Re: Looking Back: RI 2024

In article <vl4voc$2urqr$1@dont-email.me>,
Ahasuerus  <ahasuerus@email.com> wrote:

On 12/31/2024 10:05 PM, Ted Nolan <tednolan> wrote:
[snip-snip]

Aside from specific reviews, I continued down the harem adventure rabbit-hole
during 2024.  Some of it, predictably, pretty bad, but I continue to enjoy
Sara Hawke's harem & hot-adventure tales.  She writes both fantasy & space
opera books that would be above average without the sex.

>
Back in 2018, right around the time "harem" and LitRPG novels began to
take off, I tried William D. Arand's _Super Sales on Super Heroes_
series and his _Otherlife/ Selfless Hero_ trilogy, which explored
elements taken from both sub-genres. There were a few interesting
moments, but the execution was sub-professional at best and barely
coherent at worst, so I set each series aside after the first two volumes.
>
Occasionally I come across online reviews that praise certain "harem"
authors, including Michael-Scott Earle, Robert Harper, K. D. Robertson,
Tamryn Tamer and Mike Truk. Unfortunately, almost all of my attempts to
read their works have failed spectacularly, typically because their
protagonists tend to be poor excuses for human beings.
>

I would say that in particular Truk's hero in Tsun-Tsun TzimTzum
is a good person and each of his companions is well drawn and has
her own compelling arc.  Unfortunately we may never get the last book.

Hawke's heroes also tend to be good guys trying to do the right thing
irrespective of their complicated love lives.

[snip]

after loving the movie, and letting the book sit in my SBR> for many

years I was completely underwhelmed with Sabatini's _Captain Blood_.

Go see the Flynn instead.

>
I remember liking _Captain Blood_ the novel, but it felt a bit "lumpy".
The follow-up stories (which Sabatini wrote after the success of the
novel) were mostly set during the pirate phase of Blood's career. They
were more self-contained and some were more focused than the novel.
Still, if you didn't like the novel, seeking out the stories is probably
not worth your time.
>

To my mind the novel Blood spent his time mopey and 'whipped to the point
of endangering his crew, and I don't recall that from the movie.  To be sure,
I haven't seen the movie since the 70s or early 80s probably.
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