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I'm having fun reading Danse Macabre
Danse Macabre is a terrible book, but so far it's terrible in enough entertaining ways to be actually fun to read. It's a totally different experience from slogging through Twilight.
For all the criticism I have of Laurell K. Hamilton as a writer, she's still miles ahead of Stephenie Meyer. I kinda want to know what happens next, I don't get headaches reading her writing, and while her protagonists are horrible people, I don't feel I'm immersed in an airless tank of hate while reading the book. In contrast, Meyer is difficult to read. Her grammar is bad, her sentence construction is terrible, she seems to hate the concept of continuity, and she can't describe action in a comprehensible way. Reading her writing is hard work. Nearly every single sentence she writes is bad. LKH is difficult not to skim in parts, she info-dumps too much, she has silly stylistic tics, she's offensive and ridiculous, but she doesn't make the reader do all the work. Most of her sentences are fine. Reading Danse Macabre feels like reading a real novel -- a terrible one, but a novel nonetheless. Reading Twilight hardly feels like reading at all.
I feel that if LKH would accept some serious editing, she would produce acceptable work. Nothing spectacular, but enjoyable escapist entertainment. If she accepted criticism, stopped with all the misogyny and other prejudices, killed the ardeur, and changed how she wrote about sex, she could be the Mercedes Lackey of vampire lit. She does have ability as a writer, buried under all the self-indulgent, arrogant nonsense. Stephenie Meyer does not.
I do want to get back to Twilight, and analyzing Danse Macabre will probably help me do that. It feels like a little vacation. Maybe I will try four to six chapters of Danse Macabre to one of Twilight. I'm definitely going to switch to doing Twilight chapter by chapter, as analyzing it as in-depth as I was, was literally painful.
For all the criticism I have of Laurell K. Hamilton as a writer, she's still miles ahead of Stephenie Meyer. I kinda want to know what happens next, I don't get headaches reading her writing, and while her protagonists are horrible people, I don't feel I'm immersed in an airless tank of hate while reading the book. In contrast, Meyer is difficult to read. Her grammar is bad, her sentence construction is terrible, she seems to hate the concept of continuity, and she can't describe action in a comprehensible way. Reading her writing is hard work. Nearly every single sentence she writes is bad. LKH is difficult not to skim in parts, she info-dumps too much, she has silly stylistic tics, she's offensive and ridiculous, but she doesn't make the reader do all the work. Most of her sentences are fine. Reading Danse Macabre feels like reading a real novel -- a terrible one, but a novel nonetheless. Reading Twilight hardly feels like reading at all.
I feel that if LKH would accept some serious editing, she would produce acceptable work. Nothing spectacular, but enjoyable escapist entertainment. If she accepted criticism, stopped with all the misogyny and other prejudices, killed the ardeur, and changed how she wrote about sex, she could be the Mercedes Lackey of vampire lit. She does have ability as a writer, buried under all the self-indulgent, arrogant nonsense. Stephenie Meyer does not.
I do want to get back to Twilight, and analyzing Danse Macabre will probably help me do that. It feels like a little vacation. Maybe I will try four to six chapters of Danse Macabre to one of Twilight. I'm definitely going to switch to doing Twilight chapter by chapter, as analyzing it as in-depth as I was, was literally painful.
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OMG I LOVE YOU SO MUCH RIGHT NOW. THIS IS PERFECT. and utterly true.
(and i am using my one anita blake icon in your honor - it came from
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http://www.laurellkhamilton.org/works/nightshade-star-trek-tng/
It's actually a pretty nice whodunit wrapped up inside the delicate negotiations a planet's people are undergoing to end a civil war that has lasted a generation or more.
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