Books
Okay, finished a few books recently. One was Blue Bloods by Melissa de la Cruz and the other was One Good Night by Mercedes Lackey.
Not really a comment on everything and any thing post. More review-y.
Anyway… Blue Bloods was possibly worse than Twilight. I know I’m a fan of Twilight (well, as in I like it, not as in rabid) but I am aware of it’s faults.
The reasons why Blue Bloods is worse is because while it has decent writing and the characterisations aren’t horrible, the vampires are even worse.
Of course, they are beautiful. They have amazing metabolisms meaning they can eat anything and not gain a pound. Even if they only really derive sustenance from blood, they can eat anything.
Almost all of them are stinking rich and are the upper-class socialites, general influential/famous people, etc.
They can’t die at all, no weaknesses, nothing. They just choose to die every 100 years or so.
But, worse than that, they claim to be fallen angels, banished to earth and forced into a karmic cycle that may mean they’ll get to ascend again.
I don’t believe in anything resembling a Judeo-Christian faith, but there is something deeply wrong with this. Fallen angels, especially those ones trying to be ascend, should not be vampires. NEVER.
Apparently all their wealth and high-class associations are so they can help humanity be virtuous.
I… really don’t like these vampires. They don’t appear to be interested in helping humanity, and just seem to be concerned with (the author getting to write about) fashionable clothes and fancy events. It is mentioned that they’re failing in their duties, but absolutely NO ONE, not even the person commenting on this, is doing anything about it.
Even though the main character is an ‘abomination’, being half-human, they don’t even try to get rid of her, because she’s “no apparent threat”.
They’re totally apathetic and I kind of want the baddies of the series (the silver bloods; vampires who drink other vampires’ blood) to get their way and kill the blue bloods off.
Also. there is this incest thing going on that completely squicks me out. Twins supposed to be marrying each other? No thanks. I can handle accidental incest or even familial affection becoming more than familial (in fiction at least) but planned, where siblings are supposed to and DO marry each other? Where a mixed set is PLANNED just so the kids can marry each other? No thank you. (And yes, I was kind of rooting for Kaname/Yuki in Vampire Knight, because a childhood friends couple was cute. But then they’re siblings and FUCK NO, DO NOT WANT.)
So yes. It has better quality writing. But everything else is inherently WRONG.
Luckily, after I finished that, I had One Good Knight to read. It’s part of Mercedes Lackey’s Five Hundred Kingdoms series or what have you.
Vaguely based on the myth of Andromeda and the sea serpent. Except it’s a dragon here. Because it’s a Five Hundred Kingdoms book, it means the entire thing is about the usual, narrative end being subverted.
Strangely hetero-normative and a ‘plain’ read for me. (Plain being normal adult-fantasy, although that’s stretching it a bit with an author who’s obviously read the Tough Guide to Fantasyland.)
I was actually kind of disappointed that Periapt got changed into a human. When I was younger, I got really disappointed that the dragon/unicorn/otherworldly creature didn’t get turned into a human to be with the one they loved until they died (or vice versa) but here, I kind wanted them to stay in their original forms. I suppose it was because we didn’t get much to see of human!Periapt, but his dragon form endeared me.
There’s something else to put on my shipping list: ships interspecial couples.
Because dragons who hoard books and are called ‘Bookwyrms’ cannot be anything other than awesome.
So yes, general fun read.
Now reading River Secret by Shannon Hale. It’s really comforting that within a couple of pages, you get this warm feeling, like you’re coming back home after being away for a month [and you aren’t returning to that odd smelling musty smell places get when they’re left for that long].