RHYMEPHILE'S BLOG
Vampires, Anita Blake, and mizspelinggs
Friday, July 30, 2004 2:22 PM
'kay, this has nothing to do with FF, but it's been driving me crazy, so you're stuck with it.I just finished reading "Cerulean Sins" by Laurell K. Hamilton, the 11th book in the Anita Blake Vampire Hunter series.
I love the universe she created, and I love the characters, and that's why I keep reading. But good Lawd that woman needs a new editor!
Ugh, the plotting is poor and the spelling is atrocious. Multiple spelling mistakes in the same sentence is just bad. It's been that way throughout all of her books, and I can't seem to understand why such a popular author doesn't get someone better (or someone at all?) to read over the damn manuscript.
The word "alright" is not all right in a book. It's totally incorrect. "Marshall" is a name, not a federal marshal. The word "toward" is used in American English, while the word "towards" -- used extensively in this book -- is generally British usage. I also know it's wrong as far as AP standards, because I used to be an editor for a newspaper.
It's stupid stuff like that that always ruins her books for me. Well, that and the lack of plot. Her books remind me of Plot?What Plot? (PWP)fanfic. Has anyone who has read her books just wished that Jean-Claude would sit Anita down and give her a history lesson on vampire politics and customs? That would solve like, 99% of her problems in any novel.
It's a standard theme now in her novels to have hundreds of pages of vampire politics, sex, and descriptions of Anita's emotions and senses in between a few pages of plot. "Cerulean Sins" is especially poor in plot, and it's really disappointing. The first time the actual plot is mentioned, the murders, is on page 110. Sheesh. Then there's more sex and vampires, and the last few chapters go back to the murders. By that time I don't even care.
It's a shame because the universe she has created is so unique as far as vampires go. I'm fascinated with that aspect of her books. It's too bad the rest is laughable.
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