Befuddled

[ksmith]

So, a few nights ago I started reading the first in a series by an author I've never before read. Older though it is, the book is doing quite well, as is the entire series. Bestseller-quite well. It is to envy.

There are times when I read such books, and yeah, I understand even when I don't fall under the spell. Whether it's the characters, the undercurrents/atmosphere, or the twisty-turny plots, I can see why this work has engaged so many people and why it's doing well. More power to the author in question. As a storyteller, you don't need to nail it all. You just need to nail enough, and they succeeded.

But then there are times when I just don't get it. Characters, situations, descriptions, plot. Atmosphere. I know there has to be a pony in there somewhere, but damned if I can find it. And I've enjoyed this type of book before, so it's not a case of genre gap. It's just...zippo engagement. No moment, scene, or phrase that hooked me.

Read a few more chapters last night. Skipped to the end to see who did what. I don't know if I'll go back to read the rest. Not as long as there's Pratchett to reread.

What concerns me a little about this, though, is that I don't get why it works. I like to know why various books work because, well, it's good to know what works, especially in genres you'd like to explore yourself sometime.

Comments

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

I keep running into books that seem to spend years on the bestseller lists and don't interest me at all. Several books have won the Nebula or Hugo awards and I'd taken the damned things back to the library without finishing more than a chapter or two. At least I didn't waste money buying them.

No accounting for taste, like the man said. But I think I probably won't ever write a bestseller because of this little quirk. If I can't read them, I probably can't write them...

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

If I can't read them, I probably can't write them...

This is what worries me. I content myself with the fact that I like *some* of them, so maybe there's hope.

[aitchellsee.livejournal.com]

Well, if you *did* like some others of those bestselling series, those of us who like your books would be the worried ones.

HLC
(who wonders, by the way, if your icon could possibly be Our Mutual Friend, ole 007, Licensed to Guilt, himself? BAWH!)(er, I mean, Young 007. Very very young...)

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

Well, if you *did* like some others of those bestselling series, those of us who like your books would be the worried ones.

As much as I appreciate that, well, I think there's a lot of room to maneuver when it comes to story. They may be character-lite, but fun, plot-lite but rich in background detail. They may have everything going for them, damn 'em. And they sell, and I can understand why. I do not fall into the if-it-sells-it's-crap camp. Sometimes crap sells, and sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes good to great sells, and sometimes, regrettably, it doesn't, although one thing that can happen with good-to-great is that it can be rediscovered and brought back into print.

And I'm rambling at this point, because it gets difficult to explain, at least for me. What I'm trying to say is that, even in books I don't like overall, I can usually see the hook. When I can't see the hook, it bothers me.

(who wonders, by the way, if your icon could possibly be Our Mutual Friend, ole 007, Licensed to Guilt, himself? BAWH!)(er, I mean, Young 007. Very very young...)

Ah, no. This is an anonymous guilty beagle. NO relation to the guilty beagle we know so well.

I think Guilt is simply a look they do very well, usually because they're, well, *guilty*.

[connerybeagle.livejournal.com]

BAWH!!

*practicing baleful expression*

*trying really hard*

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

Oh, you do Guilty Face the best, Connery. Skritches to you!

[connerybeagle.livejournal.com]

I let mymom read this and she nodded a lot.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

Yourmom understands.

[janni.livejournal.com]

I read books like this once in a while, too. I tell myself tastes vary, and try to take it on faith that there are enough folks with tastes closer to mine to give me a chance of continuing to build a career, though it's hard to know.

But I'm still trying to figure out why the Harry Potter books are more than an entertaining yarn, so clearly there's quite a big pony I'm missing, too.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

I have yet to read the Potter books. I read a couple of chapters aloud to some kids during one of Wal Mart's misbegotten literacy to-dos a couple of years ago, and didn't feel the the urge to read further. But many folks whose opinion I respect like them lots, so maybe I should give at least the first one a shot one of these days.

I tend to think that Rowling mixed an easily understood world with just enough magic. Add to that a little Quest and some Out-of-Place Boy Makes Good. This made it work for a very large number of readers, many of whom wouldn't be bothered by the things that would irk core genre writers and readers.

And considering I haven't read the books, take that for what it's worth.

[alfreda89.livejournal.com]

Let's try again....typing error.

I think Rowling's books appeal partly because the is some wonderful whimsy in them, and partly because the motley crew contains at least one kid a reader can identify with--for whatever reason. Society is currently not kind to kids, perhaps it's worse than it ever has been. The slightest differences can put you on the outside of groups. In the Potter books, initially, the good guys won, and the bad guys were sat on.

Now that supporting characters are dying, we'll see if the popularity can continue.

Call Father Tom and ask to borrow my traveling HP Volume One... 8^)

As for not "getting" bestsellers--there's one that depends heavily on torture, and another series that has everyone stabbing each other in the back all the time. Both popular. I can see a little of this in a book--but this sounds pretty constant. So, is S & M in mainstream SF/Fantasy the big thing right now?

THE DaVINCI CODE had some fun elements--but also cardboard characters and more infodump than any thriller needed. Hasn't hurt its sales, though. Sometimes, it may be subject matter and timing...

I'm not interested in the S&M--I'm trying to get my own trend started. Heck, I'd settle for being able to read someone else's work right now...

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

Sometimes, it may be subject matter and timing...

Past a certain point, sheer momentum takes over. Everyone that someone knows has read the book, so they read it so as not to be left out.

I wonder what it's like to kick over from mere bestseller to cultural phenomenon?

[alfreda89.livejournal.com]

Probably terrifying. Remember BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY...every book since then has sold less, last I heard.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

Waller was a one-trick pony. It was just one hell of a trick.

Hope he invested wisely.

[alfreda89.livejournal.com]

Hope he invested wisely.

Indeed...

[merlinpole.livejournal.com]

The Da Vinci Code tapped into Esoteric Majority Religious Marginalia/Extremism Stuff--that it, channeling perhaps heretical stuff off the strong Christian religious traditions and crossing it [pun definitely not intended] with what if riffs.

In some ways I suspect it's a relative of The White Goddess by Graves, which I bogged down in because it got to feel more and more like a complete farrago to me (built on assumptions and invention built on assumptions and invention, and the substantiation making a soap bubble film look like concrete unbreachable non-airy entity.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

Admitting ignorance here, but I wasn't aware of much if any of the history behind DVC, and just followed it along to the end. I confess to having stayed up until 3am so I could see how it ended. I read it for the puzzle.

[alfreda89.livejournal.com]

Oh, absolutely--but there was a talked-about book several years ago about the "Holy Blood" that, while it sold, did not have the impact of DaVinci Code.

Decent fiction can always win out. Toss in a fast-paced thriller, and the Catholic church as the fall guy (with a conservative torture sect) and it sounds like a winner to me!

[sauscony.livejournal.com]

"So, is S & M in mainstream SF/Fantasy the big thing right now?"

I've been wondering the same thing lately. I also wonder if the word "erotic" is code for S&M because every book I see described as erotic lately has S&M in it. I gave up on one popular book when I saw the word "pincers" in a sex scene.

[alfreda89.livejournal.com]

I gave up on one popular book when I saw the word "pincers" in a sex scene.

Yes. I know "different strokes" and such, but this is SO not erotic, in my book....

[merlinpole.livejournal.com]

I also wonder if the word "erotic" is code for S&M because every book I see described as erotic lately has S&M in it.

I don't think so, unless the expansion of things like the LoveSpell line and Luna line and Tor's fantasy romances etc. has subsumed the "erotic" as it had been and encroached on the old varieties of Trashy Romance Novels and the edge went over to BDSM... but things like Circlet Press which focuses on various varieties of kinky have been around for years.

Hmm, maybe it's that the term "erotic" has been getting co-opted....