First this is one of those times when I feel I need to open with an apology to those who liked this book and encouraged me to read it. I know you like the book.I don't.To categorize a book as good or bad is often somewhat difficult to do. If a book is badly written, if the sentence structure is bad or the writer can't make him or her self understood, that would be a bad book. In most cases however whether a book is liked or disliked depends on "taste". Do I like the writer's style? Do I like the type book this is? So, here we are. The book in question is the first in the Vampire Huntress Legend Series by L.A.Banks (Leslie Esdaile Banks) who died this year (Aug. 2, 2011) of adrenal cancer. This book while nominally an urban fantasy is (to my mind) actually more a romance. So much of the story leans on who loves who, why and how much they may or may not be in love and so on. The main character (Damali) is an "expected" (or looked for), special, vampire slaying maiden (one that is born only every thousand years or so....not sure what "we" do in between, die I guess). One of her "powers" has to do basically with pheromones...when female vamps "smell her" they attack when male vamps "smell her" they are torn as whether to attack or bring her on over into vampirism. Sigh.Some of the reviews I read (unfortunately after I'd already finished with the book) actually reveled in the romance aspect of the book, especially the relationship between Damali and Carlos.I'm sorry all you who love these books...but I just can't take PNR or for that matter most romances. I almost put this book aside several times as the author waxed poetic about the heroin's hair or some vamp's physique, or maybe when the internal monologues about Damali's feelings concerning Carlos went on and on...or when Carlos was thinking about Damali's pouty lips or the swell of her breasts. Get the picture?Aside from this I just never really got into the story. Every time I began to get interested the romance would intrude and overwhelm the storyline...again. The book's plot line in many ways kept reminding me of a sort of inner city Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Of course her "crew" was more war-like and less lighthearted than Buffy's. I think I set the bar "lower" for what is PNR than some readers. I can read a book where the romance is just a small part of the plot. Here I think it more or less "is the plot"All in all I see that a lot of readers like these and I'm happy for you...no really I am, but they're not for me. I don't plan to follow the series up myself but please...enjoy really, if it's your cup of, you know...plasma.
I reread the book. Its still bad but its not completly bad! It needed lots of revision. She's not a bad writor its just the unnecessary hip hop vernacular, fist pounding, lack of action, etc. which destroys a somewhat good story concept. I'm going to read the next book, hope there is an improvement. I have no idea how she was able to get a book deal! Perhaps another rewrite would have really made it a great book because there are moments of her description that really shows excellent writing. So she has the skill she just made really bad editing decisions.The first chapeter drags and drags with no action... Ok we get it Damali and the band feel different. By the time you get to the action in chapter two its kind of like... who cares... some one dies and all im thinking is good because there were too many people to remember in the band anyway. Many of the chapters and Damali's in the head dialogue could have been delted. Alot of Damali's thought process was so ghetoo... sister chile? its da bomb?. Who thinks like that? all of that was really really unnecessary. It slowed me down as the reader. Just write a freakin book with regualr dialogue and thinking. Black people don't sit in their head saying sister chile all the time. And what's up with the male band memebrs fist pounding after every sentence... ridiculous! I mean I thought I was pretty ghetto in 2003 when this book was written but I don't remember guys constantly fist pounding for everything!
Do You like book Minion (2004)?
MY TAKE:Highly stylized writing, with a lot of “sistah better recognize,” and “for real, stop trippin” and fist bumps throughout. It continually felt like you were coming in on the middle of the story, and not at the beginning of a series. There were a large number of references to past incidents and history without any details or explanation. If she was trying for mystery, she failed – all it managed was making the reader confused and out of the loop. I did like that the heroine was a spoken wo
—Sara
Tennille, you are not alone. I didn't care for this series. I've been told it gets better. I like her other writing though. She's got some good short stories, even in the Huntress universe.
—Tennille Clayton
I felt that way at first Camylle, but keep reading it is a great series. I figured I could give her a pass after reading Black Dagger Brotherhood. The language and slang in that series is terrible! If you've read it you know what I mean. LOL!
—Camylle
