Well, that was the worst book I've ever read

[locker_monster]

I finally finished that horrible Nora Roberts book. 1/10. Hell, that's being generous. 0/10. I know, I could have put it down and saved myself some trouble, but I hate leaving books half read.

Seriously, though, how did Nora Roberts get published? There are way better fic writers out there. Ugh. This makes me so angry. Why does romance sell so well?!?! Not that this book is sold as a romance. It's a mystery, first, with some romance thrown in, but neither element works. And the mystery is so bland. Oh my god; I think I started to skim the pages towards the end.

I'm sorry, but learn how to write, Nora Roberts. Apologies to any Nora Robert fans out there who may read this, but it's true. Sure, you can argue that having mostly dialogue is a stylistic choice, and as amateur writer myself I know how hard it is to have good description, but if you're going to have lots of dialogue, at least make the dialogue interesting to read. Every conversation in this book felt so rote and horribly unnatural. Yes, this is a book, not real life, but if you want to have believable and relatable characters, they have to sound like actual people and not bad actors in a bad TV show. And the future slang in there. Pure bleh.

The future setting had no redeemable qualities what so ever. It's not the far future, maybe 2050s or something like that, but I still felt like I was reading something set in the present day but with slightly different technology. I think the main problem was that the world building wasn't obvious. This was book #27, so maybe all of the set-up was done near the beginning of the series, but I had no sense of how society changed, or will change, in 40 years. I'm not exactly asking for a lot. Other sci fi writers make an effort. It's like Nora Roberts got a pass because she has all of these best selling romance novels. Yeah, just because you sell a ton of books doesn't mean that what you produce is quality work.

Anyway, that's just my personal opinion and no one has to listen to anything I say. From now on, though, no more books written by people who initially established themselves as romance writers. I'm sticking to writers who know their genres.

(Need some good sci fi or fantasy to clear this fluff from my head...)

Comments

[newnumber6.livejournal.com]

I've never read her work, but it could be that she used to be better and just got lazy. It's easy to do when everyone's telling you you're awesome all the time. If I kept hearing that, I'd probably not bother with a second or third draft of my latest novel, since I'm so obviously great by now that the first one must be awesome.

[locker-monster.livejournal.com]

Again, not to be mean, but I doubt that she used to be a better writer. A lady in my book group once described another author as "the Nora Roberts of the fantasy genre" and this lady is a super avid reader so she knows her stuff.

I suspect authors like these, who churn out a book or more a year, turn in whatever they finish to fulfill their contracts. A publisher wants a book to sell; no one said it had to be a good book.

[browncoat2x2]

Which book was it?
Years ago I went through a spat of reading a bunch of her 'In Death' series books - that she wrote as J.D. Robb... they were okay, what I call "disposable fiction" stuff that you just read to kill time when you're on vacation on the beach, say... I read like, a book a day for a while there, but they were all pretty repetitive.
I remember once picking up a Ramsey Campbell book, and I couldn't get past the first page! I couldn't believe how bad it was, and I had the same 'how did you get published?!' thought.
Also, HI! Haven't been 'round these parts in ages :) How're you doing? :)

[locker-monster.livejournal.com]

It was Born in Death. I mean, I wasn't expecting an epic read, but I've read YA books with better plots and more in-depth characters. I should want to enjoy reading the book, and not have to force myself to slog through it.

Also, HI! Haven't been 'round these parts in ages :) How're you doing? :)

I'm doing good. :-) Nice to see you back in LJ. Alas, it's not as active as it used to be. I should really use Facebook more, but I'm not a big fan of it.

[browncoat2x2]

I'm sure I probably read it. They were all pretty much the same, nothing to distinguish one from the other :)

Yeah, LJ is dead :(
I use facebook, but it's not the same, I wouldn't like, post fic there or anything, you know? It's too bad... this used to be the place to be!

[locker-monster.livejournal.com]

I don't see the appeal of Twitter or tumblr or Instagram, all of which have seemed to have replaced LJ. You post pictures and have blurbs of only 150 or whatever characters long. How do you interact with people? Sure, there are the comments and you can tweet back, but there's a limit to the kinds of conversations that you can have.

And the thing with Facebook, that's where I'm me, and here on LJ, I can be fannish me. My friends aren't as nearly as obsessed with fandom as I am, so it's nice to have a place where you can squee about things and post fanfic and you know there will be other people who are thinking the same things.

But that's just me. I'll stick with LJ until it goes belly up.

[browncoat2x2]

Oh. My God. Me neither RE: Twitter,tumblr and instagram. I cannot STAND all those damn. moving. gifs! Ugh! I just don't get it.

Yes, LJ is a much better forum for fandom, I agree. I've got a paid account here, so my account's not going anywhere!! hehe

[locker-monster.livejournal.com]

I will admit that .gifs are amusing, but only to a certain extent. I hate it when people spam a page with them. Can't you just write what you mean to say instead of having these large moving files?

And another thing I like about LJ? People put spoilers behind a cut. They don't just hang out there for all of the world to see.