dalnewt wrote:
dalnewt wrote:
I'm enjoying this book so far. I love the hunt scenes with Anita and Edward in the SUV surrounded by woods. LKH even managed to convert a 'booty call' trip into the Red Tiger headquarters into a suspenseful sequence ending in good fighting action and a surprise twist. This story is reminiscent of the earlier works. I loved Bloody Bones, and so far some of this story vaguely reminds me of that book.
Sigh, the second half of the book wasn't very good IMO. See below a copy of my most recent post about the book in the What Are You Reading thread:
This book seemed to loose intensity in the last half. The book lost pace with the overlong, wordy and meaningless sex. Then, the narrative took off on tangents that had nothing to do with the central hunt. Thank god Olaf was mixed up into that portion of the narrative, because without him there would have been no tension to the story whatsoever.
As the book nears completion a twist occurs which is very predictable. Although there are flashes of urgency with that twist, it really was mostly bluff and potential threats with hardly any action. Then, the story reaches a totally anti-climatic apex that relies upon metaphysical power rather than physical confrontation, and the story ends in a cursory finish that's very unsatisfactory.
If only the book had maintained the hunt, but instead it veered toward emotional and metaphysical crap. In the end, it simply wasn't satisfying. This book had a split personality. I really like the initial hard-nosed narrative where Anita and Edward are hunting the killers, but the second half had no pace, focus or real climax. Note, in one part I felt like LKH was proselytizing the benefits of polyamorous sex in a very boring and irritating way.
I was hoping that this book would set the series on a course toward once again becoming an exceptional paranormal mystery/crime series. Instead, the book is a confused jumble with a split personality and no satisfactory conclusion.
I had a little bit of a different response, dalnewt. I actually liked the stripped down narrative – as compared to some of the previous novels – and I thought LKH really did a good job in making the sex not just "supernatural porn" but very much tied to Anita's metaphysical needs.The sex is so much more than just physical intercourse.
One sequence in Hit List, in particular, summed it up perfectly:
“It was, in the end, about love. The love of a lover, of friends, and of partners, of people that I never wanted to lose, and wanted to wake up beside every damn day. It was about home. Home wasn’t a place, or a building, or a tropical night full of flowers and rain. Love made home not out of boards and walls and furniture, but of hands to hold, and smiles to share, and the warmth of that body cuddled around you in the dark.”
That said, I wasn't thrilled with the ending – in fact, I went back and reread the last few chapters because I thought I had miised something.
I've written a very in-depth blog about my feelings about this series – which I'm sure some will disagree with – and I've just sent a few questions to LKH's publicist so I'm hoping HOPING to post my blog and the interview together asap. It should be very interesting!!!
Paul
"There never can be a man so lost as one who is lost in the vast and intricate corridors of his own lonely mind, where none may reach and none may save..." – Isaac Asimov, Pebble in the Sky
