Who's Your Author? discussion
Archives - '09 - '10
>
Why do you keep reading? LKH
date
newest »

message 51:
by
Carolyn F.
(last edited Jun 07, 2010 08:31AM)
(new)
Jun 07, 2010 08:30AM

reply
|
flag


I don't mind the sex, I read books that are primarily about sex, but I guess with this series it's annoying how the plot line is sacrificed. I like when the two are equal.
I think for some of the books, if the sex was taken out the plot would only be a few chapters and there won't be much happening either.


Thats how I feel! the harem keeps growing!!!! do a joss whedon and kill some of them off!!! brutal but effective!!!


Lol, I mistakenly thought she was killing off a few of them in Bullet, and was disappointed by who actually died. Maybe the upcoming war will mean lots of casualties. Permanent ones, not temporary deaths where Anita somehow brings them back with her ever-increasing powers.


That's what I meant, the continuous adding of characters. Sorry about the confusion!

I read the blog because I enjoy looking into a writer's world. And I'm not a "closet lover of her books" I'm right out in the open over the whole thing.
The woman thinks she has fans. Guess what? She does.

Um, Anne Rice? Ever heard of her?
After awhile I ..."
First of all Anne Rice wasn't the pioneer of the genre either. Second she doesn't think she writes the same genre as Anne Rice does, and she has a point.


Um, Anne Rice? Ever heard of her?
Af..."
She (Anne Rice) is by far the most famous from that time. And LKH might not think she's in the same genre, but a lot of people would argue against that.
Plus, Sherrilyn Kenyon has been writing for the same amount of time, if not longer, and she sells even more books than LKH does. It's just a matter of LKH's attitude. She thinks she's a gift to writing, and others who are more popular and sell more books don't act like that.
It can be off putting towards people.

there were a few books that didn't do it for me and a few I loved, but all in all I find her books okay and I will keep reading.
I don't mind the sex. One of the resons I read romance is coz I love how it all comes together in the end when they finally throw down and do it! I love the sexual tension at the beginning and with ANita's it pushes the limits that I would never normally explore!
What does bug me is the sometimes I feel there is constant metaphysical(sp??) crap going on for paraghraphs and sometimes chapters and nothing much else going on. all this power and touching and anmials trying to get ripped out. I thought this with Merry sometimes too, but realised it was mainly when she was in Fairie that this was happening and that that explained it. With Anita , I find myself skimming over stuff that goes on and on... But I am not that far gone on her that I feel I won't read her books again. I like (not love) her books.
I have a similar problem as some others with the Riely Jenson series by Keri Arther. I am up to moon sworn and I know that i really did not like the last few books, I actually haven't ever given her any more then a 3 or 4 star. But I kept reading because "I already got this far" and because I wanted to support a UF based in my home town. a bit sad really.
But i have learned from this that if there is 1 decent book within the first 5 I have read I feel that i continue reading in search for that next decent book. Thats what I did with Riely. For all those Anita fans that may have loved it at the start I completely understand why you keep reading.
I hope you get what you are after in the next book


Interview with the Vampire was published in 1976, but Anne Rice's second vampire book did not come out until 1985. I think Rice and Yarbro were writing at the same time and possibly didn't even know about each other. But in a way she also invented the "romantic vampire."
Guilty Pleasures was 1993. I don't think that this series was about romantic vampires until quite a bit later. But Hamilton, like most of the older paranormal writers other than Rice and Yarbro was writing in the Ravenloft series (which I've never read). I don't know if that is a horror setting or a romantic setting or both.
I'm not finding anything for Kenyon before 1996, but I don't think that is accurate.
Everyone else comes in no earlier than the early 1990s.
Hamilton doesn't think she is writing in the same genre as Anne Rice. Others do not agree. But when she says she invented the genre she writes in, she has a point. One may or may not agree with her depending on whether or not one believes her when she says she thinks her genre is different. Or even whether you believe SHE thinks her genre is different.
It is a lot like getting mad at Al Gore for saying that he invented the Internet, when, as a matter of fact, to some extent, he did. He was on the committee that created the Internet, and I think he might have been the committee chairman. He doesn't say he invented the technology, but he did invent the laws that allow the technology to run.
Hamilton is correct in much the same way. She didn't invent vampires or even romantic, as opposed to horror, vampires. But she did invent the kind of series that she writes and for a long time no one else was writing that kind of series. She also invented the vampire/werewolf triangle.

Anne Rice may not have been the first to write the genre, but she was definitely the most popular and most widely known.
Anyone can argue for, or against LKH, but IMO I don't like LKH's attitude. If she wants to claim that she has created the genre, than she can go ahead and say that. But it's the matter of how she says it. She's arrogant, and acts as though she is the most widely popular author on the face of earth and she's not. Not based on book sales at least. According to wikipedia (which can be debated about reliability) she has sold over 6 million books of Anita Blake world wide. I can't find stats for Merry series. According to Kenyon's website she has sold more than 22 million (this encompasses all her series books)
Again, this is just my opinion. I'm not trying to start, or participate, in an argument but this is just what I happen to think.
I still read her (LKH's) books, but that doesn't mean I have to like HER.


I have also noticed a change in Anita's character, just as I've noticed a change in Richard's character. As LKH herself has stated, Richard was based on her ex-husband, and that attributes his change. I wonder if Anita is based loosely on herself.

I 100% believe that Anita is based on her, and I think that it definitely contributes to how the characters are evolving. Honestly, I could care less who "pioneered" what genre. That isn't important to me...the quality of the writing is.
I do like most of her books and definitely will keep reading. There were some that were iffy, but (other than Flirt) I don't think any were awful. There were good parts about Flirt as well.
Here's another question... Do you respect her for telling people exactly what is on her mind? How many other authors think this highly of themselves, but don't actually say the words out loud?
Personally, I think that her attitude is off-putting. That said, I just don't read the blog anymore.

I think so. There are some similarities at least, in physical appearance and life stories.

Do I respect her for her frankness? Yes and no. Yes because I don't want to be lied to and it's nice getting to know the author of one of your favourite series, and no because she doesn't seem to understand the effect her words/actions have on her fans.
Perhaps she needs to listen more as I'm sure many have tried to tell her things but I'm wondering if she's one of those people -the more you tell her you don't like something, the more she'll do it. However, you can't please everyone so maybe she's given up and is just pleasing herself.
I'm pretty certain there are many authors who think a lot of themselves. Most probably hide it so they don't damage their sales and others aren't aware that their attitude isn't likely to make their fans happy.

In some ways I do respect her for saying what's on her mind. But, there are ways of saying things without offending others. I mean yes, not everyone will always be happy; there's no way to please everyone. But to hear her speak, I don't think she cares about her fans at all.
I think that the way an author presents themselves in public can be really important to fans. I refuse to buy any more of Rob Thurman's books after reading her various blog posts. LKH doesn't bother me THAT much, I just choose to not listen to her speak in interviews or read her blog. I still enjoy her books, but others may be really offended by her attitude and choose to stop reading her books.

As for who started the genre, that's an interesting question, but not one that I think anyone will ever be able to truly answer! If I had to guess who had started the genre, I'd assume Ann Rice. At the very least she was one of the most popular first authors in the genre. I've never read any of her books, but I for sure knew who she was long before I picked up my first fantasy. But as Starling mentioned, there is another author that was writing these types of books before Rice. Personally, I've never heard of that author, but that really doesn't mean anything. I'm sure there are a number of fantastic authors that I've never heard of.
You can look at dates when their books came out and such, but for me, I think of more than just dates. I wonder who really got people to start reading this genre? Who was the first author to make this genre popular, even if they might not have been the first author to write a book in the genre. That's what I consider being a "pioneer" of a genre. Otherwise, if the genre never became really know, or popular, who really care who wrote the first book in it? I don't know numbers, and honestly at the moment I don't have the time or the inclination to try to find them. But I would have to guess that Rice's Vampire books were a lot more popular, bought, and well known before LKH made a name for herself.
If we really wanted to start a debate (only a friendly one please!), I could argue that one of the most influential authors that really got so many reader hooked on the genre was Stephenie Meyer. At the very least, she seemed to change the YA books that you seem to mostly see! I don't for even one second think that she's the best writer in the genre. She wouldn't even hit my top 10 anymore. But she certainly opened up at least a lot of teenagers eyes to it, and a huge number of adults as well. Me included. Before her series, the only fantasy that I had read was Harry Potter. I'm sure that there were other YA authors that were writing series in the genre long before Meyer came along, but it'd be hard to argue that she didn't help the genre become as popular as it is today. Before her series, I never really noticed many books about vampires or werewolves. But now, we you walk to the YA part of a book store, 2/3rds of all of the books are fantasy of one type or another. My mom (who's not a huge fantasy fan) was at the store with me one day and she kept asking me what each book was about and got really frustrated when almost all of them were vampire, werewolf, witch, telepath, fae, etc.
Maybe LKH is one of the authors that pioneered the genre, but in my opinion she is certainly not the only one!


Meyer needs to write...I mean not that she ever has to again in her life technically but come on. She is so secluded compared to other authors..its kind of weird.

Boy do I agree with that. The only problems with Anne Rice as the originator is that she only wrote one book and went on to other things for a decade and a half.
I read Twilight. My daughter (who was in her late 30s at the time) gave me the series to read. She certainly has changed the entire YA world.
I think sometimes a book hits the market at just the right time. When Interview With the Vampire hit it was NOT the right time. When she wrote the second book 15 years later it was the right time.
Twilight hit at the right time for YA.

I remember reading INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE when it first came out and being totally blown away by it. I also remember reading Chelsea Quinn Yarbro's HOTEL TRANSVYLANIA when it came out in 1978 and liking it alot, too. At that time books in that vein (no pun intended) were pretty much non-existent. Ms. Yarbro had another St. Germaine book released not long after HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA which I read but didn't like as much as her first. So for me there was quite a dry spell until THE VAMPIRE LESTAT came along. Unless you were into horror, which has never been high on my list, vampire stories were hard to come by. A writer named Lori Herter wrote what was my first experience with actual vampire romance in 1991. The book was called OBSESSION. She ended up writing a series of 4 books, ending in 1993, dealing with the characters in the first book. I devoured each one as it was released. Then in 1993, right around the same time that GUILTY PLEASURES came out if memory serves, Linda Lael Miller started another vampire romance series beginning with a book called FOREVER & THE NIGHT. I remember being thrilled at finding both series and being immediately drawn in by Anita's world.
With all these other writers beating LKH to the punch, I believe she's a little too full of herself if she truly believes she's the "pioneer". I have stopped reading the books after SKIN TRADE (I skipped several between INCUBUS DREAMS and SKIN TRADE), but believe you me, if I get substantiated info from someone whose taste is like mine when it comes to this series that "kick ass Anita" is back and the "ardeur" has faded into the background, I'll be back!

Ditto!
Kelley Anne, I agree that those first authors may not necessarily have the biggest influence. Obviously Bram Stoker has had a huge influence but he certainly wasn't the first to write a novel about vampires yet he could probably be seen as a pioneer. His book just happened to gain the most popularity.
I think there have been a number of "waves" of pioneers of these genres, making them what they are now. I could argue that there're pioneers (or most influential authors) for each of those waves. As an example I could say Anne Rice started the first wave, LKH the second, Sherrilyn Kenyon (or someone around that time -early 2000s) the third and then Stephanie Meyer, the fourth.
They've all contributed to the development and popularity of UF and PNR, and have influenced other writers to create books along similar lines due to these pioneers' initial success.

I agree; however, I know that Vampire Academy was published before Twilight. In my opinion, Richelle is a MUCH better author than Meyer. She just seems to know her characters better. Plus she is still writing. Meyer hasn't put out a full length novel in how long? I find that odd. One would think after a series did so well, she would be writing non stop.

That being said-I was very disappointed in Bullet. I think this is the first book by her that I have said that about. I felt the plot was wishy washy. We have waited for books for her to get control of the ardeur and she finally does and this book felt like practically nothing but everyone talking about what hot shit she was and having sex. And the sex in this book bothered me because this felt like porn-like it had absolutely no heart in it. SPOILER ALERT-
I mean come on at one point she's watching Richard and Jean-Claude have sex with another woman right in front of her and she doesn't care?! Give me a break. The sex felt cold and prurient. The men in her life used to be picky about who she had sex with now they just seem to throw her at anyone with a penis. Maybe that's an exageration but I was really upset with this book because I do love the series. I don't see how ppl are saying the kick ass Anita is back-Why cause she shot _______, when he was down and unable to defend himself?-Don't get me wrong I understand why Anita did that but that does not a kick ass heroine make. She wasn't even involved in taking out the rampaging vampire-she was to busy having group sex.


And this was the first book where the repetition started to get on my nerves. I've noticed it before but it really bothered me here. Several phrases were just used over and over. The ending felt undone to me. I never agreed with other ppl when they said that her later books felt like patched together erotica scenes but I felt it here in this book.

Ummm, no it wasn't. Twilight was published 2005 and Vampire Academy wasn't published till 2007. VA might have been written first (which is unlikely - those are the copyright dates from the books), but it wasn't published first. I'm not trying to start an argument, but it bugs me when people don't get their facts straight.
LKH I gave up with at Micah, purely because I was spending the entire book waiting for something interesting to happen. I got bored with Narcissus in Chains but kept going till Micah as I thought maybe she'd pick up. I've read Merry 1-4 and have had 5 on my TBR for at least a couple of years. There are way better books out there to waste my time with "maybe they'll change back."

Ummm, no it wasn't. Twilight was published 2005 and Vampire Academy wasn't published..."
Sorry I didn't know it would offend someone so much; however, Twilight was not THAT popular until much later. I read it before it was such a hit. When I began seeing it everywhere I though, "Hey! I've read that." :)
I like LKH's writing style. That doesn't mean that the story being produced it excellent, though.

I wasn't offended - it's just I was accused of plagarism in college because of a paper written after mine (the teacher messed up the dates) and it took me months to fix, so I'm more sensitive than most people when it comes to timelines.
I had Twilight on my TBR for a couple of years, and only fished it out because the movie preview looked good. It's an awesome book, but it wasn't the first YA vamp by a long way - just the first that really became rabidly popular.

But when no real progress was made in skin trade i decided to give up on the series.
I do still enjoy LKH's Merry Gentry series. Mostly because Merry is a more mature character than Anita. She deals with changes instead of holding on to unrealistic expectations the way Anita does. A



At the time, around 1997, I was amazed by the vampirism, seduction, and (homo)eroticism of this lyrical poem, the first part being written in 1797. It was beautiful and haunting, and it was totally unlike all the other stodgy stuff I was reading at the time in class. It wasn't on the curriculum, but my professor was a feminist who encouraged us to read it outside of class if we really wanted to see something different.
After that, I picked up some Laurell K Hamilton and, of course, the Harry Potter and Twilight craze took off. So I was hooked by popular fiction.
But Coleridge hooked me first. Go college English!

I put off reading these books for yrs now I know I`ll be glomming them for quite awhile

I gave in the middle of Chosen. And while I'm still curious as to what's happening, I can restort to spoilers rather than kill my brain cells.
No offense to HON fans!

I am sick of hearing about what they are wearing ! i just wanted her to shut up, please.


What ?!?! That stinks, really every story needs and ending. I would like to see her write something different. maybe her sales will slow down and she will let it go.



This year I read what is probably the last book in PD James' series. She is now in her 90s and has been writing her series for about 40 or 50 years. Will LKH finish her series? Who knows. She says it is open ended. There really is no requirement that the series be ended.
