briarwood | Nov. 14th, 2008

Thanks for the birthday wishes yesterday! I had a good day.

Sentinel story: 4400 words. I still don't have a title. Not finished yet, but I think I can see the finish line.

I'm beginning to think I should just quit writing fic for a while. The current season of SPN is spoiling my ability to write and it's freaking killing me to see JDM on Greys when he should be on Supernatural damn it!

I still miss John Winchester. Not getting over that in a hurry, m'kay?

*takes deep breath*

Verdict on the Swallowing Darkness audiobook: I bow at Claudia Black's feet because she can pronounce Siobhan correctly! Holy crap, I hadn't realised how much that pissed me off until she said it right. Most of the mispronunciations in the earlier audiobooks I could roll with, but that one... Okay.

The story actually ain't bad. Only two major sex scenes in 48 chapters and both move the plot along nicely. LKH seems to have actually figured out that rule. Her writing of sex is still excruciatingly bad and her notions of dominance/submission and erotic pain are still downright creepy, but at least all the graphic sex was consensual in this case. I'm considerably less than happy with date rape as a weapon of war (yes, seriously), and Merry dealing with her own rape left a lot to be desired but still...points for trying.

(Or maybe that's just my own sense of morality kicking in. In my book rape should be punished by death, no appeals, no exceptions. The way I see it, the only way to end rape is to excise it from the gene pool. I don't really feel the same way about murder, which can sometimes be more complicated in terms of cause and reason. But Merry goes all scary-vengeful over murder - admittedly an important one - and then kills the actual killer instead of the one who ordered the death...who is also the rapist. Seems backwards to me, frankly.)

I'm creeped out by woobie!Doyle (any character less woobie-like is hard to imagine; what was LKH smoking???) And a certain character's not-death was such a freaking cop-out. I know LKH has a thing about killing characters, but dude, if the plot demands it that's what you do. I had so much respect for what happened to Frost in the last book and now she's spoiled it. Understanding what the plot demands is what separates a good writer from a hack. (What am I saying? She is a hack. Ah, well.)

Also: plot! Enemies killed! Merry actually remembered she has powers!!! Loose ends tied up! Questions answered!

...although nothing that hadn't been obvious for several novels. There are sufficient loose ends remaining that the next in the series could go in a few different directions. I don't know whether to be pleased about that (because thus far each next step has been boringly predictable) or scared (because LKH, let's face it, is likely to screw it up). I had thought that Merry was destined to unite the courts, which might still happen, but there are a few other choices on the table now and it might be interesting to see which way things go.

Today: There's a market in town which I plan to visit later, then off to meet friends in Bristol for drinks, food and fannish gossip this evening. See you there, guys!