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* I think I've figured out why I have resistance to the new Doctor Who... he seems very Dr. Gregory House-like, doesn't he? I hated House. I don't hate the Doctor. Still rather like him, actually. But the House-hatred just forms a barrier where I now have resistance.
* Revenge has become such a trainwreck. Seriously everyone -- except Nolan -- should DIAF.
* Once's casting of sociopathic Prince Hans was dead on. Seriously, the guy looked so much like the animated Hans was he the actor/model they based the character on? They really looked that much alike. And I did LOL at Kristoff pointing out that Prince tried to kill Anna (in the movie) and Hans said he didn't. He just left her to die. *snerk* And I think one of Hans' brothers was Thor.
And, still love Sven the reindeer. And the shippy 'true love' Captain Hook/Emma vibes keep coming. I'm laying money on it, that something terrible is going to happen to Hook because there's just too much foreshadowing (and I keep thinking of the Hans Christian Andersen's Snow Queen... is Hook going to become Kai?)
* Speaking of Hans Christian Andersen (in the most oblique way possible), saw the Ralph Fiennes' story of the latter years of Charles Dickens' life where "Dickens" complained that Andersen stayed overlong as a houseguest. The movie was kind of boring, but boy, Dickens was a douche (I say that not just based on the movie but on googling to discover which parts happened and which were just movie. Apparently there actually was that much of an age difference between he and his mistress (yuck. Though I did read that when she did marry later, she was 12 years older than her eventual husband and that she lied and claimed to be 12 years younger than she actually was). And Dickens did screw up and have a bracelet ment for his mistress delivered to his wife. I felt terribly sorry for the wife. She'd had 12 kids. Was she supposed to have the figure of an 18 year old? Oh, that's right, he was a man. Sure. He was 'entitled' to run off with an 18 year old girl just because his wife had grown to look middle aged. (Blech). It was total humiliation for her to be left by her husband, and what had she done wrong?
* Evidence of the problems the Hachette Publishing vs. Amazon feud is having:
I actually think there is some 'right' on each side of this argument, but it should be settled by now because the only damage that is being done is to the authors and to readers. (I think Amazon is correct that e-books should be cheaper than print books. Look, e-books don't have printing, storage, or shipping costs. And, as far as I can tell, no one ever copy edits the damned things. They should be cheaper. On the other hand I do understand that as the industry model shifts, publishers and writers need enough revenue generation to make it worth their while. Just... settle it already, people!)
All this brought to you by...
I remembered that Hoyt's next book was due out this October, so I looked on Amazon.
Way back when I had read the last Elizabeth Hoyt novel, it had been possible to pre-order this one. I debated at the time whether I should pre-order but never got around to it. (The lead of the new book is a tertiary character in the last one where he was far and away the most interesting aspect of the novel. I loathed the 'hero' of the last novel -- who was inspiration for my griping about the problems with 'Batman'{-like characters} -- because the hero of the last book was essentially Batman placed in the late 1700s. Meanwhile, this particular tertiary character had been falsely accused of mass-murder and locked up in Bedlam where, when he tried to prevent the sexual abuse of a female Bedlamite, he was brutally beaten and gang raped himself before the damned "Batman" character bothered to get off his self-involved ass (woes he's incredibly rich, powerful, and privileged but his parents were murdered when he was a kid) to rescue the poor suffering character who actually needed help (the 'hero' was all about personal vengeance and didn't actually give much of a crap about helping people)... and even then "Batman" kept the "Bedlamite" locked up in the "Batcave" {for everyone's 'protection'. Seriously, the asshole 'hero' of the last book came off as Batman. An 18th Century aristocratic-privileged asshole Batman...) Anyway, I always wanted to know what happened to the poor abused bastard (who at the end of the novel was still horribly traumatized by his rape but who had at last escaped the 'Batcave' and disappeared into the night. He featured in the epilogue, making clear his story was going to be the follow-up book.)
Since I wanted the poor abused guy to have a happy ending, I wanted to read the book when it came out... only the title and the pre-order option totally disappeared from Amazon before I got around to preordering.
The book has all but disappeared from Amazon (and, yes, it is published by Hachette Publishing). It doesn't come up even now when you search the author's name, and it is due out TOMORROW. It is listed over on Audible, however (Audible used to be a different company than Amazon but Amazon bought the audio-book site a couple of years ago).
Over on Audible you can click the book to find its Amazon link, but even then, on Amazon it only shows an Audible version. I googled and the author has posted that there IS a kindle-version (and paperback) due out as well, but even as of today, Amazon does not show a kindle-version as potentially being available. Plus, you still can only find the book if you specifically go about tricking Amazom into showing it to you because it doesn't show up if you just search the author.
The passive-aggressiveness of Amazon 'hiding' the release of Hachette books seems incredibly childish. I don't think Amazon is wholly in the wrong in their argument that e-books should be more affordable than print books (they DO cost less to produce since there's no printing, storage, or shipping involved). But authors -- and publishers -- should still be able to recoup their costs and make a profit. This hiding of the merchandise just seems counterproductive all the way around for everyone involved, and the only ones REALLY being injured are authors (and to an extent the readers).
I 'get' harsh negotiation tactics, but this is a little ridiculous.
* I think I've figured out why I have resistance to the new Doctor Who... he seems very Dr. Gregory House-like, doesn't he? I hated House. I don't hate the Doctor. Still rather like him, actually. But the House-hatred just forms a barrier where I now have resistance.
* Revenge has become such a trainwreck. Seriously everyone -- except Nolan -- should DIAF.
* Once's casting of sociopathic Prince Hans was dead on. Seriously, the guy looked so much like the animated Hans was he the actor/model they based the character on? They really looked that much alike. And I did LOL at Kristoff pointing out that Prince tried to kill Anna (in the movie) and Hans said he didn't. He just left her to die. *snerk* And I think one of Hans' brothers was Thor.
And, still love Sven the reindeer. And the shippy 'true love' Captain Hook/Emma vibes keep coming. I'm laying money on it, that something terrible is going to happen to Hook because there's just too much foreshadowing (and I keep thinking of the Hans Christian Andersen's Snow Queen... is Hook going to become Kai?)
* Speaking of Hans Christian Andersen (in the most oblique way possible), saw the Ralph Fiennes' story of the latter years of Charles Dickens' life where "Dickens" complained that Andersen stayed overlong as a houseguest. The movie was kind of boring, but boy, Dickens was a douche (I say that not just based on the movie but on googling to discover which parts happened and which were just movie. Apparently there actually was that much of an age difference between he and his mistress (yuck. Though I did read that when she did marry later, she was 12 years older than her eventual husband and that she lied and claimed to be 12 years younger than she actually was). And Dickens did screw up and have a bracelet ment for his mistress delivered to his wife. I felt terribly sorry for the wife. She'd had 12 kids. Was she supposed to have the figure of an 18 year old? Oh, that's right, he was a man. Sure. He was 'entitled' to run off with an 18 year old girl just because his wife had grown to look middle aged. (Blech). It was total humiliation for her to be left by her husband, and what had she done wrong?
* Evidence of the problems the Hachette Publishing vs. Amazon feud is having:
I actually think there is some 'right' on each side of this argument, but it should be settled by now because the only damage that is being done is to the authors and to readers. (I think Amazon is correct that e-books should be cheaper than print books. Look, e-books don't have printing, storage, or shipping costs. And, as far as I can tell, no one ever copy edits the damned things. They should be cheaper. On the other hand I do understand that as the industry model shifts, publishers and writers need enough revenue generation to make it worth their while. Just... settle it already, people!)
All this brought to you by...
I remembered that Hoyt's next book was due out this October, so I looked on Amazon.
Way back when I had read the last Elizabeth Hoyt novel, it had been possible to pre-order this one. I debated at the time whether I should pre-order but never got around to it. (The lead of the new book is a tertiary character in the last one where he was far and away the most interesting aspect of the novel. I loathed the 'hero' of the last novel -- who was inspiration for my griping about the problems with 'Batman'{-like characters} -- because the hero of the last book was essentially Batman placed in the late 1700s. Meanwhile, this particular tertiary character had been falsely accused of mass-murder and locked up in Bedlam where, when he tried to prevent the sexual abuse of a female Bedlamite, he was brutally beaten and gang raped himself before the damned "Batman" character bothered to get off his self-involved ass (woes he's incredibly rich, powerful, and privileged but his parents were murdered when he was a kid) to rescue the poor suffering character who actually needed help (the 'hero' was all about personal vengeance and didn't actually give much of a crap about helping people)... and even then "Batman" kept the "Bedlamite" locked up in the "Batcave" {for everyone's 'protection'. Seriously, the asshole 'hero' of the last book came off as Batman. An 18th Century aristocratic-privileged asshole Batman...) Anyway, I always wanted to know what happened to the poor abused bastard (who at the end of the novel was still horribly traumatized by his rape but who had at last escaped the 'Batcave' and disappeared into the night. He featured in the epilogue, making clear his story was going to be the follow-up book.)
Since I wanted the poor abused guy to have a happy ending, I wanted to read the book when it came out... only the title and the pre-order option totally disappeared from Amazon before I got around to preordering.
The book has all but disappeared from Amazon (and, yes, it is published by Hachette Publishing). It doesn't come up even now when you search the author's name, and it is due out TOMORROW. It is listed over on Audible, however (Audible used to be a different company than Amazon but Amazon bought the audio-book site a couple of years ago).
Over on Audible you can click the book to find its Amazon link, but even then, on Amazon it only shows an Audible version. I googled and the author has posted that there IS a kindle-version (and paperback) due out as well, but even as of today, Amazon does not show a kindle-version as potentially being available. Plus, you still can only find the book if you specifically go about tricking Amazom into showing it to you because it doesn't show up if you just search the author.
The passive-aggressiveness of Amazon 'hiding' the release of Hachette books seems incredibly childish. I don't think Amazon is wholly in the wrong in their argument that e-books should be more affordable than print books (they DO cost less to produce since there's no printing, storage, or shipping involved). But authors -- and publishers -- should still be able to recoup their costs and make a profit. This hiding of the merchandise just seems counterproductive all the way around for everyone involved, and the only ones REALLY being injured are authors (and to an extent the readers).
I 'get' harsh negotiation tactics, but this is a little ridiculous.
