Reading Meme – Day Seven

Day 07 – A writer you don’t like

I’m going to interpret this in a different way, since I don’t know any authors well enough to dislike them personally.

I’ll talk about an author whose work I dislike. One can be critical of an author’s work without being critical of the author themselves. Sadly, sometimes an author cannot separate the two – and I believe that’s a sign of an amateur writer (regardless of whether they’ve been commercially published or how long they’ve been writing).

I’m not the only Anita Blake fan to become disillusioned at what many perceive to be a drastic change in the character’s … well – character. I also think the quality of the books has gone down. In several of the last books I read (Disclaimer: I stopped reading the series at around book 13 or 14, I think) the copy-editing seemed poor. There were enough misspelled, misused, or missing words to throw me out of the story, which is always a shame.

I won’t argue on the character change part. In my opinion, the author is god – at least in regard to their own world and words – so if that’s the path Hamilton wanted to take with her character, then that’s her choice. She obviously lost some readers, and just as obviously still has enough of them left to continue to put her on the best-seller list.

With that said, each reader makes a choice on what they want to read and what they don’t. And this is one series that I don’t.

Note: I’m closing comments on this article, because I don’t want it turned into a forum for author-bashing. Each person is entitled to their own opinion, but – for the sake of harmony & my peace of mind – I don’t want them displayed here.