I am the Kat that Walks By Itself

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"Sunshine" by Robin McKinley

18th-Apr-2007 07:28 pm

I just finished reading "Sunshine" by Robin McKinley. Now, I'd rate this author as a good tale-spinner, but I don't like vampires. I especially don't like sexy "vampires are just misunderstood bad boys" kind of vampire, and from reading descriptions of this book, I thought that's what it would be like, so I didn't bother with it for years.
But then someone said that I'd probably like it. So this week I read it.

I'm not quite sure what I think. On the plus side, I was very absorbed, it was un-put-downable. I really wanted to find out what happened next, how on earth our heroine was going to survive.
Another plus was, the vampires were really evil, and what's more, really alien and creepy.
I did like how the heroine just kept on wishing it would all go away and leave her to her cinnamon rolls. It wasn't a grand fantasy Good Versus Evol; it was "OMG I'm gonna die!" lurching from one crisis to the next, which felt much more realistic.

On the other hand, I'm not sure I actually want to read it again. There weren't bits that I savoured (unlike, say, certain scenes in "The Blue Sword" which I love going back to), and there was an awful lot of ick in there.

Tags:books

Comments

18th-Apr-2007 03:00 pm (UTC)

fikgirl

I was recommended this book by a friend, so strange coincidence to see it on your blog :-)

I was told to read it because it was a definite deviation from Anne Rice/Laurell K. Hamilton/"See teh_sexy and offer your throat" types presented in popular media.

Nothing else to say on it except that I'm definitely going to give it a read seeing how you echoed exactly what my friend said.

18th-Apr-2007 08:54 pm (UTC)

kerravonsen

I'd be interested to hear what you think of it when you've read it.

18th-Apr-2007 08:07 pm (UTC)

feliciakw

I especially don't like sexy "vampires are just misunderstood bad boys" kind of vampire,

You know, once upon a time, this was an original take on the vampire mythos. To my way of thinking, it's been waaaaaayyyyyyy overused to the point where people *expect* it. When Garett's vampire movie was in the works, I had a long, drawn-out conversation with someone trying to explain to them that vampires are evil--especially in the context of the way the movie was written--and I got a reply back thanking me for my unusual perspective and getting this person to think about vampires in a different way. I had to chuckle to myself because my way of interpreting vampires wasn't "new." It's just that the modern pop cult spin on vampires has distorted the mythos.

18th-Apr-2007 08:52 pm (UTC)

kerravonsen

Oh boy.

Another one that gets the overdone "no they aren't evil" is dragons. Now, when Anne McCaffrey did it, it was genuinely new, and what's more, they weren't actually dragons, they were alien beasties who had been genetically engineered (who happened to look like dragons). I know, I'm quibbling, but it does make enough of a difference to me.

Smaug in "The Hobbit" is still the archetypal dragon to me.

25th-Apr-2007 02:19 am (UTC)

jedibuttercup

I read this one awhile back; I found McKinley through "Blue Sword", too, and very much enjoyed her "Spindle's End" as well. So it threw me when I saw she'd written a vampire tale, and I had to pick it up. I figured her spin on it would probably be as unusual as her take on my favorite fairy tale.

I reacted to "Sunshine" much the same way you did, if I recall correctly. Un-put-downable, for certain. But not re-re-readable. OTOH, I did keep it even after I punted the Anita Blake books to the used book store. =)

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