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From: ted@loft.tnolan.com (Ted Nolan <tednolan>)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Re: Looking Back: RI 2024
Date: 2 Jan 2025 03:33:54 GMT
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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.
-- 
columbiaclosings.com
What's not in Columbia anymore..