15 years ago
Wed Mar 03 2010, 07:09pm
This is our book of the month, unfortunately I've not read it though I do own a copy back home in Aus (which is really unhelpful :P ) I've caught a few episodes of the tv show - so far seeming a little Twilight-y - though thats just my first impression - I'm willing to give it a chance! I've been a little skeptical of the sudden appearance of all these Vampire romance type storylines that are popping up every which way!
So please discuss away! and feel free to prove me wrong :P
Mystic Guildmistress
15 years ago
Mystic Guildmistress
Mage
There's a tv show? Lol I think you might mean the other vampire tv show that's on at the moment, the Vampire Diaries.
I've read all of the Vampire Academy series so far and I've loved it. But since we're specificall talking about the first one...
I wasn't too keen at the start of it, Rose just seemed a bit too mean in an I-don't-care way. But all the little twists and turns throughout the book are great. Anyone who has read this book can't tell me that Dimitri is not a dream guy (at least in the first book anyway :P) I love all the tension between the two, Dimitri being all mysterious, the relationship between Lissa and Rose and especially the twist at the end.
I know what you mean about Vampire stories that keep popping up and I'm always a bit skeptical when I start reading a new vampire series myself, but this is one of the few vampire stories I've read in the recent past that hasn't disappointed me. Though, I'm a bit cranky at Richelle Mead about what she does in the later books. But hey :D
haha whoops ~:| yes I was referring to Vampire Diarires - I think I just assumed they were the same thing! |:(
*corrects author's name*
Thanks EI! :P
Wanderer Guilden
15 years ago
Wanderer Guilden
Mage
oh, i've actually read this one :P
i thought that the book, at the start, was a bit confusing and rather a lot like most other vampire stories, but, once i warmed to the story line a bit, i didn't mind it.
not my favourite book ever, but it certainly beats a fair few other books that i've read...
yosh, i agree EI, i don't particularly like the other sequels and as soon as i read the end of Shaddow Kissed i refused to read any more that came out :P
I've heard from many people that the book is a good read but I must say that the blurb never really picked me up. I've borrowed it from my local library though so hopefully I can finish it in March, with the OBC.
I see so many books on the market now along this vampire-human romance theme, and the thing with these books that annoy me the most is the fact that the author takes so long to reveal that the impossibly perfect (usually) male in the book is a vampire, a fact that the reader knew from the beginning. I'm trying to wade through the beginning of the first book of the vampire diaries now and it's proving almost impossible because Elena is still dwelling on how perfect Stefan is but all I can think of is 'he's a vampire, damn it'! It detracts a lot from my enjoyment of the novel to the point that I wish I could just skip to where she finds out, but I'm also afraid to do that because I might miss something.
Rant over, I like how this book just states right out that they are vampires, so we ignore this whole 'taking forever for main character to realise something obvious' bore. However, I must say the idea of a half vampire/half human confuses me a little, as it did in Twilight when Renesme was born
I read this (and suggested it :P ) and I quite liked it. I just got the sequel out of the library, although from your reactions I'm thinking maybe it's not as good... Oh well, I'll read them anyway!
I think this book actually suffers for it being about 'vampires' in that people tar it with the Twilight brush and bring preconceived notions to it. If instead of being 'vampires' and 'half-vampires' they were some mystic word the author had thought up (which, in fact, they are, but 'vampire' is also mentioned) no one would have a problem. You'd view it as a fantasy novel set in its own universe with its own rules, like any other novel. Please don't view this as me picking on you guys for doing this, we all do it! I'm just saying that I think the book suffers for having come out during the time of Twilight and featuring the word 'vampire' (then again, it could be working as a great marketing strategy to get all the Twihard fans to read it :P )
So whilst I can definitely see where you're getting the comparisons to Twilight's Renesmee (and God, that was bad!), it's actually completely different. There's not a talking baby in sight! :P
Yeah, I recommend replacing the word 'vampire' with 'aigneanfjd;gnsjs' (sometimes called Random Typing :P ) and just thinking of it like any kind of magic or funny quirk of people in a fantasy novel.
Cat-Eyes I think what the others are upset about is more what happens to their favorite characters then cazy brain frt stuff like Renesme and other parts about the twillight saga that really put me off. Anyway if they perserver I think Rachel does a good job. She takes a differnt track and its not a case of "great way to write your self into a hole Mead". I hope that makes sense but doesn't give too much away.
15 years ago
Tue Mar 09 2010, 05:35pm
Elmo - I was referring to the fact that people don't want to read this book because they see it as just being another Twilight, not what people think when they've atually read it. Sorry if I didn't make that clear! :)
Well, since I posted before I've read the next two books in the series, Frostbite and Shaddow Kiss, and I didn't mind them. I can definitely see the part that annoys people, but then again if everything always stayed the same the books would get boring and be unbelievable. Sometimes you have to do something to a main character to bring back the fact that what the characters are doing is dangerous. And I don't know, maybe it's because I'm not in the age group anymore, but I wasn't that terribly attached that I'm devastated, so I'm still going to read the next one. Wait, that makes it sound like I don't like the writing or something, it's not that and I do relate to the characters, I just didn't have a "Oh my God!! Noooooo!" reaction that I'm guessing some of you others did! :P ;)
I actually really liked some of the themes that were coming up in the third book, particularly about dhampirs.
But anyway, back to the first book!
I have read all four books, and looking forward to the fifth book. When I read Shadow-Kiss, at the end of it, I was so frustrated I THREW the book across the room and threw a tanty...:/ Haha. I didn't want to read the next book. But seriously, even if you didn't like the ending, force yourself to keep reading them, because even if it IS a bit...y'know...sad, depressing, etc, it DOES get better. Blood Promise was good, although I admit, I still threw a few tanties... |:|
But overall, Richelle Mead is awesome, because I think that although the Dimitri-Rose storyline is evil and YAY at the same time...depending which part...she must have a great mind, because a lot of us would never have thought for a second ... ...that Dimitri was going to turn all evil and bad and Strigoi! It kinda reminds me of the Buffy-Angel (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), Season Two when ANGEL goes bad...but he goes back good, and somehow, I don't think Dimitri does. :/
Anyways, enough from me and my lecturing-ranting. :)
Actually, I thought of something that annoyed me in the first book. I'm fine with all the quasi-science in fantasy and sci-fi (like all the weird genetic stuff with dhampirs being unable to reproduce but dhampirs and morois still produces complete dhampirs, I can live with that), but breaks in logic annoy me. Why on earth did the school wait two years before going after Rose and Lissa? Firstly, they have a duty of care, they were minors who ran away. Secondly, one of them is the last remaining member of some fantastic Royal family! Surely you're going to go looking for them! But Dimitri says it's the first time the school's gone looking for them. Two years! And clearly people didn't assume they'd been taken by Strigoi, because you're hardly going to allocate some awesome (although admittedly relatively young) Guardian to someone you've given up on being alive.
Hey I loved this book and the next two. I Haven't read Blood promise yet but a friend of mine has and is trying to convince me to read it, but Im still sulking over Dimitri.
Any way good point cat-Eyes, while I was reading it I didn't see that as relvant - the "being away for two years" sort of gets looked over by the rest of the story. Also Rose is an awesome gaurdian even with missing out on the two years - and she catches up fast enough
15 years ago
Mon Mar 15 2010, 04:11pm
At least when they returned Rose had some catching up to do (and probably Lissa did too). Sure, she seems to have found it easier than the average person (really, can you imagine trying to catch up on two years worth of science classes? Let alone whatever the Moroi are learning in their Magic classes) but at least it wasn't instantaneous. But the school watiting for two years to look for them still annoys me.
Anyway, I read Blood Promise today (instead of doing things I should have, like catching up on missed lectures or doing uni reading :-/ ) and quite liked it. This is a little bit of a spoiler, but it might help those of you who don't want to read it following Shaddow Kiss - Dimitri's in it, and he hasn't had a complete personality transplant, although he is different.
On to the real spoilers, the ending felt a little rushed to me she works out Avery has been messing with them and it's fixed 4 pages and about 20 minutes later! At least the stuff with Dimitri wasn't over in two seconds, give that it'd been built up for ages that it was going to be a mega-battle but it wasn't that bad.
Overall, I thought this was an ok book. I haven't read any of the sequels, so no comment about where the storyline ends up.
I thought the characterisation of Rose and Lissa was a bit overdone, that said, I thought that there was some good complexity to Lissa, which is why it was a shame that Rose was so much the reckless and brash teenager. I just thought that there was a bit of nuance missing, although that seems quite common in US YA writing.
I thought it was pretty well plotted though, and set up some good storylines and relationships for the rest of the series, without failing to achieve good resolution to the story it was telling. I'll keep reading the series, so it piqued my interest sufficiently.
Just a note to those writing spoilers, please specify which book you are talking about (particularly in a thread like this where there are sequels that people haven't read).
Wanderer Ward
14 years ago
Wanderer Ward
Dreamscape Artist
I read the first two books a few days ago, and I've just brought the next two (I avoided the fifth simply because it's a different size and my bookshelf is already under a lot of stress :P). I quite liked them, even though I find them predictable. Firaya said ^ up there somewhere that it's good how there isn't that "god we all KNOW he's a vampire! Catch up!" moment with the main character, but I still think Rose takes too long to realise some things.
I actually bought the first two books from Big W for cheap after deciding that it was time for me to try another vampire story (the only previous ones I've read are Twilight and Dracula). When I saw them, I remembered that Cat-Eyes seemed to like them, so I thought I'd give them a try! :P They're definately better than Twilight. Does anyone recommend any other vampire like stories that I may like?
Heh, I'm in your head! :D
I agree, Rose was pretty slow on the uptake sometimes! Still, there were some parts that surprised me, which was good.
To be honest; I have to say that I didn't think that they were very good. Well... I thought that they were terrible (don't hate me I'm new!) actually. I mean; there were some good elements; I like the concept of Moroi/Strigoi, and I liked that the humans were few and far between, but the characters just all seemed like Teenagers to me. Angst filled, trivial problem ridden teenagers. There were some darker plots I suppose, but sometimes they just felt like they were trying too hard.
I know what you mean, Alyse. I agree...kind of.
I read Spirit Bound the other day... *says in a rush* and now I hate the series. *reverts to normal speaking* The plot and ending of it was terrible. I'm sorry, but it was. I think Vampire Academy, and Frostbite are good, and most of Shadow Kiss was fine. Richelle Mead could have saved her series from being doomed after Shadow Kiss, but she didn't. She doomed the series, and it resulted in a very, very unhappy ending. I saw a video with her in it, saying that Spirit Bound is her last book in that series, but she's going to do a spin-off series. *sigh* Could she do anything else to ruin the series?
I'm sorry to those who like this series, but I'm saying it how it is. I know I earlier said I loved it, and recommended it...but unless you want your heart broken, brought back, and then ripped up again by the book...or even if you do...I'm going to have to recomment against it.
Sorry to those who wanted to read it, if I ruined it, or to those who just bought it, or currently in the midst of reading it. :/
Wanderer Ward
14 years ago
Wanderer Ward
Dreamscape Artist
I thought the last one in the series was Last Sacrifice, coming out in December? Or is that the first one in the spin-off series? I think there has to be another book in the Vampire Academy series, because otherwise the end of Spirit Bound is the most unresolved ending ever. The kind of ending that causes riots on the streets due to fan dissatisfaction.
I understand what you mean about the characters all being major teenagers (I know they are teenagers, but that's beside the point :P ). Sometimes I really hated Lissa for how she was treating Rose. I think if I always put one of my friend's first like Rose does most of the time with Lissa (in Shadow Kiss mainly), I'd crack, and the friendship would not last. I also sometimes hated Rose because of how she would never tell Lissa anything (it doesn't matter that she came to realise this was wrong, it should have been pretty obvious to her in the first place). But despite all that, I enjoyed the heady mix of intense emotions, just because my life has been a bit dull lately :P
Don't worry Alyse, we won't hate you for saying what you think! :)
I enjoy reading the VA series. I've read every single one of them. Although, the wait kinda puts me off a little. So right now, I'm not sure wether to buy the last sacrifice or not..
