How Does The Kidd Series Connect To John Sandford’S Prey Books?

I picked up ‘A Time of Dread’ by Mary’s cousin, John Gwynne, first because the cover art looked cool, and second because it seemed to start in the middle of things. It’s been a hundred pages or so of everyone talking about the Great War, the Bright Star, and the Black Sun as if they were all well known. The book does have a rather good glossary at the back and the dramatis personae is also useful. I read ‘The Faithful and the Fallen’ first, and then returned to ‘A Time of Dread’ to read it as well. While the order of a series can often matter little for a basic grasp of the plot, here it adds much to the emotional impact of the story.

The moral code of protagonist Jack Reacher in Gone Tomorrow is very black and white: protect the innocent and punish the guilty. In this installment of the series however, Reacher’s code is shown to be more complex. Even the toughest of soldiers like Reacher can change and begin to consider the consequences of his actions. The way that Reacher has grown from a soldier to a full human being is very evident in Gone Tomorrow. This makes him an even more human, relatable and thus even more compelling hero.

I tend to view the character of 'Venom' in relation to Spider-Man. At first the symbiote linked with Spider-Man to enhance his powers and grant him a far more aggressive appearance. But eventually the two had to be separated as it was deemed too detrimental to Spider-Man. Realizing he wasn’t good for the hero the symbiote went in search of a new host. Resulting in the miserable tale of Eddie Brock and his dealings as Venom. What I like most about their battles is that they delve into issues of revenge and identity crisis and therefore reflect in a nice way problems we face in our lives. As an anti-hero the character of Venom is flawed and tortured. At the core of Venom’s being is his struggle to come to terms with Spider-Man and his ongoing desire to destroy him. In comics, TV shows and films their complicated relationship makes for brilliant reading and viewing – it’s truly fantastic to witness their unfolding story.

I noticed that the level of formality in the writing even shifted within the series. The early Kay novels contained many formal scenes of observation, which were highly effective when contrasted with the more natural and informal dialogue of characters’ interactions. There are also places where the formality of the observations pushes into the characters’ dialogues and even into their internal monologues, where as a result they begin to sound more or less the same: heightened, dramatic, unnatural. As for individuality within a scene: while each of the three main guys has his own somewhat distinct verbal rhythm, in crisis mode they for the most part speak in the same heightened, largely exposition-driven register. And so while there was once considerable distinction between a purely professional observation and purely personal interactions, that distinction has been eroding in these books, leading to a voice that’s largely uniform and at times monotonous.

Yes, the vast majority of Anne Rice's fiction is forming the expanded Vampire Chronicles universe which follows, in addition to Lestat, a host of characters both within the mainstream Vampire Chronicles books, such as The Vampire Lestat, The Queen of the Damned, and more recently, Blood and Gold, and outside of those mainline books in works that expand on Rice’s earlier Mayfair Witches novels such as The Witching Hour, the first volume of the long Mayfair Witches series followed by The Gathering Dark and then Rage and Dust (the end of the series), plus Merrick and Blackwood Farm with characters from both the mainstream Vampire Chronicles novels plus The Witching Hour’s Mayfair Witches series appearing in later works by Rice, also her long standalone, and Christian-themed work, Christ the Lord, which is, however, a totally unique work which exists outside of the Vampire Universe she created. While reading them in publication order is safest for fully grasping all the connections between books, it is also possible to read only the Vampire Chronicles or only the Mayfair Witches books. The books written by Rice after her return to Catholicism have a distinctly different ‘feel’ and in some cases even ‘retroact’ (changed back) previously written stories. Because of this, some of the fans have problems with her current writing.

Clockwork Angel is the first installment in The Infernal Devices, the first series set in the Shadowhunter Chronicles by Cassandra Clare. We are introduced to the main character Tessa, a complete mystery to herself as well as to everyone around her. There are also a lot of great and intimidating villains in this book with a steampunk twist to the typical monstrous creatures. We also get to see the dynamics of the people in the London Institute, particularly Will and Jem and how they will change as the books progress. There are also many items that reappear in future books including the clockwork angel and Tessa’s connection to Shadowhunter lore is also introduced in this book. Overall, it’s a very sleek and moody first book that sets up many more twists and turns in the rest of the series.

The book is an extremely claustrophobic single location work – a house. The film is essentially the same story, but much more varied and it focuses on the police and the hostage negotiators, who were not in the book at all. They are on the outside, trying to negotiate with the main character in the book. So the film is really a cross-cutting action movie, whereas the book is a single location, psychological suspense novel. So in terms of what I would prefer, I would prefer the book. As a casual viewer of films, I can see why the filmmakers would want to go in this other direction, because they have different goals for different mediums. But the book is a very, very focused novel, and I like that about it.

This is a series, and typically I recommend reading them in story order. However, the first two books, Plum Island and The Lion's Game, are somewhat standalone, and then there are the later books about anti-terror, which are quite different from the middle books. In fact, the first half of the series has a strong feeling of being an NYPD detective series, and the second half has the feeling of a federal agent series. In fact, you could almost read them as two separate series.

Ravenswood is kind of like PLL’s goth cousin that was uninvited to the party. Produced by the same people, starred the actor who played Caleb, but was just so, so. The PLL tie-ins were pretty cosmetic. Just a few mentions of the original show, a cameo by Hanna, and that show’s creepy ‘A’-esque stalker. It was an ambitious foray into new storytelling, but unfortunately it fell into the ‘too niche’ category of shows. Watch the Halloween-themed episodes for some context, and then just imagine it as an alternate universe fanfic that’s gone a bit nuts.

Do the audiobooks count too? I have them all read by James Daniels (with the exception of Elvis, which he read perfectly sardonicically, and Joe Pike, which he read beautifully understatedly). I think that The Watchman is even more of a gripping listen because of the wonderful way the action is rendered. I think that Suspect is a wonderful listen too, particularly in terms of the dog’s POV. For many modern readers, the ‘popularity’ of a book will often be tied to the quality of the audiobook version. So, for example, pacey and dialogue driven books like L.A. Requiem or The Watchman might actually get a higher ranking as audiobooks than some of the longer more slower burn print books. In the digital age of listening, a new listener may well start with the highest rated audiobook on Audible and then read reviews of other books by that same author to see if they are any good.