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Blood Price, Tanya Huff
Jul. 30th, 2017 09:52 amHuff is one of my favourite authors, and while she has got better since 1991 when the copyright page says this was written, this is still a good book, and a good intro to a great couple of series.
And I get into quite a bit of detail under the cut, so, plenty spoilers.
( Read more... )
I was asked a couple days ago "Is it a book about vampires, a book about detectives, or a book About Heterosexuals?"
I think it's a book about recognising monsters, how not to be one, and the dangerous waters of trying not to date one.
The reader knows more than the characters, and the detective work chugs along until Vicki knows enough to recognise the answer when it's handed to her. Not Sherlock Holmes style, but not just surviving until you know who is hunting you either. Her friends and contacts shape the story, mostly by letting her at data only the police have, without stopping her doing things the police wouldn't do. But also just by knowing the community and being known. The ways she does and does not have backup and support are key.
Henry is not heterosexual, he's bi, so, there's a lot more variety of goings on in the fade to black than might otherwise be. Vicki is on some levels doing the choose between two guys, police and vampire, and we've seen that one before, or possibly since, given the 1991 copyright. But they're both actually interesting, and they both have significant flaws as partners, in the same specific areas of conflict and using people. As does Vicki.
It's kind of about vampires, in that it's about not being the monster, and needing people, and the ways choices can start from any side of the supernatural spectrum and still end up good or evil.
Everybody's hungry, for a lot of different things, and pursuing those needs can hurt others, or build connections that save them.
The supernatural stuff just enhances that basic truth, it doesn't predetermine anything. Good guy vampires just have to work harder at it, as do evil humans.
And the supernatural scale amplifier does one of my favourite things, it makes a metaphor of the scale of challenge faced by disabled people. Vicki Nelson is a disabled woman facing challenges bigger than anyone can handle alone, but by the end of the book she does handle them, her specific visual impairment and her supernatural situation both. And without miracle cures. She just finds a way to play to her strengths.
This review got very long and rambly and I could spend a lot more attention on a lot of different bits of it. I feel like calling this a first draft and doing actual essay with quotes and stuff.
But I also feel like reading the next book, so. Here's the rough version.
And I get into quite a bit of detail under the cut, so, plenty spoilers.
( Read more... )
I was asked a couple days ago "Is it a book about vampires, a book about detectives, or a book About Heterosexuals?"
I think it's a book about recognising monsters, how not to be one, and the dangerous waters of trying not to date one.
The reader knows more than the characters, and the detective work chugs along until Vicki knows enough to recognise the answer when it's handed to her. Not Sherlock Holmes style, but not just surviving until you know who is hunting you either. Her friends and contacts shape the story, mostly by letting her at data only the police have, without stopping her doing things the police wouldn't do. But also just by knowing the community and being known. The ways she does and does not have backup and support are key.
Henry is not heterosexual, he's bi, so, there's a lot more variety of goings on in the fade to black than might otherwise be. Vicki is on some levels doing the choose between two guys, police and vampire, and we've seen that one before, or possibly since, given the 1991 copyright. But they're both actually interesting, and they both have significant flaws as partners, in the same specific areas of conflict and using people. As does Vicki.
It's kind of about vampires, in that it's about not being the monster, and needing people, and the ways choices can start from any side of the supernatural spectrum and still end up good or evil.
Everybody's hungry, for a lot of different things, and pursuing those needs can hurt others, or build connections that save them.
The supernatural stuff just enhances that basic truth, it doesn't predetermine anything. Good guy vampires just have to work harder at it, as do evil humans.
And the supernatural scale amplifier does one of my favourite things, it makes a metaphor of the scale of challenge faced by disabled people. Vicki Nelson is a disabled woman facing challenges bigger than anyone can handle alone, but by the end of the book she does handle them, her specific visual impairment and her supernatural situation both. And without miracle cures. She just finds a way to play to her strengths.
This review got very long and rambly and I could spend a lot more attention on a lot of different bits of it. I feel like calling this a first draft and doing actual essay with quotes and stuff.
But I also feel like reading the next book, so. Here's the rough version.