Silver Metal Lover by Tanith Lee

Far in the future human labor has been replaced by Robots-not a new or original theme there. Jane is a 16 year old-with friends she does not particularly like which were picked by her mother. She has her own suite of rooms and a 1000 units of credit a month to spend as she likes-a sort of allowance given to her by her extremely wealthy, busy and controlling mother. Jane is plain, plump and shy with mousey-brown hair. Her physical appearance-it turns out-is also controlled by her mother through supplements that change the way she looks. Unlike her friends and contemporaries who enjoy free-love she is a virgin. She has never met a man she is interested in. Then she sees the newest robots who fill roles other than the traditional "manual labor" roles. These new robots are "pleasure robots"-again not a new or original theme, though it may have been at the time the book was originally written. Jane sees Silver (the new style "pleasure robot") singing in the park and falls in love with him immediately. Unfortunately she does not have enough money to buy him and can not get her mother to take her seriously enough to loan her the extra money she needs to purchase Silver. In her desperation she sells everything she owns-buys her lover and moves to a hovel to live with him-also not a new or original theme. Yet despite the main premise of tried and true themes, the book really works. It is predictable in that they do not live happily ever after and have a heart wrenching parting-which I saw coming from the first paragraph. Yet, it is at heart, a story of young love-first love-which rarely if ever works out to happily ever after whether you are in live with a man, woman or robot, and often involves poverty and struggle. The emotions Jane feels are easy to identify with, as I have been lucky enough to be young, in love and poor. There is no love like your first love and no pain like your first heartbreak. The book also tackles what it means as a daughter to grow up and away from your mother. The relationships between mothers and daughters are very complex and I think Lee does a good job exploring it in this novel. Very well done.
~~~~Where ever you go, There you are!

Blood Price and Blood Trail by Tanya Huff

I am not overly into horror novels, have not really been sicne I was much younger. I was an avid reader as a younster and when I spent weekends with my father-an avid sports fan- I would be bored and started reading his books. In fact, the first adult book I ever read was Stephen King's Pet Semetary. I think I was in the 4th grade, maybe the 5th. I was so freaked I slept with the lights on for a week. I pretty much read all of Kings early work- Eye of the Dragon, Carrie, Firestarter, Cujo, Christine, his short stories, Salem's Lot, Misery, etc-then kind of lost interest in horror. My first year of college I discovered Anne Rice and read a her Vampire series and then lost interest again in horror. Well, I was bored looking for something different to read at the library and ran into Tanya Huff's vampire series which features a clan of werewolves in the second book in the 5 book series.
Blood Price introduces Vicki Nelson-an ex-police officer detective who leaves her job due to her failing sight. She has begun a new life as a private investigator. This book has Vicki investigating a rash of seemingly unconnected murders. During her investigations Vicki is saved by The Vampire Henry Fitzroy-bastard son of King Henry VIII-who thinks the killer is a newborn, ravenous vampire. This book was an uncomplicated easy read. I kind of liked it.
Blood Trail I liked alot better. Mostly because it introduces yet another mythical race-werewolves. I liked the way Huff set up the werewolves-they were kind of like people-but not quite. Running around naked-because they can not shapeshift when clothed, living in packs rules by the Alpha Male and Alpha Female, howling even when in human form. The book takes place on a farm outside of Toronto. Henry Fitzroy is old freinds with the werewolves from connections he made during World War 2 and they come to him when members of their clan are being stalked and killed with silver bullets. Henry enlists the aide of Vicki who is eventually followed out the farm by her partner and sometime lover Mike-who is still on the police force and does NOT believe in werewolves or vampires for that matter.
I am looking forward to reading the rest of the series but have been side tracked by another book which has suddenly gotten very, very good.
~~~~Where ever you go, There you are!