McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft
Dresden vs everyone in the Genre
seradhe:
--- Quote from: Lizard King on October 11, 2007, 10:58:32 PM --- Male or female isn't really the issue. I just want to be able to relate.
Thanks for the advice.
--- End quote ---
actually I have to admit a major factor that got me into Dresden was the fact that he's male.
Don't get me wrong or take me for a sexist. Even as a hip, modern, sensitive 21st century guy, there's a lot of things in books with a female lead I just have to take the authors word on.
With Dresden it's like "he's noticing a womans chest! I do that!!"
Lizard King:
--- Quote from: seradhe on October 17, 2007, 04:27:18 PM ---actually I have to admit a major factor that got me into Dresden was the fact that he's male.
Don't get me wrong or take me for a sexist. Even as a hip, modern, sensitive 21st century guy, there's a lot of things in books with a female lead I just have to take the authors word on.
With Dresden it's like "he's noticing a womans chest! I do that!!"
--- End quote ---
Well, they say "write what you know". Sometimes it's nice to read what you know, no doubt!
novium:
"
It's not about a tough, angst ridden, female character who struggles with being comfortable with who she is etc. etc. etc. ""
That can only be applied to the first Kelley Armstrong book.
But I am getting a bit sick of the whole genre. No longer is it just vampires that are overdone, now it is everything that is overdone, now that the whole genre has become the latest cheap romance novel fad (Looking over the books in the supermarket, I can hardly believe it), and TV fad.
I liked this genre because it was different, inventive, and new. I never knew quite what to expect. I wonder if, when the genre was a bit less popular, only the better novels tended to get published, and that is the difference. Now it's all the same rote stuff with a thin layer of rote urban fantasy on top.
DragonFire:
--- Quote from: novium on October 19, 2007, 10:28:00 PM ---"
It's not about a tough, angst ridden, female character who struggles with being comfortable with who she is etc. etc. etc. ""
That can only be applied to the first Kelley Armstrong book.
--- End quote ---
Not really. It's worst in the first one, but there's a lot of crap in Dime Store magic, too.
She really manages to hit her stride in 'Industrial Magic' and it's toned down a lot since then.
I mean, there's almost a whole paragraph in DSM where Paige goes on about different fabrics and why she likes them.
--- Quote from: novium on October 19, 2007, 10:28:00 PM ---But I am getting a bit sick of the whole genre. No longer is it just vampires that are overdone, now it is everything that is overdone, now that the whole genre has become the latest cheap romance novel fad (Looking over the books in the supermarket, I can hardly believe it), and TV fad.
--- End quote ---
Partially because, and this sounds like a prick thing to say, but a lot of romance writers have added supernatural elements into their books, and those are now billed as 'urban fantasy'.
Also, I find female writers amp up the relationships, and angst, and male writers don't.
More women than men write fantasy , and so, because it's modern day, I believe, a lot of them become psuedo romances. LEt's face it, there's a lot about clothes and guys and all that sort of stuff in Kelley Armstrong, Rachel Caine, Kim Harrison, LKH. A lot fo time, the female lead worries about her love life, the long, lavish descriptions of clothes, the painstaking description of just how hot every male char is, and very rarely any ugly ones, and so on.
WHereas in DF, or if you've read Marc Del Franco's Unshapely things, or Kelly McCollugh's Webmage, there is more emphasis on plot, more interpersonal relationships, and, (and this will sound sexist) more inclination to have the main char look stupid.
I perosnally believe this makes them look and feel more 3d and real.
Does anyone think Elena, Paige, or Jo-anne Baldwin are as 3d as Harry?
I don't.
--- Quote from: novium on October 19, 2007, 10:28:00 PM ---I liked this genre because it was different, inventive, and new. I never knew quite what to expect. I wonder if, when the genre was a bit less popular, only the better novels tended to get published, and that is the difference. Now it's all the same rote stuff with a thin layer of rote urban fantasy on top.
--- End quote ---
There is still new and inventive stuff out there, you just need to try and avoid the romance masquarading as urban fantasy.
Sandor Clegane:
I picked up a Kim Harrison book the other day, after hearing that it was sort of like the Dresden Files. Well it is, sort of. The plot is advancing sort of slowly and I guess it doesn't help that I managed to pick up the 4th book in the series and not say the 1st.
Anyway it just doesn't seem to read as fast, as for Rachel Morgan being 3d, I haven't read enough to be sure, but she is pretty clumsy, and has made several mistakes already by saying the wrong thing a la Dresden and doesn't epict herself as extremely intelligent. The thing is it isn't as compelling as DF is, it isn't like I'm struggling through it, I'm just don't get the can't put this book down feeling like I get from DF, ASoIaF, SoT, Codex Alera.
Still it is a good read, just not great IMHO.
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