Reading/Book Pet Peeves

[Carotte]

I just finished one that I could have lived without ever opening. Not really bad but really, just meh. For 9/10 of it at least the heroine was good, not afraid, stands her ground, not really stupid, a good role-model I would say, given her situation. The twist at the end 'oh no, the good guy is actually the bad guy, no one could have guessed!' and 'oh, he's completely lunatic and thinks he's from another time and a supernatural being' made my eyes roll. I saw it coming from the middle of the book.
But that the smart and brave girl decide to end up with the guy she fell in love with, and who spent all his time telling her she will be miserable with him, and it's not a life for her, and he doesn't do 'love', is just irritating.

And I was given this book to read under false pretences (I was told it was some kind fantasy/fiction)

[Nikko-chan]

In this one book I read (i believe i mentioned it on here before, about how misunderstandings kept happening throughout the book) the Lady of the House wasn't even a Lady at all, before they were married! She told him she was a Lady but she wasn't. Her husband did some snooping and found her father and the other "Lady" who was a former uh... worker of a certain industry. Also, the girl he married wasn't a worker in this industry so no reason to take on the title of Lady other than to lie to him about her parentage so she could marry a rich man and have a life of luxury I guess...

[Margo]

I read some book that I can't remember but really liked that had the traditional killer on the loose and the hero who was some sort of cop or agent or something told the heroine that she should stay in the safe place and lock the door and the heroine said something like "Of course I will, do you think that I'm an idiot?" It was very refreshing though I guess that it may kill the suspense plot a bit, if all you do is wait at home for the police to do their work.

There's a nice but in Dorothy L Sayers' 'Gaudy Night' where Harriet Vane takes time to stop & call back to *check* whether the phone call summoning her to the dark garden was genuine, and also arranges some back up, before going, having had conversations about how people never, ever do this... (Of course, from a plot perspective it helped to set up a nice red herring, which I suppose is one way of getting round the risk of making the plot boring by making your characters and situations more realistic.)

[Thuringwethyl]

Re: PPs about ineffective female heroines - one of my favorite books of all time is Dealing with Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede. Before Shrek or Brave was even a glimmer in someone's eye, Wrede's character Cimorene was the ultimate anti-princess: she'd rather fence and make cherries jubilee than learn how to embroider and curtsy just right. To get out of marrying a total loser, she runs away and hires herself as a dragon's princess instead of waiting for one to carry her off. Wrede has lots of fun turning the traditional fairy tale world on it's head.

I loved the Dealing with Dragons books too! Although I liked the first two better than the last ones..

[Kariachi]

Re: PPs about ineffective female heroines - one of my favorite books of all time is Dealing with Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede. Before Shrek or Brave was even a glimmer in someone's eye, Wrede's character Cimorene was the ultimate anti-princess: she'd rather fence and make cherries jubilee than learn how to embroider and curtsy just right. To get out of marrying a total loser, she runs away and hires herself as a dragon's princess instead of waiting for one to carry her off. Wrede has lots of fun turning the traditional fairy tale world on it's head.

I loved the Dealing with Dragons books too! Although I liked the first two better than the last ones..

I love all of them. In fact, I've made a deal with my mother that if she tries to read the first one I'll try some 'Heralds of Valdemar' book she bought for me.

[Reika]

I love all of them. In fact, I've made a deal with my mother that if she tries to read the first one I'll try some 'Heralds of Valdemar' book she bought for me.

"Heralds of Valdemar" can be really hit or miss. The very early ones were quite good, then the ones she wrote with her husband went downhill (to me anyway). The newest series, Foundation (I think that's what it's called), has been surprisingly good after the dross she'd been putting out.

[Kariachi]

I love all of them. In fact, I've made a deal with my mother that if she tries to read the first one I'll try some 'Heralds of Valdemar' book she bought for me.

"Heralds of Valdemar" can be really hit or miss. The very early ones were quite good, then the ones she wrote with her husband went downhill (to me anyway). The newest series, Foundation (I think that's what it's called), has been surprisingly good after the dross she'd been putting out.

See, I've read a few of them, but I honestly have no interest in this particular story(one with the pyrokinetic). My mom thinks I'll love it though. Meanwhile, she rolls her eyes when I say the 'Dragon' series is right up her alley (deconstructed/altered fairytales). So, compromise.

[Reika]

See, I've read a few of them, but I honestly have no interest in this particular story(one with the pyrokinetic). My mom thinks I'll love it though. Meanwhile, she rolls her eyes when I say the 'Dragon' series is right up her alley (deconstructed/altered fairytales). So, compromise.

Ah, the one with the pyro is a little troubling in spots.

Though I may check out the Dealing with Dragon series now.

[lady_disdain]

I love all of them. In fact, I've made a deal with my mother that if she tries to read the first one I'll try some 'Heralds of Valdemar' book she bought for me.

"Heralds of Valdemar" can be really hit or miss. The very early ones were quite good, then the ones she wrote with her husband went downhill (to me anyway). The newest series, Foundation (I think that's what it's called), has been surprisingly good after the dross she'd been putting out.

I read the Arrows trilogy (Talia) and thought they were just OK. Nothing great but not unreadable. Which books do you recommend from the series?

[rose red]

You know what I hate?  When two people start to fall in love, but one (or both) are currently dating someone.  But it's OK!  They are abusive jerks and evil golddiggers!  Yet, the hero/heroine fight their feelings and stay with the jerks because...I don't know why.  I also don't know why they are with jerks in the first place.

[Elisabunny]

I agree about how the "miraculous escapes" of some characters really challenge your suspension of disbelief. However I often find myself exasperated by the opposite - deaths that come too quick, too easy, too soon and (IMHO) to the wrong character. I read a book rooting for everyone to survive - I think death (of anything more than an "extra") is actually fairly rare outside of supernatural, horror/suspense and murder mysteries. I find deaths of characters I am just getting into quite jarring...and also somewhat annoying if I invest time and attention into someone who is essentially a "throw away." I also think an author (especially one who writes a long series) can get lazy and end up just automatically killing every villian the hero fights. Sometimes it makes sense in the context of the story and how dangerous the setting is, but other times you feel the author is just overplaying to our/their personal sense of justice or maybe even working through some issues.

I read serial mysteries expecting just about anyone outside of the recurring characters to end up dead any second. Saves me some aggravation.

Death needs to be done right. Sometimes it is painfully clear when an author uses death to mean something and further the plot, and when they just got lazy or bored with a character and decided to kill them off. I also hate death as a "save-the-shoddy-storyline" move. Also, when any story has a supernatural element, I am just as annoyed by too-easy resurrections that take away from the emotional impact of the loss of a character. And I really hate lazy (or complete lack of ) explanations of why/how a character came back to life, because it shows a fundamental weakness in basic world-building.

If you can't explain the rules of your world, or justify why you are breaking the rules you already established, don't just do it anyway and hope your loyal readers won't notice. We notice. We always notice.

The worst "death done badly" I've read was a YA series about the aftereffects of the moon changing its orbit (I think the first is titled Life as We Know It).  While death and distruction is expected in dystopian fiction, some characters died in such random, out-of-the-blue ways, it was pretty obvious that the author just wanted them out gone so the plot could move forward the way she had envisioned.

[snowflake]

I think I am going to start selling screensavers for writers that say things like,

"Playing hard to get does not in itself make me a strong woman."

[Grancalla]

I agree about how the "miraculous escapes" of some characters really challenge your suspension of disbelief. However I often find myself exasperated by the opposite - deaths that come too quick, too easy, too soon and (IMHO) to the wrong character. I read a book rooting for everyone to survive - I think death (of anything more than an "extra") is actually fairly rare outside of supernatural, horror/suspense and murder mysteries. I find deaths of characters I am just getting into quite jarring...and also somewhat annoying if I invest time and attention into someone who is essentially a "throw away." I also think an author (especially one who writes a long series) can get lazy and end up just automatically killing every villian the hero fights. Sometimes it makes sense in the context of the story and how dangerous the setting is, but other times you feel the author is just overplaying to our/their personal sense of justice or maybe even working through some issues.

I read serial mysteries expecting just about anyone outside of the recurring characters to end up dead any second. Saves me some aggravation.

Death needs to be done right. Sometimes it is painfully clear when an author uses death to mean something and further the plot, and when they just got lazy or bored with a character and decided to kill them off. I also hate death as a "save-the-shoddy-storyline" move. Also, when any story has a supernatural element, I am just as annoyed by too-easy resurrections that take away from the emotional impact of the loss of a character. And I really hate lazy (or complete lack of ) explanations of why/how a character came back to life, because it shows a fundamental weakness in basic world-building.

If you can't explain the rules of your world, or justify why you are breaking the rules you already established, don't just do it anyway and hope your loyal readers won't notice. We notice. We always notice.

The worst "death done badly" I've read was a YA series about the aftereffects of the moon changing its orbit (I think the first is titled Life as We Know It).  While death and distruction is expected in dystopian fiction, some characters died in such random, out-of-the-blue ways, it was pretty obvious that the author just wanted them out gone so the plot could move forward the way she had envisioned.

What about when the character(s)' death serves no real purpose, not even getting the plot going?

I read a sci-fi novel several years ago (don't remember the title, but I probably still have it), that was about an archaeological team studying a planet to determine why the intelligent species that had lived there had gone extinct. That was actually quite interesting (it turned out that the species had become pathologically obsessed with genetic purity and rooting out mutations, to the point where "shares" in good genetic lines was used as currency. They died out due to massive inbreeding.) There were hints of political upheaval back at the home planet, but the story was mainly about the mission.
Until the last chapter, in which the main character tells us that the ship that was supposed to come get them at the end of their mission never came, their supplies and fuel ran out, everyone else is dead, and he soon will be, too. He's leaving a record of their mission and what they found, but it's unlikey anyone will find it. Just... why? Did I miss something? I must have.

[magicdomino]

What about when the character(s)' death serves no real purpose, not even getting the plot going?

I read a sci-fi novel several years ago (don't remember the title, but I probably still have it), that was about an archaeological team studying a planet to determine why the intelligent species that had lived there had gone extinct. That was actually quite interesting (it turned out that the species had become pathologically obsessed with genetic purity and rooting out mutations, to the point where "shares" in good genetic lines was used as currency. They died out due to massive inbreeding.) There were hints of political upheaval back at the home planet, but the story was mainly about the mission.
Until the last chapter, in which the main character tells us that the ship that was supposed to come get them at the end of their mission never came, their supplies and fuel ran out, everyone else is dead, and he soon will be, too. He's leaving a record of their mission and what they found, but it's unlikely anyone will find it. Just... why? Did I miss something? I must have.

My guess is that it was an ironic twist.  While humans are researching how an intelligent alien species managed to exterminate themselves, humans at home did the same thing.  The aliens did it through obsessing about their genetic lines, humans did it through a segment of the population that insists on killing the rest of the population, as well as each other.

[dawnfire]

I love all of them. In fact, I've made a deal with my mother that if she tries to read the first one I'll try some 'Heralds of Valdemar' book she bought for me.

"Heralds of Valdemar" can be really hit or miss. The very early ones were quite good, then the ones she wrote with her husband went downhill (to me anyway). The newest series, Foundation (I think that's what it's called), has been surprisingly good after the dross she'd been putting out.

I read the Arrows trilogy (Talia) and thought they were just OK. Nothing great but not unreadable. Which books do you recommend from the series?

i would recommend the Mage winds followed by mage storm