DDCOrange

Originally Posted by Hobbit

Yup. Reviewed for SFFWorld a few years ago.

Mark

Taking my life into my hands I can't resist throwing my two cents worth in about Stephanie Meyers. I read Hobbit's review of Twilight and while I didn't like it as much, I do agree that the series is a victim of its own success (i.e. expectations are set too high). A few years ago Stephen King dismissed Meyers as a second-rate romance novelist. While its true that Meyers has a romantic streak a universe wide, I always thought King's assessment was a little unkind (particularly if you read some of the dreck from King's early pre-Carrie career.
One thing that I will say about Meyers is that her writing improves with each new story she writes. Breaking Dawn (well the first half of it anyway) is way better than the debut novel in the series which I just barely scraped though.
Her best novel and only foray into Science Fiction is The Host which is just good enough to recommend. It's completely unrelated to the Twilight series and is a sort-of Invasion of the Body Snatchers type story told from the alien's POV. The story might have been great if it weren't for Meyer's fatal weakness for sappy endings.
It's a shame really that she stopped writing just as she was starting to get good at it. Her reasons are her own of course though if I were to hazard a guess it was because as a devout Mormon, she decided to settle down and raise her family like a good Mormon girl and abandon her career as a novelist. Many out there may see this as a good thing but who am I to judge?
There, had my hissy-fit! You may now return to your regularly scheduled programming