Let me start by stating that I LOVE reading Charlaine Harris books. I have read all of her novels. I cried when Aurora Teagarden lost her husband. I wish there were more books to the Lily Bard series. I find Harper Connelly quite intriguing. But Sookie Stackhouse has always been my favorite.
I discovered Sookie several years ago when I found the first book in the Southern Vampire series, Dead Until Dark. I tore through that book and was happy to find that 2 more had been published. Since then I have had to wait (patiently) for the release of each following book. I was excited when I saw that a new one was coming out, and I put myself in the queue for A Touch of Dead at my public library.
The first thing I need to tell you about A Touch of Dead, is that it is NOT the next book in the Southern Vampire series. This book is a collection of previously published short stories. I do not generally enjoy short stories, so I had not read any of the books that contained these pieces. I am sure that there are a bunch of Charlaine Harris devotees who had already read the stories and were mighty disappointed with this book. So, if you have read Bite or Wolfsbane and Mistletoe, you probably just want to skip this book and wait for book 10 in the series.
The first story in the book is "Fairy Dust." This was the story I enjoyed the most. Claudette, triplet to Claudine and Claude, has just been murdered and it is up to Sookie to find out which human killed her, and how. "Fairy Dust" contains the wit and sass that we love from Ms Harris. It is a good read, and those of us familiar with the Southern Vampire fairy community will enjoy finding out exactly what happened to Claudette.
The next story is "Dracula Night." Eh. It's ok. It involves Eric and Pam and yet another bartender at Fangtasia. I didn't really enjoy it and it doesn't give any insight to the characters.
"One Word Answer" tells the story of how Sookie learned of her cousin Hadley's death. It is in this story that she meets Mr Cataliades and the Queen of Louisiana. It was an interesting read, I hadn't realized that we didn't learn how Hadley had died in the series. I suppose that is the benefit to putting a year between books. This story has some action and favorite characters Bill and Bubba. You gotta like a story that involves "the king."
The last two stories are "Lucky" and "Gift Wrap." I read them. That's about all I can say. "Lucky" was especially uninteresting.
I don't know if Charlaine Harris doesn't write particularly well in short story form , or if I was just expecting more from stories about Sookie. If you are a True Blood fan, please don't read this as your introduction to the Sookie books. Start with book 1 and read the books in order. You will enjoy them. I think you'll like Sookie better in the books than you do on the show. And maybe you won't even get mad at me when I say I'm on Team Eric (book 4, Dead to the World).
I discovered Sookie several years ago when I found the first book in the Southern Vampire series, Dead Until Dark. I tore through that book and was happy to find that 2 more had been published. Since then I have had to wait (patiently) for the release of each following book. I was excited when I saw that a new one was coming out, and I put myself in the queue for A Touch of Dead at my public library.
The first thing I need to tell you about A Touch of Dead, is that it is NOT the next book in the Southern Vampire series. This book is a collection of previously published short stories. I do not generally enjoy short stories, so I had not read any of the books that contained these pieces. I am sure that there are a bunch of Charlaine Harris devotees who had already read the stories and were mighty disappointed with this book. So, if you have read Bite or Wolfsbane and Mistletoe, you probably just want to skip this book and wait for book 10 in the series.
The first story in the book is "Fairy Dust." This was the story I enjoyed the most. Claudette, triplet to Claudine and Claude, has just been murdered and it is up to Sookie to find out which human killed her, and how. "Fairy Dust" contains the wit and sass that we love from Ms Harris. It is a good read, and those of us familiar with the Southern Vampire fairy community will enjoy finding out exactly what happened to Claudette.
The next story is "Dracula Night." Eh. It's ok. It involves Eric and Pam and yet another bartender at Fangtasia. I didn't really enjoy it and it doesn't give any insight to the characters.
"One Word Answer" tells the story of how Sookie learned of her cousin Hadley's death. It is in this story that she meets Mr Cataliades and the Queen of Louisiana. It was an interesting read, I hadn't realized that we didn't learn how Hadley had died in the series. I suppose that is the benefit to putting a year between books. This story has some action and favorite characters Bill and Bubba. You gotta like a story that involves "the king."
The last two stories are "Lucky" and "Gift Wrap." I read them. That's about all I can say. "Lucky" was especially uninteresting.
I don't know if Charlaine Harris doesn't write particularly well in short story form , or if I was just expecting more from stories about Sookie. If you are a True Blood fan, please don't read this as your introduction to the Sookie books. Start with book 1 and read the books in order. You will enjoy them. I think you'll like Sookie better in the books than you do on the show. And maybe you won't even get mad at me when I say I'm on Team Eric (book 4, Dead to the World).
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