As True Blood fans eagerly await the show ’s fourth season , readers of the Sookie Stackhouse book series on which the show is based have a young instalment to go through . Dead calculation is the 11th Southern Vampire Mystery , and it continue to build on the surprisingly complex universe source Charlaine Harris has position out . What began as a fairly simple vampire - human Latinian language has become a sprawl supernatural epos – and that can run to problems . Suffering from too - much - plotitis , the in style Sookie Stackhouse book spreads itself slender between lamia politics , faerie dramatic play , and yes , planning a baby shower .
Spoilers ahead .
drained computation pluck up where Dead in the Family go out off . Sookie is living with her fuel-air explosive cousin Claude and her slap-up - uncle Dermot . She ’s married to Eric in the vampire way , which is n’t de jure truss but does set aside for lots of rough gender . ( eternal sleep assured we get a aspect of a post - coital Sookie ice her “ yahoo palace . ” ) Eric has his own portion of problems following the vampire power shift , particularly when it come to Louisiana king Felipe de Castro ’s regent Victor Madden . A honest amount of exposition is thrown in for fresh reader , though honestly , who would blame up and hear to make sense of Dead Reckoning without reading the first 10 book in the serial publication ?
If it sounds like there ’s too much going on in Sookie ’s humankind , that ’s because there is - and all of this before the leger really gets started . On top of all the supernatural background signal drama , Sookie is still being pursued by Sandra Pelt , on a delegation to avenge her sis Debbie . As a result , all of the plots suffer : Harris commonly jump between her disparate story with proportional ease , but the strain is obvious here . Dead Reckoning ’s centering is perplexing , to say the least , and all the storylines meander toward mostly underwhelming conclusions .
The faerie bits are , as always , the weak data link . I ’ll give Harris credit for complicating the traditional vampire mythos – no , just supply werewolves does n’t count – but at this point , far too much clock time is being devoted to Sookie ’s fae family . There are some interesting scrap , include Sookie ’s attempts to vindicate her mistily incestuous behavior . ( early on in the Quran , she checks out a shirtless Dermot , who look selfsame to her brother Jason . ) And I love that all the sexually ambiguous fae seek safety in a virile flight strip club . But there ’s a whole lot of fluff , including a orphic token called the cluviel dor , an elf name Bellenos , and an unnecessary infodump by demon lawyer Mr. Cataliades .
And despite how brutal the faery can be , their presence still feels tonally discrepant with Dead Reckoning ’s vampire bits , which are sadly rushed to make way for everything else . lamia government are avowedly kind of silly , but Eric and Pam stay the most interesting characters Harris has given us , so turn out down on their page - clock time is always a mistake . Not to mention the fact that Victor mat up like a real menace , spend a penny the half - assed resolution to his news report a real disappointment . Without saying too much about the fucking coup d’etat against him , I ’ll just say that it need a convenient and rare functioning by Bubba , the lamia formerly known as Elvis .
While stagnant calculation does preface conflict that could prove interesting to the rest of the series , the book of account does n’t go up to its hope . The major deaths that hap are so side - note , they could well have been shoved into premature installment . And the revelations are shrug - worthy – do we really need to know incisively how the part - fae Sookie got her telepathy ? Spoiler alert : it ’s not that interesting .
Perhaps Harris ’ series has gotten aside from her , in which case she would be wise to rule it in , or at least focalize on more consistent tempo . Even the overdone True Blood is n’t as concern - inducing as this . Sadly , Dead Reckoning is one of the more forgettable entries in the Southern Vampire Mysteries .
book reviewBooks
Daily Newsletter
Get the best tech , science , and culture newsworthiness in your inbox day by day .
intelligence from the future tense , hand over to your nowadays .
You May Also Like
