Tuesday, June 10, 2008

SEX, ROMANCE AND PLOT

The sun is out. Sounds silly, but after all the rain, you need to see the sun pop out, the rain come to an end, see a rainbow or two. Seems it was raining just last week on Tuesday. I may have Blogged about it. When it rains, and you can't go outside, you read a good book. Or, you hope to have a good book to read.

You know how a good book leaves you wanting to read more? How you can't leave the characters, how their plight throughout the story simply carries you along, and you are unable to leave it, even at the end because you have become completely absorbed by it, by the characters—you can relate to one or two of them—the hero or heroine are written well, strong of character, have morals that you can either relate to, or buy into because of the back story of your character. You understand why he/she does what they do, mostly because you share some of their problems, and beliefs. You can't wait until the next book in the series to come out, or, if it is out, you go and buy it.

Rowling's Harry Potter series was like that. I wanted to climb right into the book and be part of the action. This is a children's book—and yet adults read them like they'd couldn't get enough of them. Well, let's face it, Rowling created a character we could all relate to, and the treatment he endured in his aunt and uncle's house just tugged at the heart strings. Not to mention what happened to his parents, and what nearly happened to him.

Fantasy, or not, whatever genre you write you must have characters who seem real-to-life. characters you can relate to somehow.

I don't know about you, but I don't read a story for the sex scenes. Mainly because I've written plenty of sex scenes, which never wound up in a book—because probably I felt it was too much, or unrelated to the plot. I read a story to escape. I would guess a lot of us do this. Reading fiction is escaping for a little while into another world, another characters' dilemmas, be someplace that isn't where you are now, be absorbed by this made up world of the author's.

That said, I finally finished Full Moon Rising by Australian-born Keri Arthur. A very long book which had me yawning for most of it. I may as well have spent my time looking out at the rain. (Well, I did. The excitement of the tornadoes in the area had me watching radar on my computer screen, this past weekend). Despite the fact that Arthur has won a few awards (Best Contemporary Paranormal category of the Romantic Times Reviewers Choice Awards among them), I felt this book had a weak plot. But, hey—we're talking romance here. I guess I thought it wasn't romance because it was in the fantasy/sci-fi section. Okay, my mistake. I've made the same mistake with other authors, trying to find another series to read. But I digress.

First off, I had trouble relating to her protagonist Riley Jenson. Problem is I just can't connect with a woman who walks around in four-inch heals. I don't even wear two-inch heals. I don't know about you, but high heals (especially 4-inch ones) kill your feet if you walk in them much. You'll have toe surgery before you're forty if you walk around in them in a job. And lets just have a reality check here, I've seen women walk in them. Running in 4-inch spikes is very difficult. I couldn't buy that her character used the spiky heals to stake vampires with them. Ah, yes, handy when you come across a vampire you have to kill, but then what do you walk in once your shoes are ruined? Your bare feet? Please. So, right away I can't suspend my belief here, right off the first few pages.

Secondly, Arthur's character, Riley Jenson (who has a twin brother named Rhoan) are werewolf/vampire mixes. This was what attracted me to this book to begin with. I wanted to see how she treated this, since I thought this was very different from the other cookie-cutter vampire books out there by other authors. I thought that the explanation was plausible: her werewolf mother was raped by a newly risen vampire. Her background of being thrown out of the pack once she and her brother hit puberty was pitiable, but, again, I just couldn't feel empathy on this point. The fact they became ostracized by their pack did little to me, I didn't feel her pain, or her problem. She didn't make me feel pity. Just telling about it doesn't give me any idea of what the werewolf went through. At this point, the writing wasn't writing. It was telling.

Third; I never read anywhere in this first book an explanation as to how, or why vampires and werewolves exist, only a small explanation on the Directorate of Other Races—and their policing of nonhuman criminals, which is who Riley works for. Nor is there anything on how a vampire and werewolf could actually mate and produce—it dosen't happen in nature. You can't put a cow in with a dog and expect to get a cow-dog mix.

I had problems continuously with suspension of belief in this, mostly in regards with her main character's problems, phobias, and morals, or lack there of—her uncontrollable desire for “mating” during this full moon phase just didn't help me say, okay, she can't control herself. I think it was her problem of trying to locate her brother which I felt was not explored. I needed to see some back story of the two together, surviving in their world. We got none of this. So, I had no need to worry. Apparently, neither did Riley. I didn't feel she was all that concerned about him, even though he had a dangerous job with the Directorate. Riley asks about him in a local club (where the werewolves who have these uncontrollable sexual urges during the phase of the full moon, do it right there in the bar, or go into special rooms), because the next thing she's doing is doing the nasty with someone she barely knows anything about (aside from he's a good shag) and a good time is had by all. So, I can't feel any concern, or have any empathy to her dilemma, not right away, and not later, even though she presents them, but she doesn't make me care enough. I just don't really give a damn about her, or what happens to her brother.

And then there's the “romantic” side of this. Riley becomes attracted to a vampire, Quinn, who she finds on her doorstep naked in the second chapter. The naked vampire is a good attention getter, actually. And really, you do want to see the romance between them blossom—if there will be one, because he doesn't want to have much to do with a werewolf again, because he'd been hurt by one. And when finally Arthur does place them together in a romantic/sexual way, she spends less time on their “togetherness” than those scenes involving the men she's merely relieving sexual desires with.

Romance is dead, I guess. Long live sex for sex sakes in such books.

I think the only thing that did hold my interest was the possible romance between Quinn and Riley, but I just couldn't get past this sex-for-sex sake thing in this book. I actually rolled my eyes whenever I got to a sex scene. Especially when Riley is strapped down so that Talon can to his thing.

Arthur's explanation as to how/why the werewolf “needs to mate” thing during the full moon cycle also falls short, for me. These werewolves acted nothing like wolves of the forest. For one thing, wolves in nature don't have an orgy. There are male and female alpha wolves in a pack. Only they mate, the other members are not allowed to mate. This is the pack, or nature, making sure only the strongest creature leaves behind strong stock. But, I realize we're talking about werewolves, and when an author uses a fantasy aspect, they can do whatever the hell they want with it. So, Arthur has created this world of werewolves mating uncontrollably, and I'm sorry, but it's still sex-for-sex sake.

Another thing that bothered me was the fact that every guy she—let's put it delicately here—went to bed with, wound up being rich—filthy rich. Talon, who wanted to mate with her to produce a child, (and was, insane, apparently) is son of a wealthy research scientist. And by using some sort of chemical technology that he developed, Talon was hoping for results, even though their kind don't always produce, and Riley suggests throughout she may be infertile.

The cloning thing was really a bit over-done. The suggestion that someone could produce a super race via cloning, well, sure, that could be done. But to have me suspend my belief system enough to accept that someone could clone half werewolves-half-vampires, or “other races” and do so with some sort of “accelerator” I just had to stop and say, “okay, I really need to refresh my wine glass here.”

What I got from this book, and Arthur's treatment of her story and plot, was that when the plot sagged, I felt that sex was thrown in, or the character was put in danger and had to get out of a jam, usually someone helped her out of it. I felt there were no cleverness in how the characters got out of their jams, I think I got lost in the clues, and the who's-behind-it-all, and why as secondary to what the main focus was on.

The ending, where she's again face to face with her foe, Talon, I was disappointed at how it was handled. Riley has a laser—even though it was half-charged. She couldn't just shoot the jerk with the laser, no. She uses it on the clones that he's set on her. Why on earth didn't she just whack off his doo-dad (since he was naked and apparently ready to do it, right there and then) when she had the chance? That's what I would have done. Well, I understand that the author had to make this last scene exciting. And because this story couldn't go another page without another convoluted sexual scene, the character, Riley, uses Talon's sexual urges against him. Which is okay, since the full moon was at its height, and no one should blame them for needing to have sex.

Possibly I have too high standards. I'm not easily fooled into a book by the cover—half naked men, or a man and woman kissing are probably dead give aways there's going to be sex, and a lot of it. But even though the cover isn't exactly a give away, and believe me, I don't mind sex scenes in books, as long as they are done well. I don't mind that two people do it on the page, and if it's well written—not the in-your-face stuff of some authors who shall remain nameless here. I've written sex scenes. No biggie. I just need to care about the characters. I need to want them to crush the bad guys—men or women—I need them to make me care what happens. If that doesn't happen right away, you've lost me, your reader.

Perhaps my desire to see a bit of good writing between the hundreds of pages of a book I've payed eight bucks for seems a bit much, and really, I don't expect everyone to write like Rowling. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy other writers, like Charlaine Harris, or Kim Harrison, as well as Janet Evanovich, and I'm a sometimes reader of Dean Koontz, and Dan Brown. I also can't wait until Elizabeth Kostova finishes another book—or has she? These writers don't just tell a story, they craft a story. I don't want to work to like a character. Placing sex scenes into a book will not get me to be a repeat reader, I'm sorry. Plotting is a difficult job for the writer. But even more difficult is creating a likable character. Someone I can enjoy, and want to read the next book of the series, or even pick up the same book I've read and enjoy it all over again.

Think I'll have to pick up my Harry Potter books and just escape for the rest of the summer, and save myself eight bucks. Spend it on something else . . . like a gallon of gas.

1 comment:

Jill said...

I just finished this one, and had many of the same issues with it as you did. Too much telling, not enough showing - I didn't really feel much of what the character felt - like when her friend is in danger, and Riley's worries are expressed in terms of herself - Riley doesn't make friends easily - as though that's what made her friend's disappearance the most worrisome to her!