In Which I Rant About Writing Devices

So, ebooks. They are the best, yes? I have recently been gifted with a slew of ebooks containing the majority of the works by Jim Butcher and Rachel Caine. Jim Butcher's books are great, no question. Not perfect, obviously (BREASTS) but very good.

Rachel Caine, on the other hand...

First of all, I frickin' love Joanne Baldwin as a character. She's believable, she's identifiable, she wears kickass heels and drives kickass cars. Even though she ends up the second strongest magic-user in the books, it's all set up and foreshadowed in such a way that it feels natural and not Mary Sue-y, especially since the only major character we see other than her to even use magic is the strongest magic user in the books, so it's not like she's stomping all over the rank and file constantly. She's constantly in over her head, and she doesn't let that stop her...

Except.

EVERY SINGLE BOOK could be 150 pages shorter if there wasn't a huge amount of "oh, Joanne, I know how to fix (problem of the book) but I love you too much to send you into danger". NEWS FLASH, DAVID: SHE'S DIED THRICE. Joanne is absolutely of the mindset that her life is not worth more than the other six billion people on the planet, and she is absolutely prepared to do whatever is necessary to save the world (nine times, including dying in some form or another at least three times). This, for those of you taking notes at home, is the diametric opposite of one Harry Dresden, who will cheerfully toss the entire world into the hell-handbasket in order to save (insert character in danger who probably has BREASTS). The end result of all this endless moaning "I could tell you how to wake up Mother Earth but instead I'll just give you one tiny hint" is every book being resolved through deus ex machina (thus the multiple dyings of Joanne Baldwin).

On my first readthrough of these books, several years ago, I thought they were enjoyable but kind of trashy. This time, I keep getting frustrated with how slowly the plot moves, because it could be so much faster if David would just stop saying how much he loves Joanne all the time! It's the concept of Fake Difficulty applied to a novel: instead of coming up with actual content to increase the duration of the video game/book, simply fill it up with something that is arbitrarily difficult/doesn't actually advance the plot but fills pages.

They're still fun novels, and I very much enjoy the elaborate magic system Rachel Caine has developed (best way to sucker me in is a good, consistent Magic A is Magic A cosmology), but I'm getting very, very weary of this repetitive trope, and I'm only on book 5 of the reread.