Pop Culture Curmudgeon

Book Recommendation: One Silent Night by Sherrilyn Kenyon

[digg=http://digg.com/arts_culture/Review_Sherrilyn_Kenyon_s_One_Silent_Night]It makes sad to say this, but I fear that the Dark Hunter series has jumped the shark. It should have ended with Acheron. But here we are reading Stryker’s story in One Silent Night.

The book is well-written, and Kenyon seems to be enjoying the changes to the rules of her world that Acheron allows her. The characters’ motivations match their history, and the development of some of the minor characters is interesting. It makes me sad that I didn’t like this book more than I did.

Stryker’s story doesn’t have the same pull as the other Dark Hunters’ and Were Hunters’ stories. And Stryker is the type of male character that I absolutely hate–the kind who forces the object of his affection to love him. I much prefer the stories that involve longing and misunderstandings, not the ones where the uber-alpha male keeps a woman against her will for two weeks until she loves you. It was hard to care about the romance.

I do not recommend that you read this book unless you are waiting with bated breath for Fang’s story and need to make sure you get all of the background characters’ and mytharc development. Or if you are one of those people who just can’t stop reading a series once they start. I’ll probably read Fang’s book, Bad Moon Rising, but I don’t think I will rush to do it as soon as it comes out. I have a hard time saying goodbye to characters I have grown to care about–I did watch season 7 of Gilmore Girls, after all.

It’s too late for Sherrilyn Kenyon, but I much prefer my stories end on top rather than when they have beaten every inch of life out of the characters and the world. What about you? Which book or TV series dragged on way too long? Which ended just right? Which ended too soon?

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Tags: acheron, book review, daimon, dark hunters, Fiction Friday, sherrilyn kenyon, stryker

Uncategorized | Jennifer C. Rodland | May 1, 2009 4:00 am

2 Comments

By katie71483, May 1, 2009 @ 7:29 am

TV: Veronica Mars, Wonderfalls, Firefly, Pushing Daisies, and Eli Stone all ended way too soon. The third season of VM doesn’t even feel complete. Friends and Smallville both went waayyy too long. I think Supernatural is doing the right thing by the Winchesters by ending after their fifth season.

In terms of books, I completely agree that Sherilyn Kenyon’s series has gone on way too long. I also feel that way about Christine Feehan’s Carpathian series. Laurell K. Hamilton’s Anita Blake and Merry Gentry series both need closure. JD Robb’s In Death series is repeating itself. Of course, I keep buying and reading them, so maybe I’m perpetuating the problem It’s not that I dislike these authors or their books, more that I loved their earlier works and now feel like the spark that I so appreciated is gone. Or at least, a lot dimmer.

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By Jennifer Roland, May 1, 2009 @ 8:31 am

I’m often amazed that Smallville is still going on.

One of my favorite book series when I was younger was the Xanth series by Piers Anthony. Those were the best books, full of verve and imagination. The first, A Spell for Chameleon, won the August Derleth Fantasy Award for Best Novel in 1977 and was nominated for a Hugo Award in 1978. The next 5 or so books were of the same quality, and the next 10 were still readable. After that, though, they lost all semblance of being good. They were reader-submitted puns strung together with nonsense storylines. And it killed me to admit that and stop reading them. I’m so removed from that series that I have no idea if Anthony is still writing them.

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