Friday again? Already? Okay, it’s not Friday any more but it was when I originally drafted this entry so just go with me here, people.
This week sure has flown by – probably owing to the fact that Ryan is sick again. I don’t know why, but that seems to just eat up time like my family scarfed up my chocolate peppermint pie at Christmas this past year.
So, without further ado (or mention of fattening desserts – although I KNOW you want a piece of that pie now, don’t you?) here are the books for the week.
Because I love Mary Janice Davidson’s “Undead” series so much, I decided to take a chance on some of her other works. Yeah, I know, she’s a romance writer and that’s not usually my genre, but I was hoping for something else as good as Betsy Taylor, Vampire Queen.
”Derik’s Bane” is not that book. While Davidson keeps up her trademark dialogue of snappy repartee between the characters, that’s about all this book has going for it. Although not the brightest bulb in the bunch, there’s something inherently likeable about Betsy. I can’t say the same for Derek and Sara in this book.
They try, but they’re just amazingly stupid. I mean really, really like drool-on-themselves stupid. And the plot is non-existent – it’s basically a big excuse to get them in bed together…and yeah, I know, it’s romance novel, but make it be SOMEWHERE in the universe of believability. I mean, I’m pretty good with the whole WSD thing (hey, when I was a kid, I insisted on buying my doll clothes a size larger than my doll actually was because she was going to “grow into” them) so if *I* don’t buy it, then you know it’s off the charts on the unbelievability scale.
So, skip Davidson’s “Wyndham Werewolves” series (of which “Derik’s Bane” is a part) and just wait for the next “Undead” novel featuring Betsy Taylor, Queen of Shoes…er…Vampires.
Fortunately, I was able to rinse the rancid taste of that disaster out of my brain by diving into the latest Simon R. Green “Nightside” novel, "Sharper Than A Serpent's Tooth". John Taylor, Suzie Shooter, Dead Boy, Razor Eddie and the rest of the bizarre cast of characters, archetypes, monsters, gods, Gods and other twisted and undefined beings are back in action. Their mission – to defend the Nightside from Lilith, Taylor’s uber-powerful, rampaging mother, whose idea of fun it is to lay waste to anything and everything she can so it can be re-made in her image. Taylor and crew, as you might imagine, take great exception to this. This book winds up a lot of plotlines from earlier in the series, has a satisfying amount of action and a believable and conclusive ending. Yet, there’s still just enough left unresolved that it’s quite possible there COULD (oh please oh please oh please) be another “Nightside” book in the future. I really enjoyed this book and thought it was much more satisfying than the previous installment. Actually, they really should’ve been one big book IMO.
If I had one tiny complaint – it would be that I didn’t quite buy the transformation of The Collector’s personality. There’s one line of dialogue that’s supposed to explain it, but it just wasn’t quite enough for me. Still, it’s not really that big a deal.
And just because I feel like indulging in a little torture, I had to shop for shoes I can’t afford. Some day, when I have oodles of money, these shoes will be mine. Oh yes, they WILL be mine. And these, too. And these. And these.
In fact, I think it’s fair to say that IF I ever have any money, I will go on a shoe-buying binge that will make Immelda Marcus look like an icon of restraint.
C’est tout pour maintenant, mes amis.
A la prochaine!
KJ
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