Okay, you've convinced me

[neadods]

Wow, it's really very convincing (and a little scary) when everyone says the same thing in the comments.

MS Access it is for Shore Leave (note to self: get an old copy of Access.) And going back to the other moment of comment congruence, yes, I got on Netflix. Knowing me, the price of the service will be offset by the savings in not making a whole bunch of DVD impulse buys. (Looks ruefully at several still-wrapped items on movie shelf.)

The other decision is personal, although "I am unanimous in this" as Mrs. Slocum always put it. Sorry, suricattus, I'm bagging on the Dresden Files. There's nothing wrong with the books; they're a decent mystery, good characterization, and build to really exciting action chapters. But I find them too angsty without enough leavening humor. I could handle the darkness of Buffy, Angel, and Tanya Huff books because it was so liberally dosed with wry silliness. Furthermore, the characters saw themselves as inherently decent people. On the other hand, while Harry Dresden occasionally cracks a joke, he is All About the Angst and the Suffering and the People Scream When They See My Soul and the Woe is Me. I'm not surprised that the reviewers compare Jim Butcher to Laurell Hamilton.

Fortunately, Harry Dresden is not making any of the mistakes that so turned me off regarding Anita Blake. He's not dealing with exponentially bigger and badder nasties every single book, he's not making holier-than-thou mental speeches about every critter he meets, he's not gaining powers like the GM's girlfriend in a monty haul dungeon, he's not got a reputation that makes every baddie wet him/her/itself when he gets mentioned, and he's not screwing the entire rest of the cast. (Honestly, I will not bat an eyelash if some Anita book starts with "Cthulu showed up at my doorstep but I blasted him back into his alternate universe between orgasms as every leader of every were-group lined up to go down on me. I've done some terrible things in my life, but I just won't do tentacles.")

The Dresden Files are good books, but they're not to my taste. So I'm going to find them a good home with someone who does like their universes darker than I do - the big choice now is ebay, private sale mentioned here/on some elists, or package as gift? Two have been read only once, one has been flipped through, two more are unread, and three are signed (not signed to anyone, just signed by the author). So I don't think they really come under the usual heading of "used books."

Current book: The Ghost & Mrs McClure by Alice Kimberly. He's a hardboiled private dick who's been a ghost for 55 years. She's a mystery bookshop owner with a prediliction for cozies. Together, they fight crime!

Current mood: About to freeze to death if they don't turn off the air conditioner vent that's right above me!

Comments

[lagilman]

No need to apologize -- the Dresden books are distinctly on the morbid side, yeah. Personally I prefer Harry to Anita for the reasons you mentioned, plus the fact that he can still find humor at his own expense. Anita always seemed to me to be a singularly humor-impaired character.

[beledibabe.livejournal.com]

Hey, hon, I'll buy them from you. Lemme know how much, and we can make the exchange at Malice. Sound okay?

[maryannegruen.livejournal.com]

A lot of early Anita Blake readers seem to be unhappy with the present incarnation. I haven't read the early books, but I glanced at Cerulean Sins and it didn't do anything for me. There seems to be this cliche going around about the hero/heroine who is absolutely irresistible to everyone at all times. The Charlaine Harris heroine sounds like she may be heading the same way, given time.

I think it's partially an offshoot of writing in first person or deep third with limited point of view. Everything has to happen to the main character all of the time. So to keep new romance in the story, they sleep with everything that moves (love the part about the tentacles), and you start rehashing things, or making changes that don't make sense out of desperation to have mountains of things happen to the lead. After a while it sound like the Perils of Pauline and everything gets muddy (Hmm. Mud wrestling with tentacles). There's a lot of formula following too.

I've got to look up the Ghost and Mrs. McClure. That sounds like a good one.