eh, just gonna dive into my thoughts for this book. the first third of it felt pretty aimless, i didn't really sense any collected mystery looming up--but then the conclusion more than made up for it. i have to say that i still like the pairing of kitty and cormac better than her and ben, though, because 1) the ben x kitty pairing is so freakin random, and 2) cormac seems to understand her better, and be more of a help. ben only seems to be annoyed at her, or make snarky remarks that are borderline to being mean. i'm just not feeling it, for ben. besides, wasn't he described as having a receding hairline? and now they're getting married?
anyway, decent enough conclusion. i feel like rick should do some serious apologizing for his little faux pas near the end though. maybe that will come into play for the next book. anyhow, maybe this ben x kitty thing will build up, who knows, but it certainly wasn't fair for cormac, who had his eyes on her first. ben was more of a second thought. the impression of vamps doesn't sound very nice, btw, but that would make sense, considering the protagonist is a were and the were factions are thus the good guys. really glad they finally tied a knot to that carl and meg business, albeit in an alticlimactic fashion. let's see what kind of pack kitty will lead.
this installment in the series seems to be much darker, and we finally get the drop on what's going on with escott. i think it's a bit funny that i seem to be using a lot of the slang terms in my daily vocab, but mainly that it rubbed off on me that much. at first i didn't think the plot for this one was really going anywhere--and it seems, neither did she. but once the bit on escott came around, it started getting more interesting, especially the grant part. i can't seem to get over that escott shot jack with a crossbow though, but he seemed to get over it fine. some things i would never be able to bring to do to my friends, but maybe their definition of friendship is a little odd. will wait until i have a hard copy to read the next one.
so much better than the recent ones than i expected, kind of knocked me off balance. this one set off to an even more satisfying conclusion, and now coldfield knows all about jack, and i was beginning to wonder if it would ever happen. shows that black and white exists on both sides of the playing field more pronouncingly, beyond even calloway and baker. i don't like how angela had to do the dirty work for him in the end though, it seemed only fitting that he come face to face with the devil he fears and get it over with, but i suppose that could be arranged for later. his owing angela after all the shit she put him through seems equally fitting as well. this ending is just a cut above the couple of recent books, and it feels like a perfect wrapup to the whole mob business for now. plus, she kept me guessing about the mystery villain until the very end. i don't have a hard copy of the next book, maybe i'll borrow from the library or read an ebook again.
having been unsatisfied with the last one much, i immediately launched right into this one since i had the copy readily on hand. this one ended with her usual impressive closure, and i'm a little surprised to find myself pleased with her writing again. i guess apparently character and closure means a lot to me in what i read. what i'm not satisfied with, however, is his apparent loss of powers as a vampire, period. i found the first book entertaining because he got the drop on his opponents thanks to his abilities. it seems this recent development might be due to fans' complaining about the protagonist's omnipotent abilities, as i've seen them do for other authors/series. sad to say though, i really much preferred seeing my protagonist have some wins out of everything, than seeing him get jerked around the entire book--it was frustrating. come on, just a couple of wins? the next book on is printed in hardcovers, wonder if i'd like that more since i don't have to worry about damaging the covers.
maybe not as impressive as all the ones leading up to this one. it seems like after finding out about maureen's death, jack seems to be rather aimless--or rather, his cases seem to be rather aimless. a character with a motivation was nice, instead of a straight shot mystery or whodunnit. not that i mind in general, but i usually come into these books expecting more thanks to the example the earlier books set. this book, unfortunately, had less of the closure that i was so enthusiastic about in the previous books. i hope this isn't a sign that there would be a developing pattern from this book on..
maybe a little less eventful than the previous installations, but nonetheless a very complete work in itself. i find that elrod's biggest virtue in her writing is her ability to wrap things up with a good sense of closure, unlike too many other authors i can name. we find ourselves seeing jack get over (or simply accept) his guilt over the choices he's had to make, and it's done so in a believable fashion. the only downside is that i knew who the villain was halfway through the book, but not too big on complaints there. i wonder if elrod ever writes female protagonists? not that a male point of view isn't nice, i just wonder what the voice from a female character would sound like. looking forward to being able to hold a solid copy again for the next installation, rather than staring at the lcd screen of an ebook.
i have no idea why this book landed on the amazon bestseller list. if i'd known how average it was going to be, i would've saved it to read for last. or maybe not checked it out at all. the main character was extremely annoying in her closemindedness, the love interest was as two dimensional as it gets, and their "love" (you meant lust, right mrs. kleypas?) was underdeveloped and unconvincing. a shitload of plot holes. the pooka tattoos, especially, where a reference is made at the end of the book, acknowledging that it was left incomplete--but not offering any more than that. not to mention, the pooka tattoos initially had red eyes, and near the end the eyes are somehow yellow instead? editors, please. i found myself skimming over the sex with boredom, it was such cut and paste material. and of course, that lack of character didn't help in that area, at all. why would i be interested in people having boring sex, least of all two dimensional cookie cutter characters having extremely boring sex? i found the secondary couple, win and whatever his name is, more interesting than the primary, and that is sad because their love wasn't even hinted at until a little after the midpoint. then it was left with no resolution. and yet it was still better than the primary couple with all these ginormous gaping no nos. and in the end i am left clawing my eyes out asking god why, oh god WHY, is she on the bestseller list? shit, why is she writing at all? my eyes are bleeding! or would that be my brain?
i think i went into this book expecting too much. all of the positive reviews on amazon lauded this book as being original, and i didn't.. really think so? for one, the main character annoyed me all the way to hell and back, and her prejudice was certainly the block of stone that kept me from liking her. and finally, the romance that developed between her and bones seemed unrealistic. there was no gradual buildup, simply all of a sudden, the fact is thrown in your face. for me to like a character i need to feel she at least deserves it. cat definitely didn't. another qualm i had was with the character bones--he was so obviously modelled after spike from buffy, that i kept picturing his face in my mind every time i read about his descriptions, or some such. although cat is a changed character by the end of it, i found myself still annoyed with her for whatever reason--at that point i was simply looking for a way to be annoyed at her, because the ending sat so terribly with me. bones with his connections would surely have been able to do something about her predicament? why did she have to go to the government for help? it just doesn't make much sense. i hope she corrects her mistakes in the second book. or at least, i hope the author will stop putting exclamation marks in every line of dialogue the main character has, because they gave me headaches. the main character mainly feels too immature, and i'm not sure if this is supposed to be a reflection of the author.
i have wayy too many problems with this book. the editor (would that be diana palmer herself? don't tell me she's the editor to her own book..) lost interest halfway; errors started popping up like crazy halfway through the book. and there are a lot of inconsistencies in both plot and characterization; some characters are apparently bipolar, some of the "tech" introduced doesn't make any sense--for example, torturing someone by cutting off limbs and then reattaching them and repeating the process is a VERY roundabout way of doing it. even if the victim survives blood loss there would be mental breaks, plus people can actually DIE from that much pain, which would be considered an overload of stress. that method of torture would be extremely counterproductive if you're looking for info, to say the least. only serial killers torture like that. plus it seems like they're letting stern off awfully easy, even if he didn't do what he did intentionally.
why are so many lines of dialogue repeated and repeated and.. my god.. repeated? diana palmer must've hit the cut and paste rather often. not very original, if she is so out of ideas she even needs to rehash dialogue, of all things.
characters react unrealistically to situations. another one of her lines made me laugh pretty hard, without meaning to. how do you keep a harem out of OBLIGATION? makes no sense. another huge flaw in the construction of the writing is also that there is no sense of suspense at any point, just.. point A to point B. she tries to achieve suspense, but only comes off sounding like she's dumbing it down for her readers. which can get very annoying, very fast.
other random thoughts include the fact that if this planet really had a supergiant and a white dwarf for suns, the radiation would be insane. they are unprotected from the radiation, as she's already mentioned once. even assuming they are genetically advanced and have adjusted to the radiation, she forgets that "days" are different within each solar system, depending on orbit. her character would supposedly die before sunrise. HOW, might i ask, could they possibly know the length of a day when they are captives on a foreign planet?
it seems like she can't make up her mind whether stern is a good guy or a bad guy. actually, more like she forgets whether she already wrote the part where he turns back into a good guy, and decides to rewrite it again. so good job, diana palmer, because we have an extremely forgetful and bipolar villain/protagonist.
it's a sad day when i can say i've read fanfics better than this.
although the version i read is the older translation published in 1993, it shouldn't have deviated that much from this new translated version--which hasn't even come out yet by the way--but regardless, it's about the story. the isbn of the copy i read was 0374304661, and translated by cathy hirano, if that makes a difference.
storyline: while the character saya initially annoyed me a lot in that she was always helpless and given undue credit, she ultimately does somewhat redeem herself, i guess. but someone else on an amazon review said that the main character really is chiraya, and i cannot agree more, because it is through his loss of innocence that we see the events as they occur. saya is sort of more so just along for the ride.. and this is my main issue with this book. WHY start it off with a character so useless, and introduce your main character halfway through the book? a lot of plot holes also, but i won't go into that, since i probably can't be bothered to remember them if i tried. i guess aside from those faults, it was actually at times a pretty decent book. i was thoroughly engrossed to the point that i haven't slept yet, as of writing this. i hope the newer translation will do it some justice, maybe even better than this version.
EDIT: also forgot to mention that it reminded me heavily of a video game. maybe it's just the typical japanese plot? and i also felt like princess teruhi should somehow be punished for what she did. plus, it didn't feel very satisfactory that everything up till the ending, all the deaths and sacrifice, was simply at the whim of a god. it also doesn't feel comfortable that the author is okay leaving it like that either.
