Me: reading page 2 of Naked in Death "Huh, how did I not know that the In Death books were set in the future?"
Twin: not interested at all "Oh?"
Me: "Yeah, she's talking about airtraffic and airbuses."
Twin: looking at me like I'm an idiot "Jennie, dear, some kinds of airplanes are called airbuses."
Me: "Oh. No, I think it's the future..."
I read another 2 pages.
Me: "HA! Now she's talking about droid cocker spaniels! Definitely the future."
Twin: derisive snort
I guess most people just know what the deal is with these books right off the bat. It is a really well-known series. But there's no cover blurb--just a big photo of NR on the back. And the cover illustration doesn't give any clue that it's futuristic. It's a little misleading. This annoys me. I like to have some idea what I'm getting into when I start a book.
9 comments:
Don't let the annoyance get to you too much :) I love this series just as much with Memories in Death as I did with Naked in Death. It's amazing watching Eve grow as a woman throughout all the books, as well as seeing her and Roarke grow as a couple (hope that's not a spoiler) FWIW - I started Naked in Death years and years ago and could barely get started and gave up. After reading so many readers go on about how good these were I decided to give NID another try and I've been completely and totally hooked ever since. And another thing that I find very interesting is that except for the droids, is because they aren't set that far into the future, I can see a lot of the futuristics things being possible.
And Jennie, you must have a newer release because the one I have does have a blurb on the back. It's only in the past couple of years that they've started putting the photo of JD Robb (Nora Roberts) on the back.
I'm almost through NID now and I do like it a lot. I think I see what everyone is gushing about. :) And I love a good series.
I actually don't mind the futuristic setting-it's interesting. I was just surprised!
It is interesting isn't it? And almost believable looking at the rate technolgy is going. For example, this was written in 2000 - long before cell phones were able to do so many of the things they do today. So there units (I forget what they call them and the bookcase is too far away) they speak into with video transmission seem well within the realm of possibility now whereas back in 2000 I couldn't really picture it.
For the JD Robb books with the picture on the back, just open the front cover. The blurb is on that very first page.
Oh yeah, meant to mention that I love this series too. ;) Wasn't as pleased with Memory though but I'm still looking forward to Born in Death this Nov.
Kristie-
I had the same thought actually. The futuristic stuff she comes up with does seem really probable.
Dancechica-
Ah ha, right you are. But I still think that the cover illustrations should give some clue to the futuristic setting. But maybe the publisher didn't want to scare away the romance readers by making it seem to SciFi-ish.
Well for me, I've always loved the covers because I thought they fit in nicely with the police theme and some of them portray a scene from the book. I'm such a dork that I've always found it interesting to look at the covers and try to guess what scene it is and how it's going to turn up in the book.
The futuristic aspects of the series have always blended so seamlessly into the stories that they don't really feel futuristic to me. With the exception of the flying cars, the world JDR created feels very much like our own world just with more technology--at least for me. So perhaps the publishers felt the same and that's why they choose not to make the covers stand out as futuristic. *shrugs* I do hope you enjoy the series though. It's long--like 22 books!--but the characters do grow a lot. ;)
I picked up NID by chance, shortly after it came out, so I went into it blind, too. I only started to suspect it might be set in the future when Eve read the NYT on her monitor (something that wouldn't make me suspect anything today!). And BTW, the back cover copy on the original edition gave no indication it might be futuristic.
Rosario--You're right, I read the NYT online now, but probably I wouldn't have been able to imagine such a thing in 1995! I can't believe the first blurbs didn't indicate the setting--they must have been trying to lure in all the NR contemporary readers. Very tricky of them. :)
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