The last of this year's Halloween readalongs with Marian. Unfortunately, I found it to be a bit of a low note on which to end our annual trip down memory lane, though Pike definitely writes better vampires (even dumb vampires) than the SVH ghosties ever could.

2.5 stars rounded up. My main issue with this book was the antagonist, Eddie. He's way too powerful, but doesn't have the personality or background to match it. At least in the first book, Yaksha was an interesting rival for Sita. Eddie is just gross. The first half of the book is very violent, and Sita spends most of her time wondering how the hell she's supposed to defeat this guy. I also really hated that Ray was basically dispatched as soon as was possible, given that he is likely a reincarnation of Ramna, Sita's husband. That seemed unnecessarily cruel. The story picked up for me about halfway through, when Sita rescues what remains of Yaksha and delves back into the spiritual themes of the novel in her pursuit of how to kill this new foe.

I read The Last Vampire over a year ago and unfortunately lost quite a bit of the backstory, so it was nice to have a refresher and a resurfacing of Krishna (and some of Sita's past) in this story. I enjoyed her history far more than her current battles with Eddie, the police, and Joel the FBI agent.

Unfortunately, Sita goes back to being unsure of herself and her tactics and basically gives up during the Final Battle here, which made for a majorly anticlimactic ending. And what was the point of turning Joel? He is basically a complete bystander. I see from the blurb of the next book that his fate is likely to be the same as Ray's in this one, which - ugh. Why should I care?

I think Pike is at his best in this series when he is worldbuilding and exploring the nooks and crannies of a 50-century-long life. The sequel series turns more fantasy, and for good reason: the idea of basically having the same fight over and over again gets really old, really fast. I don't have high hopes for Book #3 at this point. ( )

Continues pretty much where the first book left off. This one ends on a cliffhanger too. It makes me wonder if this was one massive story that was chopped up into six smaller books.

I like Sita. She's kick ass. I like her character arc so far, even though it seems that it peaked at the end of this book. I'm not really sure how this story can fill up four more books? I guess we'll see. ( )

I'm sad that this book isn't as good anymore. I actually skimmed quite a bit of it in an attempt to just make it end.
I refuse to believe I'm not the same person I was in 1996! ( )

Still amazing. Sita thought she was the last vampire on earth...but suddenly there are very strange killings in Los Angeles, that could only be the work of another vampire.

What strikes me about these books is that they have some very adult content in them (a little language, a lot of reference to sex) either I didn't pick up on it when I was younger, or it is much more obvious to me now that I'm a teacher, I'm not sure.
( )

Still amazing. Sita thought she was the last vampire on earth...but suddenly there are very strange killings in Los Angeles, that could only be the work of another vampire.

What strikes me about these books is that they have some very adult content in them (a little language, a lot of reference to sex) either I didn't pick up on it when I was younger, or it is much more obvious to me now that I'm a teacher, I'm not sure.
( )