
Okay now this is a hard one for me. I've become so disillusioned by my old favs.
Vampire books by Ann Rice: Oh how I used to look forward to every new release! A fan since my college days, I count Lestat as one of my most influential books. Alas, somewhere along the line you lost my interest. You were always too wordy, giving way more details about the flora and fauna of New Orleans than I ever wanted to know. Were you paid by the word? That didn't used to bother me. But the stories got too repetitive, and I'm not sure if I'm going to dip a toe back in when the highly touted new book comes out. And sad to say, I never like the Taltos books, though I own all of them...in hardcover.
Anita Black and Merry Gentry books by Laurell Hamilton: These hardcovers take up an entire shelf in our living room, but I don't even dust them anymore. Whereas once I longed to be Anita, now I'm not sure I have enough orifices for all of the men she must have in her bed multiple times a day. I get that she's got a female sex demon living partly in her, but come on! Why all of these extremely hot, alpha males are willing to share, exposing themselves (ahem) to each other all of the time as they fight over who gets to stick what in where, gives me a headache with the suspension of belief that has to go on! And Merry? You lost me at the book that dealt only with Frost, that had absolutely no plot and no point to it except my husband thought he was pleasing me when he shelled out almost $30 for it! Either start another series, or take a rest if the plot lines are getting so hard to produce!
Sookie Stackhouse by Charlaine Harris: Sorry, for me the magic was gone by the 4th book, though my daughter devoured all of them through to the end, plus she watches True Blood on her laptop. It was hard enough to slog through the totally unattractive and boring Vampire Bill romance, but when the totally hot vampire Erik also told Sookie she was "the best he'd ever had", when she was a virgin before her first guy Bill, who couldn't even practice kissing guys for fear she'd hear their thoughts? Sorry, I like a little more realism, even in romances with the undead who theoretically shouldn't even be able to perform since they have no blood circulation.
Mary Janice Davison's Undead and Un-whatever books: God! How I loved these when I first found them! I bought every one I could find and even picked up a few of your stand-alones and books in other series. But no one had the same snark as your undead queen of the vamps. I absolutely loved her! By about the 7th book, when she was living in domestic paradise with the king, I started to get a bit antsy. Not so fresh and new anymore. Sigh...I wish I could feel that same thrill again!
Notice a pattern here? I think most series' run out of steam by about book 6 or 7. Though I'm on book 12, the last one of the Cirque Du Freak books by Darren Shan, that a student told me I had to read and he was right! Yup, vampires again, but no romance. And the series has a definite end, so readers know there's no way there could be any more sequels. Nice.
About the only exception I make to this rule is the Dragonriders of Pern books by Anne McCaffrey. I loved all of them, including the "side-line" ones about the Harpers, and I enjoy them every time I reread them.
Any suggestions for a new series I should try?
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And might I add, thanks, Rachel of Parajunkee for this fun exercise in determination. I've been working both jobs all week, so trying to come home late to write these blogs, then I try to get on-line to post either before I got to my day job, or in-between the jobs. I've never done this many postings in so little time. And though I've had fun, I'm tired...very, very tired. If I do this again, I'll probably wait for the summer, when I won't have 2 jobs to contend with. That's when I do most of my work on my books also. So thanks for reading along, those who did!
And if you want to try my take on vampires, I've got a 2-book series that I promise not to write any sequels to! Those voices don't talk in my head anymore.