Laurell K. Hamilton

I have been reading Laurell's books since I was 15, and have read almost every single book she has ever written/published.
I love her imagination, and her talent for creating/keeping track of hundreds of different characters at a time.

A lot of people have given her some harsh reviews because of the content of her stories. And yes, she can irritate me too sometimes. With how she can fixate on a problem like a dog with a bone, going back to it again, and again, and again.
I tried not to pay attention to what most of them were saying for a long time, but (especially with Anita) it did get tiring after she "over came" the same issues for what felt like the 10th time.
Bullet was the worst.
It's a good sized book, about a inch thick. 360 something pages
After reading it, I felt like I had absorbed 70 pages at most. If that. The rest was mush that I worked my way through.
It nearly put me off reading her books at all truthfully. But you know, despite all that, I do love her story lines. I love her characters, (most of them anyway, a few I want to give a kick up the behind) and you know, there was a reason I had stuck with her until then. The latest few books not included, I really enjoyed being in her different realities.
So I gave her the benefit of the doubt. And I'm glad I did.
As I said in my earlier blog, http://opinionsstoriesbooksnovels.blogspot.com/2012/06/kiss-dead-by-laurell-k-hamilton.html , "Kiss the Dead" was like breathing that first breath of air after being under water for a while.

Laurell's writing style.
Laurell is an author that talks to her reader. She is not as obvious about it as other authors like C. S. Lewis or Terry Pratchett, but her main characters (her narrators) are definitely talking to someone. Not like they expect a response, but almost as if they are laying it out for a diary.
She can also be very factual. Anita and Mary will often be thinking " A is ___ so that means B." All in a very matter-of-fact way, as if there could be no other possibility. "2 is added on to 3 so that means 5".
I'm not saying she's close minded. She's not. 
In fact, her main characters are all surprisingly fluid and ready to accept that they were wrong fairly easily(though not always). Often done in the same but-of-course way that they deal with everything else.

Laurell's different books and series.
Anita Blake Vampire Hunter series.
This is the series that I have mostly been talking about throughout the rest of this post.
All I want to add is a request that you not let my earlier harsh words decide you against taking a look at the series. There are currently 21 books in the entire series and my afore said rants only really apply to about 5 of them.
Every author has her bad day's, and, from what I can gather in the past years her publishers have been putting pressure on her to produce books at the rate hamsters have babies. (Ok, not quite, but you get what I mean)

As for what it's about. Close your eyes for a second and ask yourself "What if, what if Zombies, Vampires, Wears, and all other critters that you hear about in legends were real. What if they were an accepted part of our daily lives. What if, when you saw an animated corps walking outside you window, your automatic response wasn't to question your sanity or think leprosy. It would be to call the police to send in a fire squad and deal with the poor thing." There you go.
Anita, in the middle of all that, is a necromancer and legal Vampire Executioner with a messed up social life.
Great stuff. -No sarcasm intended.-

Merry Gentry Series
I have just now realised that I have not done any previous posts on any of Merry's books. I will change that as soon as I can.

Merry and Anita are as different as Strawberry Jam and Marmite.(That's the real, original thing that came before Vegemite)
Not to say that Merry is the epitome of sweetness. Far from it. But she was brought up by a father who expected her to know and understand the different customs of every different culture she might interact with as an adult. (As a Sidhe Princess to the Unseelie court, that's a lot.)
In other words, she was never as shielded as Anita was, and so came into the first book of the series with most potential issues already worked out.
Merry also knows that she isn't human, where as Anita is still in denial.

There hasn't been enough books in the series yet (8 total) for me to know if Laurell is going to get locked into a cycle like she did with Anita. (They may not have the same issues, but Merry's reality is far from perfect.)
Fingers crossed and looking forward to the next book.

Nightseer
This is the first book that Laurell ever published. She didn't make a series out of it, and I'm sort of on the fence about whether or not that is a sad thing.
I wont go into to much detail about that here, as I already posted a blog on this book when I first read it.
Here http://opinionsstoriesbooksnovels.blogspot.com/2012/05/nightseer-by-l-k-hamilton.html

Micah and Strange Candy.
Micah
"Micah" is a sweet little short story that comes into Anita's series just before "Dance Macabre". The two of them (Anita and Micah) are alone together for the first extended period of time.
I read this whole book a while ago now, but I remember that I liked getting to know Micah a bit better.
Strange Candy
"Strange Candy" is a series of Laurell's short stories that she did before getting her first major publication. Some she sent to magazines, some not.
I think there was even one that she did in her early teens. Though I could be wrong about that.
I'll tell you more when I read it again.

Other works.
Laurell has also done a number of other things, including a few compilations with other authors that I refuse to go through one by one.
For the full list, and anything else you want to know about Laurell, you can go to her websight here, http://www.laurellkhamilton.org/


That's it. Please leave a comment to tell me what you think, or find me on me facebook page https://www.facebook.com/SaaskiOFFICIAL

"Deadlocked" By Charlaine Harris SPOILER

SPOILER FOR THOSE WHO HAVE NOT READ THE EARLIER BOOKS!

Deadlocked is the latest book in the TRUE BLOOD series.
Another series where I wish the main character wasn't so miserable all the time.
I do like Sookie. Part of me wishes she'd get together with Sam already. He's great for her. And she could be good for him if she'd just see whats in front of her. They'd be great together.
The other half of me knows that if they did that then something bad would undoubtedly happen to either force them apart or make them unhappy with each other.
What happened to happily ever after? There are so many interesting things that people can get up to without being miserable.
That's the problem with so many modern writers these days. I think anyway.
People need to realise that there is no lore against happiness.

But sadness aside. I did enjoy "Deadlocked".
Charlaine's book's are always a pleasure to read. She has such a ready imagination, and it's never hard to picture the story as she tells it.
I liked what happened on the forth to last page. And I want to knock Alcide and Eric's heads together. They're both ridiculous. And not in a good funny ha ha way.
Felipe too. I'm quite disappointed in him actually. I expected more of him. Something that didn't include him acting like a spoiled toddler with super powers. I mean really. Oh well.
I know that at minimum he's going to try and get Sookie to work for him again. I hope she looks him in the eyes and tell's asks him what he he has to offer.
Protection? So that she can make a target of herself for his rivals? People who might try to torture her again?
Money? For what? Sookie is happy with her house. She doesn't want a fancy car as far as I can tell, and she has a good income. Enough to live happily off.
Fame? ... Oh, you mean the thing that makes people never want to leave you alone and insist on knowing all your darkest secrets? Talk about nightmare for someone with Sookies abilities.
And if she doesn't do his bidding. He'd hurt her and the ones she loved? Ahh. I see. When he said protection, he meant "Not let them get to you so that I'd have the pleasure of hurting you myself." Of course. That is just the thing to make someone want to agree to work for anyone else. A guarantee that if she wasn't perfect she'd get hurt. And if she IS perfect she'd almost definitely get hurt.
Oh Wait! I apologise. There is a third option. She could give up her freedom entirely and go to live in a strange city with Felipe, then stay in a locked and windowless room under heavy guard without ever coming out except when Felipe wanted her. BRILLIANT!

I guess you can tell I think highly of the vampire King huh...

"Slave to Sensation" By Nalini Singh

"Slave to Sensation" is the first book in the Psy-Changeling Series.
It's about Sascha, a woman who is Psy. A race of powerful Psychic's who believe that anyone week enough to feel emotion is not worth keeping around.
And Lucas, a Changeling leopard who's just about had enough of Psy superiority.
He want's to know how he can stop the Psy from repeating their latest atrocity.
Nikita, Sascha's mother and head of her family group, wants to get new information on what makes Changeling's tick.

Pretty standard Romance stuff. My own mother doesn't like Nalini, but I do. The world's she paint's are just so fascinating. I love the way the plot develops from book to book. It's not like how most "episode" series end up. When each book is mostly a separate entity on it's own, with just the vaguest background to link them.
Nalini's series actually move forward, and even though I find them in the romance section of my local book shop, I keep getting them because I want to know what happens next.
The romance part of it is good too. She always focuses more on what brought them to be together, not sex. Though that's in there. It's secondary. Which is something I like, though I'm not sure how many of you will agree with me.

"Kiss the Dead" by Laurell K. Hamilton

 I would not recommend Laurell's books to anyone under 15. Just for the record.

I'm really happy that I got this book. I had my doubts a bit. The last two books in the series haven't been up to standards. Not to mention even before then I'd felt like the series was going on a downward spiral.
Anita was having the same issues over and over again. She'd get freaked out, sort of figure out a solution by the end of the book, then in the next one it'd been like nothing had happened. We'd be taken through it all again.
After reading "Bullet" -which is a book with at least 350 pages- I felt like I'd read 50, 100 pages at most for the amount of stuff that was actually in it.
The only reason I'd continued to pick up the next book was because for all that Laurell can get fixated on one particular problem and gnaw on it, she does create the most amazing worlds. And her story lines are great, I wanted to know what happened next.

"Kiss the Dead" was like a breath of fresh air.  We're actually going somewhere. Stuff happened. I didn't feel like I was reading porn with a story line. And I know that sounds a little mean. But it's the truth. The last few books were like that. But this one was actually focused the world outside the bedrooms and Anita's torment.
People are actually happy. Which is something that I don't think has happened since "Skin Trade" or maybe even "Blood Noir" 5 books ago.

So for those of you thinking of giving up on Anita's life, I say "There is light at the end of the tunnel folks!"

We also get to see what Nathaniel's spine looks like! I mean, we've known he has one for quite some time, but normally he chooses not to use it. That is my favorite moment in the whole book, I swear. It's one sweet moment.
we get to see some old time character's come back in, and a new one.

I've been rereading all my favorite bit's again and again over the past few days. Just that in itself speaks for how much I've been enjoying this one.
So yeah. I'm happy, and I think I'll end it on that note.

"Angel's Flight" By Nalini Singh

Angel's Flight is a collection of 4 short stories that fit into the world of Nalini's second series. We do not see, in any of them, much of either of the main characters Elena and Raphael, as the stories are ones based around things that are "back ground" stories in the main books. Thing's that we may hear hint's of but not get the actual details.
The first one, "Angel's Pawn" is about Ashwini, and her her irritating Cajun vamp as they visit the territory of Nazarach. An Angel who to a woman with the sixth sense like Ash, feel's like death and pain.
It's great because you never get to actually meet Janvier in the books. Only hear about him. So it's nice getting to see what he's like. It's a bit hard to place the timing of when the story happens, but I think it's just before the first book, "Angel's Blood".

Second story, "Angel's Judgement" is of Sarah, Ellie's best friend and Guild Director, and Deacon when they first meet. If that's not enough to entice you, I say 'You'll never guess what his job was before they got together.' Something about Slaying......!?

Third, "Angel's Wolf" is about Noel. A vampire that we meet in the second book who was found brutalised by the evil person. It's a miracle that he survived, and last we hear of him is I think in the beginning of the third book when Raphael tell's Elena that he's sent him to work for the Master Angel of Louisiana for a while, as it was a good place for him to heal. "Angel's Wolf" tell us what happens to Noel once he get's there. Something which I have been quite curious about for a while, and which made buying the book worth it almost all on it's own.

Last but not least is "Angel's Dance. This one is more a short Novel then a short story really, and takes up just over a third of the book. Not that I'm complaining. It is about how Galen first came to be one of Raphael's people, and how he and Jessamy -the Angel's Keeper of History- came to be together. A fact that is even less mentioned then anything about Noel. The only hint of it is when Elena see's him going in to visit her and draws the conclusion that they must be a couple. You also get to see what Raphael's Archangel Tower and the territory around it looked like four hundred years ago. Not to mention a glimpse of what it was like to be in his court only a century after he'd come into his power. We see Aodhan before whatever happened happened. It's nice to know he was once an innocent youth.
And if anyone was interested in finding out how Michaela rose to power, or who the Archangel who came before her was, then that's in there.

All around, good stuff.

"The Magicians of Caprona" By Diana Wynne Jones

You can tell I have had nothing much to do but read these past couple of days, since this is going to be my 3rd post in 30 or so hours.

The Magicians of Caprona is a very entertaining story that starts -note I say starts- off a bit like Romeo and Juliet, with to very respectable feuding families. But it's not about romance at all. It  focuses on the younger members of each family as they try to stop the adults from being stupid, and Chrestomanci is once again left with a big mess to clean up.

If it were juice I would have dipped in a straw, and sucked steadily down to the last dregs. Barely pausing to breathe.
I live for books.

The Fellowship of the Ring. by J.R.R. Tolkien

Two days ago, (I didn't have a computer on me at the time, so I wrote what I thought down on a note book. Which I will now copy onto here.) I finished reading Part 1 of "The Lord of the Rings", and I tell you it was a bite and a half.
It took me 5 days to finish. Though even with the fact that it had small font, usually that size of book would only have taken me 2, maybe 3 days at most.
Having said that though I did enjoy it very much.

For years, people have been telling me that it is a great book but really hard to read, and that Tolkien rambled on a bit about scenery etc., taking ages to get to the point.
I did feel this a bit as I was reading. Though I think it does make sense, as he originally made these books as a place for his made up language (the eleven language) to exist. In a sense the world and the culture of the people where more important then the main characters.
In opposition to that theory however, there was a jarring note when it came to directions. To give you an example; In the beginning when the four hobbits are going through the Old Forest, they start off facing East, then turn 'right' towards North.
If you are facing East and turn right, you are going South.

This, among other things, makes me think that Tolkien was a person who "heard the words" (in his mind as he read) rather then saw the pictures that they represented.
What I mean, is that when reading most people(as far as I know most people) picture what is happening in their mind. This way, it can be almost as though they are watching the story rather then reading it.
Tolkien on the other hand was, I think, among those who enjoyed the flow of the words and how they formed ideas. - As I am not one of these people, I'm not rightly sure how it works. -

I must admit, the way he strung the words together was beautiful. Lord of the Rings is one story which I wouldn't mind getting in audio. Though usually I like to read the book myself, I have a feeling that it would be great to listen to.

I loved his songs. One person who told me about the books described them in the same category as his long descriptions of the scenery's, but I loved them. I could almost hear the people singing.
Every time I came to the songs, I would sing them out loud just to hear them, and they would make their own rhythm on my tongue. No effort required on my part.
-Side Note. Maybe Tolkien would have been able to become a great Bard if those things were still around.-

As to the movie, I haven't seen it in a while, but I still think it is one of the best book based movies ever to be made. And maybe Tolkien's slow but steady pace had something to do with that.

New directions in Life. Ski, Books, or other work.

Ok, so this post isn't a story or a review.
Just, me.

It's been a year since I finished High School. Over a year, really.
I don't wont to go to Uni, that much I'm sure of.

As for what I want to do with my life, well, I know I want to do something with books.
That's one reason I started this Blog. It would be great if I could do something to do with that, but there isn't much in the way of jobs in that area.
'round the beginning of this year, my Mother got fed up with my doing almost nothing but eat and read, and she told me to get a job, or go to Uni.

So I began looking for jobs.

This was around the beginning of April.

Right before that though,(in February) I had tried to start a book club in order to find people here in Malaysia who love reading as much as I do.
It didn't go well. A few people expressed interest, but did not come.

I sent out applications to Ski resorts in New Zealand to begin with. Living in Malaysia, I have had as much of Summer as I want, and I loved to ski as a kid.
I would love the chance to do it again. I also considered going on a Ski instructor course. That would be the experience of a life time as far as I'm concerned.
But it is very expensive, even without considering how much getting my own ski gear and feeding myself for 10 weeks with no income.
I could get out a lone, but I'd really rather not do that unless I had no other choice what so ever.
Plus, you know, I haven't skied since I was 12. I think. 13 at most.
Even that wasn't any professional stuff.
So I decided to do that maybe next year, once I've had the chance to save some money and hopefully done some more skiing practice in the mean time.

But the question arose, what if I didn't manage to get a job in a Ski resort? There were hundreds, or for the bigger places thousands, of applicants every year to get a job at the ski resorts and not half that many positions.
What was I to do? Sit on my but until the Northern half of the world went into winter and try them? It would be even harder for me to get work there, because I'd need a permit.
My goal of going getting an instructor qualification seemed suddenly to be so so far away.

Maybe if I got normal seasonal work for a few months I could at least save some money, then I could tackle the problem of getting work up north for their winter when that time got here. That problem would be there weather I got work in a NZ ski resort or not. I thought, one bridge at a time.
So I also sent in some applications for seasonal work.

Here is where that reading club comes in. ( I know that it must of seemed really random earlier, when I mentioned for no apparent reason a book club that didn't go anywhere.) Over the past week, and especially the last two days, I have suddenly run into a whole lot of people who love the idea of a book club.
I was all for trying that again. I hadn't heard back from any of the people that I'd sent an application to, except for one rejection, and after all, the direction of books is where I really want to go in life.

Here is where the twist comes in.
I woke up this morning to an e-mail from one of the seasonal work places saying they want more information, such as when I'll next be in their area.
Hopeful sign?
Maybe. But now the question is, do I want to go and do seasonal work, or do I want to pursue the reading and writing part of my life.
Seasonal work would mean that I get to save some money, and maybe do the ski course next year, but if I go now, I might be giving up the chance to create some friends that are interested in the kind of thing that I am interested in.

So which way do I go?

The one thing that is clear is that I need to work on this blog allot more. I shall make it a rule from now on. I must not pick up a new book until I have spoken of it on here.

I am reading 'The Fellowship of the Ring' right now. (For those of you who live with your head stuffed under a pillow, that's the 1st book in 'Lord of the Rings'. And if you're still lost after I say that, then I say "Congratulations! Your time machine works brilliantly. Welcome to the 21st century.) So I should be doing a post on that in 2 ~ 3 days at most.

Sincerely, if perhaps not articulately,
Saaski

Agony 17/03/2009

Thunk. Tap. Thunk. Tap. Thunk. Tap. It was a rhythm that started early every morning, then continued, unbroken until late at night. Thunk. Tap. Thunk. Tap. Thunk. Tap. To me, it meant pain. It had been going on for years now. And I was starting to accept the fact that the Vampires were never going to accept that I’m never going to give them the information they want.

Never.

I had come to realize that I needed to accept another thing too. – My family was not coming for me. They never had been. From the second I was dragged into the center of the enemy, I was already a lost cause to them. Either that, or they had tried, and failed.

The first option seemed more likely to me. Because if they had done the second option, then they probably wouldn’t still need me to stick around.

Unless of course, you know… They just got some weird kick out of watching hunters suffer.

Gross. Even we don’t go that far. Hunters exist to protect our fellow humans from harm. Not to stretch them over some weird but incredibly effective – believe me. I should know. – machine, and watch while they dip into a world that gives a whole new meaning to the word “agony”.

Thunk. Tap. Huh… I guess my time here has paid off for something. I can almost ignore the pain now, I’m so used to it. It has taken on a sort of numb-like quality. I wonder if I can ignore it enough to go to sleep,

Thunk. Tap. Thunk. Tap. Thunk. Tap. Thun…

Notes...

I wrote this some time ago when I was not in a very happy place.