Dead Until Dark
This is the first in a series of novels that combine traditional horror (vampires) with mystery, and it does a very good job. Sookie Stackhouse is a waitress in Louisiana, and she has the ability to read minds. The area where she lives is a redneck-type of area, with some of the people being rather rough. Stookie herself is known as “crazy” and a “little slow,” although she's actually neither. She waits on a vampire, the first one she has seen. Vampirism is supposedly due to a virus. Artificial blood has been developed which vampires can drink, but sometimes a person still gets killed in the more traditional vampire-victim way. Vampires can also be victims. Their blood can cure some illnesses and can be used to enhance sex, so some vampires end up drained by humans who then sell the blood. Stookie saves the vampire from a couple of nasty humans. She also finds she can't read his mind. She finds out a woman she knew had been murdered the previous night, but apparently not by a vampire. There are such people as vampire groupies who hang around with vampires and like to be bitten. Stookie is attacked by the two people who had attacked the vampire and she's nearly killed, but Bill saves her life. Stookie's grandmother wants to talk to Bill. Bill is old and knows some of the history of the area, and that's what her grandmother wants to hear. Sookie and Bill talk about their own pasts, an both have very interesting histories and personal problems. Bill, when he was still a human, actually fought with the Confederates during the Civil War. Sookie finds out that there are other vampires, and they aren't as nice as Bill. She also finds out that there is a series of murders going on where she lives, and some of the people suspect a vampire. Then she finds out that someone she knows is a shapeshifter. She also ends up being used by Eric like a telepath from the series Babylon 5 when she tries to help find out who stole money from him. Later Jason, her brother, is suspected of being a murderer, but the real one tries to kill Sookie. This is a really fascinating, very well done book. It brings a new perspective to vampire tales, at the same time examining the concept of prejudice. Definitely one of the best vampire books I have read. True Blood TV seriesI've started watching the TV series based on this series. So far I've seen the first two episodes, and they cover what happened in the first novel up to where she meets the other vampires, the ones who aren't nice. The series does a very good job of showing how difficult life has been for Sookie, what with her telepathic abilities from when she was a child on causing her problems with her parents, here friends, her bosses, etc. It's easy to understand why the quiet of the mind of the vampire Bill makes her feel at ease. It is a very, very bloody series, and the part where Sookie gets beaten up is particularly so. My only complaint with the series is what I consider gratuitous sex. It doesn't really add to the episodes; if anything, it's sort of a distraction. I guess whoever is doing the series felt that it was necessary to a vampire story, but the sexual scenes aren't really necessary, at least in my opinion. They could be alluded to rather than shown, which would fit in much better with Bill's personality as it is being developed, since he's from a time when manners and how people behaved was more refined than it is in today's world. |
