This is the second book in a series: Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter. I’m not really sure why I bought this book. The first book in the series didn’t knock my sox off. It was mostly o.k. – but it wasn’t something that sent me teetering on the edge of obsession to get the next book. I guess the author’s Merry Gentry books swayed the decision. I just read the first two books of THAT series, and although they were as much soft porn as fantasy/horror, they were pretty darn good. (Though I’m wary to go much further, the soft porn thing is something that gets expanded on in later books, if reviews at Amazon are to be believed.)
After reading the first two Merry Gentry books, this one was a disappointment. I thought about this book quite a bit this morning, thinking of this entry. Why didn’t I like it? There’s good action, there are good characters, there’s a really good main character, but somewhere I got lost. I had to make myself pick it up again. Maybe it was the zombies. Maybe I’m not a big fan of zombie books.
Then I read the author’s after-word. In it, she pats herself on the back for writing successful “mixed genre” books. There must be a lot of people out there that really like them, because each new one ends up on a best seller list. I think I like “mixed genre” books too, kind of. Several of Charlaine Harris’ books come to mind. However, I’m not sure the author did quite as good a job mixing her genres in this one. The whole was about as good as the sum of its parts.
You are filling your coffee mug from the tap at your office, when you smell a distinct metallic odor. Do you: a. dump out the water in your mug and seek another source; b. stick your nose in your partially filled mug to determine if the smell is coming from the water; c. put your mouth under the tap to see if it tastes like metal too; or, d. pretend you never smelled anything and finish making your cup ‘o joe?
If you answered “c” or “d,” you are what people in the life insurance industry refer to as “bad business.”
If you answered “d,” then I’d like to offer you a cup, the smell of lead lends a wonderful bouquet to your average cup o’ joe.
I feel pretty inadequate when I see sites that look cooler than mine, so you could expect that I feel pretty low just about every time I browse the internet. One thing has kept me going, my agency’s internal site design was really lame. Notice the strategic use of the past tense? Sure, the folks in my department may be underpaid civil servants, but they get paid to design a web site. Me? Cheryl doesn’t like that I spend so much free time on mine. Surely someone that gets paid to do something could come up with something more pleasing to the eye? Alas, they have finally done their job. This morning I found that even our internal agency site was cooler than mine.
Well, brain o’mine, looks like we gots some thinkin’ to do. Sorry Cheryl.
**Author’s note: this entry was hand crafted by the author on Thursday, June 15 – but not posted until today.