Dear Author » Charlaine Harris

Thursday Midday Posts: DRM Efficacy Questioned by Game Theory, Amazon Launches New Imprint, Kobo + WH Smith

Jane — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 17:00:47 +0000

Amazon launched its science fiction, fantasy and horror line called 47North. It’s lined up some big names in scifi with the launched of 15 books “including ‘The Mongoliad: Book One,’ the first in the ambitious, five-book, collaborative Foreworld series led by Neal Stephenson and Greg Bear. All of these books will be available to English readers in Kindle, print and audio formats at www.amazon.com , as well as at national and independent booksellers. 47North will publish original and previously published works, as well as out-of-print books.”

There is no word on whom the acquiring editor is.

****

Kobo is making serious international moves. It has announced partnerships with FNAC, the number 1 book retailers in France, and with W.H. Smith. Through both partnerships, the book sellers will obtain access to Kobo’s digital catalog as well as its devices. This means books bought at WH Smith enjoy the same cloud storage and synchronization in Kobo’s App platforms and devices.

In addition to its global store, Kobo already offers stores in the US, Canada, Germany (localised), UK, Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong. The Kobo store offers a selection of over 2.5 million eBooks, newspapers and magazines with bestselling titles, the hottest new releases, thrillers, romance and over a million free books.

Kobo’s European stores offer customers a rich assortment of local content, merchandised to the tastes and preferences of readers across Europe, Kobo has partnered with European publishers to offer a wide range of titles. With this launch, FNAC will deliver a large content catalogue, making it the largest eBookstore in France – the new store will feature the latest releases and bestsellers from popular French authors.

and from the WH Smith site:

From 12th October 2011, all the eBooks you buy through WHSmith.co.uk will be provided by our partner, Kobo. These eBooks will all work with your eReader just like those you’ve previously bought from us.

****

Amanda Hocking’s Hollowland will be published as a graphic novel series.

In Hollowland, Nineteen-year-old Remy King is on a mission to get across the wasteland left of America, and nothing will stand in her way – not violent marauders, a spoiled rock star, or an army of flesh-eating zombies.

Charlaine Harris is collaborating an original graphic novel series for ACE, based on her Sookie Stackhouse series.

Cemetery Girl-a collaboration between Harris, author Christopher Golden, and illustrator Don Kramer-is a planned trilogy set to debut in 2013… Cemetery Girl will mark the first foray into original graphic novels for Harris, whose bestselling Sookie Stackhouse books are the basis for HBO’s hit series True Blood. Harris recently announced that the Sookie Stackhouse series will conclude with the publication of the thirteenth book in May 2013.

….

With elements of fantasy and paranormal mystery, Cemetery Girl will tell the story of a teenage girl with amnesia who has grown up living alone in a cemetery. As the series unfolds, the truth of who the girl is and how she came to be there will be gradually revealed both to the reader and to the character herself.

******

Three economists from Rice and Duke Universities have used game theory research to challenge the efficacy of DRM.

Via Ars Technica.

Thus, removing DRM represents a good deal for consumers in all segments of the market: “In particular, traditional consumers of CDs benefit from a lower price; consumers of legal downloads get higher utility with a DRM-free version even though the price of the legal version may increase; and, interestingly, consumers who obtain pirated versions benefit because it is easier to steal music when there is no DRM.”

….

“Attributing abnormally high piracy levels to DRM is consistent with the analysis in our paper,” the marketing experts conclude.

Ars breaks down the game theory hypothesis and it’s fairly interesting read.

*****

According to Nielsen Book, print book sales declined 5.7% in the US.

For those looking to head to the bar and drown their sorrows, Nowell had at least some positive thoughts: no downturn lasts forever, “value” was going to be an increased priority for consumers, and the rapidly aging population should present publishers with opportunities to sell to “those book-loving baby boomers who finally have the time to read.” Let’s hope they don’t forget where they put their glasses.

I suspect the aging baby boomer population will flock toward digital because every book can be in large print with digital books.

******

James Patterson has one. So does James Frey. Dennis Lehane is the latest author to get his own imprint. HarperCollins has implemented “Dennis Lehane Books” which will “issue ‘a select’ number of literary fiction works each year that have ‘a dark urban edge.’”

******

I’m fascinated with the Indian market for books. I think that given its status as the largest English reading population, it’s influence on books could be enormous. According to this writer, the current state of Indian fiction represents something from the Helen Fielding imprint, if there was one.

To read much of the recent fiction, you would think that the whole population, all 1.2 billion of them, have nothing else to do but worry about arranged marriages, whether they could have a romance with the man their family had chosen for them, and whether it was possible to eat rice crispies without chili powder.

The author would like to write about grittier topics such as the impoverished and barely literate:

So here’s my main contention about the stories published about India in the last few years. Where are the stories of the under class? Why are all the novels focused on the well to do, or the middle class? Where are the tales of these working kids? The stories of servant boys, and domestic maids, the homeless children? In a country where so many serve as domestic help, where is the Indian version of The Help? In India, much more than anywhere else I have traveled to, the lives of the privileged and the underprivileged blend with and underline each other until it’s impossible to tell them apart. So why is it, that the fiction of today, the maid’s story is silenced, while the mistress’ tale gets all the attention? Is it our fault, as readers? That we are only able to crave the light, frothy tales of marriage and caste wars? In the thousands of books written by Indian authors that are getting published now, only the White Tiger reaches into the complexities of India. Why is that?

******

Sarah Wendell was on the Gayle King show Monday and Ms. King was apparently pretty dismissive of romance as a genre but Wendell held her own according to all reports. Ms. King thought only lonely women read romance and KMont responds that women can be lonely and have cats and still not be pathetic because they read romance. Everyone feels lonely and some lucky people also have cats.

*****

From the inbox:

CALL FOR BOOKS FOR MILITARY IN AFGHANISTAN

Art Mills, award winner author of The Empty Lot Next Door, is stationed in Kabul, Afghanistan and requesting print books for himself and his fellow troop members. He tells me most of the books are old and worn-out, indicating people read them and hand them to others.

I sent him a box of 12 books and he wrote me:

I placed the books on a book shelf and people rushed right to them. It’s nice to know people back home still care after ten years. Thanks!!!!

Yes, we do care! Please donate a copy of your book (or ARC) so Art can put it on their barren shelves. If you send more than one copy it will be donated to another troop through Books for Soldiers.

And, it’s okay to enclose a letter of thanks, or if you have a child have her or him draw a picture or write a letter. It is a lonely world in Afghanistan and if we can bring a smile or tear to our soldiers it will be a reminder to them that we do care.

Please send your donation to:

Reader Views
Books for Soldiers
3267 Bee Cave Road, Ste 107-380
Austin, TX 78746

We use candy for packing so if you’d like to donate a bag of candy as well, that would be terrific. The candy should be something that is wrapped individually, e.g. tootsie rolls, mints. (Not chocolate – it melts while sitting on the tarmac.)

Thanks! I know your book will be well received!

Irene

PS – if you have any military/war themed books, either your own or those you have read, please send them as well. Surprisingly those themes are well received.

REVIEW: Dead in the Family by Charlaine Harris

Janet — Thu, 06 May 2010 10:00:23 +0000

Dear Ms. Harris:

The first time I read Dead in the Family I felt almost hypnotized by the emotional aftermath of the horror Sookie faced in the last book, Dead and Gone. Enthralled by the effects of her trauma and the painfully slow steps she was making toward recovery, I could barely summon my critical faculties to the task of reviewing the book. It took two reads for me to reflect, analyze, and evaluate the book beyond an inchoate awe at what registered to me at the time as a perfectly rendered narrative. My second time through provided some necessary distance, but it did not dim my appreciation of Dead in the Family as one of the most powerful and thematically coherent novels in the series.

First a warning: this review will contain spoilers from Dead and Gone and perhaps some mild spoilers for Dead in the Family. I will do my best to minimize their appearance, but I cannot discuss the current book without revisiting some of the momentous events of the last.

Now that the Fae War is over, the door between realms apparently shut and locked tight, and Sookie's recently discovered fairy great grandfather Niall reigning on the other side, Sookie is just barely beginning to heal from the wounds she suffered at the hands of the insane, tortuous fae couple, Neave and Lochlan. She marks as progress the fact that the parts of her body that were chewed out are now covered over completely with fresh skin, thanks in large part to the substantial amount of vampire blood she has been receiving from Eric, who remains, at least for now, her "husband" according to vampire law. Whether Sookie will ever recognize their relationship in that way is part of her struggle in this book, as she tries to sort out her feelings for him and copes with the reality that Eric did not (could not, he claims) come to rescue her, even as she called and called and called for him during her horrific experience.

Eric, in the meantime, is facing his own challenges, namely with Victor, the new vampire king's eyes and ears in Louisiana, who appears to want more than mere oversight of the territory as Felipe's right hand vamp. Eric, being the most powerful sheriff of the most important territory, is now a target of Victor's simmering ambition. And if that situation was not unsettling enough, he must accommodate an unannounced – and unwanted – visit from a very influential figure from his past.

As the title implies, family is the prominent theme of this book. A clever echo of death in the family, the small change makes a big difference here. Superficially, both Sookie and Jason have suffered from several family deaths over the past few books. The Fae War impacted numerous members of Sookie's circle, both human and supe. But this is a book that also deals with whether and how the dead live on in a family, as vampires, as memories, as legacies, as burdens, etc. And it considers, on many levels, how families are comprised, connected, experienced, remembered, avenged, and honored.

When we first met Sookie Stackhouse, we knew her as she knew herself: a human woman with an extraordinary ability who felt more alone than embraced by her lifelong home of Bon Temps. Her parents were long dead, her grandmother a death she suffered in our first months of acquaintance with her, and her brother a somewhat estranged, unreliable presence. She was close to her boss at Merlotte's, unaware he was a shifter, best friends with a woman who would soon betray her brutally, and smitten with a somewhat taciturn vampire named Bill Compton, who was not only her first love, but her first experience with the supernatural kind. Now, eight books later, Sookie has increased her family in both blood relations and emotional bonds, and her own touch of supernatural heritage connects her to more communities than she ever knew existed. The bittersweet experience of not feeling loved has been replaced by the bittersweet knowledge of how many people now connected to her have died:

Probably that should have made me long for peace above all else. But instead of turning into the Bon Temps Gandhi, in my heart I held the knowledge that there were plenty of people I wanted dead. I wasn't directly responsible for most of the deaths that were scattered in my wake, but I was haunted by the feeling that none of them would have happened if it weren't for me. In my darkest moments-’and this was one of them-’I wondered if my life was worth the price that had been paid for it.

The lighthearted Sookie who always tried to see the best in people and knew a better day was just around the corner has paid her own price for being alive and for the complex relationships she is continually struggling to negotiate and manage. It's not merely a loss of innocence, but rather an acquisition of experience that has shaken the foundations on which her whole world had previously been built:

"You've changed," [Bill] said.

"Sure, I have. I thought I was going to die for a couple of hours. I hurt like I've never hurt before. And Neave and Lochlan enjoyed it so much. That snapped something inside me. When you and Niall killed them, it was like an answer to the biggest prayer I'd ever prayed. I'm supposed to be a Christian, but most days I don't feel like I can even presume to say that about myself any longer. I have a lot of mad left over. When I can't sleep, I think about the other people who didn't care how much pain and trouble they caused me. And I think about how good I'd feel if they died.”

Her greatest moments of happiness now often come from Eric, with whom she shares a blood bond, which makes her both relish and distrust her growing attachment to him. However, it is clear that he cares about Sookie, although his new vulnerability extends not only to his feelings for her but to his increasingly precarious safety under Victor's middle management and other complications from his past:

"If they stay until Tuesday, I'm going to see you no matter what they're doing," Eric told me. He sounded a little more like himself. "We'll make love. I feel like buying you a present."

"That sounds like a great night to me," I said, feeling a surge of hope. "I don't need a present, just you. So I'll see you Tuesday, no matter what. That's what you said, right?"

"That's what I said."

"Okay then, until Tuesday."

"I love you," Eric said in a drained voice. "And you are my wife, in the only way that matters to me."

Across generations, species, centuries, and emotional bonds, the complexity and depth of the relationships Sookie has seem constantly to be shaping and re-shaping her, defining her strength, outlining her vulnerabilities, altering her expectations and desires. Her moral and ethical values are in flux, even as she becomes bolder and more fleshed out as a character and a person. For me, Dead in the Family is the book in which the cost of Sookie's maturation has not yet been set, but like her, we would be foolish to believe that it is not quite high. As one of the many supernatural beings in her circle remarks to her, "Dead things love you… They're pulling on you." At no point in the series has that been clearer than in this book, where Sookie's fuller presence in the world around her has both grounded and shattered her. The genius of this book, in my opinion, is the way it so deftly ties together the sometimes seemingly disconnected pieces of earlier books.

One thing I have noticed about these books is that time is marked off in very specific, discrete pieces, and Dead in the Family is no exception. But here that narrative structure takes on even more significance, because it feels that time is counting down to some ultimate crisis point, and because we can see powerfully the way Sookie's own life is built on so many moments and events that she may not have a part in making but which will require an action or decision or reaction from her. Where some books feel stuffed with action and others feel like virtually nothing occurs, looking back I am already beginning to see how every encounter Sookie has had in these books is shaping both her character and her ultimate fate. And quite honestly, I am a little scared for her.

From the beginning of this series I have been engaged in Sookie's journey toward true independence and fulfillment. Whatever she is moving toward, it will likely be beyond her own imaginings, and for me, as a reader, that is both an exciting and frightening prospect. Where Sookie once yearned for a sweetheart, now she has several males in her circle who desire and care for her. Where she once wanted to be accepted by the people of Bon Temps, she now has deep ties both human and non-human communities, and it seems sometimes she has little peace in her life. She has a cousin she will finally get the chance to know, and a brother who has a very different view of family after his own recent losses. She has a current lover, a good friend who is most likely in love her, and several past lovers who still hold deep feelings for her and will move to protect her when necessary. She has some new friendships and is enjoying the revival of some old friendships. She has fae relatives on both sides of the door to Faery who are still reaching out to her.

In many ways Sookie's life is incredibly rich in family from whom she receives comfort and support. But as Dead in the Family demonstrates with incredible emotional poignancy and thematic cogency, "dead things" are "pulling on" Sookie. And even when their love is a gift, it is a burden and a risk. In some ways I feel that this series is the same, but like Sookie, I cannot bring myself to give up. A-

~Janet aka Robin

This is a hardcover published by ACE, a division of Penguin. Penguin has not come to an agreement with Amazon and therefore there is no Kindle version. Pricing is set by the publisher for the digital book.

Spring 2010: Ace/Roc Preview and Giveaway

Jane — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 18:00:55 +0000

Update: This contest will end at midnight, March 6, 2010, Central Time. Winners to be announced on March 7, 2010.

Welcome to Ace and Roc's forthcoming books giveaway!

Thanks again to Dear Author for giving me this opportunity to let you know about some of our terrific upcoming titles. As always, there are too many great books for me to mention all of them, so you can look at our site (http://us.penguingroup.com/static/pages/specialinterests/scifi/index.html) to see everything we publish.

March 2010

SHALADOR'S LADY BY ANNE BISHOP

I've said it before and I'll say it again-’Anne Bishop is really special. Her Black Jewels novels are intense and sensual and both her anti-heroes and the way she turns fantasy tropes on their heads made her books groundbreaking when they first came out. SHALADOR'S LADY continues the story of Lady Cassidy, the Rose-Jeweled Queen who is striving to restore her land (and struggling to believe in herself). If you've read Anne Bishop before, then you know it's unusual for her to feature a character with a lighter-colored (and less powerful) jewel. In both this book and the previous story about Lady Cassidy, THE SHADOW QUEEN, I love how Anne is exploring what it really means to be a Queen (a witch who rules the Blood, and is considered to be the land's heart and the Blood's moral center). It's not just about how much fire power you've got.

FIRST TRUTH by Dawn Cook

Dawn is most known for the terrific urban fantasy she writes under the name Kim Harrison (I'm looking forward to digging into BLACK MAGIC SANCTION myself). So not as many people are aware of the wonderful traditional fantasy novels she wrote as Dawn Cook. We are reissuing them with beautiful new covers, and FIRST TRUTH is kicking it off. It's a romantic fantasy, about Alissa, a young woman who never believed in magic. But her mother insists she's inherited her father's magical ability and must go to the Hold-’the only place her talents can be trained. As she learns to use her powers, she also finds love with a wandering musician. The style of these books is necessarily different from the Kim Harrison novels, but readers who also enjoy traditional fantasy should have a great time. There are three more books in the Truth series, and they will be released in May, July, and September.

April 2010

HELL FIRE by Ann Aguirre

This is the latest in Ann's Corine Solomon books, a terrific urban fantasy series about a woman who can touch an object and know its history. Corine's voice is tremendous and whether the book takes place in the southwest (BLUE DIABLO) or the steamy south, the setting comes alive. In HELL FIRE, Corine leaves Texas to go back home to Kilmer, Georgia, in order to discover the truth behind her mother's death and the origins of her "gift". Her ex-boyfriend Chance (who doesn't want to be her "ex") is there as well, having promised to lend his particularly supernatural brand of luck to Corine's search. (Fun fact: all the book titles in this series are tequila cocktails. I'm not a drinker, but the internet is an amazing research tool!)

SILVER BORNE by Patricia Briggs

I am so excited for you to read the next Mercy Thompson novel! If you're new to the series, Mercy is a car mechanic (and shapeshifter). She lives in a world of vampires, werewolves, fae and witches, and while humans are aware preternatural beings exist ever since some of the more "harmless" fae came out, what humans know is only the tip of the iceberg. It's so hard to know how much to tell you about the book itself since I don't want to spoil anyone. I'll just say that SILVER BORNE starts off with Mercy getting the message that she needs to return a book of fae lore to the person she borrowed it from, but things quickly become more complicated when Mercy finds out her werewolf friend, Samuel, is in trouble and she needs to go to the hospital where he works to help him. There are some scenes in this one between Mercy and Adam, her mate, that made my heart skip a beat, they were so emotionally intense. This is a wonderful series, with characters who grow and change, and a world that keeps getting richer with each book.

May 2010

DEAD IN THE FAMILY by Charlaine Harris

DEAD IN THE FAMILY is the much anticipated new novel in Charlaine's Sookie Stackhouse series, the basis for the HBO series TRUE BLOOD. The Sookie books have a lot of heart and thanks to you, wonderful readers, they've come a long way since the first in the series, DEAD UNTIL DARK, was published in 2001 as an Ace original paperback. Being an Eric fan, here's the tidbit from the cover copy of DEAD IN THE FAMILY that caught my attention:

Sookie is hurt and she's mad. Just about the only bright spot in her life-’besides the fact that she is, after all, still alive-’is the love she thinks she feels for vampire Eric Northman, who is under scrutiny by the new vampire king because of their relationship.

BEWITCHED & BETRAYED by Lisa Shearin

If you think "sexy goblin" is a misnomer, than you've never read Lisa Shearin. Lisa writes traditional fantasy with a modern attitude, and the story is told in the sassy first person voice of Raine Benares, an elf sorceress who got stuck with an artifact of unimaginable power (that unfortunately eats souls). Whoever controls Raine, controls the artifact, and all this constant running and fighting to get away from the people after her is really putting a damper on her life. On top of that she's got an elf paladin and a goblin mage vying for her affections. There are significant relationship developments in this one-’you won't want to miss it!

THE SWEET SCENT OF BLOOD by Suzanne McLeod

First in a brand-new urban fantasy series, this is about Genevieve Taylor, a sidhe-’one of the noble fae-’and she's unusual even in a London where celebrity vampires, eccentric goblins, and scheming lesser fax mix freely with humanity. She's also a rising star at Spellcrackers.com, where she finds the "M" in magic-’which can mean anything from mischief to malice to murder.

GHOSTS & ECHOES by Lyn Benedict

This is the next book about Sylvie Lightner, an unlicensed PI working out of Miami who specializes in cases involving the magicus mundi, i.e. things that go bump in the night. Sylvie wants an easy case this time, something straightforward, so she agrees to investigate a series of thefts in her area-’but nothing is as simple as it seems. The plot involves Hands of Glory, Sylvie's teenage sister, and coming back from the dead, and it's fantastic. (I personally find hands of glory incredibly creepy, and I was getting chills, in a good way.) This is an excellent series, well worth a try if you like your urban fantasy on the dark side.

Anne Sowards is an executive editor at Penguin Group (USA) Inc., where she primarily acquires and edits fantasy and science fiction for the Ace and Roc imprints. Some of the great authors she works with include Jim Butcher, Patricia Briggs, Anne Bishop, Ilona Andrews, Karen Chance, Jack Campbell, and Rob Thurman. When she’s not reading, she listens to Chinese rap and spends way too much time playing video games. Follow her at http://twitter.com/AnneSowards.

We are giving away:

SHALADOR'S LADY / Anne Bishop – 3 ARCs
FIRST TRUTH / Dawn Cook – 3 finished copies
HELL FIRE / Ann Aguirre – 3 ARCs
DEAD IN THE FAMILY / Charlaine Harris – 1 ARC (sorry, they are very scarce)
BEWITCHED & BETRAYED / Lisa Shearin – 3 ARCs
THE SWEET SCENT OF BLOOD / Suzanne McLeod – 3 ARCs
GHOST & ECHOES / Lyn Benedict – 3 ARCs
SILVER BORNE / Patricia Briggs – 3 finished copies

TO WIN: Leave a comment listing the top two books you would want AND tell us your favorite Ace/Roc book (in other words, build up our to be read list)

REVIEW: Dead and Gone by Charlaine Harris

Janet — Mon, 04 May 2009 10:00:45 +0000

Dear Ms. Harris:

There is a point in your newest Sookie Stackhouse release, Dead and Gone, where Diantha, demon niece of supe lawyer Mr. Cataliades, warns Sookie of war brewing among the fairies. This spells danger for Sookie because of her connection to the fairy prince Niall, and like the weres in the last book, fairies are not united under one leader. When Sookie asks Diantha why Mr. Cataliades would potentially endanger himself to warn her, Diantha explains “Didyerbest,” which Sookie understands refers back to the horrific explosion at the Pyramid of Gizeh hotel a couple of books ago. Sookie and Barry the bellhop had searched for survivors among the rubble, even though they knew they risked being discovered as telepaths by law enforcement looking for an edge in crime solving. Together, they found many humans and vampires who otherwise would have perished.

This sentiment – doing one’s best – appears several times in the book, and it has become a hallmark theme for Sookie; she continues to do her best in increasingly difficult and dangerous situations. And she continues to find herself more entwined in the supernatural world, and more vulnerable to its persistent cycles of violence, understanding more clearly that one’s best isn’t always good enough to prevent chaos and collateral damage. Previously, Sookie has been the victim of conflicts among others, and this book is no different, except for the fact that the circle of danger is widening out from her, too.

Sookie has always managed to survive bad things by being straightforward and pragmatic, and in this book, those qualities are pushed to the limit, perhaps beyond the limit. Indeed, really bad things happen to Sookie in Dead and Gone, things that take the series to a much darker place than ever before. Darker, richer, more powerful than perhaps any of the other books in the series save the first, where Sookie discovered a whole new world practically in her back yard. A devastating book, one in which Sookie faces a number of life changing crossroads, Dead and Gone is easily among my favorite books of the series, a work of bittersweet brilliance.

Dead and Gone begins with the public revelation of the weres, an event that has the potential to catalyze worldwide violence. It was one thing to accept vampires, the but existence of more than one supernatural being raises many questions about how many more there might be, especially since weres are not ordinarily recognizable like vamps are. The violence erupts close to home, though, hitting Sam’s mother and stepfather (Sam’s mother is a supe, but she has kept her identity from the rest of the family) and Jason, who already underwent a devastating personal loss in the last book. A dead body in Bon Temps, a crucified were left in the parking lot of Merlotte’s, creates suspicion around Jason and a challenge for Sookie, who is in charge of the bar while Sam is away tending to his family problems.

In the meantime, the FBI has found Sookie, and they come calling with the hopes that she will serve their cause. The new vampire king, Felipe de Castro, has taken a strong interest in Sookie’s unique talents, as well. Eric, in his “high handed” way (there’s a great moment where Sookie has to explain to Eric what that means, and he reacts in typical Eric fashion), deals with the potential threat from Felipe by claiming that he and Sookie have been “pledged” through the blood exchange they performed at the Pyramid (to save Sookie from a worse fate), something that the increasingly independent Sookie has a wee bit of trouble with. How can she trust anything she feels about Eric when the blood bond positively influences her emotions toward and around him? And Bill, who hurt Sookie so badly, continues to show himself a most ardent protector, intent, it seems on winning back Sookie’s trust and love. Not to mention the fairies and weres, neither of which can keep their internecine trouble from touching Sookie (and vice versa).

On the surface, the plot of Dead and Gone is quite simple: the impending fairy civil war threatens the safety of Sookie and those close to her. The mystery of the crucified were may or may not be linked to the fairy war, but it definitely presents one more problem for Sookie, who seems to be the nexus for competing groups of supes, all of whom are more powerful than she, and none of whom are without self-interest in their attachment to her. As Sookie dedicates herself to finding the crucifier and taking the suspicion away from Jason, she cannot help but embroil herself deeper in supernatural politics and in personal relationships that increase her visibility and desirability for those of benign and not so benign motivations. Thus the complexity of the book emerges from both the expected and unforeseen consequences of these relationships. If Sookie has been going through a certain adolescent-like self-discovery, I’d say that Dead and Gone marks her painful and profound arrival into adulthood.

There has already been a certain amount of buzz around this book and the advancement of the arc that has been developing for Sookie and Eric. But anyone who has read Harris with regularity knows that what she gives with one stroke of her pen (or keyboard), she takes away with the next, and whatever excitement readers may anticipate around the Sookie-Eric-Bill-Quinn love quadrangle should be sobered by the violence that Sookie must now face pretty regularly because of her association with the supes. As Sookie notes at one point, “I felt a flash of disappointment that fairy tales didn’t come true.” Which, in part, is related to the fact that fairies are not necessarily so benign. Like many things in Harris’s fictional world, beauty attracts but offers dangerous surprises.

But whether or not Sookie gets a romantic HEA, she is maturing into a woman who is finally starting to understand that no one else can guarantee her safety and happiness. And that her desire for a “normal” life is unfulfillable in the way she had always thought. “Though I knew I wasn’t a deep theological thinker,” Sookie opines, “I sometimes wondered if crisis moments in my life hadn’t come down to two choices: be a bad Christian, or die. I’d chosen life every time.” And in choosing life, she has changed, and not everyone believes it’s for the better:

“You forgiven me?” [Jason] asked after he’d taken a gulp of coffee. His voice sounded hoarse and thick. I thought he’d been crying.

“I expect that sooner or later I might,” I said. “But I’ll never feel the same about you again.”

“God, you’ve gotten hard. You’re all the family I’ve got left.” The dark glasses turned to face me. You have to forgive me, because you’re all I have who can forgive.

I looked at him, feeling a little exasperated, a little sad. If I was getting harder, it was in response to the world around me.

And what a world it is. A world where Sookie finally has to face that her life has been full of loss, before and after she discovered the supes. Where she has always been somewhere between blending in and sticking out, and where before the supes, as dangerous as they are, Sookie was sometimes too anxious to please. Thinking now about her relationship with former-friend and current Fellowship of the Sun acolyte Arlene, Sookie is ready to face that

I don’t think I’d let myself dwell on these incidents before, because they revealed such a colossal pitifulness on my part. I’d needed a friend so badly I’d clung to the meager scraps from Arlene’s table, though she’d taken advantage of me time after time.

Sookie had indeed been lonely, and with the vampires, especially, she is able to enjoy companionship without the burden of knowing their thoughts. In many ways, she is more akin to the supes, or at least to those like Amelia the witch, who are human but hardly “normal” in the way Bon Temps seems to define the term. But are Sookie’s burdens worse now? How often have her connections to the supes, which in some way are deeper and more authentic than her relationships to most full-humans, placed her in danger? And at what point will she face a danger she cannot survive? This reality finally seems to be hitting Sookie, and it presents a whole new series of dilemmas for her:

“You’re not dead,” Dr. Ludwig pointed out.

But I’d come pretty damn close; I’d sort of stepped over the line. There’d been an optimum rescue time. If I’d been liberated before that time, I would have laughed all the way to the secret supernatural clinic, or wherever I was. But I’d looked at death too closely- close enough to see all the pores in Death’s face- and I’d suffered too much. I wouldn’t bounce back this time.

. . . I would never be the same person again, physically or mentally.

These realizations reflect Sookie’s maturity and independence. She has a real appreciation for maintaining her autonomy, imagining her ideal marriage, for example, as “a democratic partnership.” But which supes in her life will offer her that, and are those the supes that appeal to Sookie? For while we are seeing a more circumspect Sookie, a woman who is coming into her own and thinking more deliberately about how she fits into the human and non-human worlds, we are also seeing a woman whose choices are increasingly narrowed with every step – intentional and unintentional — she takes into supe politics. And these men, these men who seem so sexy but who have their own agendas to protect and advance — who among them can really love and value Sookie as a whole person? For every gain there is a compromise, for every sweet, a shot of sour. Sookie is becoming scarred now, and at what point will her refusal to be a victim no longer be enough to save her and keep her whole? Has she actually moved past the point where she can deliberately choose safety and what does that do for her prospects of lasting happiness and security?

These questions have always lurked under Sookie’s perky, practical exterior, but now they are fully present in the series, if not yet in Sookie’s direct sight, and they are as compelling as they are frightening. I know there is concern about Sookie’s fickle romantic feelings, but since she has only slept with three men since ending her virginity with Bill, I have no worries that Sookie is going hoochie rogue. I want Sookie to explore her options, to make the most informed choice she can among potential mates, because Sookie’s naiveté has not historically brought her lasting contentment.

With Dead and Gone, I don’t know how close Sookie is to real happiness, but I do think she and the series have taken a major step forward. While some of the books in this series have seemed to me like a confusion of action and reaction with a little bit of ‘hurry up and wait’ pacing, Dead and Gone felt deliberately packed and paced, and there was no point in the book where I was not fully absorbed in Sookie’s consciousness and her world. And despite the heaviness of the book, there were still those wonderful moments of dry humor, like when Sookie prepares herself for another day of problems:

I walked down the hall to go into my room and pull on some clothes. Today was going to be a hard day, and I always felt better when I was dressed while handling a crisis. Something about putting on my underwear makes me feel more capable.

It’s moments like these where I wonder whether I would worry about Sookie so much if she were male, and that’s certainly a question I need to examine further – am I prejudiced toward Sookie, too? I don’t know if I should be seeing male characters as more vulnerable or female characters as less so. But at the same time, it is partly Sookie’s vulnerability, her earnest desire to do her best in the face of incredible difficulty and pain, her kindness and tendency to blame herself for the faults and weaknesses of others, which make her so authentic to me. I don’t want any of that to change, even as I worry about Sookie and fear for her ultimate happiness.

At this point, I am fully invested in this series, cannot believe I have to wait another full year for the next book, and look forward to re-reading Dead and Gone to appreciate its powerful writing and storytelling all over again. A.

~ Janet

This book can be purchased in hardcover from an independent bookstore or ebook format from the Sony Store and other etailers on May 5, 2009.

Best of 2008 List: Reviewer Jennie F

Jennie — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 20:02:35 +0000

This week we’ll post the “best of 2008″ list for each reviewer. Feel free to use this as a commenting launch pad but also as a way for you to measure your taste against the reviewer’s taste.

Jennie F is one of our “new-ish” reviewers. She reviews sporadically and has ecletic taste. Her list includes a variety of fiction books, not all of which are romance:

VICTORY OF EAGLES by Naomi Novik, Grade A
THE EDGE OF IMPROPRIETY by Pam Rosenthal, Grade: A
DELICIOUS by Sherry Thomas, Grade A
FROM DEAD TO WORSE by Charlaine Harris, Grade A
PRIVATE ARRANGEMENTS by Sherry Thomas, Grade A-
YOUR SCANDALOUS WAYS by Loretta Chase, Grade A-
WHERE SERPENTS SLEEP by C.S. Harris, Grade: B+
DUKE OF SHADOWS by Meredith Duran, Grade B+
LOVE THE ONE YOU’RE WITH by Emily Giffin, Grade: B+
CRY WOLF by Patricia Briggs, Grade B+
POWER PLAY by Deirdre Martin, Grade B+

REVIEW: From Dead to Worse by Charlaine Harris

Jennie — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 09:00:29 +0000

Dear Ms. Harris,

Back in the spring of 2004, I was one of those entrenched historical romance fans decrying the new flood of paranormal romances (if only I’d known how much worse it would get, I would’ve paced my ire a bit). A friend loaned me your first Sookie Stackhouse novel, Dead Until Dark, and despite my prejudices against vampires, Southern settings and small town locations, for some reason I picked it up and started reading.

And I fell in love.

In love with Sookie. In love with your writing, and with Sookie’s utterly unique and endearing voice. Even in love with the paranormal world you created, which quickly expanded from vampires to include shapeshifters, fairies and other assorted non-human beings. You portrayed the effect that Sookie’s telepathy had on her life in the medium homogenous community of Bon Temps beautifully, making it both realistic and poignant.

I devoured the first four books in the series, one after another, and never even began to get Sookie-fatigue. Then I settled down, twitching every once in a while, to wait almost a year for the next book in the series.

Because I read the first half of the series in one gulp, and also due to its serial nature (the events of each book often begin only days or weeks after the end of the previous book), I sometimes have trouble distinguishing one "Dead" book from the next. Yes, I remember that Living Dead in Dallas is the one where Sookie goes to Dallas (I’m quick that way), and that Dead to the World is the one where Sookie gets with Eric (because, ooh la la). But in general, the events of the books tend to blend together. (Also, I forget whole huge important details from one book to the next. But I think that’s more a function of my advanced age – I’m going to be 40! In 15 months! – than anything to do with the books themselves, except for perhaps the fact that each book is pretty chock-full of goings-on.)

I have given each of the first five books in the Sookie Stackhouse series A grades; 2006’s Definitely Dead was an A-, and last year’s All Together Dead earned a B+. One might think that this constitutes a trend and that the series has started to slip for me, but honestly I think the less than stellar grade, at least for All Together Dead, had largely to do with the change of setting (from Bon Temps to Rhodes, the site of the vampire convention). That book just wasn’t quite as anchored as the other books in the series, and thus suffered slightly in comparison (not that a B+ is a bad grade).

For a more coherent synopsis of the plot of From Dead to Worse, I would point to Janet’s review here. To some degree, though, your plots are both fairly irrelevant (except in that their events contribute to Sookie’s emotional growth), and great big messes, anyway. On the one hand, this sometimes gives your books a bit of an episodic feel – at time plot threads are started at the beginning of one book, and then pretty much dropped while the main plot is dealt with, only to be picked up at the end, by which time I have well-nigh forgotten about them. It can make the story feel a little uneven, at least for anal-retentive me, who likes intricate, circular plots that fit together neatly at the end.

But on the other hand, the messiness of the plots highlights the intense realism of Sookie’s world. Yes, it’s odd to say about a world that is populated with witches, vampires and werewolves, but one of the series’ greatest virtues is how seamlessly the mundane and the fantastic are folded together. It doesn’t matter what death-defying hijinx Sookie has gotten to in a day – she still has to go home, get ready for work, and then do a full shift as a waitress at Sam’s bar. She has bills to pay and responsibilities that extend beyond her ever-expanding commitments to the supernatural community.

So the fact that all plot points don’t get wrapped up in one big tidy bow adds to the sense that this is Sookie’s real life we’re reading about. In From Dead to Worse, the aspect that was picked up at the beginning and then semi-ignored until the end was that of Sookie’s newly introduced otherworldly great grandfather. I assume we’ll be seeing more of him in future books. I’m cautiously optomistic about him as a character; Sookie needs all of the help she can get, considering how often she finds herself in peril, and how useless and unreliable her one other blood relative, her brother Jason, is.

I have never been one of those readers bothered by the fact that Everyone Loves Sookie (or rather, every paranormal male seemingly is attracted to her – at one point, I lost count at six men). I adore Sookie, albeit in a platonic girl-crush kind of way, so who am I to say that the men in her life shouldn’t fall at her feet? Which they don’t, actually – if anything, the various men who are drawn to Sookie tend to present more problems than they solve. In any case, Sookie appears to drop one admirer in this installment, and I won’t miss him hugely. The tension of "who will Sookie end up with?" is not, IMO, overplayed in the series, and most of the main contenders have enough virtues and flaws to keep me interested in the answer.

There were some aspects of From Dead to Worse that bugged me. Sookie’s folksy, conversational voice is one of the main draws of these books, but sometimes she repeats herself, reiterating details that have already been mentioned earlier in the book or even in previous books (yes, I know the werewolves are thinking of going public – I swear it gets mentioned four times in From Dead to Worse alone). The many characters that are reintroduced in each book usually get a little blurb from Sookie reminding us who they are and their relationship to her. This is helpful when I can’t quite remember the character, but irritating with characters I’m quite familiar with already. I recognize that there are challenges to writing a continuing series with so many characters and where so much happens in each story. I might prefer a glossary of characters at the beginning for the new reader (not that I would advise that anyone pick up this series in the middle!) or those whose memories need refreshing.

Can I just reiterate that I love Sookie? She feels so real to me that I am invested in her happiness, and when people who should care for her let her down, I feel her disappointment and hurt. I think From Dead to Worse was a return to your classic form, and for that reason, I can’t give it less than an A grade.

~Jennie

This book can be purchased in hardcover from Amazon or Powells or ebook format.

REVIEW: From Dead To Worse by Charlaine Harris

Janet — Fri, 02 May 2008 20:00:54 +0000

Dear Ms. Harris:

First I have to admit that I adore this series; I feel very connected to the characters and to the world of the novels. Although I’m not old enough to be Sookie’s mother, I have very protective feelings toward her and wait impatiently for my yearly fix of her continuing saga, cheering her on as she becomes more independent and confident, feeling sharply the bittersweet sacrifices and compromises she so often has to make. And quite honestly, this is one of the few series of books I inhale rather uncritically. However, since this is a review, I have to say that while I am every bit as hooked in emotionally to this series as I was after reading Dead Until Dark, as a crafted work of fiction, From Dead To Worse is not the strongest book in the series.

Recently returned home to Bon Temps from the disastrous vampire convention in Rhodes, Sookie Stackhouse is dealing with the usual combination of human and not-so-human problems. Her boyfriend Quinn has not returned, having been injured badly in the hotel explosion that claimed the lives of numerous vamps and gravely injured the queen of Louisiana, Sophie-Anne Leclerq. Bill Compton, Sookie’s first love and the vamp who broke her heart, seems intent on trying to prove his love for her. And Eric, who now shares a blood bond with Sookie, is increasingly involved in her life and her emotions, as they are now psychically connected. And a new man enters Sookie’s life in this book (well, two men, really, although one is only four years old – her telepathic nephew, son of Sookie’s deceased cousin Hadley), her great grandfather Niall, an incredibly powerful fairy who wants to be Sookie’s protector.

And Sookie could use some additional protection, because, as she feared, her high profile in Rhodes (using her telepathy to locate living and undead bodies after the hotel explosion) has made her a person of greater interest in the supernatural community. During the course of From Dead to Worse, Sookie acts as a negotiator in an increasingly tense and violent Were conflict, is forced to stand up on her brother’s behalf in a horrific Shifter ceremony, has to fend off several mysterious Were attacks, has to do a favor for roommate Amelia’s shady father, is caught in the middle of a standoff between the vampire king of Las Vegas and the weakened Louisiana vamps, and has to face some difficult choices about one of the men in her life. Although Sookie has been coming more and more into her own as a woman who is neither fully human nor fully something else, she faces more complications stemming from her somewhat marginal attachment to various, sometimes competitive, communities. And, as her great grandfather points out, her humanness makes her somewhat fragile despite her abundant and admirable courage.

One of the things I have always admired about this series is the reminder that bad things can, indeed, happen to good people. Sookie has borne a lot of sorrow in her life, and every gift she gets seems to be accompanied by a bit of pain. Although she is grateful to have more family in her life, for example, the explanation of her fairy heritage forces her to accept something about her grandmother she would never have suspected or expected. Bill’s feelings for her seem genuine (we can see his misery at not being able to win her back), but there is no guarantee that any of these men would not choose their own survival over Sookie (something she is reminded of poignantly in this book). And despite the number of men who find Sookie irresistible (and I agree with those who are tiring of Sookie’s excessive appeal within the supe communities), they each pose almost as much danger to her as they do enhanced protection. In other words, Sookie needs every ounce of collected courage she can muster to negotiate the increasingly complex and unstable supernatural networks of which she is a reluctant but seemingly crucial part.

For me, one of the most powerful aspects of this series has been the bittersweet quality of Sookie’s life choices. Should she choose any of the supes she is attracted to, she will make significant sacrifices. Even Sam, who hovers somewhere between friend and something more territory is far from normal, and with the shifter community now on the brink of going public, that will become even more evident later on. And while Sookie’s network of friendships continues to grow – with both human and otherworldly individuals – so do her responsibilities. For example, the first scene of the novel finds Sookie being begged to stand in as a bridesmaid for Halleigh Robinson at her double wedding with Portia Bellefleur after a similarly sized girl ends up at the hospital. The scene vividly illustrates Sookie’s insider-outsider status among the humans, because she is not close enough to Halleigh to be a “real” bridesmaid,” but she is too honorable a person to refuse the woman’s panicked request. So she suffers in high heels and big hair, posing for pictures and standing in for Halleigh, finally rushing back to change so she can bartend the reception with Sam. Sookie’s unusual position in the community makes her a perpetual outsider, even as she so often finds herself facilitating someone else’s happiness or well-being, whether that be her selfish brother Jason or her roommate Amelia’s elderly witch mentor. That Sookie continues to grow within herself, and that she continues to acquire the tools with which to find her own place in the world, remains a strong thematic thread across the series.

At the same time, though, I am getting the sense with the series that the story is beginning to unfold spontaneously rather than through a pre-planned trajectory. For example, the story behind Sookie’s fairy blood seems like a departure from characterizations developed in the first few books, and I don’t understand how Sookie did not question further how it was all possible. Also, as I mentioned above, it is starting to feel a little strange that virtually every straight supernatural being is drawn to Sookie sexually; I know that she’s attractive, but it is starting to feel contrived. There’s a point at which Sookie senses something in Alcide that did not feel authentic to me, undermining the very serious circumstances under which Sookie makes the discovery. And finally, the past few books have really been paced almost manically, with an incredible amount of action and conflict occurring within each installment, so much so that Sookie’s internal development and the more subtle aspects of character and relationship development are starting to feel secondary, or more specifically, accelerated.

Then there are Sookie’s men. Again, I think there is a fine balance here among these various relationships, a tension that keeps it all interesting. For example, now that Sookie is blood bound to Eric, she is happy whenever he is in the room with her, something that annoys her to no end. And surely this phenomenon will have a significant effect on whatever romantic relationship Sookie is in at the moment, especially if she ever marries. The difficulties of that, assuming she doesn’t end up with Eric, that is, are fascinating to contemplate. However, the abundance of interested men around Sookie threatens to undermine the seriousness of this issue. There is also the competition that exists between Eric and Bill, which, as funny as it often is, sometimes seems to overshadow whatever feelings exist between each male and Sookie, threatening to turn the triangle into a caricatured drama.

I do not mean to imply that the series has become cartoonish, but the sheer number of scraps Sookie survives makes me wonder where the series is headed and whether the more subtle, and in my opinion substantive, insider – outsider dynamic is being eclipsed by drama sufficient to propel the series through however many more books. In other words, I am starting to feel that all the drama is distracting rather than purposeful. Not that the series has to mean something as a whole; Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum series is going strong at thirteen books and counting, and Stephanie’s growth has been extremely slow. But I’ve always felt that this series was different – not better or worse, mind you – but different in its sharp and sometimes beautifully nuanced social and cultural commentary. And while I don’t want Sookie to be merely a symbol of those thematic conflicts, I am not sure how easily I would take to the series if I started with this book instead of the first one. And while I cannot foresee ever turning away from the series, stepping away from my emotional investment in the journey these books have taken me on, I have to give From Dead To Worse a B-.

~ Janet

This book can be purchased in mass market paperback from Amazon
or Powells or ebook format.

Best Anthology Ever?

Jane — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 19:32:39 +0000

moar funny pictures

You might have seen the news in Publishers Marketplace that Meljean Brook sold an anthology story to Cindy Hwang at Berkley this past weekend. What you didn’t read is who else is in that anthology.

Are you ready? Do you want to make guesses? Shall I torture you with the knowledge until you send death threats?

Nah. I’m willing to spill else why would I write the post? Summer 2009 will feature an anthology collection featuring

!!!!!

I know! That was my response as well. It might be the most perfect anthology collection ever. My question to you would be what would be an anthology collection you would like to see offered?