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Aug. 30th, 2005
Reviewing the Evidence/Reviewing rant
Aug. 30th, 2005 12:26 pmReviewing the Evidence has finally updated (link in my LJ). My review for Remains Silent is up.
While Remains got one of my few unqualified raves (go read why), I'm going to take this space to bitch about two things I'm really, really tired of in the genre:
1) Dating the cop. Yes, it's a perfectly good way of dealing with the problem of the police. But when I read three books in a row where the amateur detective solves the case while keeping the real policeman as a personal pet (good for advice and sex, but not good enough to do the job for which he is trained, paid, and has experience), I've read two too many.
2) Everybody is Somebody. Just read a thriller where even the most inconsequentially mentioned character had something major to do with somebody else. Y'know what? I think spy novels are stronger when sometimes a cigar is just a cigar and a bystander is just a bystander. Not because "when everyone is somebody than no one's anybody" but because it gets to be too damned obvious. Having the occasional actual bystander leaves the reader guessing. You want the reader guessing in the thriller, not saying "Oh, that guy's gonna show back up by page 200."
2a) Y'know, people can be dedicated to their jobs without having a major relationship fuckup in their past. You don't have to snuff the boyfriend in a terrorist incident to encourage someone to want to work in homeland security. You don't have to kill the parents/spouse/child/best friend to "drive" someone into law enforcement. You don't have to boot a good cop off the force for a stupid reason to "make" them become a private eye. Believe it or not, people can passionately believe in law, order, and security without a Deep Personal Angst.
Y'know why CSI original is more popular than any of the spinoffs? Because in the original CSI, they enjoy their jobs. They have personal lives that involve hobbys and fun as well as disappointments. They love their jobs and love learning and exploring for the sake of learning and exploring. Therefore, they are people that other people want to spend time with on a weekly basis. By making the spinoff characters humorless and driven, they made them less interesting to hang out with.
It's the same with books.
While Remains got one of my few unqualified raves (go read why), I'm going to take this space to bitch about two things I'm really, really tired of in the genre:
1) Dating the cop. Yes, it's a perfectly good way of dealing with the problem of the police. But when I read three books in a row where the amateur detective solves the case while keeping the real policeman as a personal pet (good for advice and sex, but not good enough to do the job for which he is trained, paid, and has experience), I've read two too many.
2) Everybody is Somebody. Just read a thriller where even the most inconsequentially mentioned character had something major to do with somebody else. Y'know what? I think spy novels are stronger when sometimes a cigar is just a cigar and a bystander is just a bystander. Not because "when everyone is somebody than no one's anybody" but because it gets to be too damned obvious. Having the occasional actual bystander leaves the reader guessing. You want the reader guessing in the thriller, not saying "Oh, that guy's gonna show back up by page 200."
2a) Y'know, people can be dedicated to their jobs without having a major relationship fuckup in their past. You don't have to snuff the boyfriend in a terrorist incident to encourage someone to want to work in homeland security. You don't have to kill the parents/spouse/child/best friend to "drive" someone into law enforcement. You don't have to boot a good cop off the force for a stupid reason to "make" them become a private eye. Believe it or not, people can passionately believe in law, order, and security without a Deep Personal Angst.
Y'know why CSI original is more popular than any of the spinoffs? Because in the original CSI, they enjoy their jobs. They have personal lives that involve hobbys and fun as well as disappointments. They love their jobs and love learning and exploring for the sake of learning and exploring. Therefore, they are people that other people want to spend time with on a weekly basis. By making the spinoff characters humorless and driven, they made them less interesting to hang out with.
It's the same with books.