Fan Fiction Books

The great baseball journalist Roger Angell has written, "Baseball seems to have been invented solely for the purpose of explaining all other things in life." Peter C. Bjarkman, the editor of this collection of baseball short stories, expounds on this theme in his interesting introduction. The essays themselves, however, vary widely in tone, style, and quality. Nearly every one has one sentence or paragraph that is beautifully and heartbreakingly crafted. Unfortunately, almost all of the essays also suffer from serious flaws in story-telling and plain old good judgment. This collection is definitely a mixed bag. It's questionable whether finding the gemlike passages is worth the effort of slogging through the rest of the stories.

Preface...I understand this was supposed to be EROTICA, but at the same time, it was also supposed to be a romance.

This book had to be one of the lamest, stupidest romance books that I've ever read. I can't count the number of times I shook my head or snorted at something in this book. It was like and Ode to Casual Sex, or the poster child for bad relationships and utter crudeness. The entire book was (the characters) self-serving gratification and was basically just smut. Not that I'm saying smut is bad, it just didn't work for this supposed ROMANCE book. What a total waste of $8.

Romance wise...there was absolutely, positively nothing romantic about this book. The characters screw like bunnies, have fun and decide that means they are in love. Huh? Right! Like that's such a building block for a good relationship. They never have any real, in-depth conversations. They never get past the very basics. And we're supposed to believe they end up loving each other? I don't think so. The concept was ridiculous. And when I finished the book, it was like, who wants to bet they'd be divorced in less than 2 years?

The book is pretty much the characters pure self-gratification. Danny thinks Stella might be involved in industrial espionage in stealing his new video game. He's really ticked off, but decides he'd rather be able to sleep with her instead of confronting her. And Stella thinks Danny is some big-time drug dealer, but decides to rationalize it away because she doesn't want to give up his penis. Again, what kind of romance is that? Sheesh. It's just totally self-serving. And the language in this book...it was just utterly crude. I mean, I wasn't offended, but it was thoroughly non-romantic. I don't think I've read a book where the less polite words for body parts were used more than in this one. Danny refers to Stella's...body part...constantly in a vulgar way, even out loud. If a guy ever said some of things to me that he said to her, I'd smack him and send him on his way. It was just beyond crude for a supposed romance. Fine for hardcore smut, but not romance.

And some of the realism in this story? Good grief. Totally unbelievable. For one thing, anyone ever heard of protection? These two screw like bunnies and there's not one mention until the very end about protection. Danny is supposedly a total ladies man with no qualms about casual sex and one-night stands, which Stella knows. And Danny believes that Stella has a bevy of guys she screws regularly. Yet there's not one mention of condoms. Haven't they ever heard of diseases? Sheesh. These two were a walking ad for STD prevention, what not to do. Even if they were using condoms and it just wasn't said, they couldn't have been used right because they were going for consecutive rounds without breaks, or, uh, removal of body parts in between. That's a big condom no-no. Also, these 2 went at it like rabbits with a Viagra IV with an insane number of orgasms. Maybe it's just me...but their constant sexual activity without time for recovery seemed really unrealistic.

Plot...plot? Oh, right, the espionage thing. Can anyone say badly developed after thought?

There were probably other things I could mention, but those were the big points. Overall, just a really poor book. The sex was kind of hot, but everything else sucked. It's a good example of what a romance novel should NOT be. So I highly recommend not wasting your time or money on it, even if you can buy it used for a quarter.

I have been reading reviews of this book and I have to say that I personally really liked it. It was the first Susan Johnson book I read and I found it fun and entertaining. Its meant to be a light-hearted book that is just there for enjoyment and some laughs.

I love Susan Johnson books! I buy everything she writes! Hot Spot was contemporary NOT historical, which I prefer. Quick read, light, entertaining. Some good sex. Hope this helps.

About the only thing going for it was the setting, and the story line was ok. That's what drew me in the first place to pick it up, but...yuk.. The main characters had a totally one-track mind: sex and more sex. Trashy. Randy robots. No real brains. No romance. Mindless sexual musings. The worst "graphic novel" ever written. Don't waste your money, esp. the teens who undoubtedly will be drawn to the sexy-cute cover: wht's in between the covers is NOT for sweet sixteen!! Watchers of Sex and the City would blush...or throw up.

This book focuses on the one thing I DON'T like about Susan Johnson's books... Angry sex. I've been reading her books for years and there is usually one scene that focuses on two people who are angry enough to do violence deciding to jump each other instead. In this book, that's about all you get. The background story line was so weak it was forgetable and there was no intimacy between the two mains. This book was a mindless cover-to-cover fight and screw with an ending so forgetable I had to go back an hour later because I couldn't remember if I finished it or not.

Some people cannot help attracting trouble. However, gag supplier Kate Jaspar goes one step beyond and seems to always find a murder that has just been committed. Kate cannot walk away from homicide until she has solved the case even though she constantly places herself in danger. Her long suffering live-in lover, Wayne Caruso, does not try to stop her anymore. Instead, he assists her on her i nvestigations so he can be near to protect her from harm.

When Wayne and Kate attend a science fiction-mystery authors' book signing, there is one protester who claims that science fiction is demonic poisoning. However, things change for the worse when one of the writers puts a bracelet on her wrist and abruptly dies. The bracelet contained a syringe filled with a poison that was injected when the writer snapped it on her wrist. Kate and Wayne try to determine who left the poisoned bracelet on the table. They soon learn that many of the attendees had the opportunity and the motive.

Anyone in the doldrums should try DEATH HITS THE FAN for a fast uplifting rush. It is difficult to remain sad when one is surrounded by quirky characters who make sense in a crazy kind of way. The secondary sub-plots are humorous, making it impossible not to smile even as the reader tries to solve an interesting mystery. Jacqueline Girdner demonstrates that her talent is at the Mensa level.

Harriet Klausner

I really wanted to like this book, but the author must have had a different idea. In fact, for the first time ever, I skipped over 100 pages of this book and read the ending to find out who the killer was. I just couldn't take another page of the terrible dialogue.

The author has created several characters with colorful quirks and traits she probably felt were endearing. They aren't; they are just annoying. One woman swears a lot, but is trying to avoid saying bad words. Actual passage from page 163: "'Shi-shick, we were all there,' she was insisting. 'Someone must have seen fuddin' something. Huh, huh? I mean...'" And it's not just a few times to give you the idea. In every conversation with this character, you see the "shi-shick" and "fu...fuddin'." The novelty wore off after the first conversation, so by the end of the book, I couldn't believe she wasn't one of the murder victims.

And as if she wasn't enough, another character has a very similar problem. Actual passage from page 144: "'Well holy moly and howdy-hi,' came a new voice into the medly. A bass to our sopranos. Felix rubbed his hands together happily as he came up the stairs. 'Finally, I've got you two gonzo brains together. Now we can friggin' talk.'"

Who talks like that? The story itself wasn't so bad, but the dialogue was so truly terrible that I just could not bring myself to read the whole thing. I've never written a review on Amazon before, but this book actually made me so angry that I felt I had to warn everyone else - save your money. I only gave it one star because they wouldn't let me give it less.

If you like books in which the amateur detective is an aggressive female, her lover is a whimp with muscles, all the meals are meatless, and an irritating parrot repeats phrases after hearing them once, Death Hits the Fan is just the book for you. In this mystery, a science fiction author is murdered at a small meet-some-authors gathering at a bookstore. The premise is good, but the characters are either boring or irritating. I kept hoping that one of the men in the book would eat a steak, say "shut up" to one of the women, and find a backbone. I also hoped the parrot would fly away, that the female characters would exhibit some common sense, and that the book would end. The book finally ended, but none of my other hopes were realized.

The bookstore I frequent was running low on yaoi so I saw this and decided to take the chance because I couldn't remember any reviews about it. I am sorry I took the chance. There was little that appealed to me. It was a compilation of many stories some so non-interest catching I didn't even catch that it had moved on to another storyline. One storyline in particular was very creepy and was about a dentist that liked to cause pain. If you have ever seen the anime "SpeedGrapher" and remember the demented dentist, well I was just thinking that on the next page the dentist would have instruments coming out of his back. Yuck. I did like the title story, and the one about the tattoo artist but other then that it was a waste. There were several intimate scenes not very graphic and none were explicit.

I can't say this is the best yaoi/ bl anthology out there. There are four stories in "Melted Love", and none of them are developed enough to actually keep the reader's interest- in fact, at two separate points you cannot tell that the author is on to a different story.

And as for the art? Just plain bad. The proportions are all wrong and the whole thing looks like the work of a twelve- year- old. You're better off spending your money on "Lies and Kisses" by Masara Minase.

I have a great time reading this anthology. The main story, Melted Love, is a sexy one in which Juuzou, a popular model/actor, used to having his own way meets more than his match in an older Mitsuya, a cosmetic surgeon. Theirs is a delightful romance as Juuzou soon feels that too much freedom from his lover might not be the best thing, especially when Mitsuya's past lovers are supposedly the cute ones.

Lonely Stubbornness is hilarious as a geek is led around the leash by his rich and arrogant lover. Could not blame the arrogant seme as the geek did ignore the poor guy for 3 months. Their mutual female friend's active advisory role adds to the fun.

"Agony and Ecstasy of Dentist Nakagawa" is kinky and laugh out loud funny as the good dentist gets high from inducing pain in his patients. He finally meets his match when he falls for his young patient whom he tortured years ago.

"False Rumor" is another hilarious one with very engaging dialogue. Kimura has been looking after Fumihito for 20 years as Fumihito is what he terms an "endearing imbecile". Fumihito is now the director of his family's company. Kimura is engaged as his company's lawyer but still continues to look after the "imbecile". It is time for Fumihito's arranged marriage and Kimura is more than happy to finally washes his hands off his friend but it is certainly not what Fumihito and his female secretaries wish.

Unparalled Service is an amusing one as Morio, a hotel's popular chief concierge, finally delivers the perfect service to one customer who has been trying to get into his pants. The ending is priceless.

The serious one is "Tatto" about a tatto artist who takes possession of a poor but beautiful young man from an ex-Samurai family by marking him with his masterpiece. This has an underlying sadness to it as the story takes place during the transition era when Samurais were stripped off all their glories.

The artwork is pleasing. This is a most enjoyable read. However, with the exception of Melted Love, it would be better if there is more romance in the other stories, which is the reason for the "4 stars" rating. Still this is a great addition to my Yaoi collection.

Pros:
+ Has some insightful and true observations about fanfiction.

Cons:

- Focuses too much on specific, little known fandoms.

- Focuses too heavily on fanzines.

- Uses incredibly specific examples to support incredibly broad conclusions.

No one seems quite sure how to approach writing about the topic of fanfiction since it is both so widespread and so new. It seems to me that the most reasonable way to approach a study is to either limit it to a specific genre of fanfic or a specific fandom or, if you attempt a general study, to stick to the big name fandoms which tend to set trends and to provide examples that are familiar to a larger number of people. Pugh does neither, approaching the topic in the unfortunate way that many other academics have done by focusing on a number of completely unrelated and not necessarily well known fandoms that I suspect are the ones that Pugh likes the best. This gives the book a disjointed feeling from the beginning which is only compounded by the fact that this book seems to be useful to absolutely no one. If it is meant to be read by literary critics, then the analysis is not deep enough. If it is meant to introduce people to fanfiction, then it plunges too deeply into issues that only a literary critic or a person already immersed in the world of fandom would care about. If it is meant to be read by people who read fanfiction, then it contains a awful lot of condescending definitions. My impression is that the author tried to cater to all these audiences and succeeded in pleasing none.

The real problem with this book, however, is that the author is trying to draw incredibly broad conclusions about the whole of fanfiction by looking at incredibly narrow examples. The fact that slash authors on one community that the author frequents write in a certain way and for certain motives does not convince that slash writers in general behave this way. In fact, the author seems to base much of this broad analysis upon the stories of three or four favorite authors and even sometimes draws these broad conclusions based on a single story. This is not even as useful as it would be in the world of published fiction because no one fanwriter has nearly the level of influence on fandom as a whole as well known writers can have on literature.

This is not to say that Pugh doesn't put forward some interesting observations. I found the wanting more of/wanting more from distinction to be a very useful way of thinking about different types of fanfiction and there were some points which were very well taken. In general, though, most of Pugh's assertions are overgeneralizations -- not surprising as the book uses a small amount of evidence to make broad observations on a variety of fanfiction subjects.

Katherine Gordon has ideas - fabulous ones at that. But that is all. She has no clue how to write a novel. Her novels are easy read and hold relatively no suspense. It is almost as if one can easily foresee all the events that lead to the end. Really Ms. Gordon, if you have one ounce of respect for your audience, you will not take up a pen again.