Vampire Academy series - Richelle Meade

So I’m now mining my way through book 5 of Vampire Academy by Richelle Meade, and my canary still clings to life, though it’s gasping a bit. Still, I’m going to keep swinging that pick because though the majority of what I get is dross, there’s enough nuggets of gold to make it worth while.

This series has got steadily better from the first book, Vampire Academy, which is a pleasant surprise in a genre where series usually start well then plummet more rapidly than a cheap roller coaster – and usually far more painfully (right, Laurell K Hamilton?).

The down side is that improving from the first book is no real achievement. The first book was dull, dreadfully dreadfully dull, full of teen angst and drama and so much highschool politics that it made my head ache – as mentioned here

But later books did improve, in fact each book improves on the last. The characters go from barely tolerable to actually quite interesting and, dare I say it, fairly deep and nuanced (well, sorta) but most of all the story really draws me in. It’s almost addictive, even when cursing the flaws of the books I keep reading because I want to know what’s happening next and where the story will go. Following Rose balancing her obligations to Lissa, the Moroi she’s bound to, and Dimitri her mentor/lover/enemy further balancing with Lissa’s difficulty with her unusual magic and the politics of the royal court and among that trying to navigate the fraught relationship with her parents, her love life and her own fears of insanity – this is a fascinating read, even when Rose is frustrating me with her gods-awful bad choice. And the world is novel and different – good vampires with elemental magic, undead vampires stalking them and the half-vampire guardians giving their lives in a corrupt society to keep their charges safe – even while their charges refuse to take the steps to protect themselves.

Ian Somerhalder's Famous Facial Expressions

Ian Somerhalder was almost hot enough to make The Vampire Diaries worth watching. Almost
Unfortunately, pictured above is one of his 6 facial expressions.Which is good - it’s 3 more than Nina Dobrev and Paul Wesley have between them. I think they had to share. And the whole cast practiced their “long intense stares” together in a mirror

Charlaine Harris: Dead Reckoning, Book 11 of the Sookie Stackhouse Series

I mentioned last week that the next Sookie Stackhouse novel has been released.  Even though I know that Charlaine Harris is a truly troubled woman, after reading the Aurora Teagarden and Shakespeare series, I still could not wait to read this book.  Of course I have to share my thoughts with you because Harris inspires snark like no other writer I have ever read.

Spoilers ahead, you have been warned.

All right, I will start off my saying that Harris is clearly bored with this series.  The characters that we have spent so many books getting to know do not act like themselves.  Eric is violent without reason and constantly needs Sookie to place her hand on him to calm him down.  He even goes as far as to become violent with Pam, when a simple command would render her helpless to disobey his orders.  What is really weird about this, is that the relationship between Pam and Eric has always seemed like a friendship based on mutual respect, even though he is her creator. Then there is Bill, who believes that Sookie would win the Miss America best tits competition.  Yes, the vampire that Harris has spent so long constructing as a true southern gentleman actually said that. Sam, who has suddenly become Sookie’s best friend, now that he is dating another woman (note: the woman is a problem because of course she does not match Sookie’s version of femininity - typical Harris). 

Fangs for the Fantasy Podcast - Episode 14

Here we talk about the penultimate Vampire Diaries episode, Charlaine Harris' Dead Reckoning, the lastest Southern vampire Mysteries novel, Kelley Armstrong's Bitten and Stolen, Richelle Meade's Vampire Academy and Marjorie Liu's Dirk & Steele

I am gazing in my crystal ball and I predict the next Anita Blake novel

It occurs to me that I’m rapidly approaching the point where I should be looking to buy the next Anita Blake book. Gods why I do this to myself I will never know, I think the only defence is that they’ve now become so utterly bad that they’re almost comic

To extract every ounce of amusement and hopefully set myself up for a pleasant surprise, I have gazed into my crystal ball to predict the plot of this next worthy novel

The scene opens with Anita having sex. I’ll say on the kitchen table, not done that yet and gods forbid we miss a cliche. The sex will probably be portrayed as kinky but be more vanilla than an ice-cream van. For more detail I predict:

When God Made Jace Wayland

What I want to know is why the person who made this cartoon neglected to point out that a recipe for Jace would include copious amount of unnecessary teenage angst?

Calling Charlaine Harris Fans: Dead Reckoning The New Sookie Stackhouse Novel is Out Today

I know that many of you like me, are huge fans of the urban fantasy genre.  I would be remiss if I didn’t post a reminder about the fact that Dead Reckoning, the latest novel in Charlaine Harris’ Southern Vampire Series was released today.  Yes, I already have my copy, and as soon as I am done, I will post a review to let you know my thoughts.

I am a little worried, because for a while the last book felt suspiciously close to a Laurell K Hamilton book, but with any hope, she will have pulled back from that.  I am also concerned because during the break waiting for this book to come out I read two other series by her.  I highly recommend avoiding the Shakespeare Series and Aurora Teagarden series.  You will never get the hours back that you invest, and you might endanger your e-reader, because the temptation to throw it in disgust will be extremely hard to resist. From reading both series I have learned that Harris is a big fan of slut shaming, should never ever write a character of colour EVER EVER AGAIN, and has a penchant for sick homophobic and disableist tropes.  I hope that I have successfully warned you away from them.

Get to reading everyone.  I am looking forward to conversation about this book.  I hope that it will be enough to tide me over until the new season of True Blood starts.

Vampire Academy – Richelle Meade Book 1

Vampire Academy – Richelle Mead

The first book that is, not the series (though I will return to that and maybe touch on the other books in passing).

In fact looking over the series I have to say that this is bizarre reverse world. Normally an author writes their awful, unreadable road-block of a book towards the end of a series, after the series already has enough fans who will suffer through it to keep going no matter what. Start with a great book, then go down hill while the fans clutch on desperate for improvement but masochistically holding on hoping, praying with each new book that there will be redemption and not further plummeting into the abyss (I call this the “Laurell K Hamilton writing style”).

But Vampire Academy flips it. The first book, well, I have to say was painful for me to read. It was dull dull dull dull. Ye gods it was dull. Full of pointless angst and slut shaming and completely lacking anything resembling depth or nuance.

However, if you hold on past this insomnia cure of a book, the second and third books are not nearly so painful. It’s a shame really that the first book is such a damn road block.

It’s possible that I’m being unduly harsh and my tastes just don’t match up with this genre.

Lissa is a Moroi (kind of a good vampire with magic) and Rose is a dhampire (half-vamp, child of a Moroi and a dhampire or a human – no magic but physically stronger than humans and the frail Moroi). Many dhampire are guardians of the Moroi, dedicating their lives, even sacrificing their lives to protect Moroi from the Strigoi – Moroi who have gone to the darkside, undead without magic but physically immensely powerful, they feed by killing and love to nom on Moroi becauseeating them gives them a power boost.