Good read--Good seriesJanuary 6, 2009 I am reading the entire 8 book Southern Vampire Series and watching True Blood on HBO. This is a goood book alone or in the series.
what's a maenad?January 2, 2009 Living Dead in Dallas is pretty good ... maybe not quite as good as Book #1, but addictively readable, nonetheless. This second book begins to lay the foundation of how the series will unfold: Eric Northman sends Sookie Stackhouse hither and yon to solve minor mysteries involving vampires. Eric will be a definite rival to Bill, Sookie & Bill will continue to have an on again (in more ways than one ... the sex is marvelous without being porny), off again and the books will be filled with all manner of supernatural beings. (Not a big draw for me, but the way vampire sagas seem to be written these days.) A case in point is the maenad that appears early in the novel with a message for Eric. I don't remember all of my Greek mythology -- as most readers, I'm sure -- and it would have been nice for Harris to do a bit more explanation then the few words she offers, thus saving me from logging into Wikipedia.
I did find Living Dead to be suspenseful & a page-turner. I enjoyed the story & the characterizations, which keep developing. Keep your eye on Eric ... for building both sexual tension, keeping Bill on his toes, and mixing together amorality with a compassionate side. If the rest of the series is this good, I may blow right through them, holding my LKH & Twilight books at bay until I'm done.
Introduction of The Fellowship of the SunDecember 29, 2008 I've only read the first four books so far, but this is my least favorite of the four. I liked the introduction to The Fellowship of the Sun, and knowing more about that. And the bellboy was a fun new character, but aside from that this one lacked something for me. It was still a great book, don't get me wrong, but I definitely prefer the others in the series so far.
Sookie's backDecember 28, 2008 0 out of 1 found this review helpful
The supernatural romance novels that feature vampires -once only a sub-culture of the romance genre - has recently gotten huge boost recently, thanks to the success of the Twilight saga. One could argue that this genre has been around much longer, and written much better than the Stephanie Meyers series, but I digress.
Then add on the success of True Blood, the HBO series developed by Alan Ball, and based on these novels, has made Charlaine Harris' Southern vampire tales just as popular.
What sets, maybe, these books different from the rest, is that Harris has kind of put a new bent on the tired vampire genre that made Anne Rice a household name. It's vampire story alright, but it's also part thriller, part detective story (both for the guys, maybe?), with a heavy dose of parody (which I like), and some romance (really for the girls).
Living Dead in Dallas, book two, begins with the death of Lafayette Reynolds, the openly gay cook of Merlotte's Bar, where Sookie Stackhouse works. Now while Bon Temps, Louisiana is a small rural town, there does seem to be a lot of deaths and while Reynolds was found in Sheriff Andy Bellefleur's police car (Andy had gotten drunk the night before and left his car in the lot), and they did not get along, Sookie is sure Andy had nothing to with the man's death.
But before she can begin to find out -by using her mind reading abilities - she and boyfriend Vampire Bill are on there way to Dallas as hired help to solve some crimes. It is there, that Sookie runs up against the local anti-vampire club, The Fellowship of the Sun. Trying to find a connection between the Dallas vampires and Fellowship brings Sookie into conflict that could kill her.
This is a much stronger book than first, if only because Harris does not have to set up the whole universe she's created. Still, I'm unsure how to take her stance on gay people. Lafayette was gay and gets killed, there is a gay vampire named Farrell (who Sookie was looking for in Dallas), who was lead to the Fellowship by another gay vampire, the an ancient -and still looking like he was sixteen -Godfrey. The point is, I guess, Farrell was only into young guys -twinks they would be called in the gay sub-culture - and I find that Harris uses that stereotype to advance the story. I did not like that.
Almost all her characters in Bon Temps seem to dislike gays (which could be the stereotype also, but it comes across rather muddled if that's her intent), including her bed-hopping brother. All of which seems disingenuous, as Harris went out of her way to make the Stackhouse clan more tolerant to people outside the norm.
But maybe I'm just being sensitive.
Don't touch thisDecember 22, 2008 If you expect to get from this book what you got from the TrueBlood series, you are up for a big disappointment. I am lacking words to describe how bad the book was. There was no depth, no anticipation, when reading this book I felt as if I was watching some horrible soap opera. Sookie: kept on arguing with Bill, breaking up with him and getting back together; every 5 pages she had the best sex of her life, every 4 pages she got beaten up and mentioned how strong she was, I guess to justify more beating; got aroused by at least 4 characters.
After reading this book, somehow, I feel that I wont enjoy the show that much anymore.
