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SBD -- giving up on an author
It's Smart Bitches Day.
I don't have anything to say about the romance genre, per se. Mostly, I'm feeling a little sad about giving up on a long-time favorite author of mine: Linda Howard. I glommed her when I first started reading romances again, after college. Some of her books were extremely dated and had heroes that really pissed me off (Rome Matthews from Sarah's Child, anyone?) or completely squicked me out (the cousin-sex and incest in another book, I forget the title though). But I liked them and kept reading them anyway.
She eventually started putting more and more suspense and/or action in the books, and less and less romance. Eh, it didn't thrill me but, you know, she's the author and she should write what speaks to her rather than what readers want. I totally get that, and if suspense is where her muse is taking her, then she should follow it; that doesn't necessarily mean that I am going to follow her. The change in focus combined with hard cover prices and a couple of clunkers (for me; other readers loved them) shifted LH to the library list or to the "Wait for paperback" status.
I liked last year's paperback release To Die For, which seemed to be a bit of a return to the older style, but otherwise the last several books have been ~meh~ to me. I checked out Killing Time and Cover of Night both. DNF. So I'm giving up on LH entirely, or maybe taking a long, long hiatus from reading her books.
I don't have anything to say about the romance genre, per se. Mostly, I'm feeling a little sad about giving up on a long-time favorite author of mine: Linda Howard. I glommed her when I first started reading romances again, after college. Some of her books were extremely dated and had heroes that really pissed me off (Rome Matthews from Sarah's Child, anyone?) or completely squicked me out (the cousin-sex and incest in another book, I forget the title though). But I liked them and kept reading them anyway.
She eventually started putting more and more suspense and/or action in the books, and less and less romance. Eh, it didn't thrill me but, you know, she's the author and she should write what speaks to her rather than what readers want. I totally get that, and if suspense is where her muse is taking her, then she should follow it; that doesn't necessarily mean that I am going to follow her. The change in focus combined with hard cover prices and a couple of clunkers (for me; other readers loved them) shifted LH to the library list or to the "Wait for paperback" status.
I liked last year's paperback release To Die For, which seemed to be a bit of a return to the older style, but otherwise the last several books have been ~meh~ to me. I checked out Killing Time and Cover of Night both. DNF. So I'm giving up on LH entirely, or maybe taking a long, long hiatus from reading her books.
sbd
(Anonymous) 2006-08-15 03:33 am (UTC)(link)Sandy
Re: sbd
I have the same problems for books set in Baltimore or on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, where I grew up.
I didn't get the impression that the sense of place was all that important in the book...but I only read 50~ pages, so it's location may have developed in importance later on.
Ack! "Its" not "it's"