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Title: The Good, the Bad, and the Undead (Rachel Morgan, Book 2) (The Hollows)
ISBN: 0060572973
Author:
Kim Harrison
Publicate Date: 2005-02-01
Publish: 2005-02-01
List Price: $7.99
Average Customer Rating: 4.5
Format: Mass Market Paperback
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $3.89
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $1.95
Amazon Merchant Price: $7.99
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| Customer Review: |
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1: Urban Fantasy - The Good, The Bad and the Undead
Book 2 in the Kim Harrison Hollows series continues with excellent character developement, plot and enough twists and turns to make you think you just stepped off a roller coaster.
Kim has created the type of story and characters that will have you thinking about them long after you've finished reading the book. I personally love the fact that she doesn't over play sex in her books. If I wanted to read about that, I'd pick up a paranormal romance
Kim gives you a story you can sink your teeth into. It's a good read that will have you coming back to the Hollows for another visit. Pick up her first book Dead Witch Walking and go from there. You won't be disappointed. Melissa NC
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2: This is not a new book!
This isn't a new book, it is a re-release of the second book in the series. The series is wonderful, but opening the book I was so excited to get, just to realize I had read it YEARS ago was not! Do not be fooled as I was.
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3: What a series
After reading book 1 (Dead Witch Walking) I could tell this author had something. After book 2 I needed a fire extinguisher. After book 3 I was hooked for the long haul. Her Character is so well drawn out in this series, you forget they aren't real.
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4: Better than the first, but still not great
I read "Dead Witch Walking" and was not impressed. (You can read my review for that one as well.) In this second book, the author's technique didn't improve much, and you have to tolerate usage of the same phrases over and over throughout the book. The writing isn't very sophisticated, and the main character is very thin and not intriguing (sort of like a watery stew). I understand that writing in first person is very difficult, so maybe the author should have moved to third person for this second outing. Perhaps she was trying to follow in the noir fiction movement, but the atmosphere of the books are too bright for that.
The only redeeming parts of this ongoing story are the interpersonal struggles and the fascinating (and drastically deeper) supporting character, Ivy Tamwood. The plot in this book is actually pretty good, and it is more complex than the first book.
I read this second book in the hopes the author's technique would have improved. (Come on, editor, you should have pushed her harder.) Unfortunately, it was at times tortuous. Will I read the third book or more? I don't know. Ivy's ongoing crisis is interesting, but that's about it. I'm personally tired of Rachel's juvenile behavior and hearing how she always has to push the wayward strand of hair out of her face. I could walk away from this series and never look back. Actually, now that I've said it, I think I'll move on to other books that I've been longing to dive into.
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5: Maybe they get better?
I have read the first 2 books in this series - honestly they're not that great. I tried to like them, i wanted to like them. They read like average TV episodes of Dresden Files or Night Stalker or
First, the world the author has created and virus that decimated a good chunk of the population seems, like an after thought. I can see the witches & such coming out of hiding after the virus, but come on - there would not be Starbucks after 1/4 of the word population was wiped out. There would be total chaos for decades if not longer. Yet the author has the characters living in a world much like own own, but with witches & wizards, drinking coffee at Starbucks, etc. This should be a grim world, with burnt out cities and roving armies and isolated city states. Instead we have Witches' Universities and Starbucks. The only reminder of a virus that wiped out over a billion people is humanity's aversion to Tomatoes?! Please... (The virus was carried by a mutant tomato strain. - Yes, attack of the Killer Tomatoes.)
Second, the treatment of the supernatural is well, droll. The main character mixes her spells with all the excitement and zeal of a pharmacist mixing up cough syrup. We don't get a feel of anything exciting or mystical. Why are these people magical? They just are. Where do the Vampires and Were comes from? No where special, they just exist. Accept it. The Vampires' bite & how they attract their victims is reduced to a chemical reaction. There's no awe, no "wow", its all very humdrum.
Nothing that happened in either of these books surprised me. If you are a new reader, I assume they're ok to cut your teeth on (ok, bad pun) but if you are a long time genre reader, this is the Dresden Files with a witch instead of a Wizard. This is the NightStalker with a gender change.
The main character, Rachel, is the least interesting of all. She's an average witch turned private eye. She runs her own private eye agency with a half Vampire. She plods along, throwing tantrums when she can't get her way. She escapes death only by the intervention of her friends and partners - not by any skills of her own. I dunno which came first Dresden or this character but she's a mystical private investigator (like Dresden) that works with the police as a consultant (like Dresden) and has a supernatural partner (like Dresden) and is alway broke and down on her luck (like Dresden) and her father died under mysterious circumstances (like Dresden).
There's some pseudo vampire erotica also for those who are bored.
Maybe the books get better after the first 2. I'll try the 3rd sometime down the road and see how it is. So far, its an effort to finish book 2.
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