wherein Liz briefly contemplates ff.net

[edenfalling]

I think ff.net's alert function is broken. You know how I know this? Because over the past two days, I've seen new chapters from two authors I have on author alert, but I got no email notification. Also, I posted chapter 7 of "Lemonade" over there a few hours ago, but I didn't get the auto-copy of the notification email.

I am peeved.

It's funny. I have various reasons (some petty, some less so) for disliking ff.net, but it serves a very necessary function in bringing so many different fandoms together and letting people explore and post and review and jump around with relative ease. We need that site to exist. The positives outweigh the negatives.

...

Anyway, I'm heading home to fry up some chicken and onions and read some more of Storm Front by Jim Butcher. (A few months back, I read a Spider-Man book he wrote and liked his writing enough -- engaging narrative voice, good grasp of characterization, deft touch with plot -- that I decided to look into his original stories. So far, Harry Dresden does not disappoint. *grin*)

Comments

[yuenoclow.livejournal.com]

Frankly, the author/story alert is one of the few things I like about ff.net. ...I really hope that there aren't any bugs in that. I got waaaay too many fics I'm watching to manually keep track of them all. x.x

[askerian]

I've only received a handful of notifications in the last few days, when I know I should have gotten more, so... yeah. ~__~ *grumbles*

[deralte.livejournal.com]

I've been getting my chapter notifications, but only some of my review notifications. Ff.net periodically breaks down this way in my experience. It really is a pain.

[valles-uf.livejournal.com]

Yes... Mr. Butcher is good for that. I've gotten to number 4 in the series, and have noted not even the slightest bit of slippage in the quality. More than that, there is a distict, noticable continuity between books, and, and, and the best part?

It's planned. The climax, hell, the entire plot of book three was set up, foreshadowed, in the first half of book one.

This man is not just making it up as he goes along. He knows exactly what he's doing.

Leave Sookie Stackhouse be, forget Anita Blake, and set aside Lackey's SERRAted Edge stuff, this is the modern fantasy series to watch.

Ja, -n
(definitely a convert)

[edenfalling]

I only read Mercedes Lackey when I am tired and want something moderately cute that I don't have to actually think about. I use her books to turn off my brain rather than to engage it... which is really kind of sad, when you think about it, but there it is.

(This is one of the sad things about getting older, developing more discriminating taste, and learning to think about things: there are a lot of books I remember liking -- or even loving -- when I was 8-18 years old that I now cannot reread, because frankly, they stink.)

I quit buying Anita Blake after Obsidian Butterfly, and have now quit reading the series altogether. There isn't any there there anymore, just Laurell K. Hamilton doing the literary equivalent of public masturbation.

[valles-uf.livejournal.com]

You got farther than I did, then. I stopped at... damn. Forget the title; been too long. The book with the Tub Scene.

For me, at that point, I think it was mostly culture clash. Anita's tying to pick a boyfriend and, well, I grew up in a poly household, so I kinda lost sympathy.

Personally I suspect that the reason so much of Lackey's material is brain candy isn't that she isn't capable of doing better... it's that the candy sells better. Like why Piers Anthony keeps writing Xanth.

I can't say I really blame either of them.

Ja, -n
(Harry Dresden Plays D&D:
"Okay, then. Someone get me a pizza and a Coke and some dice, but I want it understood that I'm going to need thews."
"What?"
"Thews. I want big, bulging, thews, and I don't want to have to think too much.")

[arkeus.livejournal.com]

Ahh... but the alerts are back. Sadly, they put one alert every ten minutes, so it's pretty slow coming :/

Apart from that, isn't jim butcher the author of fury of calderon something? i can't remember...i like mercedes lackey, it is a fun read, and very relaxing- the story is written well enough to be engaging, and not that cringe worthy. of course, i haven't read the Serratege books- they don't sell it where i live.

it's kind of sad that most of what i read since two years ago is fanfiction :/ I used to read two or three books a week, but i just don't have that energy anymore... Must be the meds :/

Sorry for rambling

[edenfalling]

Mercedes Lackey's books are fun. They just don't require any actual attention from me -- in fact, attention kind of spoils the effect, because if I think too hard about the plot structure, or the world-building, or the character interactions, the details start to fall apart.

Don't worry; I'm sure I ramble more than you do, and it hasn't killed anyone yet. ;-)

[arkeus.livejournal.com]

Viking in training, uh? great!
Hum, they don't fall apart *that* easily, at least compared to most series i know... but maybe that's speaking of what i watch and read... Shrugs :p

apart from that, then i don't need to begin Anita Blake... i considered it, as there are some Anita Blake fics, but... i heard lots of bad things about it, too.

Thanks for answering. oh, and is this harry dresden thing good? i think i heard bad thing about it too (like he is pushed around a lot by his so called friends), so...

[edenfalling]

Well, I'm only on book 2 of the Dresden Files, so I can't say what the series is like as a whole. I do like those first two books, though. (Storm Front and Fool Moon.)

The Anita Blake series starts out okay, but somewhere between the 5th and 10th books (the exact point seems to depend on the reader) it stops being about supernatural mysteries and the way Anita's life is slowly spinning out of control, and turns into porn instead. Also, Laurell K. Hamilton starts gutting all the characters besides Anita, so that Anita is always right and always justified in whatever stupid and screwy decisions she makes, because Anita has always been something of an authorial avatar, and Hamilton has lost the dividing line between herself and her fictional character.

[arkeus.livejournal.com]

I see. i wouldn't have liked it then anyway, because i don't like lives spinning out of control. i kinds of creeps me out. i kind of prefer the opposite :/ it explains why i like mercedes lackey :p

The main problem i heard about harry dresden files was that it always followed the same pattern, and that he doesn't stand up for himself, but the guy saying that had just read a few chapter so it may be wrong. Good luck with it, and please tell us if it's a find :-)

Thanks for answering about the anita blake bit.

[drich.livejournal.com]

Dresden Files is great stuff.

Jim Butcher also has an LJ that he use for sporadic posting of writing advice:

http://jimbutcher.livejournal.com/

[edenfalling]

Interesting -- thanks for the link!