Tanya Huff
This is the follow-up to Smoke and Shadows,
and while much of the prior criticism remains the same, there are some
good points this time around. The plot is something one would
expect to see in a really bad horror movie: while filming an episode of
the vampire detective show in a haunted mansion, the crew gets trapped
inside by some evil power, and must survive until sunrise.
Another formula plot, though the author pulls it off as well as can be
expected. The characters though, even the hero, Tony, are
cardboard cutouts rather than distinct personalities.
However, like a cheesy horror movie, Smoke and Mirrors
is actually mildly entertaining, as long as a reader doesn't expect too
much. The descriptions of the ghosts, whom Tony is forced to
watch relive their deaths over and over, are suitably scary. Like
characters in bad horror movies, these characters insist on doing
phenomenally stupid things, inducing a reader to want to yell at
them. The main entertainment in reading this book - it's very
funny. Tanya Huff fires off one-liners fast and furiously; some
of them real gems, until the comedy actually becomes tiring.
Basically, if you are looking for an easy read that
doesn't require any investment of thought or emotion on your part, and
you like a mix of comedy and horror, this book may be an amusing option.
|
|
|
|
Blood Price
A killer stalks the streets of Toronto. It kills by night; it
drains its victims of blood. The papers scream vampire. But
Vicki Nelson, ex-cop turned private investigator, doesn't believe in
vampires. At least, not unless someone's willing to pay her to
believe in them -- and it can't hurt to have one more person on the
case, even if the killer turns out to be human. Somehow, though,
in a fantasy novel it never does...
Blood Price is the
first Vicki Nelson Investigation. It's also probably the best of
the lot. There are a number of sequels, of which 3 or 4 are
worthwhile, but the series follows the usual pattern for a supernatural
investigator story: episodic supernatural beastie of the month,
formulaic plot, cliches galore, and little opportunity for a story
arc. Mind candy, in other words, and in this case done passably
well but with nothing to distinguish it.
Laurell K Hamilton does it significantly better with her Anita Blake series, and Mercedes Lackey has a short-lived Guardians series
with a similar theme (and, to be honest, the first novel of the latter
series is so similar to this one with respect to certain plot points
that it can't be coincidence).
That said, this book is more than good enough to enjoy for a few hours and leave you with no regrets.
|
|
|
|
Smoke and Shadows
|
Smoke and Shadows is the latest "Vicki Nelson" novel. I suspect Tanya is returning to that universe for financial reasons, because the book itself feels like a "paint-by-numbers" effort that could have been spawned from a random plot generator. Vicki herself makes no appearance, and Henry plays a role that could be described as "muscle" -- if you were feeling like flattery, which any fan of this series won't be.
If that's not enough of a dire warning to drive you away from the book, read on. Because it's not really that bad. It's just stuck on the lower end of the Vicki Nelson series, and that particular series started at mediocre and went downhill about the time the corpse of Vicki's mother was turned into an undead robot by a deranged mortician. This book isn't THAT bad. In fact, after that disaster, it's almost a return to form. But it's definitely not as interesting as the first three.
|
|
|
<-- Prev Displaying results 0 - 3 of 3 Next -->
Read this group via RSS or
Atom.
Enter your email address to receive email updates for new entries in this group:
|
|
