book: Indulgence In Death by JD Robb....
May. 1st, 2011 05:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
serynI read Indulgence In Death recently. It's a JD Robb book (who is really Nora Roberts). I read the most recent book before this one because of library issues and my complete inability to tell what order things go in.
I've read most of these. I think they've gotten both better and worse.
They're better in terms of the characterization. The characters are actually characters now. They're people we're starting to get to know and I enjoy visiting with some of them. They're better in terms of fewer cut&paste sex scenes. (There were adjacent books where the exact same wording occurred in the sex scene. And it wasn't exactly great wording anyway, because "pistoning" sounds really unpleasant to experience in intimate locations.) I also like that Eve is almost growing up. She does nice things unprompted and realizes when her skills are not going to cover something. I also like that there is less sparring between Eve and Roarke.
Some of the things I think are getting worse: the level of violence escalated. Not in this book or the latest one, but there have been a number of books lately that were so graphic that I felt quite ill reading the descriptions. I also miss the futuristic details that made the books stand out. We don't see as many instances of new slang, or gadgetry beyond what we actually have today. I'd expect some leaps since 50 years ago we didn't even have FM radio in cars, so 50 years from now, putting "eyes and ears" on someone shouldn't be a big deal requiring several pages of description. And finally the major reason I'm less thrilled with these books, Roarke has started talking about their future children. When I started reading these they were recommended as childfree-friendly books because the main characters were appalled by the idea. In this book they've been married for 2 years. So it really undermines the childfree idea because Roarke isn't joking. He brings it up in a slightly humorous context but he's chivvying Eve along. Eve who can't be bothered to even call when she's going to completely miss dinner, who often skips meals and mocks her police partner for being hungry (after they've skipped both breakfast and lunch) at dinnertime. Eve who is so focused on her stupid-ass public servant job that she pulls Roarke constantly away from his job running half the world to help her at it, she doesn't seem like the kind of woman who would want to devote any time to being a hands-on mother. People who are completely focused on their careers, who don't want children, especially those who come from a history of abuse, should not have them. Having Roarke pushing Eve that way really bothers me.
This particular book's plot didn't work for me. Eve made this leap of intuition that I didn't agree with or follow and then, despite what was shown to the reader, seemed to struggle with proving it. It looked like a slam dunk from what she'd discovered. Having her say that it wasn't enough to close the case seemed really strange. Because she's done more with less before.
So. To sum up, the earlier books were more futuristic and childfree-friendly. I liked that better. But I like Eve more now that she's opened up some to being a friend to the people in her life. I liked Roarke a lot more early on because he had his own interests and his own life. Now he "partners" Eve on every single one of her cases... but it's not a partnership, he's submissive to her and I think badly of him for it.
I've read most of these. I think they've gotten both better and worse.
They're better in terms of the characterization. The characters are actually characters now. They're people we're starting to get to know and I enjoy visiting with some of them. They're better in terms of fewer cut&paste sex scenes. (There were adjacent books where the exact same wording occurred in the sex scene. And it wasn't exactly great wording anyway, because "pistoning" sounds really unpleasant to experience in intimate locations.) I also like that Eve is almost growing up. She does nice things unprompted and realizes when her skills are not going to cover something. I also like that there is less sparring between Eve and Roarke.
Some of the things I think are getting worse: the level of violence escalated. Not in this book or the latest one, but there have been a number of books lately that were so graphic that I felt quite ill reading the descriptions. I also miss the futuristic details that made the books stand out. We don't see as many instances of new slang, or gadgetry beyond what we actually have today. I'd expect some leaps since 50 years ago we didn't even have FM radio in cars, so 50 years from now, putting "eyes and ears" on someone shouldn't be a big deal requiring several pages of description. And finally the major reason I'm less thrilled with these books, Roarke has started talking about their future children. When I started reading these they were recommended as childfree-friendly books because the main characters were appalled by the idea. In this book they've been married for 2 years. So it really undermines the childfree idea because Roarke isn't joking. He brings it up in a slightly humorous context but he's chivvying Eve along. Eve who can't be bothered to even call when she's going to completely miss dinner, who often skips meals and mocks her police partner for being hungry (after they've skipped both breakfast and lunch) at dinnertime. Eve who is so focused on her stupid-ass public servant job that she pulls Roarke constantly away from his job running half the world to help her at it, she doesn't seem like the kind of woman who would want to devote any time to being a hands-on mother. People who are completely focused on their careers, who don't want children, especially those who come from a history of abuse, should not have them. Having Roarke pushing Eve that way really bothers me.
This particular book's plot didn't work for me. Eve made this leap of intuition that I didn't agree with or follow and then, despite what was shown to the reader, seemed to struggle with proving it. It looked like a slam dunk from what she'd discovered. Having her say that it wasn't enough to close the case seemed really strange. Because she's done more with less before.
So. To sum up, the earlier books were more futuristic and childfree-friendly. I liked that better. But I like Eve more now that she's opened up some to being a friend to the people in her life. I liked Roarke a lot more early on because he had his own interests and his own life. Now he "partners" Eve on every single one of her cases... but it's not a partnership, he's submissive to her and I think badly of him for it.
