Dragaera

Literary Disappointments (was: The LKH thing)

Mon Feb 17 05:57:11 PST 2003

On Monday, February 17, 2003, at 08:49 AM, David Rodemaker wrote:

>> The Wraeththu books; someone told me Mr. Constantine was a decent
>> writer. I'm not certain precisely what variety of crack that person 
>> was
>> on, but it must be one that makes you blind to the use of exclamation
>> points and question marks in the same sentence, the phrase "different 
>> to",
>> multiple egregious omissions of commas, and similar things. Oh, yeah, 
>> and
>> the complete lack of interesting stuff happening didn't really
>> help either.
>
> *Ms.* Constantine, IIRC, sort of tends to agree with you. Her website 
> is
> somewhere around on the web, and that trilogy was, again IIRC, her 
> first
> published work (and shows it). Very popular with the goth crowd 
> evidently,
> otherwise an interesting read for the 'what-the-hell?' factor, neat
> *idea's*, 'different' blend of new-age magic/religion and pretty-boi
> sexuality, sort of fun spin at the end if you can last that long 
> <shrug>.
> Her later stuff, like the Grigori Trilogy, is much better.
>
> One of those series of books to keep on the shelf to throw at people 
> when
> they ask for something 'Different. No I mean *really* different.' <g>
>
I read that trilogy and thought, "What a good idea. Too bad you ruined 
it." I feel the same way about the Pern books: There are some good 
ideas there but she ruins them. My aunt copy edited Acorna's World and 
thought her style was stiff.

>> And there's Jordan's Wheel of Time, which has also come up. This is 
>> what
>> happens when you take a four-book series and stretch it out to three 
>> times
>> that length. With sniffling and much adjusting of necklines.
Yes! Oh I am so sick of sniffs, adjusted necklines, stiffens, etc. For 
a while Nyvanae's pulling of her braid got me.
>
> One of those series where I borrow the new book and skim it to see if
> there's any point to actually reading the damn thing.

I am still chugging through Book Ten. I have invested so much time in 
the series so far that I want to see if there is a pay off at the end.