| The Wordcount Project, part 1 |
[Dec. 29th, 2009|03:01 pm] |
Many, if not all, of us in this community have been lamenting the deterioration of LKH's writing - especially after OB. But is it the content of her writing, or the actual quality, that has changed? Has her lack of editing caused that much of a change, or did the multiple re-writes of her first few books improve the quality of writing in them? And is there some way we can analyze it objectively?
Well, my dear fellow Lashers, I stumbled across some readability tools online this evening. I then found that LKH has provided the first 2 chapters of each of her books as a free download on her site...
What did I find when submitting the first chapter of each of the AB books through a readability analysis tool? The data is ( behind the cut. ) |
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| A Series of Unfortunate Events [F A I L S] |
[Dec. 28th, 2009|09:17 pm] |
(This contains spoilers)
Okay. I liked each of these books. Really, I did. The individual books were good, but as a series, this just fails. Maybe it wouldn't have been so bad as a series if the adult's reactions to what the Baudelaire's claimed wasn't so godamn unrealistic. It might be understandable in the first book. Hell, even in the second book. But do they ALWAYS have to dismiss what the orphans say? You would think that after all the times the kids point out Olaf is in disguise, and all the times they were dead right, Mr. Poe might stop and think that maybe they should investigate the accused person. |
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| The Justice Riders |
[Dec. 28th, 2009|07:26 pm] |
The Justice Riders - Chuck Norris, Ken Abraham, Aaron Norris, & Tim Grayem. (But mostly Chuck Norris.) (2006)
I'm not sure this book is entirely appropriate for this community: it scores so high on the fail meter, it actually rolls over and becomes good again. Does that count? ( I hope so. ) |
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| Bookflog: Flirt chapter one |
[Dec. 29th, 2009|10:12 am] |
The first chapter of Flirt
is available to download on LKH's site! It's 18 pages of unformatted,
PDF joy. According
to the promo page, this is what the book is about:
When Anita Blake meets with
prospective client Tony Bennington, who is desperate to have her
reanimate his recently deceased wife, she is full of sympathy for his
loss. Anita knows something about love, and she knows everything there
is to know about loss. But what she also knows, though Tony Bennington
seems unwilling to be convinced, is that the thing she can do as a
necromancer isn't the miracle he thinks he needs. The creature that
Anita could coerce to step out of the late Mrs. Bennington's grave
would not be the lovely Mrs. Bennington. Not really. And not for long.
This just makes me think that Anita will stand on the edge of the grave
and wave Scooby Snacks over it, or have a fishing pole with
marshmallows on the hooks while she coos, "c'mon, if you don't get out
of your grave, I'm going to kick your dog."
It also says this about the book's release date:
I had to ask someone just in case it was a strange American crazy vowel
thing, but apparently not. Oh dear.
( Read more... ) |
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| A mid-90s interview with Hamilton |
[Dec. 28th, 2009|09:50 am] |
I've been going through the old Lashouts entries and tagging blogflogs and fixing links (you may delete any comment notification emails you get titled "Link fix" as it's only me!). In the course of fixing links, I found this very old interview with Hamilton that brings to light just how long she's been saying the same stuff. Does the 70/30 rule sound familiar? It should! Hamilton's been telling us how it goes since at least '97!
Thrill of the hunt
By Corey Stulce, Lifestyle Editor
July 23, 1997
Some people are unaware that a license is required for vampire hunting in Laurel Hamilton's world.
It's true, though, vampire hunters must be licensed through the state, just as doctors and teachers are. They must also have a court order of execution, otherwise it's considered murder. It's really the only way to be civilized in her world.
"The Killing Dance" is the sixth novel author Laurel Hamilton has released starring her heroine ( and possible alter ego) Anita Blake. Blake is a vampire hunter, and in "Dance" she is dating both a master vampire and a werewolf. Confused? Well, it's all just a part of the vast world Hamilton has created for her characters, and it just happens to be smack dab in the middle of St. Louis.
Hamilton has taken a very original stab at the world of vampires taking away some of their mystery and making her main character a human.
"To my knowledge, I'm the only one who has a world where everyone knows that vampires and werewolves and zombies are real and you just have to deal with that," Hamilton said.
( Read more... )
Then, of course, ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) dwg and I were talking about vampire hunting licenses and wondering exactly what's involved in getting one. Do you have to renew? Do you have to go have your eyesight checked periodically like with a driver license? Imagine if your eyes started to fail and you hammered a stake into the wrong corpse in the morgue? Or into the right corpse, but in the wrong place. You could be letting a vampire limp away with oak in his shin! |
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| (no subject) |
[Dec. 28th, 2009|07:58 am] |
This is a question of a possible bookfail!
Has anyone read the novel THIRST by Christopher Pike? I got a few pages into it--basically through the main character's description, which takes up most of the first few pages--and then I put it down. It sounded like the main character begin a vampire was just tacked out--she doesn't burn in the sun nor does she sparkle, she can eat and digest normal food and is in control of her blood cravings, she's perfectly pretty and all but she doesn't struggle from vampire problems. And I guess her blood ends up being the key to...something. I don't even know.
So, has anyone else read this book? Does it get better? Worse? Stay the same? Should I grit my teeth and bear it? Keeping in mind, of course, that I've read no vampire fiction since Twilight in 2007... |
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| A Sixth Sense |
[Dec. 27th, 2009|10:48 pm] |
I've known many a people who purchase books that turn out to be terrible (both in their taste and quality in general), and when I glance at the cover and back information, I convince myself that I could see that was a bad book from a mile away; call it a sixth sense, if you will. I know we're all taught not to judge a book by its cover, but are there any of you who can look at a book and the minimal blurbs on the back (not counting reviews online) and just feel that the book is not going to be worth the paper it's printed on? I feel as though I never have many actual BookFail experiences, because I know what books to avoid.
Does anyone else have an ingrained sense of Sturgeon's Law? Can you tell a good book from a bad book without having to read it or its reviews? How do you approach buying new books if you do/don't? |
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| Is a book fail down to the author or the avid readers? |
[Dec. 26th, 2009|11:36 pm] |
If this isn't allowed plese feel free to delete it. It's more author fail that book fail, but I spent all evening watching channel 4 in the UK bow down to Dan Brown.
Obviosly the big emphasis was on DaVinci code. But it also covered Angels and Demons and Lost Symbol. Real academics trying to prove he was right *hangs head in shame for the academics of my nation* I could not believe the stock that people put in this author. Would be very interested in others thoughts on this.
Post is here.
Again if this is against rules feel free to delete.
Rayne. |
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| Skinny |
[Dec. 24th, 2009|01:32 pm] |
Skinny by Laura L. Smith was a free selection on the Kindle. Because it was free, I didn't read anything about it. Of course, it's obvious that it's a book about an eating disorder... you can tell from the title and the cover pic.
( Read more... ) |
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| Nightworld |
[Dec. 24th, 2009|08:05 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  cheerful | ] |
Hello everyone first post here :D
I've started reading a book
It's called Nightworld by L.J. Smith.
    
Has anyone read it?
If yes, did you like it or was it boring? |
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| Fic: A Very Hargreaves Christmas |
[Dec. 23rd, 2009|09:44 pm] |
Title: A Very Hargreaves Christmas
Fandom: Count Cain/Godchild
Characters/Pairing: Cain, Riff, Merryweather, Neil, Oscar; hints of Cain/Riff
Rating: PG
Summary: Welcome to Christmas at the Hargreaves mansion: presents, a tree, a turkey dinner, and... possible poisoned eggnog?
A/N: This is actually a repost. I wrote this story last year for the Yuletide fic exchange, but never posted it to my journal.
Click here to read it at my journal. |
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| Touch The Fail, Embrace The Fail, Be The Fail |
[Dec. 22nd, 2009|12:11 am] |
SEX! EROTICISM! SEX IS IMPORTANT!
I'm pretty much accustomed to what is the norm in vampire fantasies; vamps are very sexual, vamps are very erotic, there's lots of sex and blood, and everyone's very sexy All.The.Time. It's the norm, it's what people like, and I get that to an extent. I mean, I'm still really happy when I do find vampire lore-centric novels that downplay the sexual deviancy aspects and focus more on lore, characters, and intriguing arcs, and this isn't to say that if there's sex then there's none of the aforementioned good stuff, but more often than not (sadly) wherever there's sex there isn't much else.
So I'm calling FAIL here because in addition to clunky dialogue, unoriginal characters (vampires are Romanian...where have I heard that cliche before), and an author who must practically pause the action to explain something to death, there is the absolutely ridiculous psychic virgin and the will-she-or-won't-she-be-sexed-and-by-whom plots. Because the virgin thing and the sex thing are OMG SO IMPORTANT to the story.
Yeah no. I've pretty much reached the point of fictional sex saturation. To me, it reeks of laziness because if there's one thing sure to reel in readers it's sex, and too many authors utlise this to sell a book...or in this case, a series of them. It's obvious, it bores me, and I don't need to read about any more beautiful characters, prefectly formed for perfectly performed sex scenes.
Also, no, it's not romantic when a vampire hypnotises a character for sex. It's really not. Nor is the tired plot device of a supernatural link between a vampire and...oh, pretty much anybody.
And, as a Romanian reader to an obviously not Romanian author, it would be nice if your Romanian vampire knew a Romanian word other than "dulceata". That got old very fast. |
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| Angel Time? Any Good? |
[Dec. 21st, 2009|08:28 pm] |
I have to say, once upon a time, I loved Rice's work, but it quite quickly went from "Just Right" in Interview and Lestat to "Too Much" in Memnoch and later works. I'm not sure what to think about her newer books, the ones that live in the religious category, because while I love books and stories that bring up theological and religious subjects and questions, I hate books that shove them down your throat. Is it worth picking up Angel Time, or am I going to scoff at it? Is Rice beyond literary redemption, or is there still hope?
:::Edit::: So, I guess I'm a touch picky... Or a lot picky, as the case may be. I think I'll just borrow it from the library and see how that goes. One more question though, how would you rate it plot-progression wise? |
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| Have You Seen....? A Personal Introduction to 1000 Films |
[Dec. 21st, 2009|03:45 pm] |
My former roommate got this book for Christmas last year. We were just talking about it. This review may not be the best since I do not have the book on hand to refer to, but, from memory:
( Why criticism can fail, too )
--PolarisDiB, who apologizes that he's lost all of his other examples of the ridiculous nature of Thomson's criticism and had to rely on just the one specific example over and over again to make his point on the matter. |
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| New covers for old books. |
[Dec. 21st, 2009|04:33 pm] |
Laurell has gone on and on about the new cover art for the Anita series, but it never sunk in that this meant the early books were being repackaged again. This is the third round of covers for the first eight books. None of the other series I have read have gone through so many repackagings. Are some of the completists out there buying the old books with the new covers? LKH says the new covers are to get away from the sexualized imagery, but it seems to me that the goal is to get existing fans to shell out even more money for books they already read.
At least putting these kinds of covers on the old books isn't the kind of false advertising the Blood Noir cover was!
Link to LKH's page with the new covers:
http://www.laurellkhamilton.org/works.html |
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