These are the authors who I think of as the Brain Candy Ink Slinger Squad:
I need to find new.
Warum?
Messrs Butcher and Green have become, for me, tired and tedious.
In Butchers’ books, the last couple offering in particular, the main character has laughable amounts of adversity to scale. It’s not bad enough that he’s just come back from near dead — no, he’s got dangerously violent, insane fairies in combo with fucked up, enchanted court intrigue to sort out. Wait, there’s more — he’s juggling all that while saving North America from imminent destruction because, don’cha know, that sentient, secret island he owns (you know, the one that's actually a prison for the worst, the most vile of supernatural baddies) is about to explode, decimating every last acre of fly-over country. That explosion’d unleash all those most heinous, magically imprisoned villains and, well, that’d suck, eh?Oh, forgot one bit — the Winter Queen of Fairy saved Dresden’s life but now he must become the new Winter Knight. Historically, even if the guy starts out as a spectacularly good egg — a mensch among mensch — he, over a short piece of time, transforms into a startlingly bad, abusive, assholian type dude. So, our hero’s got to battle his new, vile inclinations and protect his friends from himself as well as offing the myriad scoundrels and blackguards.
TOO MUCH STUFF! Too damn many plot threads! This isn’t escapism, it’s work!
Mister Green? Eh, each new book seems much like the last. They're kind of James Bond meets Fantasy World. I absolutely LOVED all of the different story series (Tales From the Nightside, Drood family/Secret Histories, Ghostfinders) but, it feels as though, every book borrows heavily (whole paragraphs, not just situations) from the one before. I began to get the bug that I was wasting my time AND the six or seven buck price tag, in picking up his latest offering.
I haz a sad — really liked his stuff.
Laurell Hamilton — Yes, I’ve bitched about her slide into the realm of S&M/romance crapoli before. Vampires by way of kick ass female detective work was her thing — sounds ultra FAB. N'est-ce pas? It was. Could we, the faithful readers, have a more heroic heroine adventures and less rough trade sex please?
No? PASS!
And finally — Ms. Harris. I mourn the end of the Sookie Stackhouse series. These were the guiltiest of my guilty pleasures. Truly Great Beach Reads! Apart from the fact that I read them start to finish ALL too quickly and the cover art was an embarrassment of tween chick lit-ness, they were perfect for my gotta-get-out-of-my-head needs.
There's still Richard Kadrey and John Scalzi but I've read all they've got in paperback and I don't buy hard covers unless they're in the bargain bins.
I need more authors for when I’m just not up to a deep meaningful tome. Suggestions?
What am I reading now?
I need more authors for when I’m just not up to a deep meaningful tome. Suggestions?
What am I reading now?
....Too Weird for Ziggy is a collection of stories all set in the world of crass A&R men, fans mired in hero worship, and music stars perpetually on the verge of ego tantrum or outright crackup. From a Karen Carpenter cult to a rock 'n' roll seance; from a band of cock-rockers whose starmaking tour goes off the rails when their lead singer starts to grow breasts...Yeah, so far so fun — it's odd and absorbing but needs spaceships or vampires or a fairy...mebbe a werewolf and a lamia?
