A Touch of Dead, Grave Sight - Charlaine Harris' urbanfantasymystery realm

In order to break up the year-long wait in between releases of the Sookie Stackhouse novels (the series of books by Charlaine Harris on which HBO's hit True Blood is based), I decided this fall to check out a couple of her other publications - one Sookie-related, the other not. And so in this post I'll be reviewing two different Harris books: A Touch of Dead, being an anthology of previously published short stories about the Sookie universe, and Grave Sight, the first in another of the authors' ongoing series. My thoughts below...

First off, A Touch of Dead. I knew that Harris had published a number of short stories from the Sookie-verse in various other anthologies, but the idea never really interested me enough to track them all down individually. Which is probably why A Touch of Dead is such a brilliant marketing ploy, especially since the series itself has become so popular among its genre. Someone like me, who's already a fan of the books, might not care about these peripheral side-stories enough to go out and buy five separate books in order to read them. Gathering them all together in a single Sookie collection, however, suddenly makes the deal a lot more tempting. Another thing that peaked my interest in this little publication was just the fact that I don't own a single one of the Sookie novels. Maybe I'm just a little OCD, but it seemed silly to buy a few of the books if I'm not going to invest in the complete series (and I'm not that hard-core of a Sookie fan). Thanks to libraries and friends, I had managed to avoid throwing down a single cent for my enjoyment of the Sookie series, and A Touch of Dead seemed like a nice little compromise. This way I could have some representation of the Sookie books in my personal collection without having to go all out or be totally random about it. Not to mention, I'd get to read all those short stories I'd been missing. So I bought the tiny, overpriced little book, and was pretty happy about it.

A Touch of Dead includes five separate stories that all feature Sookie herself in some capacity. (I believe there are other short stories that focus on other characters from the same universe, but which were not included in AToD.) In the first story, "Fairy Dust", the fairy twins Claudine and Claude recruit Sookie's telepathic abilities to help them discover who murdered their third sibling (they were actually triplets), Claudette. The funny thing is, Claudine doesn't exactly tell Sookie that's what they're up to when she invites her over. You can imagine poor Sookie's surprise when she show's up at their house and finds all the suspects bound and gagged in various nooks and crannies (one in the pantry, one in the cellar, etc). That's a lot for a girl to take, but considering all the times her fairy-god-mother friend has conveniently pooped up to save our telepath from near death situations I'd say its the least Sookie can do. This story sheds some dearly needed light on the personal lives of the twins (what does one call a pair of triplets exactly?), and so "Fairy Dust" was a welcome addition to the collection.

The second story, "One Word Answer", is significant in that it plugs up a gaping hole in the continuity of the main novels. When the Hadley storyline was rather abruptly introduced in the sixth book, Sookie already knew the whole story of her cousin's entanglement with Queen Sophie-Anne. Unfortunate readers like myself, however, were totally in the dark. "One Word Answer" is where Sookie, and dedicated readers, learn Hadley's history for the first time. In the third story, "Dracula Night", Eric invites Sookie to Fangtasia to take part in the annual celebration of the count's birth into darkness. This standalone story certainly brings the humor, as we find out that the usually cool, confident Eric suffers from a serious case of hero-worship when it comes to all thing Dracula. We also get to see a bit of the rest of the Fangtasia crew (including Pam), which is always a treat. In the fourth story, "Lucky", Sookie and the witchy roommate she picked up in New Orleans, Amelia Bradshaw, team up to figure out what supernatural forces have been plaguing the insurance industry in Bon Temps. This story was enjoyable (Amelia's always a hoot), but not particularly memorable in the grand scheme of things. The final story, "Gift Wrap" was my least favorite of the bunch. In it, Sookie rescues a wounded Were on Christmas eve from the woods surrounding her house. The two bond a little (physically as well as emotionally), before going their separate ways the next day. The reader then finds out that the whole thing was an elaborate set up by her great grandfather so she wouldn't be alone on Christmas. (Niall has the best of intentions, but as an ancient fairy he is a little out of touch with humanity). This story seemed a little gratuitous (Sookie shares an attraction with yet another hunky, but ultimately disposable, 'supe), but overall I was very pleased with the entire collection.

Shortly after finishing A Touch of Dead I decided to check out another one of Harris' series, seeing as how I've found the Sookie books to be so charming and engaging. So I ordered and read Grave Sight from the local library network. Grave Sight is the first in a series about Harper Connelly, a young woman who hunts down missing corpses for a living. Ever since she got struck by lighting in a freak accident as a child (yes, that's right, struck by lightning), Harper has had a powerful connection with the dead. She can locate corpses, and even relive the final moments of the deceased's life. Harper has decided to put her special skill to good use, hiring out her services to a skeptical but desperate clientele, traveling around the country to recover lost souls. Her companion and protector is her step-brother Tolliver Lang. Tolliver has always watched out for Harper since their abusive childhoods at the hands of their drug-addicted parents, and now he's sort of become her business partner and negotiator. The two share a powerful bond, but their relationship is kind of dysfunctional. On the one hand, they introduce live and introduce themselves as brother and sister, but care about each other more intensely than is usual or healthy in a sibling relationship. They're not actually related by blood, but they're not lovers either. I'd bet my bottom dollar that the development of this relationship is the focus of the series in terms of continuing character development. In the meantime they seem to get involved in various mysteries and human drama wherever their unique profession takes them.

Having only read the first book, I cannot really generalize about the series with any credibility, but I did find that it bears some resemblances to the Sookie novels. Both series feature twenty-something women coping with unusual supernatural gifts (telepathy in Sookie's case, a psychic connection with the dead in Harper's) who end up getting involved in small town mysteries. Yet the series differ greatly in that while Sookie lives in a world of vampires, witches, shape-shifters, and other supernatural beings, Harper only has to deal with regular humans in her universe. Now I'm not trying to say that the lack of 'supes makes Harper's world dull per se (humans can provide plenty of fascinating intrigue and drama on their own, no question.) But at the same time I can't deny that I felt something missing from Grave Sight. One of the most engaging aspects of the Sookie novels has been the whole mythology built up behind the series, which is so soundly grounded in the various supernatural communities of Bon Temps, and, by extension, of northern Louisiana. Whereas Sookie's story has this constantly expanding cast of recurring characters, the Harper Connelly series seems only to have the two central figures who travel nomadically from place to place. And after reading Grave Sight, I'm just not convinced that these two characters are interesting enough to carry us through an ongoing series of novels by themselves.

Overall, I didn't enjoy Grave Sight as much as I'd hoped or expected. It offered very little to balance out its melancholy and depressing tone, and its characters were uninspiring and unmemorable. If you enjoy a good mystery, however, you're likely to find that in any Harris book you pick up, the Harper Connelly series included. If you're looking for more character-driven plots, however, stick to Sookie Stackhouse.

True Blood 2.12 "Beyond Here Lies Nothin' "

The above picture shows the cameo appearance of Charlaine Harris, author of the Sookie Stackhouse novels, in the season two finale of "True Blood", the HBO show based on said novels. Since I've been watching this show pretty religiously all summer, I just wanted to put in my two cents about the season finale. I found this episode to be a rather lackluster conclusion to what was nevertheless a really great sophomore season. If the episode itself was a bit of a let down, it was probably due largely to the fact that my expectations were so high, and in any case there certainly were plenty of intriguing hints/cliffhangers to invest people (and me) in the wait for season three.

The first half of the episode focused on the conclusion of the Maryann conflict, and culminated in her final defeat at the hands of Bill, Sam, and Sookie. With Sam’s shapeshifting abilities, Sookie’s mysterious and unreliable supernatural powers, a deeper understanding of what a maenad really is, and a little bit of clever trickery, the three are able to finally defeat her and thereby save the good people of Bon Temps from themselves. I must say, I’m going to miss Maryann. Or rather, I’m going to miss Michelle Forbes, who always played her with wickedly irresistible charm and a brilliant touch of craziness. On the other hand, the time had come for her to die; her character was this season’s big “undefeatable” adversary, so at the end of the season she had to be defeated of course.

The second half of the episode shows the aftermath Maryann’s mayhem and also leads into several storylines for season three. Most of the residents of Bon Temps are in denial about what happened, while Jason and Andy congratulate themselves on being heroes (although they didn’t really do anything but get possessed themselves, but hey, A for effort boys!) The one person who really can’t handle the truth about what he did under the influence of Maryann is Eggs, who completely loses it and approaches Andy with the knife he used on Daphne and others. Jason witnesses the encounter, freaks out, and shoots Eggs in the back of the head before running off. I know, I didn’t see that one coming either. Meanwhile, Sam visits his adoptive parents, the queen warns Eric (quite forcefully) not to let Bill find out too much about the blood cartel, Hoyt seeks Jessica’s forgiveness while a hurt and angry Jessica seeks out victims, and Bill proposes to Sookie before being kidnapped by a mysterious attacker. Yup, this all happens in the second half of the episode.

I have to admit that this finale left me slightly underwhelmed. I definitely expected more to come of the Sophie-Anne storyline, especially since they decided to introduce the queen so much earlier in the story than she ever appears in the books. I also had a huge problem with Bill’s big, romantic proposal to Sookie, and with her readiness (after a moment of hesitation) to accept it. I’m really trying not to compare the show to the books too much, but this scene just felt very wrong to me. I have a hard time believing that Sookie would ever really entertain the idea of marriage to Bill, especially since their relationship has such a glaringly obvious expiration date (no matter how much they don’t want to admit it.) Still, I’m interested to see how this will play out next season, because I don’t think it will ever happen. As for Bill’s kidnapper, I have a pretty good idea of who it might be, especially because while the show strays quite far from the events and characterizations of the books each new season generally retains the main conflict of each successive novel.

Overall, I feel that season two was a huge improvement over season one. While I still think that the Bill/Sookie romance is pretty weak, the show has moved away from resting solely on that concept. It’s at its best, I feel, when exploring the politics of the different supernatural communities, and the extended universe of the different characters. And so, all things considered, I’m very excited for next season. I’m hoping, as always, for lots more Eric-Pam-Fangtasia action, and I also read somewhere that there will be Weres next time around, which is super exciting. It’s also a good thing I like Anna Paquin so much because she invariably makes the Bill/Sookie pairing interesting despite all the problems I have with it.

Dead and Gone, latest Sookie Stackhouse release

So the vampire community of northern Louisiana has been getting some good publicity recently. HBO recently released some shiny new stills and promotional videos for the much-hyped sophomore season of the show “True Blood”. Additionally, the latest installment of the series of novels on which the show is based also came out earlier this month. Dead and Gone, the ninth book in Charlaine Harris’ southern vampire mystery series, hit stores almost two weeks ago. However, thanks to these annoying little things called final exams I’ve only just got a chance to track down a copy and zip through it. The verdict? I definitely enjoyed this book, as I did the previous installments. This series is such a guilty pleasure for me. I do have misgivings and reservations, which as a responsible reviewer I will fully disclose, but the series continues to deliver a fun, exciting read with an unusually extensive cast of delightful characters.

I already wrote a general review of this series, so I won’t bother to introduce it thoroughly here. I’ll just say that the Southern Vampire Mysteries, aka the Sookie Stackhouse novels (it kind of bugs me that this series doesn’t have a definitive name), feature a telepathic waitress named Sookie Stackhouse who lives in a small town in Louisiana and gets involved with the various local supernatural communities. Some of these communities, such as the vampires and the were-folk, have more or less assimilated into mainstream society. Others, such as the witches and the fairies, haven’t.

While I thoroughly enjoy the alternate universe Harris has created in this series, I often find myself frustrated with her story development (or lack thereof). Each book generally contains one or more stand-alone plotlines, while the series itself doesn’t really boast that much of a big picture, plot-wise. Yet this doesn’t bother me as much as it might; what really carries the series is the ever-expanding cast of colorful characters and complex supernatural politics. Seeing as I’ve stuck with the series this long, I obviously enjoy reading these books and have pretty much committed myself to continuing to do so. Still, with nine books currently published and still no end in sight, the series runs the risk of becoming monotonous, with the same kinds of things happening in every installment. On the other hand, readers who know they like what the series has to offer can pretty much count on it to consistently deliver more of the same. So while the Southern Vampire books definitely fall into the category of “light reading”, I’ve got no major problem with that. I can take my low culture as well as the high any day of the week.

In Dead and Gone, there’s a lot of stuff going on simultaneously. The good people of Bon Temps are dealing with the aftermath of the werewolves’ “coming out” announcement, the Louisiana vamps are adjusting to the recent takeover from Nevada, and the few remaining fairies on this side of the veil are entangled in a bitter and violent power struggle. And once again our telepathic heroine somehow finds herself in the middle of it all. So much for the supernatural political developments; on to the character developments. Sookie starts to mend bridges with her brother Jason while also continuing to get closer to arrogant but charismatic vampire sheriff Eric (although she still stubbornly attributes her affection for him to the blood bond they share.) Bill continues to be a douche (ok, maybe that’s just my personal interpretation) and Quinn turns out to be a sore loser. Oh, and by the end of the book at least one minor but totally awesome character dies. All in all, Dead and Gone provided some very juicy developments to the meandering story of the series, although I would have liked to have seen more of my absolute favorite character (Pam).

It’ll probably be about a year until the next book gets published, but in the meantime there’s the second season of “True Blood” to keep me occupied.

The Southern Vampire Mysteries (a.k.a The Sookie Stackhouse Novels) by Charlaine Harris

Winter break is a nice time for college students. We get about a month off from school with nothing to do but hang out and work part time. But the greatest part about all this mid-scholastic-year mellowing out is that it provides the opportunity for lots of uninterrupted, guilt-free reading and TV watching. This is not to say we don’t pursue such recreational activities during the semester as well, only that we’re not putting off any homework in order to do so. So if I randomly decide I want to watch the entire first season of the recently debuted HBO series True Blood, for example, I can and a few weeks ago I did just that. Now True Blood itself is an interesting series (starring Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer, and created by Six Feet Under man Alan Ball), with which I have something of a love-hate relationship, but the point of this post is that it inspired me to hunt down and read the series of books it was based on. And that would be the Southern Vampire Mysteries by Charlaine Harris.

First, a word in praise of local library networks. This series currently has eight books in it, and is still going strong. (The ninth will be released in May, but I’m fairly certain it won’t be the last.) And while I was definitely interested in reading them all, I wasn’t too keen on making the kind of financial investment it would take to buy them. It had been a while since I’d actually used my local public library, and I’d almost forgotten how convenient (and free!) it was. After a bit of hunting, I was eventually able to track down all eight books and check them out en masse, and was even pretty proud of myself, as if utilizing public resources was some huge personal accomplishment. But, anyways, on to the books themselves.

The series features Sookie Stackhouse, a southern blonde bombshell of a barmaid who lives and works in northern Louisiana, and who just so happens to be telepathic. What’s interesting about these books, and different from many (all?) other vampire novels, is that the living dead have been integrated and (more or less) accepted into modern human society. That doesn’t mean the vampires don’t have their own complicated politics, power struggles and practices of which the humans know nothing, because they sure as heck do. Not to mention the other “supe” (supernatural) communities, such as the weres (werewolves), shifters (shape shifters), witches, and the fairies, all of whom have yet to come out to the humans and admit their existence like the vampires did. Sound complicated? Well, it is. And our telepathic human heroine gets inexorably caught up in all of it. But this complex and imaginative world is something that Charlaine Harris has developed gradually over the course of the series, slowly expanding it with each new installment. In an almost Harry Potter-esque way, she’s taken a clichéd concept and created from it a sprawling and engrossing world that feels very real in spite of its fantasticalness (is that a word?).

Sookie herself makes an okay heroine, but since the books are narrated in the first person her voice is fairly important. She’s pretty blunt and in-your-face, but considering what she’s been through and what she deals with on an average basis I can’t really fault her for it. Growing up as a telepath in a small town like Bon Temps is never easy, and one of the reasons she first gets involved with the vampire community (or at least with one vampire in particular) is because it represents an opportunity for her to deal with her otherness in some way. Another thing about Sookie is the fact that she tends to acquire a lot of admirers within the various supe communities. (Humans guys, on the other hand, tend to avoid her because of the whole telepathy/reputation for craziness thing.) Her seemingly universal appeal would seem a little contrived, except for the fact that she shares a different and interesting relationship with each of her would be lovers, who are also well-rounded characters in and of themselves.

And while we’re on the topic of Sookie’s beaux… Let me just say that I felt a sort of grim satisfaction when her first love interest (you know, the one that sweeps her off her feet in the first book) turns out to be somewhat of a jerk. I’d never really liked him anyways, and I do like how the whole series doesn’t rely on that particular romance as its foundation. I like that while Sookie suffers heartache over him, she learns and grows from the experience, and also starts to navigate the politics and intrigues of the supernatural community on her own. Plus, I gotta admit that one of my favorite things about this series is the character of Eric (local vampire sheriff, former Viking, budding business tycoon, and possessor in spades of joie-de-vivre.) He’s got a pretty complicated relationship with Sookie that nevertheless is always lots of fun, and does a lot more for me than the Bill/Sookie one ever did. They’ve never officially gotten together (except once briefly when he was suffering from magic-induced amnesia), but they’ve definitely got something going on. Pam, Eric’s second-in-command, is also great. Together the two run a vampire bar for tourists in Shreveport that’s called – wait for it – Fangtasia. Ha! Anyways, those two are probably my favorite characters, but there are heaps to choose from.

I do have some reservations about the series, however, and let me just say that it’s definitely not for younger teens. Explicit sex and violence are pretty standard components of many, if not all, of the Sookie books. Call me a prude, but there’s definitely some stuff in there that I could have done without. As for the, uh, caliber shall we say, of the prose, I read a review of these books that compared them to "literary water": no substance or nutrition whatsoever. But I'd argue that they're more like literary kool-aid: yummy and fun, if not as good for you as broccoli, for example. But the fact that I burned through all eight books in two and a half weeks (the first two and a half weeks of a new semester) just goes to show how addictive they are once you really get into them. Now I just have to wait until May 5th so I can read the ninth installment, Dead and Gone.

Just one more thing. I know this post was mainly about the books, but here for your listening pleasure, is the song featured in the opening credits of HBO's True Blood. Kinda sets the tone for the series anyways.

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