Review: Dearly Devoted Dexter

Dearly Devoted Dexter by Jeff Lindsay

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


A lovable murdering sociopath that can't take his next victim until he has helped the police to catch a serial killer, without revealing what he really is.
I can't help but love a story like this and it doesn't hurt that Mr Lindsay has a wonderful grasp of the English language and let's it show not only in the descriptive part, but also in the dry wit of the dialogue.



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Review: The Laughing Corpse

The Laughing Corpse by Laurell K. Hamilton

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


Thankfully Ms Hamilton's writing style has improved (or she has found an editor that's not afraid to tell her what needs to be improved). The scenes are still a bit short, but flow of the story is better so the reading experience is not at all as jarring as in the first book.

The main character Anita Black helps the police in the search for a paranormal killer.
The story is quite good and adds something to the world of UF.



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Review: Guilty Pleasures

Guilty Pleasures by Laurell K. Hamilton

My rating: 1 of 5 stars


The reason I picked up this book was that I was looking for a new series to follow, as the ones I'm currently following are all waiting for 'the next book'. When I bought this book I bought The Laughing Corpse at the same time. If I hadn't I would likely have dropped this series, as Guilty Pleasures isn't close to living up to my quality standard.
What I did like about the book is the somewhat fresh (although gory) approach to UF, where the main character is an animator/necromancer - who raises the dead for a living.

As someone who aspire to someday write a book of my own, this book was very educational as it's only half finished. I don't blame Ms Hamilton for this, but would rather point at the editor that allowed this book to go to printing when it obviously wasn't done.
My main gripe with the book is that it lacks flow, as the scenes doesn't really fit together, making the reading experience jarring, at best. Ms Hamilton is a cue-card writer, dividing the story line into separate scenes, which she appears to write individually. The scenes are then numbered and 'page-broken', which doesn't help the flow. There are a lot of other authors that uses the same style of writing, Terry Pratchett is one, but he avoids the numbering and 'page-breaking' in his novels. With the division Ms Hamilton use the scenes has to be longer than four page on average - in this book the average is about three and a half, with some as short as half a page.
There are also some truly jarring scene breaks, such as where the main character Anita moves from a face-off in a back yard and together with her companions leave in a car. The dialogue continues in the car, yet she has chosen to make it a new scene - with scene number an page break.



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Review: Obsidian Butterfly

Obsidian Butterfly by Laurell K. Hamilton

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


This book side-steps the continued story of Anita Blacks relationship to the two men in her life, by taking her out of St Louis to pay back a favor to her former tutor Edward.
The story is fairly good, but also fairly predictable.
My main problem with the book is that it adds nothing to the overall story of the series, which any book in a series as prolific as the Anita Black series has been and especially at such a crucial time in the main characters life.
In the previous book Blue Moon Anita has learnt that the two most important men in her life has lied to her and taken action on learning more on her own, but in this book she suddenly drops everything without reason to help Edward solve a paranormal murder mystery. She drops all attempts as self discovery, which is completely out of character for her.

The series has really turned out to be a learning experience for an aspiring author.



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Review: The Word for World is Forest

The Word for World is Forest by Ursula K. Le Guin

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This book shows one of the strengths of Science-Fiction has as genre, which is to drive technology and human behavior to extremes to high-light the strengths and weaknesses with said technology and/or human behavior. This is what this book does very well.

The Word for World is Forest was written in the late 60s and is therefore a little too heavily influenced by the Vietnam war, but even despite that it's still one of the most thought-provoking books I've read in a long time.
The story in the book is that mankind has scourged Earth and left it pretty much barren. In search of wood man has started to colonize the planet Athshea, where the small landmass is covered by a vast forest.
However the logging company isn't too concerned with the native Athsheans.

The book covers subjects such as environmentalist, human disregard of how we affect the world around us, human exploit of animals and/or natives during colonization. However what got to me was the exploration of human evil and its origins.



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Review: Burnt Offerings (Anita Blake Vampire Hunter, #7)

Burnt Offerings (Anita Blake Vampire Hunter, #7) by Laurell K. Hamilton

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


A paranormal firebug is terrorizing St. Louis and as the paranormal expert Anita Black get to help the police and the fire department to track down the culprit.
The story line is somewhat convoluted, which takes a star from the rating.
Her involvement with the master of the city is growing more intense and complex, without any real explanation.
A good read, but there are a lot better books out there.



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Review: Blue Moon

Blue Moon by Laurell K. Hamilton

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Ms Hamilton seems to have found her stride as Blue Moon is a fast-paced action packed paranormal novel.
She doesn't fully manage to handle the personal development and the romantic part between the main character Anita Black and the two men; one the master vampire of St. Louis and the the Werewolf Alpha of the same city. So there's still room for improvement, but overall an enjoyable read.



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Review: At the Gates of Darkness

At the Gates of Darkness by Raymond E. Feist

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I found this book to be very good, but it's also very much a continuation of the first book in the Demonwar Sage and I wouldn't ever recommend anyone to read this book before having read Rides a Dread Legion. There is also several references to the previous series The Darkwar Saga.

Midkemia is once more threatened by evil and the Conclave of Shadows hurries to find the point of attack in time to avert the threat.



The Riftwar books has grown into a regular franchise with more than twenty books and it's starting to show as the story gets more and more artificial with levels of existence and planet jumping.

However At the Gates of Darkness is also gently hinting at that the end might be within sight as some prophecies is drawing to a close.

I really think that the franchise would benefit from the Chaoswar saga being the last saga.



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Review: At the Gates of Darkness

At the Gates of Darkness by Raymond E. Feist

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I found this book to be very good, but it's also very much a continuation of the first book in the Demonwar Sage and I wouldn't ever recommend anyone to read this book before having read Rides a Dread Legion. There is also several references to the previous series The Darkwar Saga.

Midkemia is once more threatened by evil and the Conclave of Shadows hurries to find the point of attack in time to avert the threat.



The Riftwar books has grown into a regular franchise with more than twenty books and it's starting to show as the story gets more and more artificial with levels of existence and planet jumping.

However At the Gates of Darkness is also gently hinting at that the end might be within sight as some prophecies is drawing to a close.

I really think that the franchise would benefit from the Chaoswar saga being the last saga.



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Review: Darkly Dreaming Dexter

Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


If you've seen the TV-series you'll find the book very familiar, to the extent that you'll recognize the dialogue.

If you haven't seen it on TV, then you're in for an enjoyable read.
The story is a pretty standard detective story, with a twist that makes all the difference.
The main character, Dexter, works as a blood spatter analyst for the Miami police force, but he's also a sociopath and serial killer.
It doesn't sound like it would be funny, but the whole story oozes a dark murky sort of humor that is both situational, where the sociopath plays the role of a 'normal' human as well as the dialogue, which is occasionally funny and occasionally witty.



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Review: Darkly Dreaming Dexter

Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


If you've seen the TV-series you'll find the book very familiar, to the extent that you'll recognize the dialogue.

If you haven't seen it on TV, then you're in for an enjoyable read.
The story is a pretty standard detective story, with a twist that makes all the difference.
The main character, Dexter, works as a blood spatter analyst for the Miami police force, but he's also a sociopath and serial killer.
It doesn't sound like it would be funny, but the whole story oozes a dark murky sort of humor that is both situational, where the sociopath plays the role of a 'normal' human as well as the dialogue, which is occasionally funny and occasionally witty.



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