dark fantasy

I just finished Dead and Living in Dallas. It may not be quite as good as Dead Untill Dark, but I enjoyed it. The tone of the book is fresh and better than so many of the cookie cutter epics that fill the fantasy shelves these days. I'm a sucker for first person narration and I like Sookie Stackhouse's voice. She is stong, and strait forward without being crude or abrasive. She's not a rocket scientist, and she knows it, but she does not let that stop her. She is honest, hard working and real.

This book and the one before it do invite comparison to the Anita Blake series. There is a lot that is the same, vampires, murders, shape changers, but Charlane Harris can keep the tension up and the plot going in her books with about half the body count and weird sex. I'm not a prude, but I like that. The tone of the book is much more like Tanya Huff's Victory Nelson stories, or some of the non-vampire urban fantasy books that I've read, than Hamilton's Anita Blake series.

"Living Dead in Dallas" by Charlaine Harris is the second instalment in the series that started with the superb "Dead Until Dark", and I honestly don't know which one I liked better, they are both just SO fantastic! Sookie and Bill are both wonderfully quirky and lovable characters who I just can't get enough of. The only bad thing about this book was that it had to end, and now I have to wait what seems like FOREVER for the next in the series!

"Living Dead in Dallas" starts with Sookie Stackhouse, feisty telepathic waitress and girlfriend to sexy Bill the vampire, on a string of bad luck. First a friend and co-worker is murdered and then Sookie receives a painful and poisonous lashing from a beastly maenad as a message for Eric, the area's head vampire. Bill gets the injured Sookie to Eric's club in Shreveport, where he and some of his vampire friends work together to remove the poison from her body. But the thing is, Eric saved Sookie's life, so when he asks her to go to Dallas to help find a missing vampire, Sookie agrees.

So, Sookie and Bill head off to Dallas where they meet with the head vampire, Stan, whose "brother" Farrell has been missing for several days. After an attempted abduction on Sookie and a few other clues that Sookie picks out of the minds of others, it becomes apparent that the "Fellowship of the Sun", a vampire hate group, is responsible for taking Farrell. But when Sookie tries to go undercover at the "Fellowship of the Sun" to find Farrell, things go terribly wrong, and she suddenly finds herself scheduled for sacrifice!

After a fabulously thrilling, dangerous, and exciting adventure in Dallas, Sookie returns home to Bon Temps, where the murder of her co-worker is still a mystery. Determined to find the truth, Sookie takes matters into her own hands, and the suspense once again builds to a fever pitch and leads to a satisfying conclusion.

And amidst all the fast-paced action and the thrilling adventures, is the ever-present romance between Sookie and Bill, which is, in my opinion, one of the sweetest, sexiest, most honest, and heart-warming romances I have ever encountered. Sookie and Bill are an unforgettable pair, and I look forward to watching their love grow and evolve through many, many more books!

So, if you are looking for a book that has it all - humour, adventure, suspense, horror, and romance (among other things) you just can't miss with "Living Dead in Dallas". Harris' storylines are fresh, fun and fascinating, so buy both books in this amazing and inspired new series TODAY. I guarantee you will fall in love with Sookie and Bill just like I did, and become so wrapped up in their adventures that you'll have to read each book in one sitting. So do NOT miss out, "Living Dead in Dallas" comes very, very highly recommended!

(...)I thought Ms. Harris had lots of potential. In this book I really feel she's living up to it!

It's great. Sookie gets loaned out to Dallas vamps to find a member of a vampire nest that's gone missing. She goes with her boyfriend dull vamp Bill and Bill's boss Eric who's incognito.

She uses her telepathy to find out the missing vamp has been taken by a cult out to kill all vampires.

She and a fellow human-in-love-with-a-vamp try to spring him and it gets messy. They meet a suicidal pedophilic vampire, a huge shapeshifter community, and honest-to-goodness werewolves.

It's really similar to Anita Blake, minus the Dirty Harry atitude. In this novel Sookie is so much more real than the first story. Sadly, Bill is once again dull (what does she see in him? he so irritates me) and he's ALWAYS missing when there's action going on. Once again as I read this I have to wonder what makes vamps better lovers than humans? We get no real explanation at it, so be ready to suspend your disbelief.

This one made me laugh and had some sad parts. Not nearly as erotic as the first, but we see Sookie growing more to understand her own sexuality by bits and pieces.

I think this is a big improvement over the first and it shows not only Sookie growing but Ms. Harris as well. I've read the next one and the series just gets better with every book.

I'm recommending this to all my friends and I would to anybody who's ever enjoyed a vampire book or movie in their life. It's great!