ISBN: 0-441-01494-1 Order from: Amazon.com
A bit darker than previous installments, the book has an appealing grass-roots heroine, solid secondary characters, a mixture of politics and mystery, and nail-biting adventure.
Reviewed by David on April 21, 2007
Genre: Fantasy (Vampires, ESP, Mystery, Alternate Reality, American South)
Synopsis: Sookie is a waitress in a small Southern town, a few years after the vampires have "come out of the closet." The vampires are officially suffering from an "unkown virus", and can feed on synthetic blood now.
Sookie, while almost entirely human, is a telepath, and is valued by the Vampire Queen of Lousiana during complex negotiation. Owing the vampires a few favors, Sookie reluctantly agrees to come along with the queen to a vampire summit as part of the Louisiana party. As Sookie feared, the summit is full of deadly vampire intrigue. With a few friends, Sookie does her best to survive, and to support her side.
Full Review: Sookie continues to be the appealing and very down-to-earth center of the story. She has an appealing mixture of courage and earthy passion, mostly held in check by her low-key manner and common sense. Sookie's surrounding characters present a good mixture of traits all the way from loyal friends, to unpredictable but appealing allies, through dangerous but ostensibly neutral parties, to the deadly and treacherous enemies. And, naturally, some of them change their roles during the book.
The plot itself is solid, although a bit predictable sometimes. The resolution is a bit darker than the previous books, but not exceptionally so, since the books always had this tinge of pain. There are still some touches of well-integrated humor, although again the darkness leaves less room for it than in previous books.
Sookie remains an appealing woman to several of the books' character; and while her common-sense nature avoid melodrama, it looks like the potential of melodrama always lurks on the horizon.
One hopes that the future books continue to center on the plot and avoid excessive romantic vacillation that plagues many other authors of similar characters.
Overall, this is a worthy successor in this excellent series, and hopefully far from the last adventures of Sookie Stackhouse.
Copyright: 2007
Overall: 6.5; Plot: 7; Characters: 6.5; Style: 6.5; World-building: 6.5; Originality: 6.5;
Berkley Publishing Group (Ace), May 2007, Cloth, 323 pages
ISBN: 0-441-01494-1 Order from: Amazon.com