austin_tycho | Misty's latest

I finished Wizard of London, the latest by Mercedes Lackey. Like most every other pagan female in America, I've read lots of her stuff- just about all of it, though I was not able to get through the horror that was Shadow of the Lion, which she co-wrote with someone. I blame the other guy; her stuff's pretty readable as a rule.

I don't know if her writing has gotten worse over the years, or I've just gotten more critical. She and Laurell K. Hamilton are both authors who's books I'll probably always buy, but both of them seem kind of like hacks anymore. Too formulaic; both writers seem to be living out their fantasies of Mary-Sue-dom and of revenge in their writing. I wouldn'd mind it if it weren't so obvious.

Here I am putting my magic scary hat and peering into the ethers and reading Misty's childhood. She wasn't a pretty kid, but she was smart and nice. She had crushes on boys, but she had an evil nemesis, or perhaps several of them... they were the good-looking kids whose parents had a lot of money. They played at politics in school just like their parents did in their social groups. And they didn't follow the rules, feeling they were above them because they had money. They got away with it too, because the world sucks that way. Boo hoo.

In so many of Misty's books, the evil nemesis is a beautiful rich woman who sees people around her as tools. Her main goal is to get power, but she's frustrated because it's a man's world. Chances are good she's trying to figure out how to become immortal.

She is inevitably defeated by, as Kirby put it, a "plain and spunky" woman who's smart, nice to children and puppies, and immediately loved by anyone who doesn't have something seriously wrong with them. She will scold people mercilessly if they're lazy or thoughtless, and will always do it with one raised eyebrow. Misty loves that one raised eyebrow. She trots the one raised eyebrow whenever one of her ever-so-sensible characters wants to berate someone for being full of shit. I was getting ready to go back through this latest and highlight all the damn one raised eyebrows.

There's birds in this one too. Misty also loves her animal buddies, and for the last several books it's been birds. Yes, birds are terrific and we should be nice to them and they can poke your eye out if you cross 'em. I've had birds as pets; they're also often dumb as a box of rocks. Sure, they can be smart for birds, but good lord. They're warm-blooded reptiles. Give me a cat any day.

She also trots out hungry, abused children again. Misty seems to have some really big issues with child abuse, child neglect, and kids not eating. Or generally being poor and not eating. Always with the hungry poor people.

The end is pretty abrupt and while it meets all the requirements of making sure the bad guy is disposed of with sufficient commeupance, and the heroes get what they deserve too- it still feels tacked on. Kirby mentioned a deadline rush, and that rings true.

Of course, it had Puck in it. I like Puck. All the parts with Puck were great. The rest of it was pretty half-assed though. I get the feeling she's just writing the same two-three books over and over again. Oh well. It's still nice work-reading.