The Promised review...

[kukla_tko]

Bloody Cable Modem.
Growl.

Here's the promised rant:
Well, now. mari_who posted a lovely essay about the works of Laurel K Hamilton. In particular, she accused Laurel of writing Anita Blake as a "Mary Sue" character. (Go. Read her journal entry. Then come back. I can wait.)







Done now?
Good. I hinted in my comment that I agreed with her, and then some. Here's my review of the whole stack of LKH books I have waded through:

Anita Blake:
Oh, yeah. I read the first one. Here's what I thought, "Gee, that FanFic writer sure has promise. Would someone like to tell me why this book was actually published?"
And I felt that way for the first few books. It didn't stop me from reading them, but I always felt vaguely disappointed. I guess I figured that she would grow and improve as a writer. Not really, so far. I am left with the impression that she really doesn’t like to go over her own work, or have anyone else do so. Being able to polish your own writing is the mark of a true writer.

Plot considerations; Ok, how many beautiful-but-dangerous men are you going to pack these novels with? And are ALL of them going to be irresistibly drawn to the lead character? (sigh.)
Also, Anita is... bitchy. I don't object to characters who act bitchy from time to time, but I recognize that a bitchy woman isn't going to get what she wants any more effectively than a mousy one, in the long run. Anita has issues; this is great, since you need to give your lead character room to grow and change.
I started to jokingly call them the "Anita Fuck" novels, though. Don't misunderstand me, I am NOT someone who believes that what a prudish/closeted/bitchy/angry/clever/self-righteous woman needs most is some good, hard fucking from a manly man. Nope, no sir. Heck, I was a young attractive woman in fandom myself, and had beautiful men throwing themselves at my feet and being expertly seductive, and I managed to hoard my virginity for some years. I think that each woman should choose the time and place of her first sexual experiences. I respect anyone's desire to wait until circumstances are right and one knows what one wants.
But DAMN, Anita really needed to break loose. I was having a lot of trouble watching her show her "strong, aggressive" personality while wavering and flip-flopping, and talking herself out of good choices on the inside. And then getting rewarded for it by the plot, which almost never really happens. I was DYING for her to just plain GET OVER IT, and find love (or at least genuine affection) for someone... ordinary, but beautiful in his own way. (I bet I will never get THAT.)

Then the stories started to move, started to take on a life of their own. I got excited! This was starting to behave like a good series! We might even get a brilliant novel out of LKH yet!

And then she fell into the Super Hero trap. See, the hero always has to overcome the villain, and the villain should be slightly more powerful than the hero each time, so that the Hero's victory is all the more exaultant. Of course the hero wins against the odds because the Hero has the power of GOOD on his or her side. Of course, in order for the hero to continue to take on bigger and badder foes, and still manage to just barely defeat them, the hero requires an upgrade to his powers. The bad guys get bigger, badder, meaner, more sadistic, and multiply in number. The good guy has to increase in power and increase the resources.

So, we end up with SUPERMAN who really is unstoppable, or fall into the Wolverine trap, where they made him meaner, more unstoppable, and increased his mutant healing powers again and again.

This can only go on for so long. Eventually, you have to take your hero down a peg, in order to build them back up again.
Ugh.
So, sure enough, LKH falls into this cliche. Anita gains powers, through her connections to the various superpowered beautiful men in her life. She loses them, too, especially when the plot needs for her to be slightly weaker. Then she gains them back when she needs them to defeat the Big Bad.

Yes, Anita makes mistakes. (Predictable ones, too.) Yes, Anita has failings, and can't save everyone, and kills without remorse. I like that in a hero, frankly, and there are precious few female heroes with these qualities.
I am a huge fan of Batman, Wolverine, Spike (from Buffy), and other monsters that have chosen to fight for the side of good. I eat this stuff with a spoon.

But Anita never really gets there.

Along we go, and just about the time that Laurell broke up with her husband, Anita becomes ravenously sexual, and so do the novels. She skips gleefully from dark sexual fantasy to fantasy, and manages to remember to keep a few threads of plot to hold the whole thing together. Yes, the characters mirror people from her own life, and LKH has been sighted wearing "Anita Blake" outfits in public. (Sigh.)

Oh. And at one point in one of the later novels, the voice changes drastically. Go. Look for it. So far, we have been in Anita's head, and the thoughts we are reading are Anita's thoughts.
And then, Laurell addresses the readers DIRECTLY on the subject of women's weight issues.
Out of nowhere.
Without preamble, and without any kind of explanation when she slides smoothly back into the book.

Um.
Ok?

One more issue; the porn thing.
Here’s the deal; I like porn. I like erotica. I like sweaty, sexy, naughty stories. At this, Laurell does seem to be better than average. It does beg the question, though. Is she naturally gifted when it comes to writing porn, or are these simply the parts she likes to read, re-read, write, and re-write.
Either way, why not simply step into the world of EROTIC fiction and start a new series?

She herself has said that the things she writes best are sex and violence, so she writes a lot of that.

I don’t even care much about her characters. They all speak in her voice, they all have the same issues over and over again, and only the background characters seem to have a fresh perspective. I like character driven stories, that’s why I read David Eddings. (Same plot, different group.)

I like high-fantasy or modern sci-fi/horror with romantic overtones. That’s why I read Mercedes Lackey. I like conflict and violence, that’s why I read Mickey Zucker Richert. But I have it on good authority that all of these writers work very hard at their craft, honing skills, reworking plotlines, and generally producing a very polished work. Mickey also hosts writers’ workshops for aspiring writers.

Laurell…
Doesn’t. And her writing reflects that.

So I am back to my original thoughts, that LKH will eventually become a great writer, but for now her novels are... predictable. She's getting better, but I think it would work better if she hadn't been published so quickly.

Now I contemplate a Masquerade entry. No longer "Anita Fuck," I would title it:
Anita Break.
Narrator/MC: Straight from the pages of LKH's latest novel, Here's the necromancer Heroine, "Anita Break." Also with her are her love interests, the Beautiful but deadly Vampire, The Beautiful, manly, but deadly werewolf Richard, the beautiful but deadly...
Wait. Are they all long-haired, beautiful but deadly superhumans? All Twelve of them?"

Anita: "Yeah. Why the hell do you think they call me Anita? Ah-neet-a BREAK!"
(Fires "gun" at each guy. They all fall down.)

Anita: Whew. That's better. Now I can finally get my shit together. Edward? Wanna help me clean this up?

But wait, there's more!

I recently read "Nightseer" which, as it turns out, is LKH's "first novel" which was published (no surprise) after her Anita Blake novels became so popular. Ugh. If Laurell's later works read like Mary Sue Fanfiction (and they DO) then this earlier attempt reads like NOTES for BAD Mary Sue Fanfiction.

Once again, a bitchy and "not so powerful" superhero protagonist, who is being relentlessly pursued by a somewhat shady, powerful, more-beautiful-than-handsome man with impossible features, long hair, and a penchant for wearing black. He's an "Evil" mage, but with a focus on healing.
He also bears a striking resemblance to Prince Lotor from the Voltron Animated Series. Pointed ears, unusual skin color, long white hair...
...and his name is "Lothor."
Laurell and I are age-peers. I guess she watched that show and loved it as much as I did. I just didn't have the Lotor fixation.
Once again, the "not so powerful" lead character has to ally herself with Lothor in order to conquer the Big Bad and save her companions.

This novel is filled with plot dead-ends, loose threads, and the amateur’s tendency to ignore the parts that aren't as interesting to the author. One can clearly see LKH's tastes, the things she likes to write about and re-write, and work on. My advice? Work on the stuff you DON"T like. Work on the stuff that's boring, and flesh out the "necessary" but uninteresting parts of your story so that they will keep the reader's attention.

Comments

[bradhicks.livejournal.com]

Ah. Thank Prime it's not just me. I can't talk about this stuff when alienne is around, as Laurel's a close friend of hers and she's very protective. But Christ on a pogo stick, I started that first book probably three times, under increasingly severe threat from friends that I Must Read This Super Cool Book, and I never made it past about page 3 before gagging on the shallow, vapid, awful writing.

Laurel is a cute woman. She's fun to be around at a party, when she's not in Celebrity Mode. But I hope to Christ she never asks me what I think of her writing.

On the other hand, who am I to criticize? She's making money at it and I'm not.