Category Archives: Vampires

October 17, 2011 · 2:58 pm

Night Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko

So, in September me and my honeyman decided to read 1 book together a month. In September we read The Hunger Games (a re-read for me, but the first time for him) and he really liked it. This month the honeyman picked Night Watch, which is one of his favorite books but a first for me.

So basically Night Watch focuses on Anton, a member of the Night Watch in Russia. The Night Watch is made up of Others that work for the Light – so they’re the goodies. There’s also the group of Others that are the baddies, and they serve on the Day Watch. Basically an “Other” is a person with some sort of paranormal ability that is able to step into the “Twilight”, kind of step into the shadows of the world and see the world through a different magical perspective. The Light and Dark Others have been battling out the whole good versus evil thing for centuries until they were faced with extinction and henceforth the Treaty was formed, forming the Watches so that each side could police the other until one side finds a huge advantage that may finally bring about triumph over the other. This was all very confusing to me at first, but I have to say that Sergei Lukyanenko does a really great job at making as clear as possible within the first hundred pages.

So Anton is a member of the Night Watch, although his main job is pretty much desk work – just like any policing force, someone has to stay in the building and do paperwork and technological stuff. Eventually though his boss tries to make better use of him and brings him out for some field work – protecting humans, coming up against the Day Watch, etc. Anton is a bit of an anti-hero in that he seems to have so much potential but he really was happier just being a desk person. He also suffers from having too much of a conscience. I initially enjoyed the philosophy of the big good versus evil thing. But Anton quickly sees how his side can commit a lot of evil acts in the name of Good, and struggles with this throughout the whole novel and being the horrible person that I am, I got bored with that after a while. I mean, it’s kind of obvious that no group can be 100% pure good and the other 100% pure evil. Good people will commit evil acts in the name of good, and evil people will do good things in the name of evil. I’m not going to lie – if I was an Other, I probably would have joined the dark side and become a member of the Day Watch, because it’s just easier.

Anyways, I’m starting to ramble. So the book is split into three separate stories, each revolving around Anton and his role in the Night Watch, and each centered around a plot for good or evil to gain a bit of an advantage. And while I did end up enjoying each story, I wish that the book hadn’t been split up like that. I think the novel might have been more powerful if the story was more cohesive and if the author had made more of an effort in blending it all together. However, this was initially written in Russian, so maybe something got kind of lost in the translation to English.

So, overall I liked this book. I liked the Russian setting. (And I realized how much I love Russian names: Svetlana, Sergei, Anton. Plus the awesome last names – Donnikova, Nesterov, etc.) And I do enjoy the overall debates about whether to be a force for good or evil. You’d think the choice should be obvious, but there are arguments for both sides, and that’s why they’ll probably both always exist. While I thought Anton was a weak main character, I did enjoy the rest of the cast and wish I had seen more of them. It’s definitely a new and really interesting twist in the fantasy genre. While I think Sergei creates a unique world and complex plot ideas, I think this book also seems a little amateur – things don’t flow very smoothly, concepts are repetitive, etc.

I will probably read the next novel in the series some day, Day Watch, because it focuses on a member of the Day Watch and I think it’d be interesting to see all of this from the point of view of the baddies. I’d recommend this for fantasy fans, or for readers that love a good ol’ philosophical light versus darkness story.

Sarah Says: 3.5 stars

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September 3, 2011 · 4:05 am

To be or not to be… a supernatural creature.

So, recently reading and reviewing Perfect Fudge by Hazel M. Larsen (see previous post) has got me thinking about supernatural creatures, and the choices characters make in these books about whether or not to be one (if they even have the choice). Now, as a human I don’t want to live forever. I’m hoping to keel over when I’m a little over 70. But as a supernatural creature, it’d be so fun to be immortal. I know that’s not everyone’s cup of tea.

So, here are a bunch of supernatural / paranormal / fantastical beings I’ve read books or seen movies about.

Angels: I’m about to get a little spoiler-y here, because I want to clarify why the angels in Perfect Fudge (see previous post for review) are so cool and a fun concept. As you know if you read my review, it introduces a unique concept of guardian angels. These guardian angels don’t really have any biblical connotations, but they help people. They can also fly, teleport, turn invisible, cook food with their mind, heal, clean with the blink of an eye, and whether they start out older or younger, they’ll eventually and then forever appear to be in their 20′s. Of course this is a kind of new version of the idea of angels, but I think it’s awesome.

*I would totally choose to be an angel. There’s almost zero downside.

Vampires: Of course the paranormal lore is different according to legends / authors / movies, but most agree that vampires drink blood (human or animal in most cases), have super speed and strength, and are burned by sunlight. I think the slight majority opinion is that vampires can hold on to their humanity if they choose – at least Christopher Moore, Anne Rice, Charlaine Harris, and Stephanie Meyer think so. (I probably just discredited this theory a bit by mentioning Meyer, but hey whatever). I personally agree with this – I think vampires can choose how humane they want to be. I don’t believe that vampires are “damned”, but that has more to do with the fact that I don’t believe in heaven or hell, so how could I believe in damnation? And even if someone showed me proof that all that existed and your soul could be damned… well I don’t know if that would convince me not to be a vampire.

*If a vampire walked up to me tonight and offered to make me a vamp… I would definitely want to say yes. Honestly, the only thing holding me back here is that the honeyman said that if I was a vampire, he’d have to try to kill me. And you know, that kind of means breaking up, and I don’t want that, I love my honeyman. Honestly, angels can do more cool shit than vampires, but for some reason the idea of being a vampire is more appealing to me… it’s probably just more familiar of an idea.

Werewolves: Again, the lore is really different here. Some say that werewolves only change during a full moon and have no control during that time. Some say that weres that change whenever they want and are conscious the whole time. Most agree that you transform into a big huge scary wolf-like creature (unless you’re the director of the 3rd Harry Potter movie, in which you think weres transform into some weird, sad hairy mandog-looking creature). Generally though, werewolves are bad-ass and powerful and scary-looking.

 *Whether or not I agree to be a were would depend on the lore we’re going with here. I personally choose to think that weres are like the ones on True Blood – that they can change at will and know what they’re doing when they’re in that form. And if that were the case then hell yes I’d be a werewolf.

Witch / wizard: Okay, does this one even need much explaining? The term witch general means one who can do magic – cast spells, has powers, etc. They’re usually not immortal. My personal favorite? The Charmed witches. I love Piper. Oh and Harry Potter of course, can’t forget him.

*I’d agree to be a witch in a heartbeat.

Elves: Elves are cool fantastical creatures. They’re usually nature-nuts, proud, arrogant, secretive, and skinny. But they’re also powerful, graceful, and have magical abilities. In most fantasy, elves are not to be trifled with.

* I suppose that yes, I’d agree to be an elf. Even if meant me getting all weird and slender looking.

Fairies: I think that sometimes the lines between fairies and elves blend and are kind of together called “fae” creatures. I usually think of fairies as little pixies – tiny winged creatures with magical abilities, like Tinkerbell. Gotta love Tink.

* I don’t think I’d agree to be a fairy… depends on the scope of magical abilities. But I think I’d feel too vulnerable being that tiny, and the biggest appeal of being a supernatural creature is being able to feel like the shit and be powerful and stuff.

Mutants: Now here’s a fun one. I’ll let in on a little secret… I believe almost any of these paranormal creatures could exist. Who the hell am I to say that they don’t just because I’ve never had the luck to meet one? I know, I know, I’m like a big kid. Anyways, I like the idea of mutants because to me they are the most likely supernatural creatures to exist. Well, actually they’re still technically humans. They’re not magic, they’re just evolutionally-advanced humans. But still, I’m counting em. Think of the X-Men, the X-Men are awesome! Sure, some of them have pretty lame mutations, but most of them are cool and useful in some way (after all, the point of nature evolving like this would be the progression of human life).

* Sign me up! I know I’m 24, but I’m still hoping some sign of cool mutant abilities will show… or maybe I’ll just go the Alex Mac route and get cool mutant-like powers from radiation and chemicals :-) It’s either mutant powers or cancer… 50/50 odds aren’t too bad, right?

Zombies: Okay, who the hell would want to be a zombie? I’m including them on the list because they are a really popular paranormal creature these days, but they’re basically rotting humans that can’t think anything other than “BRAAAIIIINSS”.

* Hell no, I wouldn’t be a zombie. But I can’t wait for the zombie apocalypse so I can be a zombie-killer! I’ll judge anyone who actually says they’d choose to be a zombie. Weirdo.

Unicorns / Dragons: These are two of the most popular paranormal animals really. Unicorns are supposed to be all sweet and crazy magical, and dragons are supposed to be all nasty and fire-breathing. Honestly, I think both are really cool but I don’t think I’d ever choose to turn into one. I’d feel like a magical pet.

Giants / Goblins / Leprechauns: So these don’t need much explaining. Giants are huge, goblins are tiny and mean, and leprechauns are tiny and lucky. I think I’d reject all of these just on basis of size. 

 Gods: Well, gods are pretty self-explanatory too. I’m thinking of two sets of gods in particular – the Greek mythology gods, and the gods and godlings in the Inheritance Trilogy by N.K. Jemisin. Either way, all are bad-ass. I love that gods are such all-powerful beings, but that they’re also usually petty just like humans. I don’t know why humanity ever gave up on Greek gods as a religion, I probably would have been a believer.

*I would totally be a god. You practically can’t be killed, and you are the baddest mofo out there. Seriously as powerful as all hell. For someone whose severe lack of ambition means I want to be a housewife, I’m surprisingly power-hungry when it comes to paranormal creatures.

I think that covers most of the supernatural creatures I’ve been thinking of…

Oh, and for funsies here are some of my favorite books / movies relating the all of the above:

  • Perfect Fudge by Hazel M. Larsen (angels)
  • Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris (vampires, werewolves)
  • Inheritance trilogy by N.K. Jemisin (gods, godlings)
  • Bloodsucking Fiends /You Suck / Bite Me by Christopher Moore
  • Interview With A Vampire by Anne Rice
  • X-Men movies
  • Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon (time-travellers, not mentioned)
  • Living With the Dead series by Jesse Petersen (zombies)
  • Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini (dragons, elves, fae)
  • Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling (witches, wizards, unicorn)
  • The Kingkiller Chronicles by Patrick Rothfuss (wizards, fae)
  • True Blood tv show (vampires, werewolves, fairies, fae)
  • Charmed tv show (witches, leprechauns, giants, fairies, vampires)

So, whatcha think?

If one of these creatures walked up to you and offered to make you one of them, would you do it? Which one would you want to be the most? Any that I missed that you’d choose to be? Or would you go the crazy route and refuse them all and choose to remain human?

 ~Sarah

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May 8, 2011 · 7:06 pm

>The Warlord Wants Forever by Kresley Cole

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OK… I can’t believe I’m trying out this series. Paranormal romance that borders on erotica isn’t really my cup of tea. However, an acquaintance / friend really loves this series and we kind of traded some books of each other’s to try. So you know… that’s my excuse.

Also, in all fairness, this isn’t a whole book. It’s a 180-ish page short story featured in a collection of erotica called Playing Easy to Get. So I’m hoping that this means the rest of the series isn’t quite to sex-heavy, and that there will be a better plot in the next book since there will be at least twice the number of pages.

So, this is the start of the Immortals After Dark series. Basically there are groups of supernatural beings that make up The Lore, which is basically a way of saying various supernatural beings. Two of those groups are Vampires and Valkyrie, both immortal.

From what I gathered in this story, two factions in the Vampires are warring – the Vampire Horde versus the Forebearers. Essentially the vamps in the Horde are kind of insane from drinking their victims to death – their eyes turn red and they go insane from the accumulated memories of all of their victims. The Forebearer vamps are humans turned into vampires who don’t drink blood from any living being because they’re afraid of going insane. Also, vampires walk around completely undead until “blooded” by their pre-destined Bride. Essentially meeting this chickadee will make a vamps heart start beating, and their blood will start flowing again. Ummmm… for lack of a classier way to say this – a vamp can’t pitch a tent in his pants until he meets his Bride, and then can only get “relief” from her. Also, I can’t tell if there are female vamps or not… it didn’t really mention in the book.

Little was really said about the Valkyrie – they’re comprised of some bad-ass women, they like to kill vampires and ghouls. They’re also really mesmerized by shiny objects, which seems like a very silly weakness. Oh, and they feed off of electricity, like lightening.

Anyways…. Wroth is a Vampire who discovers the Valkyrie Myst in a dungeon when his army overtakes a castle. They flirt a little, trying to figure out who the other is. Not surprisingly, Myst is apparently his Bride because he gets “blooded”. She apparently has made a career out of blooding vampires (and then killing them – badass!), but she doesn’t. Instead, she ditches him for the next 5 years. Again, unsurprisingly, he finds her and blah, blah, blah they suppose they’re meant to be together and will go against the grain to stay together.

Again, not the best story but the plot isn’t the main point of this short story. The point is all the doin‘ it. Now I like romance novels and sexy scenes don’t really make me blush or anything, but these scenes were too frequent and vulgar for my cup of tea. I don’t really think that name-calling, violence, or being magically forced to do things is sexy. Call me crazy, but whatever.

Gross sex-stuff aside, I can see why the paranormal aspects attract some readers. The author is almost as crazy as Stephanie Meyer in her deciding to make up some weird-ass paranormal character traits. Luckily, there’s no sparkling vamps but some of the stuff is still kind of out-of-the-blue. But, it’s different. If immortal beings were written the same way in every book it wouldn’t be such an uber-popular genre, right?

Also, I really liked the character of Myst. She was really snarky and I love snark. For instance, one quote:

Wroth: “You’re the most malicious bitch I’ve ever known.”
Myst: “Flatterer.”

That’s a good example of the name-calling I was referring to, but anyways. I like that Myst is snarky and kind of crazy and a totally bad-ass warrior. I actually wish that her character hadn’t been wasted in this little novella, cause she was pretty great. Wroth on the other hand was okay… nothing special really made him stand out.

I can’t believe I’ve gone this in-depth here. Anyways, it was okay. I’m hoping that the second ACTUAL book, A Hunger Like No Other, will be better. Hopefully more plot, more character development, and less focus on the hanky-panky. I’ll probably be disappointed, but we’ll see.

Sarah Says: 2.5 stars – 2 for Myst, and .5 for inventive paranormal world-creation

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April 17, 2011 · 10:31 pm

>Living Dead in Dallas (Sookie Stackhouse #2) by Charlaine Harris

> Yup, I read book two already. Warning, there will probably be spoilers.

Once again, I like season two of True Blood better than I liked this book. In both, the storyline is just kind of messy, but it’s more so in the short book-version.

In this book, a mysterious creature called a maenad comes to Bon Temps and attacks Sookie, as a message to Eric. In an unrelated matter, Eric convinces Sookie and Bill to go to Dallas for him, so that she can use her mind-reading to find a missing vampire. Also, one of the employees at Merlotte’s is found dead in Andy’s car, and Sookie eventually works on trying to find out who’s responsible for that as well, mainly by attending an orgy.

I liked this book less than book #1 for a couple reasons. One is that Sookie was more annoying to me in this one… a bit more air-headed and nonchalant about things. There was also a lot more sex, which just seemed like wasted time. Yes, I get that Sookie and Bill have an erotic relationship – instead of the constant examples, I wish Harris had spent more time on the plot. The maenad really has no connection to anything important – she’s more of a mild annoyance. Eric’s interest in the Dallas vampire didn’t feel real, although there was a lot of Eric-and-Sookie flirting, which I loved. I really like Eric, so I liked almost all of his parts. And pretty much all of the action at the Fellowship of the Sun was skipped over.

Some good things about this book? Tara finally makes an appearance, we get a glimpse of other shifters and werewolves, the Fellowship of the Sun is introduced, and woot! for more Eric time. But otherwise, the storyline is kind of a mess. I love what the tv show added to it, because they made everything fit together more coherently.

Anyhoo, I want to start the third book, but I’m going to wait. I’ve only seen half of season three and since I watch it with my boyfriend, I’m going to wait and watch it on DVD next month, and then I’ll read the book afterwards.

Sarah Says: 2 stars

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April 15, 2011 · 8:07 pm

>Dead Until Dark (Sookie Stackhouse #1) by Charlaine Harris

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OK, so I did it. I finally read the first novel in a series of books that inspired the AWESOME show True Blood. The first book is called Dead Until Dark. I’ve heard a lot of differing opinions about these books. It seems lots of folks didn’t like this book and couldn’t continue on with the series, but later ended up liking the show.

I have seen 2 and a half seasons of True Blood, and I love it. So it’s hard for me to separate my feelings here. But I’ll try to be as objective as I can.

For those of you that haven’t heard the premise, these books (and the show) are about Sookie Stackhouse, a waitress in her 20′s living in Bon Temps, LA. She’s able to read minds, which actually makes her kind of a homebody because it’s hard to block out everyone’s thoughts all the time. Anyways, vampires have been “out of the coffin” for about two years, with some of them mainstreaming and trying to live among humans. This is thanks to scientific advances that led to the creation of bottled synthetic blood. One night a vampire named Bill walks into the bar that Sookie works at, and she’s immediately intrigued – and pleasantly surprised when she realizes that she can’t hear his thoughts. Almost right after Bill moves to town, a bunch of chickadees start getting murdered, and things get tense from there.

OK, as a fluff book – this is pretty good. I didn’t find Sookie unbearablely stupid like some people, but that may be because I’m used to True Blood. She is a bit ditzy, but it didn’t irritate me. Her world is just interesting – her being a mind-reader, and the fact that in this book series a whole new culture has come about as a result of vampires letting their existance be known. If you like fluff, this is pretty decent. I’ll definitely continue to read the series – I’ll probably read the next one tomorrow, since I got the first three from the library. The writing isn’t the best – I found the writing a little too direct. Almost like the author couldn’t think of a way to convey the thoughts and feelings of the characters without just plain saying it outloud. It got easier to ignore as the book went on.

If you’re a True Blood fan (POSSIBLE SPOILERS PEOPLE), there are some differences, of course. True Blood definitely improved on this book – the book only revolves around Sookie, so there’s no Jason, Lafayette, and Tara storylines. In fact, Tara doesn’t exist in the book, which kind of stinks. And there isn’t any mention of the vampire politics going on – they’re not on the news, there’s no VRA, etc. For creating such a new unique society, you’d think Harris could have made it a bit more detailed. Luckily the peeps who made True Blood did all that, or the show would have really fallen flat. One thing not in the show but in the book is the appearance of the vampire Bubba, which I think the show should definitely work in somehow.

Anyways, I once again half-wish that I’d read this before I had seen the tv show. The first book and the first season are pretty similar overall. I say, give it a try. It’s less than 300 pages, so you have nothing to lose.

Sarah Says: 3 stars

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