Not for the fairest

[james_davis_nicoll]

In a previous flocked post, I said "At the risk of destroying my jaded reviewer cred, [name withheld] is nowhere near the bottom of the barrel where modern fantasy and SF are concerned."

This raises the question of who is near the bottom of the barrel where modern fantasy and SF are concerned. Obviously, I am far too poorly read to answer that but those of you who are not in my particular situation may feel free to supply your own answers.

Comments

[siedhr.livejournal.com]

I had the same expectation. I came late to LKH's books, a few months before The Harlequin came out. I went through the series pretty fast and I experienced extreme disorientation around Incubus Dreams. I kept on reading Blood Noir hoping for a miracle. Alas... no. I haven't even made it to the end.

[apis-mellifera.livejournal.com]

I read somewhere else on the intertubes that everyone has an Anita Blake Point--that moment in the series when it's no longer worth your time to read them. Mine's actually back at Obsidian Butterfly--I can reread everything up to that book and still be entertained, but after that? No thanks.

[siedhr.livejournal.com]

I think there was a post recently on LKH lashouts dealing with the turning point you mentioned. Mine was BN, since I didn't think it was worth the effort to scan the book and see what's going on. The last book I thought had any value was Bloody Bones, which I think it was the last book she wrote before she divorced and hooked up with Jonboi.

I was never a big fan anyway, it's just that I found the whole situation perplexing and amusing and on the whole a great cautionary tale for any writer. Also, I've never encountered an author who destroyed her own work so thoroughly.

By the way, what is RT? "is ignorant"

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

As far as I know, her sales are great. There's at least one perspective that says she's on the right track.

[siedhr.livejournal.com]

I've read some rather long discussions about this perplexing (to me) fact on the Amazon boards. The general opinion was that her high sales figure was due to pre-ordering and that it didn't keep up afterward. She fell from the best-selling list pretty rapidly (in comparison with Stephenie Meyer). I don't know how true this is since I couldn't be bothered to check.
Her right track seems to be along the lines "sex sells". And if she's educated an audience who thinks she's edgy and a source of information about sex, then there's no surprise she still sells. But she's lost almost all of her original fanbase that made the AB series famous in the first place. On a personal note, I would weep if this happened to me.

People read and buy bad books: sad, but true fact of life. Goodkind's sales are quite good as well.
PS: I never paid any money for their books. Long live illegal ebooks.

[apis-mellifera.livejournal.com]

I really like the first few books--Hamilton isn't a great writer and never will be, but the stories were compelling enough that I was willing to overlook her flaws as a writer (the fact that Anita is a massive Mary Sue being one of them). After they turned into essentially nothing but sex scenes, I lost interest as a reader.

RT = Romantic Times BOOKReviews Magazine--I'm their senior SF/F reviewer.

[siedhr.livejournal.com]

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed her early books as well. They were my guilty pleasure books (books I enjoyed reading without making any effort) and also my introduction to urban fantasy. So basically, we're pretty much on the same page.

I am however grateful to LKH for introducing me to other, better authors in the same genre: Patricia Briggs, TA Pratt and Jim Butcher (courtesy of numerous Amazon threads "Help, I was an AB fan and I need something else to read!!!").

[apis-mellifera.livejournal.com]

Tim Pratt is awesome. If you haven't already, get a copy of The Strange Adventures of Rangergirl. I love that book so freaking much. His Marla Mason series is really fantastic, too--I love how she's such a morally gray character. I like my fiction with a lot of moral complexity and ambiguity, which is what initially drew me to LKH, but as the series went on, those parts of Anita's character have just disappeared.

[siedhr.livejournal.com]

I totally thought TA Pratt was a woman. O_o Can't remember why, though. I very much enjoyed the Marla Manson series. Thanks for the rec, I'll be sure to pick it up.

[apis-mellifera.livejournal.com]

I suspect that a lot of people think that, actually. A good chunk of urban fantasy's current readership seems to be female--and there is a lot of overlap with paranormal romance, which is mostly female.