My favourite book gets shat on
I wrote a review on Amazon.com about Christopher Pike's new book, Thirst No. 3: The Eternal Dawn, a 15-year-late continuation of the series, The Last Vampire.
I have viewed The Last Vampire series as my Bible since I was fourteen. I say that half-jokingly, but I truly enjoyed the books and the messages in them. Sita was amazing, almost deity-like; she was magical and powerful, and her mind clearly belonged to a creature who had watched part of human history unfold. The last book, Creatures of Forever, ended beautifully, and Sita's actions in that book were exactly what I would have expected of her. The message of that book was that despite being almost a goddess, all she wanted was to be human again and live her human life with her husband and daughter. Human life is nothing to scoff at.
I was naturally skeptical about Christopher Pike bringing her back, since everything ended so beautifully. While I would love to read more novels about Sita for the rest of my life, the truth is that she is gone. Pike should have seen that, being her creator.
But I suppose that something pushed him (perhaps the fact that the vampire genre has exploded and you can make craploads of money off of it?) to bring her back. Except not really, because this is not Sita. There is nothing, aside from her looks, that even resembles Sita. She is not nearly as powerful as in the other books, and she is selfish and truly stupid. For example, she ignores obvious connections that could save her a lot of grief, despite claiming that she doesn't believe in coincidences. It's hard to believe that I, a 27-year-old, am smarter than a 5000-year-old vampire, or even than brilliant author Pike. Her powerful intuition is 100% lacking as she continues to trust people she shouldn't without question.
In addition, Sita's enemies are stupid, and do not take advantage of the many opportunities they have to kill her. Even at the siege at the end of the book, the Telar make idiotic decisions that of course work in Sita's favour. The previous books had ruthless enemies that pulled no punches, and therefore showed Sita's incredible skill and will to live. Sita was primarily on her own, and didn't need people to show up and save her. That is the Sita I know and love, and I have to say I feel betrayed by Pike.
I have viewed The Last Vampire series as my Bible since I was fourteen. I say that half-jokingly, but I truly enjoyed the books and the messages in them. Sita was amazing, almost deity-like; she was magical and powerful, and her mind clearly belonged to a creature who had watched part of human history unfold. The last book, Creatures of Forever, ended beautifully, and Sita's actions in that book were exactly what I would have expected of her. The message of that book was that despite being almost a goddess, all she wanted was to be human again and live her human life with her husband and daughter. Human life is nothing to scoff at.
I was naturally skeptical about Christopher Pike bringing her back, since everything ended so beautifully. While I would love to read more novels about Sita for the rest of my life, the truth is that she is gone. Pike should have seen that, being her creator.
But I suppose that something pushed him (perhaps the fact that the vampire genre has exploded and you can make craploads of money off of it?) to bring her back. Except not really, because this is not Sita. There is nothing, aside from her looks, that even resembles Sita. She is not nearly as powerful as in the other books, and she is selfish and truly stupid. For example, she ignores obvious connections that could save her a lot of grief, despite claiming that she doesn't believe in coincidences. It's hard to believe that I, a 27-year-old, am smarter than a 5000-year-old vampire, or even than brilliant author Pike. Her powerful intuition is 100% lacking as she continues to trust people she shouldn't without question.
In addition, Sita's enemies are stupid, and do not take advantage of the many opportunities they have to kill her. Even at the siege at the end of the book, the Telar make idiotic decisions that of course work in Sita's favour. The previous books had ruthless enemies that pulled no punches, and therefore showed Sita's incredible skill and will to live. Sita was primarily on her own, and didn't need people to show up and save her. That is the Sita I know and love, and I have to say I feel betrayed by Pike.