[identity profile] rodentfanatic.livejournal.com
I wanted to post some of my headcanon (some of which I think I've posted in the past, but most of it I haven't posted here before) and it breaks a big headcanon rule: It contradicts canon. Headcanon is not supposed to do that. It's supposed to be stuff never stated in canon (hence why it's something your own head came up with) but that wouldn't contradict it if it was. For instance, it's never stated in HP canon that Sirus Black an Remus Lupin were in love, but it was never stated they weren't and there weren't reasons they couldn't be, so it's a headcanon a lot of people have. However, when it comes to the very special case that is the AB series, canon is, in my opinion, basically pick-and-choose for the reader after Narcissus in Chains, because that is where shit starts getting ridiculous. Hence why some of my statements aren't about headcanon so much as whether I do or don't accept a certain part of the post-NiC canon.

Read more )
[identity profile] adam-adonai.livejournal.com
LKH's Bullet began with promise. A contract on Jean-Claude, Anita and Richard. An attempt on Richard's life. And then the plot slid into a meandering mire. The last third of the novel bored me.

I was turning pages, thinking, "Yeah, so Anita had sex with this one, then that one, then this one." Yawn. It felt stale.

The fantasy world LKH created holds attraction. The imagination can play with its concept. Jean-Claude teases private fantasy. But Anita is increasingly annoying.

Imagine living with Anita Blake.

But I do have a katana.
[identity profile] ad-kelley.livejournal.com
    Hi, I'm new here.  I guess I should mention that there are potentially some spoilers for Bullet sprinkled throughout what I wrote.  That being said, I would argue something the quality of Bullet is really incapable of having 'spoilers' beyond the fact that it was written at all.

      I just migrated to this page from the Bullet threads on the Amazon website.  It's good to see there are plenty of people of thinking critically of what's going on in this series. I'm currently re-reading Circus of the Damned since its the only one I actually own, and after taking in the rest of the series through Bullet, the differences are staggering.  Do I see some seeds for whats to come?  A little.  But all in all, its like reading two entirely different characters.  Anyways, I don't necessarily want to talk about that.  One thing that occured to me the other day is the relatively minor role women play in these books.

        Aside from Anita, there are maybe two capable women in the entire Anitaverse.  Claudia, and then maybe Ronnie (who seems to have disappeared with her wererat boyfriend?). Three, actually, I just remembered Sylvie.  I don't know if that's really any better though because since shes a strong woman, clearly LKH had no choice but to go ahead and make her a somewhat mannish lesbian.   All other females we meet are incredibly weak and cowed.  Wereleopards (which less face it, kind of suck anyway) females are basically just laying around all the time crying for help.  Werelion females are apparently kept locked up somewhere.  In bullet, we meet a young tiger princess (?) who can't even control her own technicolor dreamcats in front of Anita, and Anita forcibly brings her beast (with no median form? Such weakness!) The (theoretically) powerful Tiger Queen Bibbiana can't keep her cats in tow in front of the world's sexiest lady either.

     The vampires? Don't even get me started on the vampires.  Every single vampire female that is brought into the series is either insane, jealous of Anita, or insanely jealous of Anita.   
 
     Bullet only further reinforces this as the ancient black tiger that Anita meets is even smaller than her and cuddles up against her after their impromptu grind session on the floor (and the aforementioned bringing of the beast of the impotent red queen).   If you weren't aware of LKH's gender you could almost accuse the writer of misogyny.  The primary protangonist is the only capable female character brought into the narrative, and even she is (somewhat) made to have sex with EVERY STRONG MALE CHARACTER.  Now granted, without exception she is the best they've ever had as she has bucking, screaming orgasms one after another, but still.  How does no one involved in LKH's writing process think it is unhealthy for her to fantasize about herself to this extent in this type of arena? At this point its not even speculative, it is just truth that LKH sees herself as the girl all the "big boys kiss" and other women pale in comparison.

    I do however, come equipped with constructive criticism.  The werehyenas.  The werehyenas (whom if I'm correct, we have yet to even see in beast form) are a severely underdeveloped animal group in the story for a demographic that is supposedly the third most powerful in the city.  They are also dominated typically by an alpha female.  How great a story would it be if a powerful werehyena alpha female came in and challenged not only Narcissus but was able to resist Asher's call? We'd get to see what I think would be a really interesting animal group more deeply explored, have a real, tangible (on-screen) conflict, and fighting/killing.  Maybe even have some of the old police work too.  Maybe some corny jokes.  Some story development? What do I know though. 


Final note: Does no one else wish there were green tigers? BattleCat anyone?
[identity profile] chococomilk.livejournal.com
I haven't read any of LKH's books past Harlequin, as they were so trippy and orgy-tastic by that point that I felt ashamed to be seen reading them even by my family, but curiosity got the better of me and I went to read an excerpt on Amazon of the latest book, "Bullet", to see what it was like. Immediately, this two-sentence gem leapt out at me:

"Monica's son was under five, so he didn't count as male yet. He was just a generic child."

I was under the impression that if he's Monica's son, that means he is a male. You can't be called somebody's son unless you have male genitalia. Since when has biological sex been determined by age? And what is a "generic child"? Does she mean that to Anita, Monica's son is unremarkable from other five year old boys? Is that because Anita isn't a mother, and is blind to the powerful individualism mothers ascribe to their offspring from other people's? Is it because he has very ordinary features - brown hair and brown eyes, the most common of phenotypes?

"I heard my name squealed out, in that high-pitched generic toddler voice."

What is a generic toddler voice? Squeaky? Of course it is - a boy's voice doesn't break until puberty. I think I can see what she means, and from Anita's perspective that all children seem alike is probably understandable since she doesn't have any and doesn't know anyone who has any, but it is a remarkably clumsy bit of writing. There's a lot of commentary on the sheer avalanche of sex scenes in LKH's novels, and on excessive word repetition (e.g. spilled) but has anyone else been turned off by the lack of writing quality?
[identity profile] dwg.livejournal.com
I posted this on my journal first, so I'm sorry to the people who get this twice, but! News fresh in from Twitterland! So fresh, rigor hasn't even set in!
LKHamilton: I've finished crying over my imaginary friends, but I'm left empty and sort of numb. Stunned with the turn of events. Jan 18 8:44

LKHamilton: I've spent days trying to save this character. I pulled a major metaphysical event to save the day & in the end not enough. Jan 18 8:46

LKHamilton: Death will come, final and complete, and the light in their eyes dulls until the windows to the soul show nothing but emptiness. Jan 18 8:47

LKHamilton: The body is still warm, the flesh still soft, you can still hold them, cradle them in your arms and smell the sweet scent of their skin. Jan 18 8:49

LKHamilton: Death comes soft at first, lay a last kiss on their mouth while the warmth lasts and before the cold comes. Jan 18 8:52

LKHamilon: I'm out of here. I have not the heart to stay. Time to find someone real and get a hug. Should have known what was coming. Sometimes . . . Jan 18 8:55

LKHamilon: . . . even in fiction you can't save everyone. I fucking hate that. Jan 18 8:56
SOMEONE IS GOING TO DIE IN BULLET! This is doubly amusing because not three days ago, in a Q & A for Barnes and Noble, she said this:
Ok, this is a spoiler if you haven't at least finished Guilty Pleasures then please do not read this message. Ok, I've done the warning bit. Anita and I were both traumatized by Phillip's death in Guilty Pleasures. I promised her after that if she cared for a man I wouldn't kill him off. Her way of getting around that was apparently to care for every man we met in the books from that point on. Talk about unforeseen consequences.
 
I honestly think my subconscious is responsible for the low death count among major and major/minor characters. People dieing, or leaving, when I was very young have left their mark. In real life you can't save everyone, but in fiction, sometimes, you can. We may actually have some deaths at some point, but I think my muse and I would rather not.
Bold emphasis is mine.

I was talking to a couple of people over the weekend and saying that if LKH wanted to keep things as real-to-life as possible, as she claims she does, then she'd have to let some characters die. In my opinion, you can't really have it both ways; either you keep things gritty and real and deal with the tough breaks the story gives you, or you can make it a fancy fictional la-la land where nobody dies and everyone's sparkly and happy. Trying to fudge one just hurts the other, and...well, the books are a really good example to that with the random metaphysics and miraculous saves. So it's nice to see that someone's biting the Bullet.

Umm, on a related note, I went through the B & N forum and copied out the Q & A in more readable format, so that LKH's answers are right after the question and you don't have to scroll around to try and find what she's talking about: Part one and part two. I'm sorting through the Facebook chat in a similar fashion, but I'm going to add more blog links and commentary to it.

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