Bone Crossed (Mercy Thompson, Book 4) Review

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Bone Crossed (Mercy Thompson, Book 4) ReviewThe Fourth Installment in the Mercy Thompson series is a direct follow-up to Briggs well-written Iron Kissed (Mercy Thompson, Book 3). Mercy is still dealing with the many problems in her life and trying to recover from a horrific assault that was the climax of the previous book. The situation is ripe with opportunities for the author to wave a magic wand and make things all better, but Briggs doesn't and my respect for her writing climbs as a result.
Mercy is coping and dealing with her new role as the mate of the local Werewolf pack. She is still suffering side-effects of previous events, but that doesn't mean that she's giving up. Briggs does a great job of keeping the story moving, introducing the next elements of the story and mixing in how the recent changes in her life require Mercy to re-evaluate and adjust. It's wonderful because too many authors don't bother to address these issues. Many authors in this genre let change happen and everything magically work out with any real effort by the main character.
Life keeps giving us problems even when we might wish otherwise and Briggs doesn't let Mercy rest. New issues continue to creep into the story and past choices by supporting characters come back to haunt Mercy and her friends. It's neat to see an author who is willing to let the Main Character actually cope with the second and third order effects of having broken with tradition and made enemies in previous stories. It's not like Mercy is just on a non-stop wheel of pain, it's just that Briggs doesn't let her just skip through life without paying the bill for being the agent of change that she often has been.
The story is not terribly long and Briggs doesn't cover tons of new ground, but there is still plenty to absorb. Complications between inter-species conflicts remain a central theme of Mercy's life and her relationship challenges don't simply fade away. Again, this effort by Briggs to keep a certain ethic of reality enforcement really deserves high marks because it increases the level of realism in a genre not known for it. Briggs deserves a lot of credit for keeping both feet on the ground while leading us on another exciting chase through an Urban Fantasy world that is as well-developed as any I have read.Bone Crossed (Mercy Thompson, Book 4) Overview

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All Together Dead (Southern Vampire Mysteries, Book 7) Review

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All Together Dead (Southern Vampire Mysteries, Book 7) ReviewI wasn't exactly thrilled with Definitely Dead, since it felt as though Harris was trying to cram in all of the characters and subplots into two-hundred-something pages. I also didn't like the totally lame twists regarding Bill. I thought it was a little too convenient for my taste. So, I wondered if the series had jumped the shark and if I should read the next book. All Together Dead, while not as good as Dead to the World, my favorite Sookie book so far, was far more enjoyable than its predecessor. It was time for the vampire summit, and Sookie, our adorable telepathic heroine, under orders from Eric and Sophie-Anne, the Queen of Louisiana, is forced to attend. In addition to Eric and the queen, Sookie would join boyfriend weretiger Quinn and vampire ex-boyfriend Bill. Sookie also reunites with Barry the Bellboy, a fellow telepath introduced in Living Dead in Dallas. The summit, aside from parties and business conventions, would also feature a few criminal trials, one of which is the queen's trial for the murder of her husband (Definitely Dead). But, as expected when vampires get together, strange things begin to occur. Vampires turn out dead. The murders seem to be connected with the queen's trial. But soon bigger threats arise, and it is up to Sookie and Barry the Bellboy to figure out what is going on. There are some twists throughout the novel.
When the action began, the novel was quite riveting. I liked some of the twists that went on toward the end as well. I also liked the inner conflicts Sookie was encountering. She has reached a point where she doesn't know if her life will ever be normal again. Her connection with the vampires become more integral in this installment, and I think that Harris foreshadows Sookie's descent from having a fairly average life to one solely centered on the supernaturals around her. Other than those good points, I thought the novel was all over the place. There was little resolution regarding Sookie and the men in her life. She cares for Quinn, and she likes that he seems more normal than the vampires, but she doesn't know if she loves him. She also doesn't know how she feels for Eric. And she has unresolved issues with Bill, whom she still resents for having lied to her. (On a good note, it appears that Bill shows genuine remorse for everything he had done to her. Come on, Sookie, the guy's sorry! Sookie is being petty and downright childish when it comes to him. I wonder for how much longer the author will drag this on.) There is little interaction with Quinn and Eric -- the latter of whom is very sexy in this installment. If she were to choose between these two men, I'd like for her to choose Eric. (But, to be honest, I still prefer Bill.) However, I believe the journey is better than the destination, so I don't mind more romantic tension between her and Eric and Bill (more with the latter please!). Quinn is a little more developed here, but I don't like him much. I tried to, but I can't picture a bald-headed, olive-skinned, beefy guy without picturing a pro wrestler or Mr. Clean. I also hate his annoying habit of addressing Sookie as "babe." Going back to Sookie and Bill, there is no closure between them. Bill was just sort of there, making brief appearances throughout the novel. He went from a strong lead to sort of a filler character, and I'm not happy with that. Secondary characters are thrown in and out without much purpose. (I did like the scene where Pam talks about her past though.) Even though I like the simple scenes of Sookie working at the bar or interacting with her small town buddies, those scenes in this book seemed forced. All in all, All Together Dead is rushed and uneven. Charlaine Harris should really forget about the small characters and concentrate on Sookie and the main characters. She tries to do too much in a limited amount of pages. I give this novel four stars because it was entertaining nevertheless and there were some hilarious passages. I especially enjoyed the scenes with roommate Amelia and her cat/boyfriend Bob. The Southern Vampire Mysteries is still worth reading, but Harris should do one of the following two things: either do a little house-cleaning with the characters and subplots, or consider making the future novels longer. So it may be time to get her publisher to increase her word count limit.All Together Dead (Southern Vampire Mysteries, Book 7) Overview

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Every Which Way But Dead (The Hollows, Book 3) Review

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Every Which Way But Dead (The Hollows, Book 3) ReviewIn the first 275 pages of this third volume of the series, there's some action, but nothing actually happens. Rachel resists getting dragged into the ever-after by Algaliarept yet again; Rachel resists getting laid by Kisten yet again; Ivy manages not to bite Rachel yet again... same old, same old. However, about page 275, Rachel decides to let herself be seduced into sex, but not blood, by Kisten. (And if you are a prude about sex between vampires and witches, you shouldn't be reading this book, really.) After we get that out of the way, Rachel can start kicking ass, rounding up bad guys, trading smart-ass remarks with Trent Kalamack, and all the other fun stuff. Up until that point, I thought I was going to have to say that the third volume in the series isn't as good as the second, but based on the last 200 pages, it's the best yet.
We get to know more about Weres in this volume. In "The Good, the Bad, and the Undead" we got elves. This book, we find out lots more about the elves, and more about weres. In fact, at the end of the book, Rachel has a relationship with both Kisten and David (the Were insurance adjustor) but it is so VERY different from Anita Blake's relationships with her vampire and were! Those of you who follow the Anita Blake series will see what I mean - this is not a case of lust for every species she meets an alpha male of, unlike Anita. I really like the character David Hue - and there is apparently a whole subculture of werewolf insurance adjustors, which strikes me as a very funny idea. Closer to Tanya Huff than to Laurell Hamilton.
One small complaint I have about this series is that although it's set in Cincinnatti, we don't get much of a sense of the place. I happen to like to know more about the cities our characters live in; that's a personal thing. Some authors do it, some don't. Hamilton's St. Louis is sorta vague - could be any city that has nightclubs, and we only know it's St. Louis because she says it is. Jim Butler's Chicago, where Harry Dresden the wizard and his vampire friends and enemies live, and Tanya Huff's Toronto and Vancouver, on the other hand, are very clearly real places - we learn street names, characteristics of the city, peculiar idioms of the speech of the inhabitants, and so on. Harrison's Cincinnatti falls in between - we know this is a city with a river, and we hear a lot about baseball back in Volume 2, so we can narrow down where it is, but we still don't get much detail.
Among other things in this book, we get a 1000-year old elf, who then gets taken in for safekeeping by Mr Keasley across the street, who turns out to be a witch who doesn't want to let people know that's what he is. I suspect that in a later volume, we'll find out more about Mr. Keasley. We meet Trent's fiancee, Ellasbeth, as unpleasant an elf as you'd ever care to avoid. Most important, we meet the villain of the book, Lee Saladan, who shares a secret with Rachel...
A short observation that many of the vampire authors seem to have last names beginning with H - if you know of Hamilton and Harrison, but haven't read any Huff or Charlaine Harris yet, you'll want to check them out, too. On the other hand, there's Jim Butler, so it's not a 100% rule.
And, for those just finding out about this series, a few notes on how it compares to the overall vampire genre, a/k/a BunRab's Standard Vampire Classification: What is the vampires' position in the world; do they stand as an allegory for women's sexual fears; what powers do the vampires have; are there other supernatural characters; is the author dead serious, if you'll pardon the pun, or have a sense of humor? The answers, in this case: The vampires in this series can be either good or bad guys. Most of them have jobs; they don't exist merely to be evil and brooding, unlike some series which shall remain unnamed. They do have extra powers, which vary based on the age of the vampire and the living or undead status; in general these powers include the usual super strength, and once undead, they live very long lives, but there's no turning into bats, no invisibility or seeping like smoke between walls. These vampires' taking of blood frequently involves sex, but doesn't have to; they do need human blood to survive, unlike some (P.N. Elrod's vampires can survive quite well on animal blood, for example.) There are several other species of supernaturals besides vampires, the most notable of which is that the witches such as Rachel are a separate species, not actually human. Perhaps the least common additional species we have, not one we run across in other series, is the pixies, such as Jenks.
In sum: if you liked the second volume of the series, you'll enjoy this even more; if you haven't read the second volume yet, I'd recommend buying it as well and reading them in order, and if you read several vampire series, you should have at least as much fun as I have comparing the similarities and contrasting the differences in how the various authors treat their supernatural characters.Every Which Way But Dead (The Hollows, Book 3) Overview

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