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