A little thing
Dec. 10th, 2006 10:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ksmithMonths ago, when I was in the middle of ENDGAME, everyone else posted about SF/F gripes or things that they would never use in their own work. I never got to respond to that, but now that it's fallen off everyone's radar...
...pixies. Lil tiny fairies. Wings or not. I can handle them in Pratchett--heck, I enjoy them in Pratchett--but in a modern world setting, they bug me enough to pull me out of the story. Maybe if I saw their dangerous side right off the bat, I would be more accepting. When they start out all squeaky and stuff, they put me in mind of really big mosquitoes. Just swat them with a rolled-up newspaper and be done with it.
That's all for now.
...pixies. Lil tiny fairies. Wings or not. I can handle them in Pratchett--heck, I enjoy them in Pratchett--but in a modern world setting, they bug me enough to pull me out of the story. Maybe if I saw their dangerous side right off the bat, I would be more accepting. When they start out all squeaky and stuff, they put me in mind of really big mosquitoes. Just swat them with a rolled-up newspaper and be done with it.
That's all for now.
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Date: 2006-12-11 06:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-12-11 12:50 pm (UTC)Uh oh... But it's not a modern world setting, and they're nasty little bugs.
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Date: 2006-12-11 03:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-12-11 04:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-12-11 05:11 pm (UTC)I should give this series another chance, methinks. It's selling, like, OMG. And I really liked some of the touches--when Rachel senses the male vampire trying to draw her attention across the crowded bar, some of the interaction with Ivy.
I compare books like these to the first few Anita Blakes, and they all come up wanting. Say what you will about thin plots and what the series has become--Hamilton had a knack for creating a sense of immediate peril and finding a way to touch the reader. I'm thinking of a scene where she resurrects a zombie to settle a legal dispute--she managed to convey the pathetic bewilderment of the dead man. It's things like this that keep me reading even as I lose track of what there is of the plot.
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Date: 2006-12-11 05:12 pm (UTC)::blasted formatting::
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Date: 2006-12-11 05:13 pm (UTC)Pterry's pictsies, gnomes, I like them all.
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Date: 2006-12-11 08:08 pm (UTC)I have mixed feelings about the books. I love some of the stuff in 'em, can't stand some of it. There are cool moments for all major characters, likewise wtf moments. And favorite characters/threads disappear between books for no particular reason. The pixies--definitely different. In both good ways and not so good ways.
Kim Harrison is supposedly also fantasy writer Dawn Cook.
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Date: 2006-12-11 08:16 pm (UTC)I remember that scene with the resurrected zombie. It was good.
Laurell Hamilton's weakness was that her publisher never found a good copyeditor. I can handle bad copyediting or bad (or absent) plotting, but not both. On second thought, I can't handle bad or absent plotting in general, though I suppose an author with a really engaging style might hold my attention for that.
I think Kim Harrison has gotten better with each book. Sometimes they have bits that just make me sigh in frustration, but the character development over the long term has been great. The development of Jenks long-term has been particularly good, which is why I like him. A Fistful of Charms was particularly Jenks-oriented, and quite touching.
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Date: 2006-12-11 11:08 pm (UTC)I'd heard that, as well. Explains the interesting author photo on the first book (author walking away from camera).
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Date: 2006-12-11 11:14 pm (UTC)I need to give the Harrisons another shot. To be fair, it took me a couple of tries to get into MIRROR DANCE, which was my first Bujold. After that, it was off to the races.