Kim Harrison's Urban Fantasy
Sep. 4th, 2008 11:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gategrrlI've gotten three of her books out of the library and have another one waiting to be picked up. Harrison has based her fantasy not only in an urban setting (Cinncinati?) but also in an alternate world where humans have been decimated by a plague brought on by genetically-screwed with tomatoes. That's right.
I was interested in the "pandemic" and "alternate world" aspects (which as far as I know, aren't in any main stream UF series) but was disappointed on that front: although a goodly portion of humanity was wiped out, no one really seems to mention it or care about it, except when a human character sees a tomato on a window sill. Disappointing. Then again, I'm someone who loves The Stand, just finished reading Swan Song (another end-of-the-world disaster/horror novel) and was sort of expecting that such a huge event would have, you know, impacted the characters in other ways, other than "coming out of the closet" in a magical sort of way.
Without giving much away in the series, it features Rachel Morgan, a witch who is NOT a human, yet acts like one totally, and her friends: a living vampire with a thing for her, a sexy pixie as her second out on jobs...sort of a Bob the Skull only with wings, pixie dust and an attitude, and the pixie's family, and the vampire's 'family' and other relationships, not least of which with one human.
Harrison loves her agnsty moments. LOVES them. There are a LOT of them. At least every other scene is an angsty dialogue between two of the characters giving heart-to-hearts to each other about the emo-state of another character. Of course, most of the emo centers around Rachel, our freelancing thrill-seeking witch turned on by danger. But her roommate, the tall and mysterious living vampire, gets a lot of it, too. Of course, based on Rachel's desirability.
I might have to turn to The Dresden Files to get away from all the emo and angst. This is not to say that Harrison's story isn't gripping--she had me distracted from doing some homework a couple of days ago--but there is something about the damned HtHs that keep getting in the way of the *story*. I guess that depends on what you define as *story*. Clearly, the Rachel Morgan series is based on the twin shelves of Romance and Violence, with some caper mixed in there. There's vampy sex (sort of), titillating hammerlike hints of lesbianism (star-crossed, of course) and tons of sexy pixies and a sexy thief...there are few creatures in this world that don't ooze sex and power.
Am I giving a bad recc? No, no. The Morgan books are pretty good. But if you aren't into emo conversations everywhere that seem to take hours to read through during moments when the characters are in danger and you're thinking, "WTF are they talking about NOW?!" when they should be doing something...urgent? Then yes, these are the books for you. If you can skip past the emoing, you get to the plots.
The plots are meandering, and often, what happens earlier in a book doesn't matter at all later on in the book. Characters are developed, then dropped. Or quickly mentioned, but not by name, and suddenly plopped in as a major emo-plot point for the main character. I had to comb the chapters to find out who that character was and how he was important and OH! That's why he was there. Even if he hadn't been mentioned by name at all. Yes, I see that as a flaw, when I have to scratch my head and try to figure out where a character came from.
If you think Rachel's interesting enough and All That, yes, you'll like the series. Not exactly beach reads; Harrison's series has been compared to (early) books about another sexy vampire hunter/demon lover by Laurel K. Hamilton.
After finishing the previous book in the series, I don't feel like I care much about the main character. She makes her own hell, knows it, emo-angsts all over the place about it...I'll give the next book in the series a chance, for the pixie. He's the most appealing character in there for me.
Next up: Swan Song by McGannon.
I was interested in the "pandemic" and "alternate world" aspects (which as far as I know, aren't in any main stream UF series) but was disappointed on that front: although a goodly portion of humanity was wiped out, no one really seems to mention it or care about it, except when a human character sees a tomato on a window sill. Disappointing. Then again, I'm someone who loves The Stand, just finished reading Swan Song (another end-of-the-world disaster/horror novel) and was sort of expecting that such a huge event would have, you know, impacted the characters in other ways, other than "coming out of the closet" in a magical sort of way.
Without giving much away in the series, it features Rachel Morgan, a witch who is NOT a human, yet acts like one totally, and her friends: a living vampire with a thing for her, a sexy pixie as her second out on jobs...sort of a Bob the Skull only with wings, pixie dust and an attitude, and the pixie's family, and the vampire's 'family' and other relationships, not least of which with one human.
Harrison loves her agnsty moments. LOVES them. There are a LOT of them. At least every other scene is an angsty dialogue between two of the characters giving heart-to-hearts to each other about the emo-state of another character. Of course, most of the emo centers around Rachel, our freelancing thrill-seeking witch turned on by danger. But her roommate, the tall and mysterious living vampire, gets a lot of it, too. Of course, based on Rachel's desirability.
I might have to turn to The Dresden Files to get away from all the emo and angst. This is not to say that Harrison's story isn't gripping--she had me distracted from doing some homework a couple of days ago--but there is something about the damned HtHs that keep getting in the way of the *story*. I guess that depends on what you define as *story*. Clearly, the Rachel Morgan series is based on the twin shelves of Romance and Violence, with some caper mixed in there. There's vampy sex (sort of), titillating hammerlike hints of lesbianism (star-crossed, of course) and tons of sexy pixies and a sexy thief...there are few creatures in this world that don't ooze sex and power.
Am I giving a bad recc? No, no. The Morgan books are pretty good. But if you aren't into emo conversations everywhere that seem to take hours to read through during moments when the characters are in danger and you're thinking, "WTF are they talking about NOW?!" when they should be doing something...urgent? Then yes, these are the books for you. If you can skip past the emoing, you get to the plots.
The plots are meandering, and often, what happens earlier in a book doesn't matter at all later on in the book. Characters are developed, then dropped. Or quickly mentioned, but not by name, and suddenly plopped in as a major emo-plot point for the main character. I had to comb the chapters to find out who that character was and how he was important and OH! That's why he was there. Even if he hadn't been mentioned by name at all. Yes, I see that as a flaw, when I have to scratch my head and try to figure out where a character came from.
If you think Rachel's interesting enough and All That, yes, you'll like the series. Not exactly beach reads; Harrison's series has been compared to (early) books about another sexy vampire hunter/demon lover by Laurel K. Hamilton.
After finishing the previous book in the series, I don't feel like I care much about the main character. She makes her own hell, knows it, emo-angsts all over the place about it...I'll give the next book in the series a chance, for the pixie. He's the most appealing character in there for me.
Next up: Swan Song by McGannon.
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no subject
Date: 2008-09-05 07:32 am (UTC)I don't know if I'd love them or be frustrated by them. :-) A couple of years ago when I spent the night in the hospital, toolman ran out to the drugstore to buy a book for me, and came back with a book that drove me crazy. It kept stopping the story to go off on long, descriptive tangents about every single new character who made an appearance, and then explaining that character's relationships to every other character. hehe It drove me nuts!
Sometimes, if the characters are well drawn, I can ignore plot holes and lack of story development, and I love angst, but I'm not sure I'd love what you describe--maybe when I was 13, though! hehe
I wish I could get more books from the library, but I've realized it costs me more to drive there and back (twice) than to just buy the book, if the book is around $10 or so. If I'm doing other errands, that's fine, but I can't always count on having errands near the library at the time books are due, so I always end up making an extra trip.
I'm definitely interested in your take on Swan Song, just from your description of it above.
I loved The Stand, but mostly only the first half. Once it started getting all religious and good vs. evil and whatever, I just thought that was lame. The book was still awesome (and I loved the movie, too), but that part...just not my thing. hehe
no subject
Date: 2008-09-05 02:51 pm (UTC)I get tired of it.
The Stand: I went in realizing it was all about "dark Christianity" from King's forward/introduction in the copy that I bought, so I expected it. Plus, a lot of horror is based on the fight between good vs evil, and the violation of convention and morality. It tends to be a very conservative genre! Which is weird when you think about it!
Yeah, Swan Song was interesting. If anything, it was *nastier* than The Stand, but not in other ways. It's an interesting contrast.