so I was wondering...

[seperis]

So this is the thing about Twilight by Stephanie Meyer - the more sporkings and reviews I read, the more I want to read it. You see, that angsty obsessive vampire thing is something I never got over. Plus, sparkly.

Now, to what I'm actually looking at thoughtfully.

Master: An Erotic Novel of the Count of Monte Cristo (Paperback) by Colette Gale, who also wrote Unmasqued: An Erotic Novel of The Phantom of The Opera, which I am also looking at thoughtfully. Mostly because I have this suspicion this is going to be very, very bad.

And also, despite the fact it's called Master, apparently this is not going to be about Edmund taking it and liking it from the prison guards.

...this could be sleep deprivation. Anyone read either one and give me a yes/no?

Also.

Phantom by Susan Kay, which my favorite extensions of Gaston Leroux's original. It's really good. And it's really fun. And it builds a *lot* on the history of the Phantom.

ETA: Huh. I forgot she also wrote Legacy about Elizabeth I and I really liked that one too.

Comments

[deadlychameleon.livejournal.com]

Oh, you've got to read Twilight. It reminded me why I love teen romance novels. Unfortunately, the second book is not so great, and I can't even quite bring myself to read the third. I've noticed a pattern there, Scott Westerfeld writes beautiful first novels, and then the follow ups gradually disintegrate. Rather then blame the writers (since Westerfeld at least puts out consistently good first novels, indicating he *can* write, and Meyer's first book was quite decent)I am inclined to wonder if publishers don't push authors too fast to get out good second and third novels. I mean, for something like Animorphs where the book is less than 200 pages, it's totally doable, but for a big, fat novel? It's not.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

*nods*

Ordered today. *stares at mail* I need a time-space continuum.

[viggofest.livejournal.com]

As a publisher drone, I can say yes, we do. Especially when it's targeted at an audience that devours things almost instantly, ages out of the audience very quickly, and absolutely never wants to be seen with the same thing their older sister was reading years ago, while appalled that their younger sister is already picking it up too.
I blame Rowling for the current doorstopper mania. Popularity that equals sales equals unwillingness to be truly edited.

Westerfeld does great set-ups. Uglies was fascinating and went places I didn't expect. But by the end of the trilogy (which was planned) I thought it went off track, and now I see there's a newer one than Specials. At least Douglas Adams was honest when he published "the fourth title in the trilogy"!

[deadlychameleon.livejournal.com]

Sigh. "Spaceballs II - the search for more money".

I understand, and as a reader, it's great to get new installments out every year. But at this point, I'd really like the authors to go back and, you know, re-publish and say "um, here was what the sequel was meant to be if I had longer than 6 months to write it."

Heck, even Garth Nix, who's a great writer, managed the excellent Sabriel, then Lirael (though if it were any more aimed at angsty teens, she'd have worn black nail polish), but sort of fell off the track with the finale, the much shorter and somewhat incoherent "Abhorsen".