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annathepiperGot Dead to the World and Survival, as hoped for, upon stopping at Barnes and Noble!
Plowed through Dead to the World tonight. Picoreview: well, THAT was fun. :D
Longer review:
Oh my yes, that was fun. And my 'sucker for an amnesia plot' button was danced on in spades. I think my favorite line was perhaps 'Oh god. Puppy dog eyes. From a six-foot-five ancient Viking vampire.' Hee!
If you're going to have amnesia as a plot device, inducing it magically is a good way. 'Cause exactly how hard would you have to hit a vamp upside the head to knock his memory loose, anyway? And wouldn't you have to hit him with a tank or some such?
I really liked that amnesiac Eric seemed to periodically revert to what might have been leftovers from his Viking days, in his mannerisms and ways of speech. I also suspect that during one of the *ahem* intimate moments with Sookie, when he cried out in a language she didn't know, it was Norse. Or however one would refer to the language of ancient Vikings. And in general, Ms. Harris did an excellent job of handling exactly why I'm a big sucker for an amnesia plot--because it's a damned fine way to strip a character right down to the essentials of his true nature. We've already had glimpses of Eric's better nature in the previous novels, but this gave Sookie a better glimpse of it, and this should be fun for a few more novels' worth of amusing character conflict. And to up the competition between Eric and Bill.
Me, I'm totally rooting for Eric at this point. A very good question gets levelled at Sookie by Arlene towards the beginning of the story, to wit: "What had Bill ever done for me?"
Gotten her laid, sure--but Eric's taken bullets for Sookie. Three times now, I might add! Plus, he seems to get along much better with Sookie in general; he gets her humor, and he clues in about things that she really needs that go right over Bill's head, and he does them. Like gravelling her driveway for her at the end of the last novel. It really rather reminds me of what![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
mamishka said about why she thought Buffy and Angel were still the truly destined match all across the story arcs of both series--because after seeing Buffy with Angel, and seeing Buffy with Riley, you could totally tell that Angel was the one who truly understood her. I get that same vibe off Eric and Sookie.
In the meantime, there was good follow-up and continuity with the events of the previous novel as well, and I appreciated seeing more development of the local Were/shapeshifter communities. Also good to see Alcide come back in this book; even though I don't necessarily want to see him truly compete with Eric or Bill, I do like the guy.
And I liked the whole subplot with Jason. I'll need to pay better attention to that on the re-read, since a lot of the finer details got past me as I whipped through the book. I need to pay more attention to what the witches are doing as well, since the finer details of their actions sort of got around me as well--for example, what exactly they were hoping to pull by slapping Eric upside the head with an amnesia spell to begin with and how he got out onto the road at three in the morning running for his life.
Random other things I noticed:
Whoever wrote the blurb for the back cover wasn't quite paying attention to the actual story, because the blurb says Eric's naked when Sookie finds him, and in the actual story, he's got jeans on. Which also apparently must have led to why I saw conflicting data in the various reader and editorial reviews on the Amazon.com entry for the book, too!
My editing mode twigged on a couple of random places where I think a word was missing in the dialogue, but nothing too grating.
There's one bit of dialogue that Holly has to Sookie which I think could have been written better too, as the story in general is clearly trying to make certain that the witches who are the bad guys in the plot are not supposed to be evil just because they're witches, but Holly's got a line that could be read that way if you're not paying attention. But again, that was my editing mode getting twigged.
In general, though... definitely, definitely fun. And I can't wait to see how much Eric gets driven bonkers as he tries to remember exactly what happened while he was at Sookie's place. Muahahahaha.
Plowed through Dead to the World tonight. Picoreview: well, THAT was fun. :D
Longer review:
Oh my yes, that was fun. And my 'sucker for an amnesia plot' button was danced on in spades. I think my favorite line was perhaps 'Oh god. Puppy dog eyes. From a six-foot-five ancient Viking vampire.' Hee!
If you're going to have amnesia as a plot device, inducing it magically is a good way. 'Cause exactly how hard would you have to hit a vamp upside the head to knock his memory loose, anyway? And wouldn't you have to hit him with a tank or some such?
I really liked that amnesiac Eric seemed to periodically revert to what might have been leftovers from his Viking days, in his mannerisms and ways of speech. I also suspect that during one of the *ahem* intimate moments with Sookie, when he cried out in a language she didn't know, it was Norse. Or however one would refer to the language of ancient Vikings. And in general, Ms. Harris did an excellent job of handling exactly why I'm a big sucker for an amnesia plot--because it's a damned fine way to strip a character right down to the essentials of his true nature. We've already had glimpses of Eric's better nature in the previous novels, but this gave Sookie a better glimpse of it, and this should be fun for a few more novels' worth of amusing character conflict. And to up the competition between Eric and Bill.
Me, I'm totally rooting for Eric at this point. A very good question gets levelled at Sookie by Arlene towards the beginning of the story, to wit: "What had Bill ever done for me?"
Gotten her laid, sure--but Eric's taken bullets for Sookie. Three times now, I might add! Plus, he seems to get along much better with Sookie in general; he gets her humor, and he clues in about things that she really needs that go right over Bill's head, and he does them. Like gravelling her driveway for her at the end of the last novel. It really rather reminds me of what
mamishka said about why she thought Buffy and Angel were still the truly destined match all across the story arcs of both series--because after seeing Buffy with Angel, and seeing Buffy with Riley, you could totally tell that Angel was the one who truly understood her. I get that same vibe off Eric and Sookie.In the meantime, there was good follow-up and continuity with the events of the previous novel as well, and I appreciated seeing more development of the local Were/shapeshifter communities. Also good to see Alcide come back in this book; even though I don't necessarily want to see him truly compete with Eric or Bill, I do like the guy.
And I liked the whole subplot with Jason. I'll need to pay better attention to that on the re-read, since a lot of the finer details got past me as I whipped through the book. I need to pay more attention to what the witches are doing as well, since the finer details of their actions sort of got around me as well--for example, what exactly they were hoping to pull by slapping Eric upside the head with an amnesia spell to begin with and how he got out onto the road at three in the morning running for his life.
Random other things I noticed:
Whoever wrote the blurb for the back cover wasn't quite paying attention to the actual story, because the blurb says Eric's naked when Sookie finds him, and in the actual story, he's got jeans on. Which also apparently must have led to why I saw conflicting data in the various reader and editorial reviews on the Amazon.com entry for the book, too!
My editing mode twigged on a couple of random places where I think a word was missing in the dialogue, but nothing too grating.
There's one bit of dialogue that Holly has to Sookie which I think could have been written better too, as the story in general is clearly trying to make certain that the witches who are the bad guys in the plot are not supposed to be evil just because they're witches, but Holly's got a line that could be read that way if you're not paying attention. But again, that was my editing mode getting twigged.
In general, though... definitely, definitely fun. And I can't wait to see how much Eric gets driven bonkers as he tries to remember exactly what happened while he was at Sookie's place. Muahahahaha.
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Date: 2005-05-03 05:42 am (UTC)Don't call me by that name! It is demeaning to a leader of the proud and fierce race of the Nhar-Gh'ok to be dubbed Sookie!