We can all name examples of really bad 'kin literature' and also good 'kin literature' by which I mean literature which explores the nature of kin or contains a character or storyline who is kin / which involves kin.
However, apart from the quality of the writing itself, what is it that makes it a good / bad story?
We all have books that we like even though they portray kin badly, and conversely there are books which attempt at least to portray kin sympathetically but which are terrible.
I appreciate that this is very much a subjective matter...everyone has different likes and dislikes but I thought it would be an interesting thing to consider
For me I do not like books which portray kin in an unbelievable way.
So of course I do not enjoy reading books where kin is shown to be completely evil and totally unredeemable in character.
Less obviously I also do not like books which portray kin in a completely good and unbelievably harmless and innocent way.
I enjoy best the books which show kin as they truly are, just like all creatures, trying to do their best, battling against their dark sides, sometimes winning and sometimes not!
A heart full of good intentions with a wild streak that makes them unpredictable and dangerous, and a sense of adventure that invarably leads them into dangerous situations they should have had the good sense to stay clear of.
A romantic and handsome hero with dark eyes and more than a hint of a dark and dangerous side, doesn't hurt either.
Ooh how could I possibly disagree with that. The thought of Johnny Depp as a vampyre leaps to mind and I think a vampyre version of Capt Jack Sparrow worked into just about any story would just about be my idea of perfection.
Seriously though I agree that literature which portrays good and bad sides to their characters is undoubtedly the ideal as I do not belive that there is such a thing as human or kin who is wholly and completely either good or evil. Of course I may be wrong and I am sure that Hollow Man will try and convince you that he is the former
Ideally, I would disagree with any kind of novel portraying other kin - mainly out of fear of misconception. A reader will take a book like that and think "what a washed-out werewolf/vampire story".
Of course my mind disagrees with my instinct, and a novel would be fun to read, mainly because I know what is going on. Perhaps if it had a preamble that spoke of the non-fiction references the novel made so the reader doesn't confuse it with a horror fantasy book?
That would be fantastic.
When you see Johnny Depp and think vampire you're correct. I totally think Johnny Deep is a vampire...
The book I'm writting is going to have a more factual approach to vampires but it's going to have a little bit of fiction. The fiction is somewhere else though... one of the characters is a human who got turned into a cat in 16 century and had to find love (sort of like Beauty and the Beast), one of them helps out a ghost and get supernatural powers over the elements to become a vigilante. It's coming along great but I haven't worked on it lately... I've been busy lately...
That sound fascinating Cyne. I would love to read it some time.
I agree Darkintrospect there is a twinge of apprehension when picking up any vampyre literature and there is a deep instinct there somewhere that says there shouldnt be any more literature for humans to misunderstand. I think that is the part that desires to blend in and hide what you are, to belong to society. That part was silenced some time ago for me and I have been lucky in that I have never hidden what I am and have never suffered for it.
This may sound corrupt but I have to say that in a book I only think that the charachters life should only be good at the end and only if the rest of his life was really crappy
I dont think it is corrupt at all. Although I have to say I do enjoy being shocked once in a while by disaster I, too like a happy ending. Maybe it is because that so rarely happens in real life.