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vanessakm 's review for:
Sunglasses After Dark
by Nancy A. Collins
Like the rest of the Western world, I am vamped out and picked this book because I didn't have other fiction handy over a holiday weekend. I really wasn't burning to read anything more about vampires indefinitely. But, I have liked Nancy Collins since I read her short story "Dancing Nitely" in the anthology [b:Under the Fang|748523|Under the Fang (The Horror Writers of America)|Robert R. McCammon|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1223636308s/748523.jpg|734664] and this book turned out to be clever and original and I loved the kickass heroine. Alas, vampires had to go and become culturally omnipresent but do bear in mind this book was written in the 90's when all vampires wanted to do with people was eat them. Not shag them and, God forbid, not mope over their tragic love for them. Kids, things were better then.
This book is the first of a trilogy about Sonja Blue, a woman who was attacked by a vampire and left for dead in swinging 1960's London. Through a series of coincidences she lives and becomes a hybrid. And once she finally regains her memory, she is exceptionally pissed about the whole thing. So she travels the world killing vamps and other assorted predators while looking for her maker. Unfortunately there are things after her as well, including a creepy televangelist. Ok, ok I know, you're thinking are you sure this chick isn't named Blade and played by Wesley Snipes? But this book came out well before the movies and at any rate, Collins builds a uniquely imagined, well-crafted world that probably has something to say about feminine identity and violence toward women if you care to delve beneath the shiny layers of mythology and ass kickery. Or if you want to just revel in those top layers, that's fine too.
I got this book as part of an omnibus version of the trilogy and most of it is dedicated to Sonja's backstory. I definitely will read the other two parts eventually. I have the feeling if the timing were different, I would have devoured these books back to back to back.
(one of my male coworkers read the first Sookie Stackhouse book recently and complained that after an epic chain fight in the first chapter, it was all downhill. I wonder if I should have steered him this way instead.)
This book is the first of a trilogy about Sonja Blue, a woman who was attacked by a vampire and left for dead in swinging 1960's London. Through a series of coincidences she lives and becomes a hybrid. And once she finally regains her memory, she is exceptionally pissed about the whole thing. So she travels the world killing vamps and other assorted predators while looking for her maker. Unfortunately there are things after her as well, including a creepy televangelist. Ok, ok I know, you're thinking are you sure this chick isn't named Blade and played by Wesley Snipes? But this book came out well before the movies and at any rate, Collins builds a uniquely imagined, well-crafted world that probably has something to say about feminine identity and violence toward women if you care to delve beneath the shiny layers of mythology and ass kickery. Or if you want to just revel in those top layers, that's fine too.
I got this book as part of an omnibus version of the trilogy and most of it is dedicated to Sonja's backstory. I definitely will read the other two parts eventually. I have the feeling if the timing were different, I would have devoured these books back to back to back.
(one of my male coworkers read the first Sookie Stackhouse book recently and complained that after an epic chain fight in the first chapter, it was all downhill. I wonder if I should have steered him this way instead.)