Attempting to make those who live in darkness see the light.

Publisher: Gollancz (Orion Books)
Pages: 279
Type: Fiction
Age: Adult
ISBN: 978-0-575-08938-9
First Published: 2002
Date Reviewed: 26th January 2012
Rating: 4/5

Considering she had agreed to work for Eric, it was unlikely that the vampires were going to leave her alone with her 19th Century boyfriend, living life as before. First Sookie discovers her co-worker’s dead body in Andy Bellefleur’s car, and then Eric calls her up about a mystery he’s signed her up for. Sookie’s telepathic power is the one needed in order to find out where the missing person is. It may also help her find out what happened to LaFayette.

If the first book in the series, Dead Until Dark, was a funny but gruesome and truly adult novel that was a good read, Living Dead In Dallas takes it up a level. There is perhaps more sexual content in this one, and more blood and guts, and it’s not always an attractive read, but Harris is now in the prime position to introduce her readers to what she really wants to say.

It’s rather interesting in fact that a comical book about vampires could have such a message, but it works, and Harris comes up trumps, able to not only deliver the message but to illustrate how seemingly contrasting lifestyles can be blended into one. This wouldn’t make sense in any other situation.

“Andy let a black queer sleep in his car?” This was Holly, who was the blunt straightforward one.

“What happened to him?” This was Danielle, who was the smarter of the two.

Harris portrays quite a lot of sexual orientation differences and gender bending, and in her world it is the norm because what has now taken over as the big taboo is the recognition of the undead being on earth. Instead of picking on sexuality, people have turned their distaste to vampires. This doesn’t mean of course that everything else has been defined as natural, but in this world, vampires are the brunt of prejudice. To use the simplest case of this change in society, one minor character tells how her parents would’ve preferred her to date an African American rather than a vampire.

But of course unlike groups generally prescribed discrimination, there is at least a true danger in the vampires. While they have been accepted into mainstream society, the vampires do not always behave well and this is a constant issue between the heroine and her boyfriend. While their relationship certainly pertains to Harris’s fantasy world, she does touch on things that relate to connections in the real world. And while Harris’s goal does seem to be to revel in her paranormal genre, and to provide black humour as well as lighter laughs, there is the sense that she wants to get her teeth into our actual world. Yes, that pun was definitely intended.

To be sure, as with Dead Until Dark and undoubtedly every other book in this series, Living Dead In Dallas may require a suspension of a lot of principles. These characters will have sex, a lot, and it’s not always vanilla.

Sookie is proving to be a very strong character. Whilst not fitting the mould of your standard strong heroine, she proves that one can be different and still be just as effective. And she remains strong through tough situations, when characters in other books would be given a sudden personality changes and made into weaklings.

Albeit at different speeds, the major characters are being developed. Sookie, as narrator, has already told the reader a lot about herself, so in most cases her development is in learning how to use her power. But her relationship with Bill, as discussed, provides times for new thoughts to enter her always-busy head. Bill himself is developed in drips and dabs (intended again) but it is given a lot of time when it happens. In regards to Sam’s ability, there are some revelations there too.

Living Dead In Dallas is proof that there can be balance found in the world of paranormal fiction, between books with flimsy females and books with out and out horror. And Harris demonstrates that if done right, there can be a place for humour too.

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It’s time to battle against evil once more.

Publisher: Corgi (Random House)
Pages: 423
Type: Fiction
Age: Young Adult
ISBN: 978-0-552-14802-3
First Published: 1987
Date Reviewed: 4th December 2011
Rating: 3.5/5

Please note that as this is the first book in a follow-up series, The Malloreon, to The Belgariad (also a five-book series) there may be content in this review that is considered a spoiler for The Belgariad. You might also like to note that despite the book’s cover, all of the books about this particular world were actually written by both Eddings and his wife. It is only in more recent years that this information has come to light.

Garion, now king of Riva with his wife, Ce’Nedra, as his queen, has been finding life suitably routine. It is definitely hard work being the Overlord of his fellow kings, and it’s annoying how everyone comes to him to dump their problems at his feet – but war torn the West is not. But of course there would not be a story if this routine wasn’t to change, and as another prophecy appears to begin and the Orb starts speaking once more of trouble, Garion and his friends are sure to be displaced from peace soon enough. Who is this new Child of Dark and will the Rivan royal couple ever provide the kingdom with an heir?

If you enjoyed The Belgariad, picking up Guardians Of The West feels a bit like coming home. Whereas in the first series the reader was still getting to know the characters and Eddings wrote them accordingly, in Guardians Of The West there is very much the sense that Eddings has relaxed, believing (rightly, really) that his readers know the people he is talking about. He has altered the way that he writes about them ever so slightly – they are most certainly the same characters, but now it feels as though you’ve been invited into their inner circle. This said the plot is largely the same as the previous.

There are more jokes this time round, however this is at once both a very good thing – the jokes are often very funny – and a bad thing – it can become too self-indulgent. For the most part the truly laugh-out-loud moments outweigh the lesser ones, but towards the end of the book the sheer number of lines such as Barak’s constant declarations of liking a person, and the misfit that is humour during what is purported to be a massive bloody battle, doesn’t work. The reader sees a little bit of the battle and then spends the rest of the time listening to the characters, who are all royal or high up in society, discussing strategy or simply bantering amongst themselves. Although the series is a comic fantasy, the total disregard by Eddings to present anything resembling reality in this case is difficult to get over.

Unfortunately this is joined by predictability. As soon as battles happen, nay, as soon as they are a possibility, there is no need to read further as you know exactly how it will end. Such was also the case in The Belgariad. Unlike other authors, Eddings never includes any chances that the characters will fail. Although you know, considering the genre, that good will ultimately triumph, there is never any sense of danger. The characters arrive, talk for a bit, attack, win, find they haven’t won completely, go back to talk more, and etcetera. And winning is all too easy for them.

In regards to strategy, once the main crux of the book begins the narrative always going back to discussions. The discussions take ages, and while there can be interest in the minute details Eddings goes into, one can’t help but wonder if Eddings ought to have joined the army instead of becoming a writer because he clearly has a passion for working things out. Once the characters win, someone comes along to tell them that they haven’t actually won, and that is part of the cycle of repetition; there are a good several strategic discussions within a fifth of the book’s pages. After the first couple of discussions it becomes dreadfully boring.

Interspersed are pointless dialogues, silly ideas, and things the reader didn’t need to know. Indeed when the characters finally discover the true next step, one that needs to be taken then and there, they sit down for alcohol and humorous conversation. And individual characters are always going off to do something secret, something that generally turns the tide on things within the blink of an eye. The extensive use of magic to solve problems, despite the fact that the book is a fantasy and is therefore “allowed” to use magic, can make things that might have been exciting rather dull. And in addition to all of this, Ce’Nedra’s constant refrain of “I want my baby”, despite the reader’s knowledge of her personality, can make a person want to change the text so that she is less selfish and remembers that it takes two to make one.

So while Eddings knows how to plan battles, he does not know how to stage the action. But he does know a lot about showing rather than telling, which of course has a lot to do with the negative aspects but is overall a winner. Although he may be influenced by the likes of Tolkien, Eddings never goes down the path of describing so much scenery that you fall asleep. He prefers to tell his tale through dialogue, which makes his book a quick read. And for the most part his characters are well-defined, they never lose their personality and apart from the times when they are all complimenting each other too much it would be easy enough to be able to read the conversations between small groups without the name labels of who said what.

You have to be prepared that nothing will really happen for the vast majority of the book – unless you don’t mind reading about domestic routine – and that it is filled by short dips into the lives of the characters over the course of several years. Why Eddings felt the need to leave such a gap yet still try and fill the reader in is incomprehensible, he may as well have just begun by summarising. He wanted Errand to be more grown up, and that makes sense, but we do not learn that much about Errand that couldn’t have been condensed into a few pages. Some of the plot points are very interesting, but when Eddings employs a written, and thus longer, version of what film makers do to show the passing of time (think quick shots of scenes and music overlays) one does wonder why he is doing it.

Eddings is good at creating stories, but his writing could have done with more polish. Some phrasing is awkward and the modern Americanisms don’t always fit the rest of the text. This particular edition of the book is rife with errors that should have been picked up during the editing process and it’s just lucky that the story is strong enough to keep the reader from becoming distracted by them.

Guardians Of The West is a rather flawed book, but the setting and characters balance out the problems. It may work as a stand-alone, but is best read after having finished The Belgariad because the characters will likely appear funnier and the information gleaned from that first series helps to explain this one. Fans of fantasy will find it okay, but this series is definitely for those with a love for quick comedy.

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Perhaps the best example of how wonderful Austen’s ability to create characters was.

Publisher: N/A (but I’d wager Vintage’s a good one)
Pages: N/A
Type: Fiction
Age: Adult
ISBN: N/A (Vintage’s is 978-0-09951-1168)
First Published: 1816
Date Reviewed: 13th October 2011
Rating: 5/5

Emma Woodhouse is rather well off, and intelligent and charismatic to boot. She wishes to add to this list a talent for matchmaking, and indeed already has introduced a widowed neighbour to her governess and they are a fine couple. Now she wants to enhance her new friend Harriet’s position in society, and the man who wants Harriet’s hand does not fit the proposed expectations. Emma doesn’t want to marry herself, but will she able to carry on her initial success?

Emma is a fantastic examination of what happens when a person tries to involve themselves in other people’s affairs, and what this means for that person’s knowledge of their own feelings. The events in Emma are largely held in the same one place, in fact Emma herself never leaves her village, and yet Austen succeeds in being perhaps more witty and introducing a more detailed cast of characters than in any other of her books (Mansfield Park aside as this reviewer has yet to read that one).

It cannot be disputed that what makes Austen so readable is her cast of characters. In Emma every single person is very different to all the others so that it wouldn’t be difficult to know who was speaking even if you stripped the manuscript of all names. If it seems that some characters are similar it is only because they are less talkative. Of the ones who speak often you can clearly discern the man of sense, the woman who talks too much, the joker who wants entertainment, the hypochondriac who tries to push his hypochondria onto others, and so on. There is a particular chapter in volume 2 of the book, chapter 11, that is simply sublime – hilarious, all show and no tell, and a prime example of how these very different characters interact. Surely Austen is one of very few authors from whom this reviewer would be happy to read all dialogue and no description.

“Did you ever see such dancing? – Was not it delightful? – Miss Woodhouse and Mr. Frank Churchill; I never saw any thing equal to it.”
“Oh! very delightful indeed; I can say nothing less, for I suppose Miss Woodhouse and Mr. Frank Churchill are hearing every thing that passes.”

Austen undoubtedly had a whale of a time writing this book. The discourses between Mr. Knightley and Emma are brilliant, Mr. Knightley being the one this time round who has a level head. And as usual Austen shows us that she was not only ahead of her time but would fit very well in society today.

Where Emma thinks wrongly, Austen is always ready to have a laugh and put her on the straight and narrow in the form of her Mr Knightley. As is the case with Northanger Abbey, bar the narration itself in that novel, Austen employs a male character to voice her feelings. In a way, the reader may wonder why Austen, a woman in a male-oriented society, would often want to make her male characters the ones with the most sense, but in doing so she opens up her work to a wider audience.

It is this continual discourse between Mr Knightley and Emma that sets the reader up with the knowledge of what is to happen. In the character of Emma we have Austen trying to test the boundaries of class and seeing what happens when people try to get around them, even if it is only for their own benefit and fun.

As a counsellor she was not wanted; but as an approver, (a much safer character,) she was truly welcome.

Emma herself is fun for being so intelligent yet so out of her depth when it comes to matchmaking, and for having the inept ability to choose entirely wrong people for her friends.

It may be possible to do without dancing entirely. Instances have been known of young people passing many, many months successively, without being at any ball of any description, and no material injury accrue either to body or mind…

The reader might say that the set up of matchmaker could have been continued longer, with more people involved, but what is included is so well thought out that it doesn’t really matter. The way that Emma provokes her friends to follow her ideas and, as is once the case, literally follow her around, is worth a lot more than numerous matchmaking attempts.

Pride And Prejudice may be perhaps the most famous of Austen’s novels, but Emma makes a good run for Elizabeth Bennett’s money. Whether or not Emma would have chosen Mr Darcy for Elizabeth however cannot be speculated. The phrase that would conclude this review best is “read it”.

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Elvis isn’t dead, but unlike the band Scouting For Girls who say that it’s because they heard him on the radio, Harris has seen him in person.

Publisher: Gollancz (Orion Books)
Pages: 326
Type: Fiction
Age: Adult
ISBN: 978-0-575-08936-5
First Published: 2001
Date Reviewed: 4th May 2011
Rating: 3.5/5

Sookie Stackhouse can read minds and is met with caution by most people. She could date, heck there are enough guys about who would like to take her out, but the idea of knowing what they want to do in the bedroom beforehand makes desire an endangered species. When Bill walks into the bar Sookie hears nothing, and that makes him a possibility. Except that Bill’s a vampire – except that doesn’t matter. Vampires are an accepted minority now, after all, and her grandmother certainly approves. But then women start being murdered and Sookie isn’t sure of anything.

This was pretty exotic stuff for a telepathic barmaid from northern Louisiana.

Dead Until Dark is nothing like the cover suggests. Well, ok, there is some blood, obviously, but it’s actually a pretty quirky book and at times hilariously funny. Harris has created a world where vampires are slowly being accepted into mainstream society, and the name of the hero himself, Bill, should give you a good idea of the angle she takes on the whole fantasy element.

The style of writing is rather different and although it fits the book I found it difficult to get used to. Sookie is the narrator and her voice is very unique. In due course you discover that the style is something Harris has constructed specifically to aid the comedy and strength of the book itself. The emphasis is on short sentences and natural reactions. However the writing is still rather bad and a lot of times I had to re-read a sentence to check if I really ought to have felt so shocked by it – and it turned out that yes, I should have.

He was unconscious or dead. With a vampire it was hard to tell the difference.

Because of the style of writing you get a real sense of how Sookie feels, in fact if I were to meet her and tell her that she’d probably say “well you don’t say” – in other words she’s very casual, very open, and more personal than if she were writing a diary; however she is also very naïve about some things to the point of it being silly. Bill is good to read about mostly because of Sookie’s descriptions, but also because of his efforts to be as human as possible.

Vampires aren’t the only paranormal creatures in this book. I’ll just say that if someone told me Stephenie Meyer studied this series before she wrote hers I wouldn’t be surprised. But unlike Meyer, Harris is compelled by humour and because of the age of the characters, and the situation, it’s a lot more fun to read. There’s a reality, almost, that Meyer didn’t reach.

One of the themes is romance but the other major theme, mystery, and the genre of comedy, mean that the narrative never slows down. The mystery is well planned and the importance given to it stays the same throughout.

Make no mistakes, this is more horrific than most paranormal books released in our current era, as, might I say, most pre-Meyers are, but the light-heartedness makes it an ok choice for most adults – be aware that this is very much an adult book and some of the subplots and the sex are not for younger readers.

Dead Until Dark has its flaws and is maybe a little too easy a read at times but if you are up for the challenge of story surpassing, by far, the writing, then I’d give it a go. Just make sure you read it where the idea of someone reading a book with a bloodthirsty cover while laughing their head off would be acceptable.

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A simple story with a surprisingly poignant ending, this little book is the definition of perfection.

Publisher: Persephone Books
Pages: 115
Type: Fiction
Age: Adult
ISBN: 978-1-906462-07-9
First Published: 1932
Date Reviewed: 30th January 2011
Rating: 5/5

Dolly is getting married today and the family have arrived to be there. But Dolly’s not sure about the day’s events, and, neither it seems, is someone else.

Cheerful Weather For The Wedding was my first Persephone book, I am happy to say I picked it out myself from their fabulous little shop in London from the piles of books, not knowing what it was about but being intrigued by the title. I just knew that it was “the one”, and that I should buy it as my second choice besides The Victorian Chaise-Longue, which was the book I visited the shop for. Be sure that I will write a post on the shop itself later.

I actually started the first several pages of the book twice, once on the day I bought it, and then again on the day I devoted a couple of hours to read and finish it, because the beginning is slow. I soon found out that I had wasted time by starting it twice as after the initial introduction, Strachey quickly dives into the comedy.

“We heard about the practices of the Minoan Islanders upon reaching the age of puberty at the last one.” He started snapping up his cutlet.
“Oh really? How terribly interesting!” said Kitty.
“Yes, very. Like to hear about them?” offered Joseph.
“Kitty, dear child! Kitty! Kitty! Open the window a trifle at the top, will you! The air gets so terribly stuffy in here always!” cried out Mrs. Thatcham very loudly.

The beauty of the novella is that an author can deliver a story quickly without having to worry about detailing the characters or their backgrounds. This is exactly what Strachey does and it provides her with ample time to use in making the reader laugh. The book is hilarious. Strachey introduces us to a plethora of characters that are very individual and ridiculous whilst at the same time being realistic. To mention just a few, there is the elder brother who is obsessed about his younger brother’s sock choice (this is technically bullying but the younger child stands up for himself and it’s the “I’m-better-than-you” nature of children that makes it funny), the mother who is a little crazy and ever forgetful, and the cousin who speaks nonsense.

The company soon understood that the young man was attacked by a fit of the giggles, and all looked surprised; excepting Evelyn, to whom giggles and laughter were as water is to a fish. And so, although not understanding very exactly what was the matter, she joined in now with Joseph immediately.

What’s interesting is that there is no main character. You could say that Dolly is the main character, but it’s more a case of her being the reason – when it comes to the amount of time spent on her there is just as much as there is the group of characters downstairs. The book may (basically) be about her and the climax may be about her, but I personally found her memorable for being different, more serious than the rest.

Strachey wrote a book that takes so little time to read and yet it kept me completely enthralled and interested. It’s a wonderful thing that Persephone Books decided to publish it and easy to see why it is now one of their most-sought after novellas. I cannot recommend it enough.

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