiltonesque rhetorical question, why is this important? Because I had pretty much nothing invested in this series and lkh was, to put it plainly, crazy when I met her. I wasn't there when she began her slippery slide into whackjobosity.
Now, my best friend gave me J.R. Ward's Black Dagger Brotherhood serious at book 1 and I have been following along ever since. Now I am feeling she is just barely on the rails and ready to veer off into lkh's neck of the woods.
Yes, there are vast differences in editing, prose, punctuation, spelling...but did you notice those when lkh first started sliding?
Let's look at the similarities: jrw writes about vampire men with parti-colored hair and eyes, that are have been either sexually abused or damaged at some point. They just need the love of one woman (yes, at least it is different women for each man) to 'cure' them and bring them true love. Each 'hero' is getting progressively more misogynistic, yet each finds his one true love (though the amount of story time put into this and it's logic is becoming less with each book). Oh, each schlong also gets progressively bigger, including someone's (I think it is V's) being described as, and I quote, the size of a "louisville slugger." Apparently all you need is to add an "h" to a word or a name and viola! it is special and foreign. Lest we forget, there are rapes and rape-fantasy sex. The plot holes are becoming glaring and confusing, including a character who was introduced on the BDB message board and just plopped into the last book. Ghosts, wizards, fallen angels...oh my! When the original cannon is being left behind and things that happened in Lover Unbound are forgotten and re-written differently in Lover Eternal.
To the real life: she says, and advertises, these are paranormal romance. But really, they are become vampire war/urban fantasy. I honestly can not remember where I read it, maybe someone can find it, that she is 'changing direction' but still says it is romance, and I don't know if there is a "dear negative reader" out there, but that she implied that anyone who didn't like the new direction could, I really can't remember...stop reading? Rumors abound that jrw is now writing for her "cellies," (read: troo equivalent) and is surrounded by yes-men and sycophants. She said the brothers tell her what to write and that she just puts her fingers to the keyboard. She writes sit down interviews with them. She shows up, in character as a brother, to have conversations with her cellies who apparently squee over this, that they are really talking to a brother. I wish I could be more thorough and look this stuff up and give you guys links, but my girls are awake from naps and not too forgiving about Mommy computer time.
Like I said, lkh was batshit when I got here. I wonder when she started if it was like this. Does anyone else see this? Am I reading too much into it?
*discuss*
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