Dune: The Battle of Corin by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson

This is the final installament of the Legends of Dune prequels. I really liked the first installment- The Butlerian Jihad and was not too impressed with the second installment-The Machine Crusade. When I heard that Kevin and Brian were doing Dune novels set during the time of the Butlerian Jihad I was very excited. I liked the trilogy they did that takes place about 15 years before the original Dune. It was easy going and the first 2 books were fantastic. Then the inconsistancies started. Gurney Halleck owes his loyalty to Duke Leto Atreides because Leto saves his life in the Harkonnen slave mines/pits-in the prequel books Gurney hides in a shipment of glass that inadvertently ends up on Caladan. Gurney did not even know who leto was nor did Leto know who Gurney was. They actually meet through a mutual friend. Which is fine, but kills the relationship for the first 3 original Dune novels. Stupid little slips like that made me dislike the prequel novels. Also I did not like description of the Tlulaxu Breeding Tanks. It the end of the series before readers of the original novels find out the horror of what the Tlulaxu use to grow gholas. Even then it is never explained in detail. Just enough information to horrify you. In the prequels much detail is given-it kind of ruins the surprise for the rest of the novels. It is the spirit of how Frank Herbert wrote and it is unfair to expect Brian and Kevin to be able to copy that-but I do think they could at least not have glaring inconsistancies with the original Dune novels. It is hard to write in a well known world and not make errors. I figured with them going so far into the past with the Butlerian Trilogy it would not matter. Plus many questions could be answered:
How did the feud begin between House Atreides and House Harrkonen?
How did the Spacing Guild get its beginning?
How did the Bene Gesserit begin?
The ground work for all of those questions to be answered was laid out splendidly in the first book-The Butlerian Jihad. Sadly, the second and third book focused mostly on wars and fighting. It did answer the questions but in a very unsatisfactory way.-I was hoping for brie and wine followed by prime rib and chocolate mousse and instead got cheese whiz on ritz crackers with Boones Farm followed by salisbury steak and instant jello pudding. Makes me wish more than ever that Brian had half his fathers talent for writing.
All in all I highly reccomend reading it for any fan of the Dune novels. I am still looking forward to book 7 which they will supposedly start now. I am sure they will botch the attempt but supposedly Frank Herbert left a rough draft and perhaps they will gently change that.
~~~~Where ever you go, There you are!

Thinner Than Thou by Kit Reed

This book reminds me quite a bit of Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. In the future america that Harrison lives in "equality" has taken on a whole new meaning. Average people are given handicaps so they do not perform better than below average people. A definete satire on what equality could mean. At the time it was written- the story reflected an america dealing with great issues of social change and equity and equality-for minorities and women and the uneducated. Thinner Than Thou is similar-in the fictional future america being such an extreme while at the same time eerily familiar-made modern with the current buzz of health, dieting and staying young. Thinner Than Thou is a satire for a future world where the new "religion" is being young and thin. It starts at birth and continues all of the way through to middle age-"old" people-(grandparents)-travel-and are never seen again. This religion of looking your best is enforced by law. The main characters are Annie-the anorexic and bulemic teenager who is trying to control her life by making her body perfect. Her parents find out her dirty little secret and sign her into a dedication sisters-nuns-hospital to cure her. Jeremy the ultra educated, ultra riche, over-weight accountant who wants desperately to succeed at being thin and young, voluntarily signs away his life to the leader of the Thinner Than Thou cult-Reverend Earl-thinking it will guarantee him a spot in the AfterFat (heaven). Kelly-who is a teenager who is too fat to walk who befriends Annie in the Dedicated Sisters ward. As well as Betz-Annies younger sister who is traveling with her twin-Danny and Annies boyfriend Dave to rescue Annie from the dedicated sisters "deds". This book is funny and sad. As unrealtistic as it is-an america with no civil rights at all-it is also eerily valid. How many people starve themselves in an attempt to reach an unreal, unattainable and unhealthy image? How many women and increasingly men hate themselves or feel like failures because of the way they look? We are bombarded all day everyday with perfect, thin, young, beautiful models and actors-who have been enhanced through surgery and photo/computer touch-ups to look perfect-setting the average person up for failure. The diet and excercise industry is billions of dollar a year industry. Yet-so is fast food and junk food. Americans are getting fatter as they spend billions of dollars in an attempt for a quick fix of this problem. I think this book addresses that unhealthy obsession in a humorous way.
~~~~Where ever you go, There you are!

Anita Blake Vampire Hunter Series by Laurell. K. Hamilton

These books seem insipred by White Wolf's World of Darkness RPG. Vampires, werewolves, and the like, live among us. They have just been declared legal. However, especially vampires, have to be policed. Therefore we have the special vampire slayer corps, which is where Anita Blake comes in. Despite vampires now being legal, the world is still a very dangerous place. Vampire politics it not for the faint hearted, and woe to the one that is caught in the net. The main strong point of the book is the description of where human and vampire society meet: some humans are drawn towards the vampires; some are fascinated by the promise of eternal life, others find them sexually attractive. The vampires are not slow to define their niche: whatever the humans want from them, they provide, at a price... from the murky world of vampire churches which literally promise eternal lives to seedy nightclubs where humans and vampires can live out their sexual fantasies on each other are truly nightmarish.
Guilty Pleasures, The Lunatic Cafe and Circus of the Damned are pretty standard. Anita is a necromancer-she raises the dead whether she wants to or not-as a child she unintentionally raised her beloved pet dog from the grave to the horror of her step-mother. What she discovered is that because she is such a powerful necromancer she will raise the dead whether she consciously wishes to or not, she may as well do it for a living-and a very good living she makes at it too. Anita is small-5' nothing, powerful-martial arts/weapons-guns, knives, swords, and hates all non-humans. She is half mexican/half anglo and her mother died when she was very young in car accident in which she would have lived had she been wearing a seat belt. Anita is haunted by her mothers death and practices and forces all of her friends to practice staunch automobile safety. After her mothers death-Anita is raised by her anglo father and disapproving step-mother who she does not get along with at all. She goes to college where she falls in love with and dates an anglo man who she is intimate with before marriage-a huge no-no for her-who later dumps her because his family is racist and disproves of her mexican heritage. Anita is a staunch Christian and her faith plays a major role in her life and her morals in the first few books. She is a self-described "good girl" who has been somewhat abused by life. She works for a professional necromancy agency raising the dead for a living and leaves catholicism behind-when it forbids necormancy-she instead becomes an Evangelist (?). She also occassionally works with the police on supernatural cases. She is a vampire executioner and legally licensed to carry out vampire executions but seems to feel that the only good vampire is a dead vampire. Most of the books center around a case which Anita is solving with the police.
Anita is very pale, with long very, very curly jet black hair, she is large busted with a compact powerful build. She is niether attractive nor unattractive-but at home in jeans, sweat pants, t-shirts and tank tops. She is very modest and pretty much uninterested in dating or romance at all. She has horrible scars on her arms and chest from various vampire attacks. She lives frugally-though she is well paid-and has few friends. All in all she is a strong character if somewhat boring and rigid.
In Lunatic Cafe, Bloody Bones, The Killing Dance and Burnt Offerings Anita pretty much hates non-humans, especially vampires and she despises humans who love them. She sees vampires are extremely manipulative-using their vampire powers to entrap and enslave humans-and not to be trusted ever. She is being persued by Jean-Claude who she inadvertantly helps to become Master of the City in the first book. Against her will he forces her to take the first 2 marks-in a series of 4-making her his human servant. Anita struggles against Jean-Claude and refuses his advances staunchly. Then she meets a companion of his-Richard. Richard is beautiful, tall, built, with long dark hair, bedroom eyes and a nice guy. Richard is also a Christian with strong morals, no sex , dating or romance in his life either. Also saving hismelf for marriage to "right" woman. Yet, Richard is a real sweet-heart. He values life and truly believes that all conflicts can be solved non-violently. He is a big compromiser and seems very able to support Anita without demanding too much of her. Anita falls for Richard and they begin to date. At some point Anita learns that Richard is a werewolf-as well as a middle school teacher. Richard is involved in a struggle with the Alpha of his "pack". Richard and Anita begin dating and Jean-Claude is able to manipulate Anita into dating him as well by threatening Richards life and safety if she refuses. It turns out that wolves are Jean-Claudes animal to call-all vampires have an animal that they can call to them. Anita, Jean-Claude and Richard form a triumverate of power to fight off stronger vampires and were-animals. During this time Anita and Richard become engaged, decide to have sex after Anita sees Richards animal. Richard finally confronts and kills the alpha and takes over as alpha of the pack. Anita freaks out and runs to Jean-Claude-well to his bed. She and Richard pretty much break up after that. She is seeing Jean-Claude and while she is still somewhat involved in Richards pack-she is his Lupa-which is basically the Alphas girl friend or wife-a role until Anita always held by werewolves. There is some drama with Anita becoming mama of the pack.
In Blue Moon Anita goes out of town to save Richard from a prejudiced small town in which he is being accused of rape because of his work with Trolls. Richard has also stopped living his monk like existence and seems to be sleeping his way through the werewolf females-and a few human females as well- in an attempt to get over Anita and also to find a Lupa to replace Anita. Anita and Richard semi-get back together in this book and for awhile Anita is seeing both Richard and Jean-Claude-but she is bothered by the fact that Richard will not be monogamous to her since she is still with Jean-Claude. Anita eventually stops seeing both of them and focuses on herself for a while.
Obsidian Butterflies sees Anita in the west helping her friend the psycopath Edward-who is living as his alter ego-Ted. I really liked this book. Edward has always been one of my favorite characters-his simple joy of killing and just plain strange psychotic behavior. I always thought he was a good balance for the bad non-humans in the books. Anita has her first story that does not include either Richard nor Jean Claude and it goes very well, it seems Anita has come into her own.
Naricussus in Chains is when all of the freaky sex stuff starts. Anita pretty much breaks it off with Richard-who she has started seeing again-or rather he breaks it off with her. Anita is starting to turn into a vampire in some ways. She can call the dead to her-as a necromancer-includig vampires who "die" when the sun is up. This is how she inherits Damian an ancient vampire of Jean Claudes. Anita does pay a price for this power-the ardeur-which requires her to feed much like a vampire must but what she feeds on isnot blood but lust. Anita has been taking care of the were-leopards since she killed Gregory the old Nimir-Ra or alpha of the wereleopards "pard". In this book she gets scratched by a wereloepard in the heat of a fight and gets her own "beast". She also meets Micah-a wereleopard with a "pard" who wants to join her pard and they are soulmates of a sort. Anita sleeps with him within 10 minutes of meeting him and discovers that she is Nimir-Raj to his Nimir-Ra and by the end of the book they have joined pards and caring for their wereleopards jointly. Richard demotes Anita to "Bolvek" which is a ruthless enforcer who kills for the Alpha and dumps her. Anita is devastated but seems to assuage her heart and spirit by having both Nathaniel and Micah in her bed and heart.
By Cerulean Sins the "arduer" has pretty much taken over Anitas life and the book does have a plot line but also involved lots of sex between Anita and multiple werewolves and vampires. Most of whom are only sleeping with Anita who while she sleeps with multiple men. Anita can not at all handle her "men" sleeping with other women. Anita no longer refers to herself as a "good girl" nor as a christian much either. She has also somehow become very beautiful and hot and all of these men want her. She wears micro mini skirts and 6 inch spike heels. Gone is the bad ass gun toting jean girl-now enters glamor sex goddess. The books have just gotten plain different and Anita now bears small resemblance to the Anita of the first few books.
Incubus Dreams is just one long erotic encounter after another. I recently finished this book. It got horrible reviews and I while I was not horrified by it, I have to admit it was pretty boring. Mostly full of kinky unappealing sex (lots of S&M and flesh eating) and murder. I think the entire story takes place in 3 or so days. Yet, this is longest Anita Blake book yet. Maybe 150-200 pages actually dealt with the story. Anita had sex with easily 10 or so guys through the story and each chapter was like another sex scene. It got boring after a while.I liked the Anita Blake books. The first 3 were really, really good. I even liked up to Obsidian Butterfly-the characters were frustrating in many ways and I did not like how rigid Anita was, but truly. This has just become unreal. It is just so unbelievable because of how Anitas character began. Anita was anal, controlling, conservative and saving herself for marriage. At the age of 25? she had one sexual partner-that was a guy she was engaged to in college. Now-she is having more than one sexual partner an hour-in her ofice, in the car, by the side of the road, in the parking lot of a strip club, almost every single male character introduced in any of the Anita Blake novels has now slept with her-not to mention the few she met and fucked in this book. She is having an "active" relationship with Jean-Claude and Asher (vampires) as well as sleeping and living with Nathaniel and Micah (wereleopards)- and still sleeping with various and sundry vamps and werewolves. As of the end of this book she is also bringing Richard (werewolf) back as her lover every 3 days. Because her lust (ardeur) is just too much for her 4 regular guys to handle all alone. Oh , I also forgot Damian-her vampire-who dies if she does not have sex regularly-now every 4-6 hours. I swear-it is wonder the character can walk and sit down, much less has time to eat, drink and work.I think LKH is clearly winding this series down. i will certainly read the rest of the Anita Blake series, but I will also be glad to see that series laid to rest because it has just gotten way out of hand


Guilty Pleasures
The Laughing Corpse
Circus of the Damned
Lunatic Cafe
Bloody Bones
The Killing Dance
Burnt Offerings
Blue Moon
Obsidian Butterfly
Narcissus in Chains
Cerulean Sins
Incubus Dreams

Dead Witch Walking by Kim Harrison

I have been in the mood recently for horror/fantasy genre. I have never been much into vampires, werewilves or witch stories, but I picked up a copy of Dime Store Magic back in May and have been reading mostly dark fantasy/horror since.
This book was written by a new author who I have to admit I adore.
The premise is that mythical creatures-witches, vampires, fairies, pixies, etc have always existed. There was a horrible disease spread by tomatoes in the 1950's which killed off a siginificant portion of the human population leaving mythical creatures the freedom to come out into the open. Humans-somewhat freaked out-moved to urban areas leaving more rural areas open to the mythical creatures. In Cincinnati- where the story takes place-the mythical beings live in the Hollows.
Rachel Morgan-the heroine-works as a bounty hunter/detective for Interland Security-the mythical creatures police/FBI type organization. IS is in direct competetituion with FIB which is humans version of the same organization. Rachel leaves the corrupt IS and joins forces with Ivy-a heriditary alive vampire who is infatuated with her and Jink-a pixie with too many children. The IS threatens Rachel and in an attempt to gain leverage to leave IS with her life intact she tries to find evidence that a prominent not-quite-human congressman is running illgeal bio-weapons.
The story is hilarious, the characters are fully fleshed out and very real. I can not wait until the next installment in this series.
~~~~Where ever you go, There you are!

Women of the Otherworld Series by Kelley Armstrong

Bitten introduces Elena-the only female werewolf in the world- having been bitten by her fiance-Clay-years back. She's fled that life and is trying to live as a human in Toronto, complete with a new live in boyfriend who has no idea who she truly is. The weight of that, of being closeted begins to wear on her - she has to eat secretly, run secretly.
In the midst of this, her old Pack leader Jeremy, a man who has been like a father to her, calls her back home and she relents, albeit reluctantly.
From here, we watch as Elena struggles with her anger over who she really is and also over who she'll never be again. Her anger and love for Clay. Clay-having been bitten and changed as a very young child and then abandoned to live or die on his own-has none of the hesitancy and reluctance that Elena feels and this often causes tension between them.
Elena is incredibly strong, first just to have survived the bite and transformation and also the betrayal by the man she loved when he bit her without permission. Secondly, she's an enforcer for her Pack, she hunts down the mutts who are rogue wolves and kills them, she's universally feared by those who operate outside of Pack structure. The internal struggle she faces in choosing between her life at Stonehaven as a werewolf and her life in Toronto as a closeted wolf.
Elena is a phenomenal character. She is strong, has depth and is easy to relate to. Elena was orphaned at a very young age. She grew up in a series of foster homes, with no family and few friends. As a young adult in college all she wants is real family and to be stable, loved and normal. She hopes she will have all of these things when she meets, falls in love with and becomes engaged to Clay-a professor of anthropology at her university. Yet, when Clay brings her home to meet his "family" her life changes forver. Unable to forgive Clay for destroying her dream of ever being anything remotely normal, Elena at first finds a place and life in her new "pack" family. Then she runs away and moves to Toronto to live a normal life with a normal boyfirend whom she hides what she really is from. When she is called home by her pack leader and father figure she reluctantly goes and finds that the only for her to truly be happy with herself and her life is to accept that she will never be normal and learn to love her life anyway.

Stolen introduces other mystical characters. Elena is still the main character accompanied by her boyfriend Clay and her pack leader Jeremy. Drawn in by an aritcle that is very close to the truth-far too close for comfort-about Werewolves Elena meets a true witch-Paige. Elena is eventually captured by an eccentric billionaire who is collecting mystical creatures. She is locked in a secret underground lair with a witch, half-demon, voodoo priest and shaman. This book was not as enjoyable to me as Bitten. I was looking for more Stonehaven and werewolf politics and pack lives, but I did like to introduction of other mystical races.

Dime Store Magic begins a year after Stolen. Paige, a coven witch, has custody of Savannah, a 13-year-old angry witch. Paige has her hands full trying to guide and protect Savannah, who is experiencing teen-angst with an unhealthy dose of rage.Leah, the half-demon Volo has decided to join forces with a Cabal, a high ranking sorcerer who is also CEO of a large corporation. This particular Cabal, Nast, is very powerful and also Savannah's father. The fight for custody is more then a legal matter. Nast wants Savannah for her power and will do anything to acquire her.
Paige finds herself fighting not only Nast, but also everyone else in her life to protect Savannah. Paige's once uncomplicated life becomes a living hell that seems to have no end in sight. To make matters worse, Savannah, at 13, is very immature and full of rage. She is angry about everything and is prone to using her powers in a reckless manner. Consequences are something Savannah does not understand.
Dime Store Magic is a wonderful, fun book to read. The Paige who was introduced in Stolen gains a great deal more depth and is a great heroine. She deals with these betrayals and attacks with a strong moral outrage and strength of character. She is not about to back down and shows her true feisty nature.
I gotta admit that Paige really got on my last nerve in Stolen but I kind of like her in this book. She is trying to take over for her mother-who passed away in Stolen. She is raising a pre-teen who is precocious and difficult, trying to take over her mothers seat in the local coven and balance her business with all these aspects of her life. I like the demons and hald-demons. I also like Paiges break with the coven who only wants to do protective magic-even while under attack. paige realizes that witches have given up a significant portion of their power in the deal made in the dark ages with the sorcerers-men-who promised to protect them. Paige is a good witch and was raised to be good witch but sees the need for balance in all things magickal. I also like her demon lawyer boyfriends. Hilraious, I can not wait for the next book.

Bitten
Stolen
Dime Store Magic
Industrial Magic- Way better than Dime Store Magic. First of all, Paige comes into her own. She has purpose, drive and confidence-she is no longer following blindly in her mothers foot steps. Also, she has Lucas-who I really liked in this novel. This novel primarily takes place in Miami with the Cortez Cabal-it explores more of this fascinating world of the "Otherworld" series and re-introduces my favorite pack of werewolves!!!!!!! Jeremy, Elena and Clayton as well as the vampiress from Stolen-Cassandra. The old band gets together to research a killer who is killingh half-witch adolescent children of Cabals. The murder could be anyone from a displaced Cabal member to a pissed off mythical monster-either way Paige, Lucas and the gang will surely figure it out-and they do! This is a murder, mystery, magic and politics....a heady mixture to be sure. I can not WAIT!!!!! for the next book-Haunted!The book is fast paced with lots of unexpected turns. Like the other books in the Otherworld series, I wanted more after finishing Industrial Magic. Kelley Armstrong is the Canadian author of four books in the Otherworld series; Bitten, Stolen, Dime Store Magic, and Industrial Magic. The fifth book in the series, Haunted is to be published in the Spring of 2005. Available on her website, http://www.kelleyarmstrong.com , are three online novellas that further the werewolves' storyline.
~~~~Where ever you go, There you are!