Fin's Wrong Ideas

I’ve been busy. I wish I could tell you it was doing something fun, but I can’t so we will ignore it and move on. I’ve been reading a lot, and some of it is new and some of it is old. So, here’s the list:

• Swallowing Darkness by Laurell K Hamilton
• Acheron by Sherrilyn Kenyon
• One Silent Night by Sherrilyn Kenyon
• Bitten by Kelley Armstrong
• Stolen by Kelley Armstrong
• Faefever by Karen Marie Moning

It’s not a lot, but then again I didn’t mention everything I’ve read. That would probably bore you. Reading through reviews and the forums on Amazon I came across something strange. General anger about Authors switching genres.

I have read all of the Laurell K Hamilton books (except the Star Trek and Ravenloft junk) and here’s the deal… I don’t care for the way her books went after Obsidian Butterfly in the Anita Blake series. I didn’t really care for Obisian Butterfly either but there was a marked difference in the books after. Less plot more sex. Then she started a new series with the Meredith Gentry books and she clearly meant them to be the vehicle with which she got to fully explore sex. I’m fine with that. I wasn’t fine with how the Anita Blake books devolved. It went from Urban Fantasy to Romance.

Apparently this cross genre jumping is driving people nuts.

I also read JR Ward’s Brotherhood series. I enjoy it, and yeah sometimes all the extra hhhhh’s she adds to accentuate the difference between human and vampire gets a little silly…er a lot silly. So she published a new book this year and people were unhappy with her jump from Romance to Urban Fantasy. I really didn’t have a problem with it because the story is still there at least it wasn’t all pointless sex with little plot.

Another author that I’ve been reading has been Karen Moning. There is also a subset of people who are upset about her jump from Romance to Urban Fantasy. Especially with how dark the ending was on her new book Faefever. People are getting upset because it’s lacking the sexiness of the Highland series.

So what’s the big difference between Romance and Urban Fantasy? And why does it irk people when authors jump ship to a different genre?

It appears that this Wordpress Blogger came across a lot of the same issues.

I’ve gotten to the point where I wish booksellers would just combine all fiction into one group. I hate going to the Fantasy section to pick one book then find what I want out of the horror section and then run the Romance to make sure I didn’t miss anything.

Now for some reviews:

Swallowing Darkness

Who didn’t snicker when they read the title? And the next Anita Blake book is called Skin Trade. Good grief. Does she really take herself seriously?
I found this book a departure from the rest of the series. It had less sex. I think only a chapter was sex and the rest actual quasi plot. Hamilton’s language in the book was what led it astray for me. The dialogue was so stilted it was terrible, it didn’t flow and was almost boring to read. I put it down several times to go do other things hoping that it was just my mood that influencing my boredom.
It was rather nice to see her back on track, but I think with this series she just isn’t into writing it. I’ve read a few reviews that mentioned this book almost seemed to be the end of the series, as in what would be the point to add more to it. I agree with that. This would have been a safe ending.

Acheron

A lot of people didn’t like the first half of the book. It was rough, dirty, and not at all comfortable. It detailed the life of the main character Acheron. The first half of the book dealt with the mistreatment of Acheron from the time he was born up until his rebirth from being killed by Apollo. Readers had a hard time with it because it was about child slavery and rape. It wasn’t Kenyon’s normal fare. I thought she had written it well and it did an ample job of putting you in the Ash’s mindset for the rest of the book. The second part of the book was a typical Dark Hunter novel, but thank god she went as far as ending the relationship with Artemis. I like to see authors grow out of a segment of writing and advance a plot. Overall I enjoyed the book and it has become a favorite book. It’s a little bit of harsh with a little bit of sweet.