Vampire Books
Jun. 29th, 2006 10:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vcmwSo, this week was a big week in the Vampire Book Calendar (tm), as on Tuesday new books by both Laurell K. Hamilton and Kim Harrison came out. I have now finished both books. I have to say, spoilers aside, that I was not surprised where the personal relationships in the Kim Harrison book went this book, but on the other hand a) I was deeply satisfied, and b) J. bet wrong on how it would turn out and I bet right, so in a few weeks when he's finished reading the new book I'll be able to gloat and tell him "I told you so!".
As for the Laurell Hamilton book... hmmm. I enjoyed it a lot, as usual I was pretty much hypnotized start to finish. This book was even racier than the last, and even less occupied with overt violence. But in a way I feel as if the books have just shifted focus. At the start they were all about dealing with everything in your life through fatal violence, and the problems that caused. Now, they're about dealing with most of your life on a sexual/relationship level, and the (equally complex and dangerous) problems that causes. I don't think I have a strong opinion on that either way, but I do think the books are more popular now probably at least in part because the new focus is closer to the lives of most of her readers (who are not, we shall assume, all near-sociopathic killers, but who might well be able to empathize with emotionally complex love lives).
As for the Laurell Hamilton book... hmmm. I enjoyed it a lot, as usual I was pretty much hypnotized start to finish. This book was even racier than the last, and even less occupied with overt violence. But in a way I feel as if the books have just shifted focus. At the start they were all about dealing with everything in your life through fatal violence, and the problems that caused. Now, they're about dealing with most of your life on a sexual/relationship level, and the (equally complex and dangerous) problems that causes. I don't think I have a strong opinion on that either way, but I do think the books are more popular now probably at least in part because the new focus is closer to the lives of most of her readers (who are not, we shall assume, all near-sociopathic killers, but who might well be able to empathize with emotionally complex love lives).
