Day stuff, and a book.

[kyrielle]

Today at work was good. Got a lot of stuff resolved, and really making progress. Spent an hour and a half on a meeting and the followup discussion, that was not wasted but was - well, about ten minutes worth of actual exchange. Is good we had it, though, and we still did better than I'd expected us to do today without the meeting, so how could I begrudge it?

Finished Mercedes Lackey's Joust, having acquired it from the library. Glad I went with the library. Lovely world; lovely story; want the sequel. Also want this woman to be edited again by all that's holy. I do not normally catch missteps, especially on a first read. (Seriously: on the first read through Winds of Change, I completely missed an obvious editing blob where scenes got reordered. Person A is told about Person B's existence, and obviously didn't know about it, chronologically after person A discusses person B with someone else. I missed that on the first three reads through.)

However, I didn't miss all of them in here. Knowing my forgiving nature, I doubt I spotted all of them, but on four separate occasions I caught scenes repeating - the main character learns something or figures it out, then learns it again. Generally, if he figures it out, he then learns it, or vice versa, but the phrasing is not of the "oh yeah" variety - it's like it's all new. I'm pretty sure, from the tenor of them, that on re-reading it she wasn't sure how he could have gone so long without knowing/deducing X. Alas, the later scene covering X was not amended....

The most annoying was three in close succession on the same topic. Yes, he learned it, then figured it out, then learned it. This is only appropriate if your main character has severe recurring amnesia, for pity's sake, and even then it's going to drive your readers vaguely batty!

Lovely world and overall story, however. Likeable main characters, interesting and enjoyable plot. Some very good little bit moments and smart-ass remarks. It's a "candy" book - quick reading (a couple nights) and enjoyable, despite flaws.

I would like a sequel.

One sequel, and a side dish of editor, please.

Comments

[azurelunatic]

I'll take a refill of the editor.

[erisiansaint]

I used to love reading her books. I'd buy them in hardback, happily. Nowadays, I go to the library, because the lack of editing drives me insane and I won't give money towards it.

[the_rck]

I'm rather of the opinion that Lackey always needed an editor. The grammar in some of her early books had real problems. The continuity wasn't so bad (although Arrows of the Queen kind of skipped around temporally). I find her more recent stuff to be technically better constructed (at least in terms of grammar), but I rather think that her work's lost something over the years.

Of course, I always used to get frustrated with the way she'd have characters spend chapters angsting about things that made me want to kick them. Real people may well do that, but... It's not much fun for me to read about.

The other writer who I've found really needs an editor is Anne McCaffery.

[kyrielle]

See, to my eyes, it's been a significant slide downhill for Lackey recently. The older works have progressively less continuity errors. They may skip around (though I loved Arrows and thought that worked quite well), but they don't violate their own damned reality. I don't recall a particularly high incidence of grammar problems, but if there are, I'll take them back if she can just right more books that don't contradict themselves or otherwise violate their own reality (or contradict other, tied books, as Take a Thief does the Arrows trilogy).

I can forgive a lot; indeed, I'm oblivious to a lot. But the continuity bugs in Lackey have gotten to the aggravating point even for me.