This week's annoying fantasy tropes...

[catherineldf]

just finished an acquaintance's book, which I did not enjoy. It bore remarkable similarities to a book I read last week (only that one was better). There were many reasons for finding both books not good, starting with the plots that involved much whining but not much action, internal or otherwise, and even less point. But it was the characterizations that nearly made them unreadable.
Let's start at the top (or bottom), shall we?

• You're on a quest or maybe just dealing with the collapse of your not very well defined magical city scape. Everyone is heavily armed and/or an ostensible bad ass of some sort. With one exception, who serves very little purpose and is in fact a liability. The exception is also constantly whining and wallowing in angst, weeps copious amounts and faints at inappropriate times. The exception is very, very pretty (regardless of gender) but that's about it. Do you, as one of the numerous bad asses running around the place, a. feel terribly nurturing toward said liability, willing to protect them at the cost of your own life, mostly because they're BEAUTIFUL? or b. actually behave like a bad ass and stick a dagger in them to put them out of your misery?
• Said bad asses are described as bad asses repeatedly, usually from the moment of their arrival. They're killers, thieves, prone to writing bad checks and to using that ring that Cousin Lucrezia sent them last year. You know the one. But in the event of an actual crisis (or the arrival of the pretty, pretty liability mentioned above), they fall apart and become utterly useless. Allies get killed, loved ones get wasted, their little worlds crumble. It's remarkable how little it takes. Makes you wonder how they got it together to write all those bad checks and errant spells to begin with, doesn't it?
• Ex-sex workers and abuse or rape survivors who then turn to BDSM, periodically conflated as all of a parcel, except in Jacqueline Carey, which is one reason she rules. Where to begin? In the real world, it is in fact quite possible to be a sex worker who is not an abuse survivor or an abuse survivor who is not a sex worker or remotely interested in BDSM. It is also equally possible to be interested in BDSM but not be a survivor or a former sex worker. I'm starting to see some bizarre stereotyping going on out there and I can't says as I like it much.
• When you are a survivor of a traumatic experience, the human psyche has something called "coping mechanisms." These are not necessarily the same as "healthy coping mechanisms" but they are there nonetheless. These can range from becoming a bad ass yourself (assuming you weren't one already) to alcohol to dysfunctional relationships to therapy to complete denial and a whole other range of things that get you through (or out of) your particular night. Complete madness, punctuated by copious weeping, swooning and hallucinations is, fortunately, relatively rare.

3 dimensional characters are more fun to read (and write) about. They also don't make me feel like I have to rinse my brain out with literary novels like I do right at this moment. Squick. Off in a huff to go write something I'd rather read than what I have been.

Comments

[lynnejamneck.livejournal.com]

wtf...?

Boy. And you finished it. Brave.

[catherineldf.livejournal.com]

Well, the idea is that if I buy it hardcover at full price, I have to read it. It's an effort to make myself buy fewer books, which works with mixed results (I buy twice as many paperbacks). There were other social considerations at the time of purchase. Let's just say it won't be a mistake I'll repeat with the second author. Gods, that was awful! :-((((

[aberrant1.livejournal.com]

Wow. That sounds... stunningly awful.

[catherineldf.livejournal.com]

Yep, I gotta say it was. Still scrubbing my brain out today. :-(

[jasondwittman.livejournal.com]

So both books were written by acquaintances? I was going to ask the name of the author you read the week before, so I could avoid it.

[mecooper.livejournal.com]

Ah ... but were there pentagrams?

[catherineldf.livejournal.com]

Honestly, an inverted Star o' David might have improved this book. Although not by much, :-(((