Hi peoples!

[wonderbink.livejournal.com]

Yes, I'm a newbie, here via Fandom Wank. But I'm so thrilled to find a place that feels the way I do about the increasing silliness of Laurell K. Hamilton's books.

I just finished reading A Stroke of Midnight, the most recent Merry Gentry book, which I borrowed from the library because there's no way I'm paying money for that crap.

So here's my question: is there anybody here who reads her work the way I've taken to reading it--not in the hopes that it will magically get better, but for the sheer entertainment value in how ridiculous it's going to get? The way one giggles over watching, say, an Ed Wood movie? Or is it just me?

Comments

[dwg.livejournal.com]

*raises hand* Yeaah. Though, I still hang onto the shreds of hope that things will improve.

But mostly...the books are now purely for snarkage and parody. I'm working my way back through the ABVH series and snarkily recapping them all, because I have no interest in re-reading ID to know what's going on in the next book. It's easier for me to re-read a few posts than to re-read an entire series.

[magdollna.livejournal.com]

I have given up on laurell ever writing anything I would pay for. The books I liked were not great novels but they were fun, and the sex was third in line behind kicking ass. Then just maybe solving a police related issue. Now a bad guy has to stand in front of Anita wave his hands and scream come kill me! And that is after a gang bang to hold off Belle somebody or other the mother of all convoluted plotlines.

The Merry series drives me crazy because just when I might be close to giving a shit , some metaphysical whoobi whats it from the goddess pointing a finger that EVERY one can see Merry is the true queen.. but OH NO! only Merry plays by the rules. WTF ever its a thin excuse to write some poorly written erotica. I am not spending one thin dime more on there books till something resembling a plot happens.

mags

[pith]

Welcome to here =)

I admit. I'm an idealist. I will always hope for a return to plot and such. Realistically, I know the books are too far gone, so I basically read for a few reasons.

a) to appreciate good authors that much more
b) to remind myself that I have not, as a writer, reached rock bottom
c) the car-crash mentality: I need to just how bad it actually is

[briary-flower.livejournal.com]

Hi. I'm new as well.

Blue Moon was the first LKH novel I read, and at the time I really did think the backstory about the missionaries and the trolls was pretty creative alternate history stuff. But she got so bloody repetitive. The phrase: “The pain was sharp and immediate,” appears over and over. There is no forward momentum. Every single sequence is this circuitous, navel-gazing fest of over-writing. Anita has to negotiate just to negotiate to negotiate. And I'm all, er … can’t we at least move into the next room?

[dwg.livejournal.com]

Eehhh...I'd be happier if Andias was shown being the big nasty bitch she's meant to be. To me, she's been something of a let down (like with most of the LKH villains) in that there's all this hype about how OMFG SO EBIL she is, and then she sort of waltzes into the scene, gets bitchy, angsts and moans, and then flits off. All the while reinforcing that Merry Is Obviously The Heroine And Everything Not Her Way Is WRONG.

Dammit, if you're going to have a sadistic bitch in charge, let her be a sadistic bitch.

[wonderbink.livejournal.com]

Well, she ends the most recent book *SPOILER ALERT* holding somebody by the intestines, so she's still pretty fucking sadistic. But she has to have some vaguely redeeming qualities so that Meredith will actually have a shot at the throne--if she were pure evil, Meredith would be dead and we wouldn't have any pr0n books in the first place.

[gilded_lady]

Oh I totally read it for the train wreck factor.

What I want to know is...(SPOILER warning, text in white) if Anita is really pregnant, who is the father, or is she going to be chicken shit and have it just be a scare or will she miscarry. But really, it's so fabulously awful that I still enjoy it, even if I skip over the (increasingly numerous) sex scenes. Plus, I'm wondering what other powers she could possibly give her heroine.

[randomsome1.livejournal.com]

Wings. Every Sue needs wings.

[freyalorelei.livejournal.com]

Colour-changing eyes. (Oh, wait. That was covered in Obsidian Butterfly.)

A cutesy animal sidekick.

A secretly noble/royal background.

Oh, and an evil identical twin.

Other than that...I think she's hit every Sue cliche in the book.

[gilded_lady]

I think you could almost argue the exsistance of the Pard as the cutesy animal sidekick. (Well, they can be cutesy when they do big cuddle fest)

If Anita had an evil identical twin, wouldn't she be more likely to be a perfect angel?

[in10sity.livejournal.com]

Actually, I think LKH is the exact opposite of Ed Wood. I loved Plan 9 and it did make me giggle. But what makes it interesting is the overall creative exhuberant plans that he had. With little talent or money he made to with alot of try and desperate measures.

LKH on the other hand is just plain dull and boring. She's got money and contracts, but no try. She isn't at all creative nor does she have a vision for her stories. She recycles bad sex scenes and boring pointless dialogue because she keeps getting paid for it. Why would she bother to work out an interesting or twisting plot? Or a scary or worthy villain? Really why bother with interesting characters when they pay the same for bad stereotypes?

No I haven't read any of her stuff after Incubus Dreams and I refuse to. However I'm still a member of this community because I'm fascinated how she could have gotten so bad and I never want this to happen to me.

[ki-caelum.livejournal.com]

Well, the getting so bad may have to do with the fact she doesn't read her own work. At all. Not even to keep up with continuity. Maybe that's why it all sounds the same :)

[dominanefret.livejournal.com]

If this is how you feel why on earth are you in the lashouts community?

And I think that "if ya don't like them, don't read them" just shows that you really don't understand.

[pith]

Perhaps you should have read the FAQ:
Thus, a community for people who want to gripe and debate about LKH's works without being insulted or told to "stop reading the books if you hate them so much".

[wonderbink.livejournal.com]

Ah, but my point is, I do like them. Just . . . well, maybe not for the same reasons as they were intended.

And besides, how will I know whether or not I'm going to like them without reading them?

[gorgeousnerd]

I totally do. My sister and I read them and crack jokes about everything. We even did an RP once picking on the Anita Blake series.

[vanity-lost.livejournal.com]

I still read the Merry series because she had such a good idea, and she still shows glimmers of awesomeness. Andais' torture scenes in ASoM were good. I like Andais, and I am kind of glad she's gotten some redeeming qualities shown- it makes her a more interesting villain.
The glimpses we got into Andais and Essus intrigued me, so I'll keep on reading.

I admit there are parts of it I just keep reading for sheer amusement/snarkage. And hell, I like reading the sex. Okay, most of the sex. Sometimes I giggle and mark a sentence going "remember, never write anything like that."

Yeah, Merry gets a little Sue-ish, but then... I don't know, for some reason I can go with it. She's set up to be a little odd on the morality and on the way she sees the world. She is also part of a set arc. Merry's story is set to end, and the powers du jour I would assume to be part of getting to that ending. Maybe I'll be proven wrong and then I'll bash the series with all the other embittered fans. But hey, the girl is the Goddess' pick to renew faerie apparently. So I'd expect some Goddess-sent wonkiness.

I know I'm the odd one out on most of this, but I still find some redeeming interest value in Merry whereas I loathe the Anita Blake books with a passion. Mainly this is because I don't actually mind Merry as a character and I hated Anita from book one. By hated I mean I was tossing the book down, calling my friend who is a huge AB fan and going "WTF, mate? REally, Wt-freaking-f?"

[tooimpurenangel.livejournal.com]

So here's my question: is there anybody here who reads her work the way I've taken to reading it--not in the hopes that it will magically get better, but for the sheer entertainment value in how ridiculous it's going to get? The way one giggles over watching, say, an Ed Wood movie? Or is it just me?

ME!!!!
(although i do harbor hopes it will get better...)