Review: Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris

I may be the last person on earth to read Charlaine Harris' Dead Until Dark - but I'm definitely not the last person to fall in love with True Blood, the racy HBO show based on the book. In fact, I consider myself a huge fan. So I was beyond excited to read the book that started it all when I bought my paperback copy in Dubrovnik. And I enjoyed it immensely.

Set in the small town of Bon Temps, Louisiana, the story revolves around a telepathic waitress Sookie Stackhouse. The vampires have just recently come out of the coffin and Sookie is excited to meet one. The vampire in question is the mysterious Bill Compton, but when Bon Temps is struck by a tragedy - which soon escalates into a killing spree - Sookie fears she might be in danger.

As a writer, Harris writes with assurance, so I ultimately forgave her the shameless 1st person POV - even when it came to the corniest sentences. She utilizes the mysterious and dark Louisiana atmosphere to the maximum, and in the context of the story, it works out perfectly. The story itself is a perfectly balanced detective story that is never too obvious (unless you've seen the first season of the TV show). However, there are enough surprises in the book to keep you reading, even if you did.

I loved how vampires are sometimes used allegorically to represent real-life minority groups. It's very cool to see them represent people of a different race or sexual orientation. However, I didn't like how in the end, the book ends very lightly, when I feel like it could have packed more impact. However, it is an excellent mystery book and the basis for a fantastic TV show. I can't wait to read book two!

RATING: 4/5

This book counts toward my GLBT challenge.

Review: Digital Fortress by Dan Brown

Dan Brown's books are great if you're looking for a page-turning read. They are provocative, move along rapidly and often give readers the illusion that they are actually learning something (which is exactly what it is, an illusion). However, make sure you take breaks between Brown's books - his writing stile tends to get repetitive and you can almost identify the twists and turns as soon as you read the first pages.

Digital Fortress tells the story of a sexy, young cryptographer Susan Fletcher. Susan works for the National Security Agency, an organization that deals with preventing acts of terrorism and crime by decoding digital information. One day, she is stunned to find out about the latest code, nicknamed Digital Fortress, which seems unbreakable. The code presents a threat to worldwide peace, and it is up to Susan and a number of Brown's other characters to stop it from leaking.

This is an exciting thriller, of course. The titillating dilemma it introduces is whether affairs of the state are more important than people's privacy (this is a real-world issue, read more about it here). However, Brown doesn't linger too much on these philosophical issues. Rather, he is more interested in writing a complex story, where everyone may be a hypocrite and where betrayal lurks around every corner.

I wish the author paid more attention to his characters, as well as his moral contemplations. This way, everything plays out exactly the way you expect it to (and even if you don't, it is still far from shocking) and although all the loose ends are pretty much tied up in the finale, the book leaves you a bit hollow. The motivations of certain characters are forgotten halfway through the novel and the plot seems really too convoluted at times. This is especially evident in the epilogue, which may make some readers cringe.

All in all, Brown is great if you want to read about a potentially-devastating conspiracy, but he is all too eager to jump in on the action. However, he should receive credit for writing a book on algorithms, binary codes and all other sorts of techie stuff and still make it accessible to the general public.

RATING: 3/5

Review: The Eight by Katherine Neville

I have already reviewed The Eight for Suite101 (you can find the review here). However, since I am hosting a giveaway of both this novel and its sequel, I thought it would be nice to revisit the book and write a new review, which should speak better to the readers of this blog.
The Eight was originally published in 1988 and caused quite a stir on the literary scene. Before this novel, there were no such books like The Rule of Four, no such writers as Dan Brown. Katherine Neville's novel was innovative on many different levels - it had two parallel storylines, it blurred genre boundaries, posing as historical fiction, romance and literary fiction at the same time. Finally, it used historical figures as characters, deliberately throwing them into a plot that mixed conspiracy theories, mathematics, history, literature, and of course, chess.

Retelling the story of The Eight is not an easy feat, because of its many layers. It is safe to say that it follows two female protagonists, one living in modern-day New York City, and one living in France at around the time of the French Revolution. The modern-day hero is Catherine, a computer expert and chess enthusiast, who is suddenly sent to Algeria on business. While there, she gets involved in dangerous, seemingly random situations that are all somehow connected to a mythical chess set. On the other hand, we have Mireille, a novice nun in 18th-century France, who is sent on a mission, along with her cousin Valentine, to scatter what appear to be figures from an ancient chess set. Many important historical figures appear along the way, including Robespierre, Napoleon and Katherine the Great.

The Eight is not a paranormal story about witches, sorcerers and their powers. Rather, it is a book that uses the clever metaphor of chess to portray the ways people act when confronted to danger, and how easy it can be to progress, or on the other hand, get into harm's way. This is all packed into an engaging thriller that will leave your head spinning after each chapter, all the way until the very end. The characters are all made out of flesh and blood. Although they are essentially the good guys, our heroins soon learn that in order to win this deadly Game, they need to take a few detours themselves. Apart from them, the supporting characters are amazing as well, especially Catherine's romantic interest, the mysterious - and quite possibly dangerous - chess master Alexander Solarin.
Katherine Neville's groundbreaking novel has often been called the female answer to Umberto Eco's "The Name of the Rose", as well as the novel that defined the genre of Quest Novels, by that influencing many of today's writers, such as Dan Brown and J.K. Rowling.
RATING: 5/5

To win a copy of The Eight, click here.