More Science Fiction & Vampires, part 2

This month I read Laurell K. Hamilton's Killing Dance. This is book 6 in the Anita Blake, Vampire Slayer series. I may be cheating in calling it Science Fiction, but some library systems (including mine until they changed the catagloging) do file this title in Science Fiction. It would be the alternate reality/fantasy aspect of SciFi - not the traditional outer space type.

I have been enjoying this series for a couple of months now. Like the Charlaine Harris series I talked about in my Vampires, part 1 post, this series has vampires (as well as shapeshifters, fairies, trolls and let's not forget zombies) interacting in the world with us normal (non preternatural) folk. But that's were the similarities end. The Harris series has a light, fun tone to it. This series is dark and gruesome (very graphically so). Now there is violence in the Harris series - there has to be - you can't kill vampires without staking or beheading or some other really permanent way. It's just that the Anita Blake series takes it to another level. Where Sookie is a cocktail waitress, Anita is a necromancer (she raises zombies for a living). And she's the licensed official state vampire executioner. And one of her best "friends" is a monster hit man (the challenge of killing humans was gone, so he pretty much specializes in killing things that go bump in the night). This takes her involvement in the preternatural world to another level.

I would recommend these books to people who like vampires and even those who like serial killer/thriller type books. People who like monster books might like them as well. There is a developing sexual theme that is increasing as the series plays out. Anita is torn between the master vampire of the city and the leader of the werewolf pack. It looks like this will continue to develop in future books.

Science Fiction

For October, I tackled Science Fiction, definitely not my first choice of genres. I chose to read a "classic" hoping that the lasting appeal of the story would be reflected in the writing, etc. I listened to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams.

It was not bad. Some of the reviews of this book call it hysterically funny. I found it amusing and often ironic, but it didn't make me fall over laughing. I enjoyed the exploits of Earthman Arthur Dent as first his house, and the the whole Earth, are destroyed in the name of more efficient transport routes. The characters are fun and I loved the idea of the travel guide.

I went into the book saying that I wasn't going to go on to the rest of the series. But I may, one day, when I have nothing else to read.

There's enough scifi/techie stuff in here to appeal to the traditional reader, but the humor and fun make it also appealing to the rest of us.