There's been some chatter about vampire stuff recently, what with the writing challenge going on. I've always been a staunch defender of this series. There was a conversation on IRC a week or two ago, where it came up, and I realized, I hadn't actually read the series in some time. So, I sought to correct that, at least in part, so I could at least be on the correct side of the argument in regards to that. There's a lot of preconceived notions regarding it, which I would at least like to set straight. So in my typical meandering format, here's my review of the first book.

Southern Vampire Mysteries #1. The Sookie Stackhouse Series. Titled, Dead Until Dark. The new tagline is the “True Blood” series, but that is a huge disservice to what this series is. True Blood is the HBO show based on this series… and as such, has been HBO-ized. Make no mistake. Beyond the character names, there’s not really that many similarities to the books. The plot is only loosely followed before diverging entirely in Season 4 (or was it season 3?) Yeah. A book series with thirteen books has a show that diverges after the third.

I will not talk about the show all that much, since it really is a separate entity. There’s a lot of fan-pandering and over-sexualization. The second season is pretty much nothing but gangbangs, whereas the book is nothing like that. But if I was the author, I’d have taken the payday as well, even if it means butchering your own Magnum Opus. I will say that I have not watched the entirety of the show. I only saw the first three and a half seasons. As someone who enjoyed the books, season 4 of the show was just so far off the rails that I couldn’t stomach it. Imagine if Harry Dresden took up Marcone's offer in book 2 to become his enforcer, and then none of plot from the rest of the series happened at all. That's pretty much the same situation, though I might actually be interested in reading that. But, the show does do some things right. Eric is as awesome as he is in the books, as is Pam. Some of the supporting characters were well cast. Lafayette being a prime example. Another would be Hoyt. Jessica, a character original to the show, is hot as fuck. Russell is fantastic. But other characters have their roles way over played. Tara is barely a blip in the books. She’s not even mentioned by name in the first one. Bill as well. He’s just not *that* important.

Anyways, enough about the show. Dead Until Dark is an Urban Fantasy Mystery novel. Don’t let anyone tell you different. I’ve seen a lot of people claiming it’s not Urban Fantasy, but it really is. I’m probably going to make a lot of comparison to the Dresden Files, for better or worse. And, I will preface this by saying that on a whole the Dresden Files are a better series, but they’re not that much better. If DF is a solid B, then this series is a B minus. The series follows a similar pattern as well, sort of weak beginnings, a really great middle act, and then a middling final act, where the author has lost sight of what made the series enjoyable to begin with, now that they are making bank

The book starts off innocently enough. We’re introduced to Mary Sue, I mean Sookie Stackhouse. She has an older brother, Jason, and lives with her Gran, since her parents died in a flash flood when she was younger. She’s a 25 year old waitress who works at the local hotspot in the bayou in Bon Temps, Lousiana. She’s busty, blonde, and strangest of all, telepathic.

Vampires are a very new thing to them. They’ve only just “come out of the coffin” so to speak. The Japanese invented a synthetic blood, that allows them to sustain themselves without having to feed on humans. Which means they can (theoretically) co-exist with humans now. Have jobs, pay taxes, become citizens. It’s still a relatively new thing, so people are still forming opinions, and many vampires are trying to put their best foot forward. Some of them are trying to “mainstream” which is to say, fit in with society, and regain their lost humanity.

Bill is one such vampire. He fought in the civil war, and was turned sometime afterwards. Sookie was surprised and excited when Merlotts, in the small town of Bon Temps, finally had a vampire. Unfortunately, they were a sleepy enough town where they hadn’t yet ordered the synthetic blood. Shreveport, which was a few hours away, was home to a vampire bar called Fantasia, and New Orleans was one of the biggest vampire hubs in the world, due to the popularity of “Interview with a Vampire.” That’s canon, not hyperbole. Sookie’s Gran is a member of the local history club, the Descendants of the Glorious Dead, and was super excited to actually meet someone who had fought during the civil war, and knew many of their great-great-grandparents personally. In fact, Bill is a Compton, and his old family home just happens to be across the way from Sookie’s.

At some point early on, murder strikes the small sleepy town of Bon Temps, catching everyone by surprise. The victim had been strangled after sex, an an investigation shows that she had vampire bites. A few days later, a second victim, this time it’s someone Sookie knew decently well, one of her fellow waitresses. She personally found her body when her boss, Sam Merlott, asked her to go find out why she wasn’t answering her phone and hasn’t come in. She was also strangled after sex, and also had vampire bites. Dundundun… serial killer!

When Sookie’s brother Jason becomes the prime suspect, as he had “relations” with both victims near the time of death, and with how biased many are towards vampires, she has to get to the bottom of this, so she gets Bill to take her to Fangtasia, to see who else might be connected to the two victims. It’s the fangbanger hotspot in their neck of the woods.

From there, I won’t spoil any more. There’s group of vampires who hate the idea of mainstreaming, and cause a ruckus in town, mostly to troll Bill, who wants to be part of the community. There’s several more murders as well. And an introduction to slightly more supernatural elements.

And sex. Not a gratuitous amount, but definately more than necessary.

The final revelation of the killer is one of (some) surprise, but is quickly replaced with fear, when Sookie very nearly becomes the next victim.

As a Fantasy novel, the author hits upon a lot of the hallmarks. The Main Character has an unexplained ability that makes her different than everyone else. There’s intrigue of vampires, who have only just made their existence public to the world, due to the invention of synthetic blood, which can sustain them. And then we are teased with the possibility of even more supernatural entities, such as shapeshifters. We are left with asking, what else is out there? Werewolves? Wizards? Demons? Dimensional travellers?

As a Mystery novel, the author also did a good job. It’s not a super deep mystery, but the question is present in every chapter. Girls keep getting murdered, and they all share something in common: they’re associated with Vampires. The MC eventually falls into that category herself, and soon finds herself in the crosshairs. So, she must figure out who is doing it, before she finds herself the next victim. And, unfortunately, her brother happens to be the most likely suspect, which she doesn’t believe for a second, and must help prove innocent. So, overall, nothing super complicated. There’s no major twist either. It’s not like in the Philospher’s Stone where it was actually Quirrell, not Snape, where all the evidence suddenly makes sense in retrospect. Now, it’s been forever since I read the book for the first time, so I can’t actually say whether or not the identity was obvious or not, but there were some clues along the way, as well as some intentional misdirection from the author. As the first novel in a series, I thought it was fairly well done.

As a Romance novel, honestly, I just don’t really care. Romance isn’t my thing. But, the author of the story (at the time) was a fifty year old woman, writing about a twenty five year old woman. So, it’s pretty much what you’d expect. It’s nowhere near Anita Blake levels of sex, nor is it as lame as Twilight. It is worth noting, that this series predates Twilight by several years, and I think it’s a shame Twilight is what people think of first when thinking of vampires. Since it sucks. So, the author kinds of falls into the same trope that Jim Butcher does, but honestly, it’s not as bad. Jim Butcher pretty much describes every single female in his story as unattainably hot. This author doesn’t go that far, but the author does kind of single out who the potential love interests are by calling them some degree of attractive. That being said, in the entire series of 13 books, I think Sookie only has like 4 (maybe 5) different partners, which I feel like is surprisingly restrained. Anyways, I guess the romance is fine, but it’s largely skippable and doesn’t really add anything to the story. Feels mostly like fanservice.

Now, for the Good, Indifferent, and Bad.

Good:

Worldbuilding. The worldbuilding in this story is excellent. The story takes place in a small town in bayou country. We’re given a small taste of the fantastical elements of the world, while still being grounded in reality. “Merlott’s” bar and grill serves as an interesting story hub where all the action seems to rotate around, since that’s where Sookie, and many others (including several of the victims) work, and where many other supporting characters come in to eat. Fangtasia is also an interesting setting. A vampire bar open to the public, making bank off the public perception of what vampires are. There’s even a gift shop with fake fangs and t-shirts. Later on, there are fae and werewolves and such, who are keenly interested in how well Vampire’s are being treated now that they are public, and can become tax paying citizens. Who knows, if that goes well, maybe wizards will come out of hiding (not really). There’s hints of some sort of vampire hierarchy that is only just barely touched upon. Really excellent worldbuilding, and the author does a great job at creating the setting.

Eric: Perhaps the most intriguing character in the entire series, though perhaps not yet, as he doesn’t play that big of a role in the first story. He’s a thousand year old Viking vampire, owner of Fantasia. He’s a badass, and pretty awesome. Pam is his sidekick, and is just as cool. Their depiction in the tv show is reasonably accurate. I guess he’s sort of the obligatory anti-hero, but he’s the best character in the series imo.

The Mystery. As I said above, as a Mystery novel, it works. It’s not Sherlock Holmes, but author never lost track of the mystery.

Other side characters. The author does a good job at making some of them feel human. Gran. Jason. Andy. Rene. Arlene. Terry. In future books, some of these go down, while others go up, and new ones are added.

Indifferent:

Sookie: She’s the main character. She’s also a gigantic Mary Sue. But, as far as Mary Sue’s go, she’s tolerable. All of the parts that stick out have an explanation (even if it’s a bad explanation). Like, she’s telepathic. No one else in the story (so far) has that ability. But, Eric is nonchalant about it, so you almost have to think that it’s not unique (it isn’t). There’s a lot more plot about it in later stories, which I won’t spoil, but there is a reason she’s telepathic. She also has an obligatory dramatic backstory, in that she was molested (but not raped) as a child. She’s described as busty within the first few paragraphs, and blonde. Patrons of the bar describe her as hot, but crazy, due to her ability. Her obligatory flaw is that her ability makes it really tough to date, since she can just hear all of their lewd thoughts. She only has a high school education, and I think the author did a good job of staying within that boundary. Upon the end of the story, there is a realization that she might be able to use her telepathy for actual detective work on the side, now that she got a taste. Rather than the constant feeling that her ability is a detriment to her, she finally sees that she can use it for good, or at least, to make money.

Vampire mechanics. They’re sort of all over the place. Some good, some bad, but right now, I’ll split the difference and put it here. Vampire Blood has a lot of beneficial properties. Healing, aphrodisiac, better sense, stronger, faster. It’s essentially a drug, and there’s a black market for it. I think that’s pretty cool. Vampires fry in sunlight, as expected. It’s not instantaneous, but it’s fast. That’s good. About whether or not vampires have souls, Bill says he has no way of knowing, which makes sense to me. Bill also says vampires have a lot of different abilities, not all the same. That’s fine. But, he and Eric can both fly. That’s bad. There’s no reason they should be able to fly, and in story, it’s never come up as important, so it’s egregious. Silver hurts them, stakes kill them. Blood illnesses can debilitate them, some more than others. All fine. Making new vampires is kind of vague and nonspecific, as it seems it’s not really a science, and different for everyone. Fine. I guess there’s more good than bad, but there’s nothing really groundbreaking, other than them not sparkling.

Various side characters. Sam. He’s kinda all over the place. I do like the concept that Sam, as a shapeshifter, is waiting to see how the public handles vampires before wondering if they would consider accepting someone like him, who has no excuse like a virus for what he is. That being said, Sookie shouldn’t be so damned surprised that there are other supernatural beings out there when she is freaking telepathic.

Bubba. It’s… cute. A certain popular “King” of Memphis, who just happened to “die” on the toilet, and turned vampire just in time, but suffered complications in the process. Yes, the story is intentionally vague with the character’s real name, but in a tongue-and-cheek sort of way

The Bad:

Romance. There’s not that much, but still more than necessary. Not enough to distract from the story, but it still feels out of place. And it feels like it’s written by a 50 year old women living out in her fantasy world. It’s not super detailed and smutty, but enough is there to get the point across. Not much else to say that wasn’t said above.

Bill: He’s just not that interesting. The author puts too much into describing his jaw structure and shit like that. The show pretty much did to Bill what the HP movie directors did to Hermione. But in the book, he’s just… I don’t know. Well, I do know. He feels off. And that’s because he is. He’s hiding a lot. Like the reason he’s in Bon Temps to begin with. There just really isn’t a reason that he should be the love interest. Pretty much the only reason is that he’s “silent” to Sookie. Sookie can’t really read vampire’s thoughts, so being near them is a relief. She doesn’t have the benefit of Occlumency (and yes, I’ve already written that crossover, years ago). In future stories, as Bill gets phased out slightly, he is more of an indifferent character, but in this book, he’s just annoying, dark, and brooding.

The Vampirism itself. First, we’re told that it’s a virus, a sickness, and the people who have it are just unfortunate (but still alive). But, it’s said in an unconvincing manner, meant to tell us that this isn’t really the truth, and just a plot point. That’s a minus. But, then Bill says something like “That’s one theory that’s popular right now” indicating that that is just one of many theories to pop up, and little more than propaganda to help them fit in, which is good enough to erase the previous minus. I thought that was a good point to end the virus nonsense, but the author kept going with it all the way to the end, even when it didn’t fit. Eventually, it’s revealed that they are in fact dead, and vampirism pretty much is what everyone though it is. Actually, I think the author did that reveal twice, that it isn’t actually a virus. The idea of vampires using propaganda to try and “mainstream” is intriguing, as is the idea that they can all live of synthetic blood (which is technically true, but they all hate the taste of it). But using the virus idea as a plot idea throughout the story felt weak and a bit contrived. It didn’t need to go all the way to the last chapter.

Overall, this is a good story. A solid 6/10 or 7/10. With less romance (or perhaps, more interesting romance), It could have a better score. But, It’s a pretty good rating for the first story in the series. Compare that with the first novel in the Dresden Files, which is like a 4/10. However, this series overall has less high points. DF has several books that I might be inclined to rate a 10/10, whereas this series has just one.