The Killing Dance by Laurell K. Hamilton

This book is, of course, part of a series that should be read in order. While the story itself can be understood alone, you wont get a full appreciation for the characters without reading them in order. Not to mention, you wont appreciate the gradual improvement of Hamilton’s writing ability.

As far as the story itself goes, the book is good. The idea of someone hiring a hit-man to kill Anita Blake isn’t that shocking. It also brings up a good point of Anita’s own disregard to human life and how easily she, herself, will kill. This is one of the problems I have with Anita as a character. She started out not so bad, but now she’s become something that I can’t really label as a heroine anymore. Is this a bad thing? I’m not sure and I think that question will have to held off for the later books.

Outside of the immediate storyline is the constant strain of Anita and “her two men”. Personally, I found the idea of her dating both Jean-Claude and Richard utterly ridiculous and somewhat juvenile. And, two books later, I still find it so. Thus, I was pretty darn happy when she finally made up her mind and picked one. Though, the inner slasher in me wanted them both to just forget about her and hook up with each other.

Now, to the complaints. Honestly, I was hoping I wouldn’t go the Buffy route with this, but just like with her I’m starting to dislike Anita Blake as a whole. For one thing? Being trigger-happy isn’t a good thing. What happened to Anita’s morals? To the part of her that, oh, went to church or felt guilty for doing something wrong? Is it just me, or is that side of her swiftly going doing the toilet?

Anita’s love for murder—and let’s face it, she’s slowly heading, if she isn’t already, in Edward’s direction when it comes to that—is kind of ridiculous. It really doesn’t fit her. It’s like Hamilton took a look at her character and decided to change her into someone else, instead of just letting her go and created something new. Let’s get straight to the point for a moment: Anita is a hypocrite, plain and simple. You can’t deny that.

But the other characters are intriguing and worthwhile. Jason is a blast, Richard makes me want to support the Boy Scouts, Jean-Claude makes me want to strangle him in a totally happy way, and Stephan just makes me want to cuddle. I love the boys Hamilton has created, but what is up with authors/tv creators/movie makers and their inability to create a female character that is worth liking?

Also, one last complaint: Rape. While I understand that in this world Hamilton created, sex used as a method to deal with a constant power struggle that weaves itself between all the characters. I get that, but she’s using rape so often that it’s simply turning into a cliche, something that rape should never, ever become. The scene with Stephan is the only scene in which I saw rape presented as a true horror. Stephan is the only character that actually reacted to it and for that, I think he’s one of the best characters in the book. But, seriously, Hamilton needs to stop using rape as a tool to fuel her characters’ conflicts.

Speaking of decisions, I made a big one last week. I chose whether or not to take a job as a stock person at Ross. I picked yes of course, since my need for a job outweighs any desire to not stand on my feet all day. Besides, I figured with all of the weight I’ve lost with my surgery, standing wont be as bad as it used to be.

I was right. Yet another thing to add to the “What makes gastric bypass awesome!” list. My feet hurt, sure, and they probably will for a few weeks yet, but I’m in nowhere near the amount of pain I was in when I was around 350 pounds and worked at Target as a stock person. So far, I like the job. I work with a bunch of crazy people, though.

Site Update time!

• Updated links in my fanlistings.
• Added a link list to The Sims 2 Resources.
• I am adding the major reviews I do to the visitor page, so they’ll be accessible within my journal long after they’re off the main page.

Speaking of, I’m still shocked that my grandmum doesn’t mind us sharing a bed when he’s down here.

Anyway, now that Nate is gone I have to focus on finding a job and truly settling in. I have a small list of places I’m going to apply to, including AT&T, QuickTrip, Dollar General, and a couple of others. Hopefully the search for a job won’t be too difficult. Here’s to praying, yes?

So, I finished Christine Feehan’s Deadly Game, which is part of her Ghost Walker series. I normally can’t stand romance, but I enjoy this series because it approaches psychic phenomena and gene manipulation from a scientific viewpoint. Also, nearly all of the characters are soldier types and I have a bit of a soft spot for those type of characters. This particular book dealt with two types of people that both had very traumatic pasts. Normally this series has damaged psyches in it, but this couple was the extreme. Oddly, they still worked out together. I loved the fact that Ken Norton was supposedly this massive Alpha male, but he recognized that his chosen partner was an Alpha female and instead of trying to push her below him he accepted that she was his equal. There is a lot of talk on his part about how he would be too controlling and even a danger to her, but his strength shows in that he doesn’t let those thoughts truly effect his every motion and he lets her shine when it’s needed.

Aside from reading there has also been game playing abounds! I’ve installed The Sims 2 (+Nightlife, I need to get more expansions) onto my laptop and have been having a blast creating the characters from my book that I wrote. I’ve revisited my account at The Sims Resource and have been downloading things for it like crazy.

That is, when I’m not playing a free PvP game Nate got me addicted to, called League of Legends. I’m not very good at it at the moment, but it’s a basic strategy game, kind of like Axis and Allies but on a much smaller scale. I loved that game when I was younger, so I’m really enjoying this. It has a practice game option on it, too, for noobs like myself. I recommend it for anyone who likes PvP strategy games.

On the website department, I have some things I want to add to the site, but I don’t have my external hard drive hooked up to my grandmum’s computer yet. That’s where all of my site files are. Once I get that hooked up I’m going to post a few things, like maybe an essay on something (I’m thinking of an article on the things one should consider before gastric bypass.) and a link list for The Sims 2 resources.

I’ve officially moved to Oklahoma yesterday. Nate came with me and he’s flying back to Colorado on the 16^th. Ray cried on our last day we hung out on Wednesday, but she agreed that it was for the best, even if it means she’ll only have Nate left as a friend to hang out with. Not that she gets to see Nate often, as Nate never drives down to Denver and she works full time and is in Wyoming with her parents on the weekends (the reason we hardly ever hung out). But the trip went well, that is nothing bad happened if you don’t include me having an extreme pain flare. Nate had to give me a massage last night and will probably have to give me another one tonight, because I’m still in a lot of pain and Tylenol can only help so much.

My body. So silly.

So far I’m really happy to be here, but we’ll really see how I feel when Nate leaves. My grandparents are happy I’m here. Rian, my kitty, is so far doing well, though grandmum’s dog—Benny—keeps growling at him. It’ll take Rian slapping him around before he stops, I suspect. That’s how things usually go for Benny.

Pre-move I read a lot of books. I honestly couldn’t write a review for all of them, so I’ll just give you a list of the good ones: Hunting Ground by Patricia Briggs (sequel to Cry Wolf, The Queen’s Bastard by CE Murphy (warning: this book has rape that is borderline glorified), Urban Shaman by CE Murphy. There were a couple more that I read, but they weren’t that good.

There isn’t much else to say. Right now I’m just trying to catch up on all my online stuff and rest up from the trip.

So, movies aside, how about I talk about real life? I had to drop out of school, due to finances and various other things in my life. I miss it and I despise not being there, but there is nothing I can do about it.

I still haven’t found a job and, well, it’s looking like if I can’t find a job before middle of February, it might be best to try somewhere else. Meaning, I might be moving to Oklahoma to be with my family. I’m not as upset about the idea as I thought I’d be. I always loved living in Oklahoma more than Colorado, it’s where I belong I think. And this way I’ll be able to help take care of my grandparents on a day to day basis until I’m able to get my own apartment. If I can get a job down there. Shockingly, the market for a job is a little bit better in Tulsa than Denver at the moment, at least in retail/etc. Which a first since I’ve been born.

I don’t want to leave my friends, but to be honest…it’s not enough of an incentive to stay. I can’t hold myself back for Ray, who I barely ever see anymore, or Nate, who is hot and cold with me when it comes to our friendship. Amazingly, Nate is in full agreement with my idea to leave. He thinks it would be good for me. Ray hasn’t contacted me back about it when I told her, so I don’t know what she’s thinking. My mom, well, she’s refusing to say anything.

All in all, right now I’m leaning heavily toward moving to Oklahoma, unless I can get a job before February. That will change everything, then. Heh.

Many, many people make it as artists in the world. But at the same time, there is that chance of failure. There’s that chance in every career, I’ll admit, but there is something about this plan that is giving me doubts. Again, I love the school and it is amazing. If you’re an artist and are determined to become one, I highly recommend Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design.

However, for myself… I don’t want to go to school for another four years before I can have a steady career. Okay, okay, I’ll admit it: I’m getting old. Not really old, but I’m going to be 25 years old next month. I want to have something to show for myself within the next couple of years. I want to make logical decisions about my life right now that will help me get out of my current debt and, well, lifelessness. I don’t really have the money for RMCAD. I don’t, there is no getting around that.

The thing is, while I love RMCAD and I was so happy to have gotten in…I kind of applied just to see if I could do it. Yeah, that was pretty much the sum of my reason for applying. But I got in and I felt like I had no other place to go but there. Everyone was so proud of me and I am really good at art, I know that. Growing up, until the point of going to art school, I always had three career tracks I wanted to take: art, history, or becoming a veterinary technician. I dropped the history idea because I didn’t think I was good enough at it to fight through the highly, highly competitive field. Before RMCAD I had dropped art, because I hate the idea of making a career of my hobbies.

I’m thinking maybe I want to try being a vet tech. I went to school for it once before, but I stupidly chose a place that was one of those “earn your degree in 9 months” and it was total shit. They wanted me to learn radiology without practicing on holding the animal hands-on in only two weeks. Ridiculous. So I gave up. But I’m back in Colorado now, less than five miles from a great vet tech school—Bel-Rea, and I can get a degree there in two years or less. That is much more realistic for my current financial status.

So, here is my plan. I’m going to stick with RMCAD this semester, but during the semester I’m going to take a tour of Bel-Rea, see about their tuition costs and what classes I’ve taken that will transfer. Then, I’ll decide what to do before the semester is up. I’m going to actually take my time with this, instead of jumping the gun like I did with RMCAD and so many other decisions I’ve made through my life.

The Overall Storyline

I’ll admit to anyone reading this that I walked into Twilight expecting to hate it. First, I don’t normally like first=person novels. Second, the story itself just sounded ridiculous.

And, well, for the most part—I was right. The story was extremely lacking. While I understand that our main focus was meant to be Edward and Bella’s love for one another, it felt more like the author couldn’t make up her mind while writing the story until the very end. Everything, from the minor to major twists and turns, felt like random decisions of Meyer’s part in an attempt to keep us entertained until she figured out what the hell was going on.

Essentially, this book didn’t really have much of a story. The storyline only gets interesting at the end, when the hunter shows up. But there is no tension leading up to that, nothing to even hint at that being something we can expect. Sometimes a surprise is good, but not like this. The last 1/4^th of the book felt entirely out of place because there was no precedent for it. You can’t have a climax without a build up, so as a result—all we get is a little stumble over the curb instead of the wonderful tension and story build up that Meyer was possibly aiming for.

The Characters

This book was a character book, that is obvious. It wasn’t written to engage you with amazing dialog (if you are hoping for that, you’ll be seriously disappointed) or with a great story. It was written for the characters, that much is obvious.

Bella Swan
She’s supposed to be a strong female lead, who suffers through the awkward stages of teenhood while still managing to be every guy’s dream. What she actually is? A whining person that has very little personality beyond being a stubborn, weak, and pouty teen girl.

Bella is as far from a “strong” female character as you can get. She relies heavily on Edward, to the point that he could turn into an abusive boyfriend and her only response would be “Oh, Edward, you’re so beautiful.” She has no ability to stand on her own and is the worst role model I could ever imagine someone having. Needless to say, impressionable and stupid teenagers shouldn’t be reading this book.

On the other hand, she is a teenager and Meyer does a good job of reminding us of this fact. She’s not perfect and she’s struggling with life in the same manner most girls her age do. In that sense, Bella’s character is rather well formed. However, certain aspects of her character aren’t static. For example, her “clumsiness”. Meyers spends more time telling us about Bella being clumsy than she does showing us.

Edward Cullen
He’s a vampire with the personality of cardboard in serious need of a mood stabilizer. He has “abusive husband” written all over him. He’s controlling, moody, and manages to treat Bella like crap one moment and then like a princess the next, and yet still be considered the perfect guy. I don’t think so.

Basically, I wasn’t impressed with this guy. He’s a horrible character with a horrible personality. I don’t see the appeal and I can’t bring myself to want to talk about him any more than I have to.

The Cullens Finally, some interesting people. I love the Cullens. Carlisle and Esme could use a personality implant, just like Edward, but the other four? They were the only things that kept me reading. I love the fact that Rosalie is antagonistic toward Bella, because otherwise this family would be too perfect. I couldn’t get much of a hold on Emmett because we weren’t given much of him to go by. Alice and Jasper would be my favorites. Alice’s past was far more interesting than any of the others and made me wish the book was about her. And Jasper, well, I just liked Jasper. He’s the type of male character that I tend to lean toward.