Midnight at the Well of Souls by Jack L Chalker

I first time I read this book was a few years after it was published.  My husband had read the book and suggested I read it.  At the time, I was devouring science fiction books and was interested in authors I had never read before.
Midnight at the Well of Souls is a great sci-fi fantasy story that has action, adventure, and that modern dilemma of good and bad.  The future of mankind is still in the hands of the very powerful who seem to know what is good for the masses. I hadn't re-read this book in many years and it amazes me on what I have forgotten. My favorite character is Nathan Brazil the freighter pilot who has lived for thousands of years but who I feel wants to be able to die. 
It's a great story on how the corrupt and the downtrodden are able to change their lives, some get a new chance while others get what we think they deserve. The Well of Souls(a giant computer located within a planet) changes people into beings it thinks will enable them to survive. It takes their attributes and tosses them into bizarre situations.
I recommend this book to anyone who loves reading science fiction from the 1980's.

True Blood Season 4, RECAP past 3 episodes

Hi all, I haven't been posting about True Blood in a few weeks but I thought I'd lump the last 3episodes together.
Sookie has Eric as a house guest, and for those who haven't read the book, they eventually hook up. She sees him as a regular guy and starts to fall for Eric's new persona.  Losing his memory has changed Eric from ruthless, blood sucker to nice caring vamp.
Bill, Louisiana's King tries to truly kill Eric, for his misdeeds but changes his mind while in the process of staking him.  Eric has changed and is in love with Sookie which Bill can sympathize.
Marnie becomes Antonia, a witch that was cursed the vampire to meet the sun while being burned at the stake, 400 hundred years ago. Antonia wants revenge for her death and for the deaths of others by the vampires. You definitely have sympathies for her.  We don't get that in the books where the two witches who take Eric's memory are also weres that want power. Since in the book we see only through Sookie's eyes we don't know the true depths of the vampires.   Bill had found out that Eric was staying at Sookie's through a slip of the tongue from Pam and that the coven stole Eric's memories. Marnie is captured by Bill's guards and imprisoned at the King's house. She calls to her the spirit that Marnie has been channeling.  Antonia comes to her and takes over her body and through her necromancy, she escapes. Marnie gets her coven together with Tara who has had a bad encounter with Pam.  Tara, Lafayette, and Jesus are on Pam's hit list for being part of her body rotting.  Antonia recruits Marnie's coven to join in a spell to protect them from the vampires unbeknowst to them, she is casting a spell to wake the vamps up in the daylight and have them meet the sun.
Tara's girlfriend from New Orleans arrive at Lafayette's house, she had discovered letters addressed to Tara. She knows her as Toni. While they are together sorting their relationship, Pam meets up with them at Merlotte's.  She threatens them both with bodily harm when they are saved by some people who are taking pictures of them.  It's against the vampire law to be on camera killing, sucking or anything harmful towards a human.  They will be put to true death.
Sam's brother Tommy after killing his parents turns into to Sam and has a good time with his new body, like hooking up with Sam's girlfriend, Luna, another shape shifter.  He then kicks her out when his body rejects the change and Sam finds him unconscious on the floor of his trailer.
Later Sam finds out what Tommy did when Luna won't give him the time of day and confronts her at the school she teaches. He then kicks Tommy out of his life. Sam is such a hypocrite and two face liar with himself, he couldn't see the road Tommy is heading.  I would keep my enemies close instead of out of sight but then it wouldn't be a good story.
Jason finds out that he won't be changing into a were-panther, it's genetic not passed on by being bitten. When he escapes Hotshots he is rescued by Jessica and Hoyt.  Jessica gives Jason some of her blood to speed recovery but now Jason has a bond with her.  He dreams of her and of Hoyt which is unsettling to poor Jason.
Sheriff Andy Bellefleur is a mess with his addiction to V. All he can think about is his next hit. His character is so boring, they need to change him again. His sister Portia finds out she is distantly related to Bill who does a glamour on her that sends her screaming into the night. Portia was a peripheral character at best in the books anyway.
Alcide is visited by the pack leader of Shreveport. Alcide tells him strongly that he doesn't want to join a pack since his last pack was under vampire influence.  Later Alcide walks in his house to find the pack leader talking to Debbie, his live-in girlfriend.  I noticed that they lighted Debbie's hair this season, I wonder if it's the TV show's attempt to reveal her insecurity of a very blond Sookie.  Alcide is furious but relented and joins the new pack.  It's full moon and their initiation into the pack is being held in the forest, they run into Sookie who is chasing after Jason who at this time thinks he will change into a panther. They reassure her that Jason will not change and they part ways.  Afterwards Alcide and Debbie walked into the woods to talk and find Sookie and Eric having butt naked sex.  While having sex at home, Debbie confronts Alcide about his feelings for Sookie. He denies having anything but friendship towards her.  In the book, he finds her attractive but because she isn't a were he can't think of dating her.  Species-ism against humans.
The last episode ends with all the vampires being ordered to chain themselves with silver so to hinder their response to the covens call.  Jessica breaks the silver chains and crawls to the door toward the sun while Jason hears her through their bond and rushes to Bill's to save the day.  Last scene is Jessica opening the door while Jason had been stopped by a guard outside. Will he have time to save Jessica, of course, she is a popular character and isn't going to be killed off soon.

True Blood Season 4 episode 3 RECAP

Another great episode with Sookie Stackhouse who has a house guest, Eric Northman.  He has amnesia from the witches.  The hidyhole that Eric built will now be used to hide him from his enemies.  The faerie blood causes him to wonder what she is.  He loves the way she smells. The faerie blood the reason why she doesn't get hooked on Vamp blood like the rest of the populace. King Bill gave true death to a vamp who was caught sucking blood on camera. Bill and Portia have a business relationship that she wants to make it with benefits, like sex.  Jessica confesses to Hoyt about feeding on another guy at Fangtasia and has a fight then she does the unthinkable and glamours Hoyt into forgetting it happened.
Tara, Lafayette, and Jesus are afraid of Eric's wrath. 
Jason is still captive of the hotshot clan of were-panthers. He becomes a brood mare for the clan. Crystal and Felton want him to turn so to pregnant all the women of the clan.  They need fresh blood to breed true. Crystal is really crazy just like Felton.
Poor Andy is pathetic, hooked on V and behaving like a real ass-hole. He gets on Sam's case for catching him after downing some V.
Sookie visits Alcide for a favor in looking after Eric for her and finds our he's back with Debbie who suppose to have changed.  She cleaned up but there is a reason for bring her back.  In the book, Debbie is jealous of Sookie and tries to kill her but Sookie does kill her with Eric's help. Alcide still has feeling for her even if in a brotherly way.
Tommy is living with Hoyt's mother.  Tommy has issues with being dishonest but I think he's a product of his terrible life with his real parents.  Tommy wants to con Maxine to sell her house because of natural gas on her property.  Tommy and Sam have relationship problems.
Tara asks Sookie to talk to Eric about Lafayette.  Sam and Tara make peace with a shot of Tequila while Lafayette goes to Fangtasia.  Tara and Jesus rescue Lafayette from Pam with a gun with wooden bullets. Pam gives them 24 hours to find Eric and change the spell.
Marnie tries to channel the witch from the past.  She doesn't see how dangerous this can be but see the power this spirit gives her.

Claudine tries to take Sookie back to faerie but Eric grabs her and sucks her dry.  Is this the real Claudine or a glamoured faerie?  Claudine was shut in Faerie when the Queen closed the borders.
 

True Blood Season 4 episode 2 RECAP

Hey, all you fang bangers who love True Blood, wasn't that episode great.  It has taken 2 episodes for background information to get to the 4th book.
Jason is being held captive by Crystal and Felton.  They are trying to turn Jason into a were-panther so Crystal can get pregnant.  Andy Bellefleur has scored some V from the Hotshot which is a small were community unbeknown to the rest of Bon Temps.  Sookie is still upset with Eric who bought her house and wanting possession of her. Tara is back from New Orleans to visit Sookie and Lafayette.  Lafayette is in the witch coven with boyfriend, Jesus Velasquez.  The coven leader wants to use their powers on a human. That's when Eric is told by King Bill to go over to the coven and break it up.  We find out how Bill was able to defeat Queen Sophie-Anne, he had help from Nan, PR vampire.  As Eric burst into the meeting of the witches, Marnie the leader of the coven starts to chant and the coven reluctantly gather with held hands.  She does a spell on Eric who later is seen walking half naked down the streets of Bon Temps when Sookie drives by him.  Eric has lost his memory.  Hoyt is beaten by pickers against vampires at Fangtasia. Later he has a fight with Jessica over her wanting to use her vamp blood to help speed up recovery.  She drives to Fangtasia than hooks up with a fangbanger.  She is caught with the guy in the bathroom by Sookie. Sookie has been waiting for Eric. 

Yes, fans I think the next episodes will have the fourth book in them. Will Sookie fall for amnesia Eric like in the book? Will the weres fight with the vampires against the Necromancing witch coven?  This looks to be another great season on True Blood.

True Blood Season 4 episode 1 RECAP

I couldn't wait for the new season of HBO True Blood but I'm on the fence if I liked it or not.  First it was totally not the Charlaine Harris 4th novel, Dead to the World.  It starts out with Sookie Stackhouse in Faerie and she meets up with her grandfather Earl who thinks it's only been a few days when in reality, he's been in Faerie for 20 years! She comes back to Bon Temps and it's been a year!
Where was Eric Northman running naked by the side of the rode when Sookie rescues him and realizes he has amnesia? I would have loved to see Alexander Skarsgard running naked, wouldn't you?
I have a feeling that this season will be more unlike the books than the previous ones.
Bill is now King of Louisiana territory after killing the queen,Sophie-Anne.  Jason is a full fledged Deputy Sheriff, Andy Bellefleur is hooked on V, Tara is now boxing "Box Eater" with an assumed name "Toni", Eric bought Sookies house while she was gone in Faerie because he knew she was still alive and wanted nothing to stand in his way of her (she now can't rescind his welcome to her house), and Lafayette is in a witch coven with some weird witches, oh and good old Sam now hangs out with fellow shifters to curb his anger.
All is so different but I have to think of it as a new series not one that mirrors the Charlaine Harris books.

Game of Thrones

The
second episode of the Game of Thrones was as riveting with intrigue, suspicion, and betrayal as the first and hopefully it continues through out the season.  I am addicted to this HBO series.  I didn't realize that I've read 2 3/4 of the trilogy.  I remember bits and pieces that watching on TV is like watching something new.  I do know a little bit of what's going to happen but that doesn't matter. The acting is superb, and the nudity, violence just adds to the whole feeling of a medieval time.  You know that HBO doesn't hold back with their adaptations.  If you don't have HBO, have a friend who does tape this series for you because it is a keeper.

Game of Thrones

I watched the HBO series, The Game of Thrones and was blown away.  I have read two of the books from the "A Song of Ice and Fire" series and didn't really expect the quality that I saw watching this on TV.  Sean Bean is an excellent choice for playing one of the main characters, Lord Eddard Stark, and the rest of the cast is wonderful. I read the books a few years ago but a the story unfolded  I started to remember the characters and situations of intrigue.  It is a complex story with many characters and plots. I was so glad that the first episode followed the book.
The story line is complex but there is murder, political intrigue, with the growth of the characters.  The imagery of the scenery and the sets were amazing.  This HBO series should hold me until the next season of True Blood.

Charlaine Harris "Dead in the Family"

Charlaine Harris announced recently that she was a few books from completing the Sookie Stackhouse series. I read "Dead in the Family" and though I like the book, you can see that the end is soon.  Sookie is now lover, girlfriend to Eric Northman, vampire sheriff of the area and I wonder where that relationship is leading.  I was a firm advocate of the books compared to the HBO True Blood series but now I think the storyline in the TV series has more intrigue and depth. 

As usual the story in the book is in first person and Sookie is having vamp trouble again with Eric's maker coming to visit.  Harris likes to put some historic person in her books, like Bubba being Elvis who's crossover didn't go well, now she has one of the Romanov's who was rescued by Eric's  maker.  The beginning of the book is slow but it picks up and I couldn't put it down.  Her books are so easy to read that time isn't a real issue when reading them. Alcide and the weres are back in this book along with Claude, the brother of Claudine who died in the last book.  There are some faeries who were left in our world after the closing portal between faerie and here.   Sookie doesn't end up injured in "Dead in the Family" as she has in some of the past books. 

If you are a devote fan of Sookie Stackhouse than you will enjoy this installment.

Charlaine Harris Sookie Stackhouse Series

Charlaine Harris Sookie Stackhouse book, Dead in the Family will be coming out in paperback at the end of this month, March 29.  I used to buy the hardback novels as soon as they were at the store but with bookcase bulging out the shelves with books, I just don't have the room or the resources to buy them anymore.  So I wait for them to come out in paperback.  I erks me that my favorite authors have gotten so popular that now their stories go through the hardback route. 

I'll buy this book either online or at Barnes and Noble or wait a month and buy it at the used book store in town.

Anyway, Dead in the Family starts at the end of the Fae War where Sookie was held captive and tortured.  Sookie is also end up hurt when dealing with the supernatural, weres, vampires, fae, and shapeshifters. 

Remember March 29, paperback novel form for the next Charlaine Harris Sookie Stackhouse series, Dead in the Family.

Rob Thurman "Blackout"

When I first read Rob Thurman's Cal Leandros series, I really thought it was written by a man. I liked it so much, I have read the whole series of 6 books. The series centers around a young man, Cal Leandros, who is part human and part Auphe, they are a race of destruction and were the oldest race on earth.  His older brother, Niko Leandros, is full human.  Their mother bargained with the Auphe for monetary gain and gave birth to Cal. Niko has always been Cal's mother, father, brother and all around keeper.  Cal was abducted by the Auphe, what seemed to him, for two years but in our reality a few months.
The books cronical his life after their mother's death and they move to New York City where they find all kinds of monsters.  They eventually become partners in a monster extermination business with a fawn named Goodfellow who owns a used car lot.
In "Blackout", Cal looses his memory and that's when the plot twist and turns.  A good book that I recommend for newbies to Rob Thurman or for those who haven't read "Blackout"

Flirt by Laurell K Hamilton

Finished "Flirt" by Laurell K Hamilton in one night.  It is a very easy read book.  She mixes violence, sex, and slight humor to all her books but this one was like, "Micah" and "Skin Trade" short books that didn't take long to read.  It is refreshing to read a book in one night but I do miss her hefty books that have multiple plot line.  I also like that Anita Blake is growing up and maturing before our eyes.  Sometimes she can be very immature in her attitudes about sex and relationships with her lovers and friends. I am enjoying reading her books again.

The book centers around a client who wants to raise his deceased wife.  There is also her relationship with Nathaniel and Micah.  Would she sacrifice her ethics to save the ones she loves.  It is quite impelling story line. There is sex, violence, and humor that propels the reader to finish the book. 

I recommend it to any Laurell K Hamilton fan or for newbies to her Anita Blake series.

Laurell K Hamilton

Laurell K Hamilton is interviewed in the Graphic Novel Reporter about the process she went through to make her Anita Blake series into a graphic novel.  She was very involved in the process from making sure how her main characters looked.  She needed the appearance to coorelate with the books description and her fans have ideas of what these characters should look like.  Interiors needn't be exact but the furnishing had to fit with the action in the story. Laurell K Hamilton also remarks how more intense the process is than to just writing a novel. The interview is interesting, a good read.

www.graphicnovelreporter.com/content/laurell-k-hamilton-talks-graphic-novels-and-giant-cobras-interview

Sholan Series

I started rereading Lisanne Norman's Sholan World Series and I am just as interested as when I first bought the book many years ago.  She definitely had readers envisioning the Sholan home world and you forget that one of the main characters in feline in appearance. 
When I first read the book the main character, Carrie Hamilton, was annoying.  I realize now that it is Norman's great depiction of a immature woman who was raised in an agrarian society where woman are important to proliferate the world of Keiss by getting married and bearing children. 
Lisanne Norman reminds me of Robert Jordan where there are many characters and subplots.  Unlike him, Norman keeps the main characters in every book.  The series flows through the trials and tribulations of Carrie and Kusac (the Sholan character).
If you haven't read this series before pick up a used copy and read "Turning Point", the first book in the series. Kusac is part of a military on a scouting mission, he is telepathic. The scouting ship is shot upon by the Valtegans who have commandered the planet from the colonist and turned it into a R and R planet for their troops. Kusac is left when he sustained an injury and through his telepathy finds Carrie who is close to dying because her telepathic link to her sister is cut, sister is killed.

I know a very involved plot.  Norman weaves this plot for 8 books. All have an extensive plot and sub-plots to them.  If I peak your interest, pick up a copy and have fun reading!

Lisanne Norman new Sholan series book, Shades of Gray

For all you fans of Lisanne Norman, she has finally published her the next installment of her Sholan Series called Shades of Gray. I am going to definitely read this and give my review on it.
Check out Barnes and Noble synopsis of her latest book@http://tinyurl.com/4b9f3yd

Silver Borne- Patricia Briggs

I haven't been reading much books lately but saw the latest Mercy Thompson book by Patricia Briggs and bought it. I wasn't disappointed, I liked it.  I read the book in two days.
The story line if you haven't read any of the Mercy Thompson series, is about Mercy who shape shifts into a coyote.  She is a auto mechanic and is bonded to the local Alpha werewolf, Adam.  Her roommate is Samuel, who is centuries old and also a werewolf.  He tries to commit suicide but the wolf in him takes over. 
Mercy is in trouble with the Fae again, they want a book that a local bookstore owner who is part Fae loaned to her. 
It has usual violence that is associated with fantasy action novels.not excessive.  There really isn't any sex in this book or any of the Mercy Thompson series.  It is an easy read with good characterization, plot is acceptable since this is a fantasy novel, and story is good. 
The Mercy Thompson books run along the Laurell K Hamilton and Charlain Harris books with the timeline in the novels being compressed to a couple of days.  The novels take up after a few weeks or months so the whole series time line is a few years. These books have much going on, in the plot and the action of characters.

True Blood Season 3

True Blood season 3 was so exciting yet was so removed from Charlaine Harris's Sookie Stackhouse series. The mixture of books was confusing to the veteran reader but I have talked to the tv viewers of True Blood and they love the storyline.

I was taken aback by the introduction of the faeries so early in the season. In the book, Sookie life is saved by a faerie named Claudine, a boxen tall brunette. She says she Sookie's fairy godmother.

I still don't like that Eric isn't his randy self in the television series who wants to get into Sookie's panties. He is so much more serious in the HBO series and with his vendetta against Russell Edington who is the King of Mississippi.
I'm anticipating Season 4 will be more the same with deviating from the book.

Wonderful Wizard of Oz graphic novel

I finished reading the graphic novel of the Wizard of Oz and I really liked it.  I have read all of the books in the Wizard of Oz series and found them enjoyable reading.  The illustrations are stunning and have a modern interpretation from the original books.  I highly recommend the graphic novel to anyone who has read the Wonderful Wizard of Oz book or to those who have only seen the movie on the television.