Just read the latest Laurell K Hamilton

[janedavitt]

This one was 'Bullet'. I can't remember the last one I actually bought, but I usually get them from the library with a weird mixture of impending disappointment and annoyance to the fore. I shouldn't do it. I know I'm going to get pouty remembering how fresh and good the first two or three were and how unutterably dire the series is these days, but it's classic train-wreck syndrome and I can't help myself.

And she did it again ::sigh:: Whole book covered 24 hours or so, Anita bonked everything that moved, and the exciting bit, you know, the actual PLOT was covered in a two page epilogue where she casually tossed out lines along the lines of 'After that, we all flew out to city X and defeated Y'.

I'm not making that up. Hundreds of pages telling us what new leather outfit or tarty dress Anita's changed into or the color of the silk sheets and then an actual exciting, important battle gets ONE FRIGGING SENTENCE.

The most annoying thing though was the frankly appalling editing. At least three times, I had to go back over a chunk of dialog only to realize that Anita said something twice and no one editing noticed and punctuated accordingly. So a phone conversation looks like this:

"Hi, how are you?"

"I'm fine, Anita, how are you and your harem?"

"Just dandy, thank you."

"I just killed a man."

"Did you, Anita? I hope it didn't interfere with the orgy?"


See what happened there in the middle? The editor didn't.

Comments

[elmyraemilie]

I just picked up a book in the grocery store (yes, I know, that's asking for trouble right there) but in the *first full page* there were two typos and a really horrendous piece of "as you know" exposition.

This is why I read fanfic. Quality control is better, and fic writers rely on their good reputations.

[janedavitt]

It's appalling how much gets missed in her books. The proofer in me cringes.

[briarwood]

Rumour has it Ms Hamilton refuses to work with an editor. I would be sceptical, but I think that's more plausible than even the worst editor willingly publishing the drivel that comes out under her name.

[janedavitt]

From other comments, it sounds that way. Silly, silly, author.

[briarwood]

For what it's worth, the Merry Gentry books are even worse. In the first, a character's hair changes colour three times. In another, she failed to spot that she'd left [insert] in the manuscript in place of, well, whatever it was she meant to insert there. (And it's still in the reprints - I checked!) In the latest, her detective story is resolved when - I am not kidding - the accomplice shows up in the heroine's office and begs to be allowed to confess all.

Obviously, people are still buying her books. It must be people who enjoy train wrecks...I can't imagine anyone still reads them as entertaining fiction.

[maab_connor]

i gave up on LKH pretty early on. i just didn't have time for the trope. don't get me wrong, i am a fan of both trope AND porn... but i want there to be SOME plot. her books, anymore, are like cheap 70s porn that someone made on a beta max. it's fuzzy and not very good and more than a little skeevy and the bits of dialogue you can hear make no sense at all.

JD Robb, OTOH, keeps me coming back. every time. As does M.L. Rhodes, (s)he writes AWESOME gay porn - but there IS plot.

[janedavitt]

I love erotica but she doesn't write it. Just boring, fade to black, ickily coy smut.

[maab_connor]

... coy smut... idk why but very inappropriate goldfish popped into my head. sadly, rule 34 of the internet exists, i'm sure... probably with fewer typos than LKH