Title: Dead Witch Walking
Series: The Hollows #1
Source: Library
All the creatures of the night gather in "the Hollows" of Cincinnati, to hide, to prowl, to party...and to feed.
Vampires rule the darkness in a predator-eat-predator world rife with dangers beyond imagining - and it's Rachel Morgan's job to keep that world civilized.
A bounty hunter and witch with serious sex appeal and an attitude, she'll bring 'em back alive, dead...or undead. Er...ok. So this is not going to be a complimentary review, as you've probably already guessed by the rating.
I am a character-driven reader. I don't necessarily have to love a character to bits, but if I can get behind him/her, then I will come along for the ride, and be willing to overlook a lot of things, like faulty plotting, and a not-too-interesting story, among other things. If I don't like the character, well, then I enjoy the book less, and become somewhat cranky. I notice choppy plotting and not-very-good writing.
I am not a plot-driven reader, but sometimes, really good storytelling will keep me interested even when I dislike the characters.
This book failed on both fronts. I wanted to slap Rachel, the main character, almost from the beginning, and was praying someone would shoot her dead and put me out of my misery. I didn't see much likeable/interesting/redeemable about her. She was not intelligent - and since every other person was dumber than she was, it made for a rather stupid cast of characters. The secondary characters were also boring and annoying in turns.
Um... the story. It was published in 2004, (I'm guessing) in the infancy of UF. It might have been considered cutting edge/excellent in it's time, and perhaps if I'd read it in 2004-2006 I'd have thought so too. But now that the genre has taken off, it is just bad prose and bad plotting.
I do not think I will be reading more of the books in this series; it's not for me. I might try other books Kim Harrison has written, but probably later.
I don't recommend this one.
★★
OTHER BOOKS IN THIS SERIES:
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This is one of those series that I have been meaning to read. I have it on my shelf and while the synopsis did not really interest me, it is one of the foundation series of the genre, you know what I mean? I told myself I would read it this year but now your review has me going back to my initial "not too interested" feeling. :)
ReplyDeleteI agree, Lee. I can really see how this book would be a 'foundation' series. It's just that all the series that came along after that foundation was laid are now sooo much better! Very few of the foundation series 9this one, Anita Blake,etc) can hold their own with the later series now.
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