fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #1989 ]

[ SECRET POST #1989 ]

⌈ Secret Post #1989 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 048 secrets from Secret Submission Post #284.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 1 - not!fandom ], [ 1 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

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Are these books worth reading? A lot of people say the world is interesting but... the author... well I don't want to find myself enjoying her writing if it's possible that she's lifted a "few" passages from here and there (again).

No. No they are not.

I really don't think so.

My friend told me the entire plot and I wasn't really convinced.

On the other hand, I want to read another book series so badly. Give me the next Hunger Games or something. But with lesbians.

There aren't any lesbians, but the Chaos Walking trilogy is awesome.

If you find one with lesbians, do let me know.

Santa Olivia by Jacqueline Carey has lesbians and actually sort of reminded me of the Hunger Games. It has genetically-engineered wolf people and boxing, too.

And Fingersmith by Sarah Waters is amazing too, but I just realized you said series but these are still really good and you should check them out.

I am not the anon you replied to or the anon they replied to, but that first book sounds really interesting, I'll have to look it up. :D What's the premise?

It's not a series, but if you want lesbians, try Ash by Malinda Lo. It's a gay retelling of Cinderella!

Thank you for the rec! I'm so into gay re-tellings of fairy tales (also slashy harlequin remixes are my guilty pleasure).

Seconding this!! Malinda Lo does adventurous, whimsical, and straight forward YA fantasy, with the added bonus of lesbians characters (and main characters that are poc). I also recommend Huntress by her.

Try the Laura Caxton series by David Wellington.

State Trooper witnesses a vampire killing (and these vamps are not pretty, alluring creatures) and becomes an unwilling protege to an experienced vampire killer who doesn't really want her there.

The first one is called 13 Bullets.

I don't know if the series contains lesbians but you could always try The Secret Breakers.

Not read it myself but it's written by the friend of a really nice co-worker of mine so I want it to do well.

I read all three of the first series recently (at my friend's recommendation) and I can barely remember what happened. Not even trying to read the newer ones, personally.

The fact that she would lift passages from anywhere makes the original authors of the passages worth reading. Not her.

There is no record (that I know of) of her plagiarizing her original material. She heavily plagiarized her HP fanfiction which was what made her popular. The author she lifted entire passages, ideas and settings from was Pamela Dean and her book series (which sounds awesome) was The Secret Country trilogy.

I only heard negative reviews of Cassandra Clare's books. A friend of mine who even likes Twilight and Fifty Shades (so you know her level of standards) said she didn't like her stories.

Slightly OT, but one good thing about the CC debacle was it convinced me to buy The Secret Country trilogy for my Kindle. Haven't finished them yet, but I'm quite enjoying it so far!

I loved The Secret Country trilogy. Definitely rec them.

Literally the only thing I can remember about it is finding it really cookie-cutter. That's it. It wasn't so bad it was funny it was just bland.

Nope. Plagiarism issues and her fandom wank past aside, the writing just isn't worth the time and effort.

Ehhhhh... As far as I know there's no actual plagiarism in the books, though some ideas were definitely HEAVILY influenced by other sources (some might call it a rip-off)...

If you're looking for a random book to pick up and read, and you don't really want anything high-brow or original, go for it. If you want a series to actually enjoy, I'd avoid them and read something else.

Oh, this is what I meant. If it gives a feeling like "I've seen something like this before", then it would definitely leave a bad taste in my mouth. Thanks!

*unpopular opinion that no one will like*

Read her fanfiction. It's better than her published work. And no, not because of the plagiarism. When you realize how much of her fic there is, the "borrowed" passages are really just a drop in the bucket. And you know, maybe it's because I'm fairly lax on plagiarism anyway (as long as it's not for profit I fail to see how it victimizes anyone) but it didn't bother me. She took passages and turns of phrase and ideas from a lot of sources, and she transformed them into something new that was more than the sum of its parts. She did also cite quite a few of her quotes--not all of them, and a few times she had to be prompted, but I do remember seeing tons of citations.

I also don't recall any plagiarism wank with her oneshots, which I personally liked very much. I don't think she's a writer who actually needs to plagiarize, since she can get the job done fine.

I admit I'm probably seeing it through the haze of nostalgia, because I was a teenager when I first read her fic, and it was my first serious encounter with fanfiction, and I'm sure if you go into it expecting to hate it, there's lots to pick apart. I've never actually claimed her writing is all that IC, for example. (I can like things that are OOC, what.)

I read City of Bones, and felt let down. Her fanfiction had felt like she had a burning story to tell, something she was passionate about. City of Bones felt like she realized she'd spent years of her life writing a massive complete work of fiction and not gotten any money for it, and had set about really thoroughly filing the serial numbers off. It isn't a simple find/replace job (with the exception of one character's backstory, which is lifted word for word) but it really did feel like the Draco Trilogy made more mainstream, more like a commercial product. I've heard that the series gets better, but never got around to picking it up again.

So yeah...read her fanfic, see if you like her style, I guess. The Draco Trilogy didn't get really good for me until later (the first part is an older work, and it shows) but maybe the twoshot A Season in Hell/After the Flood? That was always one of my favorites. I know people are going to be like, "What, that crappy OOC Drarry fic" but w/e, I like what I like.

(as long as it's not for profit I fail to see how it victimizes anyone)

I suppose if you mean someone directly paying her for the writing, no she didn't profit. If you mean gaining influence, crazy popularity, using that influence and popularity to gain power and actual objects (con tickets, laptops, etc) then yeah, she profited.

But I do agree that her fanfic is actually much better than her published work. And I actually think it has a lot to do with the plagiarism. The fics weren't 100% all other people's work, but I think the snappy dialogue and really memorable descriptions are mostly what she copied and really added to the overall feeling to her works. So yeah, if you're looking for something fun to read and don't mind the wank associated with it, I'd definitely recommend her fic.

(no subject)

aiffe - 2012-06-14 15:48 (UTC) - Expand

(as long as it's not for profit I fail to see how it victimizes anyone)

Wowwwwww. How about the unpleasant, cheap feeling of violation and disappointment and/or futility an author feels when they realize some creep stole what they worked really hard on and slapped their own name on it like a gross, inconsiderate hack?

But seriously, the 'plagiarism doesn't count as long as you have talent!' thing has been done to death in her defense and it...still doesn't make the slightest bit of sense. If someone works to create something and somebody else takes it and claims they did the work, you might not always be able to arrest them, but it still makes them an ass.

(no subject)

aiffe - 2012-06-15 04:38 (UTC) - Expand

Nope. Nope nope nope. I tried to read the first book and stopped after the first few chapters. It felt very random and disjointed to me, plus I HATED Jace and Clary, so yeah. And this is coming from someone who managed to read all 4 Twilight books.

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