Jeri Westerson

[diamondlil]

The cover for the next Crispin Guest series has now been released. Everyone else seems to like it, but I am not 100% sold on it. It feels too different to the first one to me.

[EC2]

Originally Posted by diamondlil

The cover for the next Crispin Guest series has now been released. Everyone else seems to like it, but I am not 100% sold on it. It feels too different to the first one to me.

I love it and I don't. It's very obviously photoshopped and a bit cheesy. But at the same time it is bold and daring and has that certain something that will draw readers. The earlier cover was much of a muchness, whereas the new one is pretty unique, and it doesn't hurt that the model is a good looking guy - who gets to keep his clothes on thank goodness!

[Chatterbox]

Gotta confess that I hated the first book in the series. Like, really hated. Which I rarely do. I kept reading until about halfway through out of morbid fascination, but the writing stayed clunky and the plot never grabbed me. And when I reviewed it on Amazon (clearly outlining my reasons), I was flooded with hate mail on my Amazon-associated e-mail account. And when I say hate mail, I mean it literally. The "we know who you are and why you are being so biased and hate-filled" kind. Blech.

[EC2]

Originally Posted by Chatterbox

Gotta confess that I hated the first book in the series. Like, really hated. Which I rarely do. I kept reading until about halfway through out of morbid fascination, but the writing stayed clunky and the plot never grabbed me. And when I reviewed it on Amazon (clearly outlining my reasons), I was flooded with hate mail on my Amazon-associated e-mail account. And when I say hate mail, I mean it literally. The "we know who you are and why you are being so biased and hate-filled" kind. Blech.

That really leaves a nasty taste in your mouth doesn't it. I was asked to read it a long time ago before it had a publisher but I declined because of finding time and because I prefer to read books of my own choosing and quote for them (or not as the case may be) with the pressure off. The books are on my mental (as in I will get around to reading them at some point) as opposed to physically in my house TBR, but it may be a while before I get to them in the great scheme of things.

[Chatterbox]

Kudos to you for that, EC! There are some authors who blurb so indiscriminately that I now discount the value of a blurb with their name on it. I don't even like reviewing in response to a direct request, unless it's a book I'd naturally gravitate to out of interest. Not because I won't give an honest opinion, but because there just isn't enough time!!!

So now I know if I see an EC blurb, it has been earned.

[Marc]

The links given by Boswellbaxter are simply very interesting and I love to read the books referred by the links..:-)

[gyrehead]

Originally Posted by Chatterbox

Gotta confess that I hated the first book in the series. Like, really hated. Which I rarely do. I kept reading until about halfway through out of morbid fascination, but the writing stayed clunky and the plot never grabbed me. And when I reviewed it on Amazon (clearly outlining my reasons), I was flooded with hate mail on my Amazon-associated e-mail account. And when I say hate mail, I mean it literally. The "we know who you are and why you are being so biased and hate-filled" kind. Blech.

My loathing of the first book knew no bounds either. So much that when I got an arc of the second book, I figured I should give it try. While that sounds incredibly illogical, I've often found that many authors I end up liking can't write a first book that I enjoy.

But no. Still loathing after trying to wade through the shallow, lazy and really contrived second book. Just dislike intensely, Westerson's style. Thing is, this whole vague yet overly derivative reliance on the "noir" element is also gaining a bit of ground in fantasy and science fiction what with urban fantasy (or the Vampire Hunter Wore Prada subgenre ) still enjoying tremendous popularity. Alex Bledsoe writes "fantasy" noir that I have seen reviewers both amateur and professional lap up like spilled cream in front of a cat. And Bledsoe is almost as bad as Westerson.

I actually get the appeal of introducing tradional noir elements into other milieu's. The problem is that it should not read like some smarmy sticky bad Dashiell Hammett fanfiction that the author then goes back into the word document, clicks on 'find and replace" and changes every entry of "gun" to "sword/knife" and every entry of "car" to "horse". Which I feel both authors come off as even if they are completely innocent of the charge.

Fool me twice and I take my licks for overly optimistic persistance and move on.