Guilty Pleasures - Laurell K. Hamilton

This is Laurell K. Hamilton's first book in the Anita Blake series. Anita Blake's actual work is to be an animator. She animates dead people for a few hours so that their loved ones can say goodbye or get information or both. But, in the world of vampires, Anita Blake is also known as The Executioner. And that is because Anita has killed her fair share of vampires. Now, someone is killing vampires. And the master vampire of the city wants her to find out who and why.

As I said, this is Hamilton's first book in the Anita Blake series. I would say that this one might qualify as horror, as there are a few scary moments. And it has vampires. Okay, today's view of vampires is a romantic one, and Hamilton does not change that on one side. But, Anita knows the truth about vampires. And she has the scars to prove it. We see the vampires from Anita's side, and in her view, vampires are inhuman beasts.

Add in this book a contingent of zombies and ghouls, a vampire which is attracted to Anita, and tries to protect her, and you have a good mixture of horror, fantasy and crime fiction. And in this book it works.

Hamilton's writing style is quite enjoyable, and I loved seeing the world she builds through Anita's eyes. How she views the world, how she interacts with vampires, what she wants and what she can actually do. And there is the difference between most vampire books today. While a lot of writers still cling to the "romantic side", Hamilton does not. Although, in her world, vampires are seen by some people in that light, we see them in another light: we see them as they feed, as they kill, as they do a lot of ugly things. In Anita's words: "A good vampire is a dead one."

Hamilton gives a good background to her characters, the human ones at least, and that makes them more real, more believable. Her characters though are not perfect; and certainly Anita is not. And this one more point for the book as a whole. Because Anita is not a "larger than life" character; she is human, with her flaws, and her strengths, her advantages, and her disadvantages. This is also true of all the characters in the book. Even the vampires are not just beasts; they have their characters, with their strengths and their flaws.

I have been told that the later books degenerate from what has been a good start. I do not know, as this is the first book I have read. I will continue to read more of her books, and write about them.

Dead Until Dark - Charlaine Harris

I admit I love vampire stories. Ever since I saw Christopher Lee as Dracula in a number of those unforgettable Hammer Horror movies, I have loved vampire and horror stories. So, I bought the first book of the Sookie Stackhouse series, Dead Until Dark in order to get my vampire fix. In fact, I have not read a vampire story in quite some time, and this one happened to be on the top of my very very big unread pile of books.

Vampires are out in the open. Their thirst for blood can be quenched by a synthetic blood product, named True Blood. Of course not everyone plays by the rules, but that's a tale for another day. Sookie Stackhouse is a waitress in Bon Temps, a small city in the Southern States of the US. Sookie has what she calls a "disability": she can read minds. Enter Bill Compton, whose mind Sookie cannot read. Why? Because Bill has a "disability" of his own: he is a vampire. Add murder into the picture, and you have an urban fantasy mystery novel.

Dead Until Dark is not a horror book; vampire books nowadays can rarely be put among the horror novels. As a book, it did not disappoint me; I was pleasantly surprised by some of the writer's ideas. I liked the idea about the vampire blood being used as a drug or what we learn about Sam. I am certain that Sookie's world has more to offer, and that this was just an introduction to the wonderful world of the night.

I loved the fact that the writer, Charlaine Harris, does not delve into unnecessary detail; Harris always gets to the point, giving the amount of detail that is needed for the story. I did feel that some characters were either underused or not well developed, like Sam for example. I am certain that Sam has a great backstory to his character. I certainly hope he has!. Also, I think that the trio of vampires were also underused, and might have given a bit of more spark to the story, if their relationship to Bill was disclosed or something similar. Another character I thought may need additional characterization, and might also be a more central character is the detective Andy Bellefleur. But it might be that those stories are going to be left for another one of the books.

All in all, I regard this to be an introduction to Sookie's world. And I expect more from the next books in the series. I have not watched the HBO TV series that the books have spawned; I probably will after I have read more of the books, and can compare it to the series.

Lesbian Vampire Killers

If you thought that this was porn, and specifically lesbian porn, you couldn't be further away from the truth. What is this movie about then?

It is supposed to be a comedy, a satire of Vampire shows and movies. Nice try but no go. Not bad, but I did not laugh at any part. maybe sneered or smiled a bit.

The movie has it all: corny dialogue, the chosen one, a priest, a virgin... and lots of women scantily dressed and pretending to be lesbian vampires!

However, there is something lacking. The dialogue was there, the setting was really good. I cannot blame the director, I thought he did a good job. Paul McGann is excellent as the Vicar, and I thought that he needed someone else to act alongside.

Neither James Corden [Fletch] nor Matthew Home [Jimmy] really were up to the task. There was something missing from their acting, and at times it was like they were bored with the whole movie.

The basic story itself is quite good and has a lot of room for comedic situations, which I felt were not delivered. Or as I said poor acting made some of the jokes and in-jokes invisible to the audience.

My take on it is: a lot of undelivered potential. The main actors were a very bad choice for this movie. Watchable? Yes, with friends, appropriate commentary, some alcoholic beverage of your choice, food [preferably take out]. You can laugh at the expense of this movie, but not with this movie.