Laurell K. Hamilton: The new Anne Rice?

[matgb]

Oh dear. Laurell K. Hamilton has, it appears, had her own Anne Rice moment. Getting something straight:

They aren't comfortable books. They are books that push my character and me to the edge and beyond of our comfort zones.

OK, got that, bad things happen.

The characters aren't real to you. They are real to me, and to a lot of other people. I, and a lot of readers, would feel an emotional loss if some of these guys died.

Right. So, about this Comfort Zone thing?

I read one of her books (book ten I think) because I needed an extra in a 3-for-2 offer so thought a series with 10 books+ can't be that bad. Oh dear. Morbid curiosity got me buying a few more, partially in the hope that reading the first ones might make more sense, and I also picked up the Gentry books, and I still can't believe how bad they are.

Now, she responds to critics (rarely a good idea, although there are exceptions that prove the rule), contradicts herself, admits that she is Too Much Of A Pussy To Kill Off Characters and proclaims that we don't like her books because they're too deep for us. Right...

Laurell? It's not that they're too deep. I like deep. I like thought provoking, I like mind expanding, I like confusing, let's start taking notes, WTF is the author doing here confusion. I also like shallow, puerile crap. As long as it's well written. The problem m'dear? Yours isn't. Both your main characters are little more than Mary Sues. Your sex scenes are little more than porn, and badly written porn at that. I've paid good money for at least 5 of your books. Don't expect me to do so again.

And, while reading other feeds, it seems John Scalzi also had the Anne Rice comparison (it was a bit obvious, wonder if kobold will spoof this as well?), and has some advise for budding authors:

Now, why you, as an author, shouldn't follow Ms. Hamilton's example:

It makes you look like an asstard.

Here's the thing. Some people won't like your books. If these people also have access to the Internet, the chances are good that they might tell other people how they don't like your books. Sometimes, they'll tell people they don't like your books, even if they haven't read your books, because some people are crazy screechy monkeys.

I also liked tnh's comments in the thread, this one is particularly apposite:

And to cap it all off, how does she prove she's right about the series, and they're wrong? Because her sales figures keep going up. Way to go, lady. Get right out there and tell your fans that the reason you don't have to listen to them is that they keep buying your books. They'll have that paradox sorted out for you in nothing flat.

She makes one point that I agree with though.

If that's not want you want, then stop reading.

I did. (via John, Nick and James)

Never mind. There's a comic adaptation now. Ah, oh dear. It's worse (via)

Comments

[davidnm.livejournal.com]

I have to admit, Laurel K Hamilton is someone whose output I have never felt any inclination to investigate. To be fair, I suppose, I should note that it isn't really my field, but still.

[matgb]

And you just commented as I hit the 'update' button; above post now with added extra pisstaking goodness.

I tried one out of boredom, theoretically I like vampire/horror stuff if it's done well. In practise, most of it isn't. Apparently her very early books were actually good, then she got carried away. I don't want to waste the time/effort finding out, I'm still not sure why I bought the three Gentry books in one go, the premise was interesting but the books just weren't.

[davidnm.livejournal.com]

Hehee ... piss-taking goodness is definitely a good thing!

[ladymina.livejournal.com]

the first books had something - though my favourite is OB (I stopped reading at CS after I hated NIC)
her early Anita was an interesting character - nice comeback lines, witty bitchyness, some flaws - if you ignored that she had the mary-sue sign of looking like a slimmer form of the author, she was alright,
She got hurt, needed to be rescued, had a moral conflict - all in all she had a personality, and the guys had one too
Now we have several sock puppy guys who are only there to show how much the wuuuv anita and how much stronger she is ...

[matgb]

Which is where I give up completely. She wants to write it, fine. People want to buy it, more fool them. The problem of course is that some will pick up her work as an example of a genre, and never then pick up the actual good stuff within the genre.

Ah well, it's not like it's a genre I care about much.

[missedith01.livejournal.com]

"I don't see the arduer going poof."

I don't know why but that has really given me the giggles. :-)

I really like the early AB novels, - they are badly written, I admit, but full of imagination. Least said about the later ones the better.

[matgb]

That's what's bothering me. In the books I've got, ardeur is spelt different to in her rant. So either the US print spells it different (which I don't rule out), or she can't spell one of her own key concepts. I suspect the latter.

Shame really, the books might have been a good series, but she sort of lost the plot. Now I think they mostly sell to people who are too embarrassed to buy porn. Fine, but not what she set out to write.

[karis-uk.livejournal.com]

I loved the series to start with - the early ones were interesting, the pacing was good (I didn't have to give up my life to read them fairly quickly and understand the characters/plotlines). They were enjoyable, witty and had some strong characters and a slightly different take on the genre.

I stopped reading a while ago, to the point I'm not sure what book she's up to now. I got sick of the sex, although I could see the point she was trying to make I got bored with reading nothing but pages and pages of that shite, and also about the same time other writers were writing a similar style of supernatural fiction without it, so I switched to them for my shlock horror fix instead. I read one chapter of the first Meredith Gentry book and decided that I really didn't need to read any more of that series.

However, having read her rant, I'm kind of inclined to agree with her about her comments about negative readers. I've never understood why people claim to hate something and yet continue to go on and on and on and on and on about it publicly all the time. Not just with books mind, my nan hates something on TV and will watch the entire thing and then expect everyone to listen to her complain about it, people come into the pub and complain loudly about how dirty it is, how rude the staff are and how awful the beer is but still continue to drink there every bloody night. I can understand her frustration and the point she is trying to make, and it isn't pleasant when people go out of their way to criticise you constantly, whatever you do. It's nice to say we should all grow up and rise above it, but eventually it's going to wear you down, and what do you do then? She obviously believes in what she is doing, and good for her. Just because I wont choose to read one again in a hurry doesn't mean that she should shut up and disappear into obscurity.

[matgb]

To an extent, people like to whinge about stuff they like. To a greater extent, people are likely to complain about the good old days books, back when things were, y'know, good.

People are very unlikely to say nice things unbidden, but much more likely to complain. If we got a nice thanks letter at work, it was heralded everywhere, but a complaint would simply be investigated.

She believes in what she's doing. Yes. But it seems a significant chunk of her readerbase don't, but are still buying in hope that she'll get better. From that, she won't. Maybe it's not quite an Anne Rice moment, but it's close, she didn't really even engage with criticism. Ah well, she'd already lost my money, now she's lost my respect as well.

As for the pub regulars? Are they really complaining? I like a pub where the staff don't do faux polite, and it's as clean as it needs to be, but not so sparkling it looks like it's not got any customers. And beer is always awful...

(also? Just finished reading the latest grrm paperback, and y'know what? It's wrong. So very wrong. No one died! Well, no one significant not already due to. What's going on when none of the significant characters get choped? He's losing it I tell thee...)