Urban Fantasy discussion
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What are you reading? (Part 1)
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Jessica
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Aug 13, 2009 07:42AM
Ok, talked to My MIL last evening, she hadn't bought Destined for an Early Grave, so I put aside Strange Brew and have started that. I'm already halfway through. LOL I should probably slow down.
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I'm re-reading the 5th book in the Noble Dead series Rebel Fay. That's because it took so long for my library to get the 6th book I'd forgot most of the details of the plot. Waiting forever to finish a long series of books is a hazard when they cut funding from the local library system. But the last time I moved I had so many boxes of books I stopped buying them just so my sons would stop bitchin'...LOL
Jessica wrote: "Haven't been able to get in touch with my Mother in law, so I've been reading strange brew in the mean time. I always go into anthologies expecting a few stories to be stellar and the rest just ok..."Very true! Have you ever read Mysteria and Mysteria Lane? I liked all the stories in those...but I think it's because each story was set in same world as the rest and you didn't have to "know" the characters from the authors main novels to read them.
Just finished Destined for an Early Grave (wowsa!!! Was it FANTASTIC!!!)Will probably start Don of the Dead: A Pepper Martin Mystery Book 1 tomorrow.
Jessica wrote: "Just finished Destined for an Early Grave (wowsa!!! Was it FANTASTIC!!!)Will probably start Don of the Dead: A Pepper Martin Mystery Book 1 tomorrow."
I love Cat & Bones...well, mostly Bones! The Pepper Martin books are fun. My favorite is the 3rd one, Tombs of Endearment (A Pepper Martin Mystery) Book 3. The ghost is a Jim Morrison type which I really like. Am a Morrison aficionado!
Crowgirl wrote: "But the last time I moved I had so many boxes of books I stopped buying them just so my sons would stop bitchin'...LOL ..."We are starting the process of buying a house and my husband has already started bitching that I need to lighten my bookshelves before the move. I've already taken one big load to the library for donation. (It was a sad day.)
Finally got Bad Moon Rising from the library but also need to read Practical Demonkeeping and A Dirty Job. What to do..what to do.
is the Dark-Hunter series a good one, Elvia? I just finished Brother Odd. It wasn't bad.
I have a few choices for my next book, but I think I'm going to go with either Dead Witch Walking or Blue Moon (I've only got it for 2 weeks!). BUT Undead and Unpopular is calling my name...along with Undead and Loving It. (I have Mansfield Park, too...but it's not calling my name.) Somebody help me out!
I LOVE the Dark-Hunter Series. If you enjoy the sex and having the "women tames the man" storyline you'll enjoy these. It's good mix of danger, mythology, and romance.Also, I am a big fan of the Undead series! I would suggest those first, but the fact you only have two more weeks on that other book would make me change my mind.
Anne wrote: "is the Dark-Hunter series a good one, Elvia? I just finished Brother Odd. It wasn't bad.
I have a few choices for my next book, but I think I'm going to go with either Dead Witch Walking or Blue..."
Read BLUE MOON! Then I'll have someone else to bitch about it with! I've read all of Kim Harrison's Rachel Morgan books and for the life of me I can't tell you why. I haven't liked any of them and I don't even like Rachel!
I've read all of the Rachel Morgan books too. They aren't the best but I still find them entertaining. She's nothing compared to some of the other female characters out there, for sure.She's not like Mercy Thompson or Anita Blake or even Kitty Norville. Yet I still want to know what happens. :)
Love the Dark Hunters! I have the latest, but have to finish these damn library books first. Boo!
Beth wrote: "I just finishedSkinwalker A Jane Yellowrock Novel. This book was different. I truly enjoyed it. The characters are built up as you go and each time you see them you learn more abo..."I liked Skinwalker very much. I hope to see more from this author.
Shomeret
Elvia wrote: "I LOVE the Dark-Hunter Series. If you enjoy the sex and having the "women tames the man" storyline you'll enjoy these. It's good mix of danger, mythology, and romance.Also, I am a big fan of th..."
I really loved the freshness of the approach in Fantasy Lover, the first book in the series. I also loved the mythology aspect. Since then I've found the series uneven and there are now a number of authors writing similar sorts of books.
Shomeret
There are a lot of authors writing similar books to the Dark Hunters, but I love that Kenyon's mythology is always front and center.
Melodie wrote: "Anne wrote: "is the Dark-Hunter series a good one, Elvia? I just finished Brother Odd. It wasn't bad.
I have a few choices for my next book, but I think I'm going to go with either Dead Witch Wa..."
Misery loves company, huh? Ok. As Elvia pointed out, I should go ahead and read Blue Moon since it going to be due back before any of the other books. It should be a pretty quick read, Melodie. If Ever is even more whiny than she was in the first book, I'm sure I'll be bitchin' right along with you.
I finished The Fury. I found it the best book in the series so far. I have started Dark Reunion, but I have a busy weekend so I probably won't get into it much till tomorrow. Don't you hate it when life interupts your reading?
Elvia wrote: "I've read all of the Rachel Morgan books too. They aren't the best but I still find them entertaining. She's nothing compared to some of the other female characters out there"I've read all the Rachel Morgan series too and have just the opposite reaction. Maybe its because I practice Wicca and enjoy her take on how magic works or the humor that's used. Anita Blake has just begun to grate on my nerves. I do like the Mercedes Thompson character however.
Crowgirl wrote: "Elvia wrote: "I've read all of the Rachel Morgan books too. They aren't the best but I still find them entertaining. She's nothing compared to some of the other female characters out there"I've..."
I love Mercy Thompson, too! I'm sad to hear that the Anita Blake series goes downhill. You're not the first person to say how much they disliked the books after a while. I just read Guilty Pleasures a few days ago and loved it. After which book do they start to go sour?
"Sour" is subjective. Some people love the changes, some hate them. I forget which book it is, but the plots start moving toward powers, relationships, and a lot of sex. It's the sex that lost some people. They don't think the series needed it or perhaps that the reason for it was strong enough. It's a personal thang.
I'm frustrated with Anita Blake for whole other reasons, not the inclusion of so many sex scenes. Some of Anita's personality traits can be grating. I'm still a fan of the series though since LKH has created a great universe. Every hero or heroine is frustrating at times, so I'm waiting for Anita to get over certain issues.
Thanks, Michelle! What personality traits grate on your nerves? Like I said, I have only read the first one.
Anne:Hmn. Well, for ME...her stubbornness can be so overwhelming at times. I just want to smack her because she's not doing herself any favors. But some people like her for that same reason...she complicates things for herself and people like the conflict.
All her men feeling like they have to walk on eggshells around her drives me apeshit. I want her to perceive SOMEONE, anyone as her equal.
She's so NOT a listener. She's almost ADD when it comes to people giving her their opinion. At times it makes me question why her men would be so devoted to her.
And even though she starts being intimate with more than one person, she doesn't just embrace it. I'm not a fan of the Catholic guilt. In Anita-verse time only a couple of months(?) have passed since the sexploration started, so she's still adjusting and I should really cut her some slack. But since the guilt spans several books in OUR time, I get irritated.
But as I said, it's so subjective. A lot of people love Anita's progression and they adore her take no prisoners attitude. The series creates such different reactions in people that each person HAS to decide for herself.
I love most of the guys, her ever-expanding powers, the vamp politics, some of the shifters, the horror and crime aspects...all the things that make up Anita's world. I'm so invested in the characters that I wouldn't dream of dropping the series. I'm just hoping for a bit of a shake-up in Anita's mindset.
Well, I'm glad to hear that you haven't given up on her completely, and that the series still has some potential! I did get a little nervous when I saw how many books were in the series. Sometimes I wish there was a final resolution after three or four books.
That's what happens when a series runs for so many books. You can't please all of the people all of the time! But she's definitely got a lot of interesting plots going on, and it's a totally crazy ride!
Anne wrote: "Crowgirl wrote: "Elvia wrote: "I've read all of the Rachel Morgan books too. They aren't the best but I still find them entertaining. She's nothing compared to some of the other female characters..."I quit reading after CERULEAN SINS and then made the mistake of getting suckered in for SKIN TRADE based on the description of it on Amazon. Anita used to be this major badass necromancer/vampire executioner and that has just all seemed to go by the wayside. I love good sex scenes and in UF when they're kinky that just seems to add something to it, but when you get a book that is chapters of nothing but that.....BORING!! I need a story to keep my interest, and there hasn't been much of one in a long time! The necrmancy thing has pretty much gone completely dormant, and Anita has pretty much turned into a mean, whiny ass bitch. Now, my friend Shomeret, who just joined this group, will probably chime in on this because she has a completely different opinion on the Anita books than I do. But that's what keeps things interesting!
Oh, I hope LKH gets back into the necromancy in the near future. That aspect of Anita is fascinating.
Michelle M. wrote: "Anne:Hmn. Well, for ME...her stubbornness can be so overwhelming at times. I just want to smack her because she's not doing herself any favors. But some people like her for that same reason...she..."
I've always been annoyed by Anita for the entire series. I never read these books because of her. I think that if anything she's become less annoying over time because she's maturing and slowly coming to a sense of self-acceptance. Other characters have also changed and matured. Nathaniel has become a favorite of mine because of his character growth. Because characters do change in these books, I still hold out hope that Richard will again become a character that I can respect. LKH doesn't just write sex scenes, the characters do relationship processing that allows them to progress in their relationships and understand them better. I actually like that aspect.
Shomeret
Melodie wrote: "Anne wrote: "is the Dark-Hunter series a good one, Elvia? I just finished Brother Odd. It wasn't bad.
I have a few choices for my next book, but I think I'm going to go with either Dead Witch Wa..."
AHHHHHHHH! You were soooo right! I just finished Blue Moon. Until the end I couldn't figure out what stupid thing she did that made you want to scream.
**********SPOILER ALERT*************************
Why in the world did she decide to listen to Roman?! I kept scratching my head and reading the passage over again to see if I missed something. It was like one minute she was talking about how everything the creepy-twin-girl said (about Riley) made sense, and then... AND THEN for NO apparent reason she decides to trust the guy who was trying to kill them?! WTF?! I wouldn't be so mad if it had seemed like she was cleverly tricked or something! NOOOOO. She just...I don't even know. Words can't even... Ugh.
Shomeret, I agree wholeheartedly on the Richard and Nathaniel comments. And I can see the areas where Anita is maturing, but gods, what we had to go through to get there? Compared to the emotional LEAPS every other character has made, Anita is a damn slow learner.
Anne wrote: "Melodie wrote: "Anne wrote: "is the Dark-Hunter series a good one, Elvia? I just finished Brother Odd. It wasn't bad.
I have a few choices for my next book, but I think I'm going to go with eith..."
I even tried to rationalize Ever's actions by using the "she's a teenager and teenagers do REALLY stupid things", but that just didn't work for me. She was just COMPLETELY beyond stupid! She knew Roman was an asshole to end all assholes and she does what he says?? That's when I threw the book across the room!
Melodie wrote: "Anne wrote: "Melodie wrote: "Anne wrote: "is the Dark-Hunter series a good one, Elvia? I just finished Brother Odd. It wasn't bad.
I have a few choices for my next book, but I think I'm going to..."
Yes! Exactly! I couldn't get over the fact that there was NO explaination for why she would listen to Roman! Even after creepy-twin told her all of that stuff about Riley...STUFF THAT MADE TOTAL SENSE! I think the author owed us some kind of semi-realistic reason for Ever's stupidity. I really bothers me when an author throws something idiotic in an expects you to swallow it.
I've just revisited Charles de Lint who is a long time favorite of mine but I forget sometimes to check what he has out that's new. I read The Mystery of Grace which is a lovely ghost story and I've almost finished Dingo which has another of his favorite themes, shape shifters and the Dream World.I enjoy his work so much as his writing has such rhythm and it feels like you could be sitting around a fire listening to a traditional story teller. Both of the above would be suitable for an older child.
I finished L J Smith's Dark Reunion. I really liked it. I am starting Return: Nightfall.
Crowgirl wrote: "I've just revisited Charles de Lint who is a long time favorite of mine but I forget sometimes to check what he has out that's new. I read The Mystery of Grace which is a lovely ghost..."When I started reading The Mystery of Grace, I thought that Charles De Lint had been reading Patricia Briggs' Mercy Thompson novels because Grace, the MC of that book is a garage mechanic. But they are very different characters and this book is nothing at all like something Patricia Briggs would write.
Shomeret
currently reading: Santa Olivia by Jacqueline Carey
Michelle M. wrote: "Shomeret, I agree wholeheartedly on the Richard and Nathaniel comments. And I can see the areas where Anita is maturing, but gods, what we had to go through to get there? Compared to the emotional ..."I agree with all of this too. I get frustrated because it seems to take her so long to "get it". She thinks she's this monster. Her men are figuring things out a lot faster than she is and I also wonder why they stick around for some of her crap. I will never give up on the series tho. Anita was my first favorite "kick-ass chick".
Okay I have finally started Bad Moon Rising. Kinda put off that it starts in 2003 but I'm guessing it will turn out okay?
Haven't read it yet! I'm looking forward to it though, since it explains Fang and Amy from the beginning.
Yes Michelle, that's exactly what it's doing. I'm really enjoying it now. I love these two!
After The Reunion which was about 150 pages too long, I am rereading Blood and Fog by Nancy Holder. It is one of my fav Buffy the Vampire Slayer books.
I'm going to try to start Dead Witch Walking tonight. Does anyone have any thoughts on this series?
Jenks makes the series worth reading, Anne. Its good. Not one I run to desperately the moment the new book comes out, but one I do look forward to. A warning. If you've read Dresden first, the first book feels like a knock-off. Not that it is. And it definately holds its own and is very much its own thing. But it irked me a bit at first.
I don't think I ever noticed that Jessica...but I feel the same way about The Hollows books. It's not something I am anxious to read but it's good when you want something. And yes Jenks is one hilarious little guy!
Anne wrote: "I'm going to try to start Dead Witch Walking tonight. Does anyone have any thoughts on this series?"Jenks is the only character in these books that I like. Have read them all but don't know why. I haven't liked any of them.
I like them for fluff. It's not anything that makes me think...just something to pass the time between books lol.I just finished A Dirty Job last night - funny stuff.
I am now going to concentrate on Bad Moon Rising.
Elvia wrote: "I don't think I ever noticed that Jessica...I think I can kinda explain it better. The first Hollows book especially: Rachel is a magic using investigator (like Harry) with a vampire sidekick (like Thomas) and a wisecracking useful in his own non-conventional way third (like Bob the skull). Rachel's skills are unquestionable but she ends up always just eeking by when it comes to dealing with the bad guys (like Harry).
I think really its only the first book that made me think "wow, this is ar eally Dresden-esque formula". After that the books really come into their own and become something else altogether.
Jessica wrote: "I think I can kinda explain it better. The first Hollows book especially: Rachel is a magic using investigator (like Harry) with a vam..."Now I gotcha! Makes sense.
Ok ladies, thanks for the info. I've tried to start it several times now and just can't seem to settle into it. I'll try again tonight.
Anne, I suggest you read something different if you're having that problem. I do that too. I'll find something else to read and when done with that book I'll come back to it. It usually helps.
Just started 
last night. So far I'm enjoying it.
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Urban Fantasy
Books mentioned in this topic
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Key to Conflict (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Connie Willis (other topics)Kim Harrison (other topics)
Jeaniene Frost (other topics)
Jeaniene Frost (other topics)
Chloe Neill (other topics)
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