The Dream-Hunter by Sherrilyn Kenyon
Dec. 1st, 2007 01:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
meganbmooreJust tried reading Sherrilyn Kenyon's The Dream-Hunter, apparently the first book in a spinoff series from the Dark Hunters books. My eyes were glazed over within the first 30 pages.
First off, the heroine has been estranged from her father for almost 10 years, hating him because he got her mother, brother and uncle killed, not to mention wrecked her entire childhood, searching for Atlantis. Considering that, for once, she seemed to be pretty justified in these opinions, i was all for it. But then she spent five minutes looking at Dad's notes and it was "OMG! Dad was right! I've been so wrong all these years and everything else is irrelevant and I must now devote my entire life to finding Atlantis as penance for being an unfilial daughter and I must make everyone who ever dismissed his claims to have found Atlantis realize how Wrong they were. Who cares that he got my entire family killed and ruined my childhood? I MUST PAY PENANCE AND RUIN MY OWN LIFE AS COMPENSATION SO I CAN PROVE HE WAS RIGHT LIKE ANY GOOD DAUGHTER!"
Oh, and then we jump 10 years later and a Dream Hunter is seducing her in her dreams. Not only is she doing the "I am a cold and reasonable woman of logic but oh he sets my body ablaze" thing modern romance heroines are so big on, but the Dream Hunters have always been portrayed as cold and...well...asexual, in the other books, so the whole thing just DOES NOT FIT.
I shall just stick to the Dark Hunters Proper books(and the Were Hunters, which are part of the regular series so far.)
Good thing I brought manga.
ETA: DANGIT! Flipped through it to see if it was important to the mytharc. Not only is it, apparently, but it also seems that Ash and Nick play an important part. I must now at least skim it for those parts. There will possibly be additional ETAs as I endure it(with xXxHoLic breaks to keep me sane.)
ETA 2: IT GETS BETTER! Apparently, he has been DRUGGING her to make her sleep so they can have lotsa foreplay in her dreams(it seems she comveniently ALWAYS wakes up just before they get to the action) but her oh-so-strong will fights the drugs, so she just gets headaches instead. Uhm...I think I'm supposed to feel for his loneliness now or something, not equating him with a psychological date rapist or something...
ETA 3: Fun cheesy emo: "I am a *insert centuries* year old vampire who endured endless manpain before dying and now walk in Eternal Solitude(despite getting laid whenever I want and having tons of other butt kicking emo vampire pals I play Doom with) taking my angst out on the Evil Vampires." Not fun emo: "I am cold and emotionless and it's so horrible and cruel for my boss to take away the drugs I've been using to try to have sex with this woman in her dreams...I'm sure if she stopped fighting the drugs, they wouldn't make her sick anymore. Wait? What? HOW DARE SHE SMILE AT A HUMAN MAN WHEN SHE THINKS I DON'T REALLY EXIST?? DOESN'T SHE KNOW MY DRUGGING HER SO WE CAN HAVE DREAM SEX AND MAKING HER SICK IS A SIGN OF OUR ETERNAL AND TRUE LOVE!?!?"
ETA 4: Well, at least he's honest with himself about plotting ways to gain her trust for no reason other than to get her in bed...
ETA 5: Oh, since they took his drugs away, he asked Hades to make him human and she found him floating face down in the ocean. Somehow, he has a scarred back...
ETA 6: How...is Kenyon writing terrible, groan-worthy snark. Kenyon writes fun snark. Even when it's bad snarky it's amusing to read. This snark with Solin and Arikos(who is supposed to be wryly amusing but it's morelike the world's most boring person trying and failing to be funny and getting praised for it)is just...it's almost painful.
ETA 7: "I'm not here to rape you, Megeara." Nope, your just there because the dream rape failed...
ETA 8: My tendency to prefer Questionable Characters holds strong, as I rather like Zebulon, a God Killer who likes to go around intimidating gods who interact with mortals.
ETA 9: There is now a plot among other Dream Hunters to kill Arikos for becoming human. Or something. Whatever. I just pity that, as this is a romance novel and he is the "Hero," they won't succeed. Or at least, that it won't last if they do.
ETA 10: ... Did they just have sex in reality or in dreams? I can't tell. I think she thought she was dreaming but she wasn't. Or something...
ETA 11: Ok, apparently in dreams. Seems "human" means "still get to keep mental powers and dream control and still be a god in the dreamworld," awfully convenient.
ETA 12: The last time a character was hated as much as Zebulon, it was Valerius. One of my 3 favorite characters in the series. The list of characters I like is only slightly longer. Of the three who hated him the most, 2 are the only Dark Hunters I actively dislike. The other is Zarek, my favorite, and the only one with a justifiable reason(the others essentially hated him because his grandfather was a bastard to him when he was 6 or so)
ETA 13: Oh yes, a FIFTEEN YEAR OLD will know more about greek mythology than a THIRTY THOUSAND YEAR OLD GREEK GOD.
ETA 14: Did I mention that the price of his becoming human(so he could have sex with her) was that he had to kill her when his two weeks as a human were up? And that he planned to and was largely OK with the idea? (We're supposed to forgive him because he was sent to Earth as soon as he was told the terms and he couldn't protest, but as he seemed to have no problems as long as he got sex...
ETA 15: Oh yeah, we're supposed to be upset with her for reacting badly to that because he wuvs her soooooo much.
Now having finished the book, the short version is that the romance is crummy and the hero needs to have his spine ripped out and shoved through his torso a few dozen times. Obviously NOT the reaction I'm supposed to have to him, but oh well. I do, however, very much like Zebulon, the godkiller everyone else hates, and I ship him with Kat(who I've always rather liked...not passionately, as she's still a Mary Sue, but at least she's a cool and interesting one.) Sadly, as Kenyon is not J.R. Ward, I doubt it'll happen. The book also is actually a prequel to the series, taking place in 1996, and sets up various things for the series.
Pretty much, though, it's clearly Kenyon having to write a book because the publisher wants more Dark Hunters books. I think I read at her website that there are supposed to be 40 or so by the end.
First off, the heroine has been estranged from her father for almost 10 years, hating him because he got her mother, brother and uncle killed, not to mention wrecked her entire childhood, searching for Atlantis. Considering that, for once, she seemed to be pretty justified in these opinions, i was all for it. But then she spent five minutes looking at Dad's notes and it was "OMG! Dad was right! I've been so wrong all these years and everything else is irrelevant and I must now devote my entire life to finding Atlantis as penance for being an unfilial daughter and I must make everyone who ever dismissed his claims to have found Atlantis realize how Wrong they were. Who cares that he got my entire family killed and ruined my childhood? I MUST PAY PENANCE AND RUIN MY OWN LIFE AS COMPENSATION SO I CAN PROVE HE WAS RIGHT LIKE ANY GOOD DAUGHTER!"
Oh, and then we jump 10 years later and a Dream Hunter is seducing her in her dreams. Not only is she doing the "I am a cold and reasonable woman of logic but oh he sets my body ablaze" thing modern romance heroines are so big on, but the Dream Hunters have always been portrayed as cold and...well...asexual, in the other books, so the whole thing just DOES NOT FIT.
I shall just stick to the Dark Hunters Proper books(and the Were Hunters, which are part of the regular series so far.)
Good thing I brought manga.
ETA: DANGIT! Flipped through it to see if it was important to the mytharc. Not only is it, apparently, but it also seems that Ash and Nick play an important part. I must now at least skim it for those parts. There will possibly be additional ETAs as I endure it(with xXxHoLic breaks to keep me sane.)
ETA 2: IT GETS BETTER! Apparently, he has been DRUGGING her to make her sleep so they can have lotsa foreplay in her dreams(it seems she comveniently ALWAYS wakes up just before they get to the action) but her oh-so-strong will fights the drugs, so she just gets headaches instead. Uhm...I think I'm supposed to feel for his loneliness now or something, not equating him with a psychological date rapist or something...
ETA 3: Fun cheesy emo: "I am a *insert centuries* year old vampire who endured endless manpain before dying and now walk in Eternal Solitude(despite getting laid whenever I want and having tons of other butt kicking emo vampire pals I play Doom with) taking my angst out on the Evil Vampires." Not fun emo: "I am cold and emotionless and it's so horrible and cruel for my boss to take away the drugs I've been using to try to have sex with this woman in her dreams...I'm sure if she stopped fighting the drugs, they wouldn't make her sick anymore. Wait? What? HOW DARE SHE SMILE AT A HUMAN MAN WHEN SHE THINKS I DON'T REALLY EXIST?? DOESN'T SHE KNOW MY DRUGGING HER SO WE CAN HAVE DREAM SEX AND MAKING HER SICK IS A SIGN OF OUR ETERNAL AND TRUE LOVE!?!?"
ETA 4: Well, at least he's honest with himself about plotting ways to gain her trust for no reason other than to get her in bed...
ETA 5: Oh, since they took his drugs away, he asked Hades to make him human and she found him floating face down in the ocean. Somehow, he has a scarred back...
ETA 6: How...is Kenyon writing terrible, groan-worthy snark. Kenyon writes fun snark. Even when it's bad snarky it's amusing to read. This snark with Solin and Arikos(who is supposed to be wryly amusing but it's morelike the world's most boring person trying and failing to be funny and getting praised for it)is just...it's almost painful.
ETA 7: "I'm not here to rape you, Megeara." Nope, your just there because the dream rape failed...
ETA 8: My tendency to prefer Questionable Characters holds strong, as I rather like Zebulon, a God Killer who likes to go around intimidating gods who interact with mortals.
ETA 9: There is now a plot among other Dream Hunters to kill Arikos for becoming human. Or something. Whatever. I just pity that, as this is a romance novel and he is the "Hero," they won't succeed. Or at least, that it won't last if they do.
ETA 10: ... Did they just have sex in reality or in dreams? I can't tell. I think she thought she was dreaming but she wasn't. Or something...
ETA 11: Ok, apparently in dreams. Seems "human" means "still get to keep mental powers and dream control and still be a god in the dreamworld," awfully convenient.
ETA 12: The last time a character was hated as much as Zebulon, it was Valerius. One of my 3 favorite characters in the series. The list of characters I like is only slightly longer. Of the three who hated him the most, 2 are the only Dark Hunters I actively dislike. The other is Zarek, my favorite, and the only one with a justifiable reason(the others essentially hated him because his grandfather was a bastard to him when he was 6 or so)
ETA 13: Oh yes, a FIFTEEN YEAR OLD will know more about greek mythology than a THIRTY THOUSAND YEAR OLD GREEK GOD.
ETA 14: Did I mention that the price of his becoming human(so he could have sex with her) was that he had to kill her when his two weeks as a human were up? And that he planned to and was largely OK with the idea? (We're supposed to forgive him because he was sent to Earth as soon as he was told the terms and he couldn't protest, but as he seemed to have no problems as long as he got sex...
ETA 15: Oh yeah, we're supposed to be upset with her for reacting badly to that because he wuvs her soooooo much.
Now having finished the book, the short version is that the romance is crummy and the hero needs to have his spine ripped out and shoved through his torso a few dozen times. Obviously NOT the reaction I'm supposed to have to him, but oh well. I do, however, very much like Zebulon, the godkiller everyone else hates, and I ship him with Kat(who I've always rather liked...not passionately, as she's still a Mary Sue, but at least she's a cool and interesting one.) Sadly, as Kenyon is not J.R. Ward, I doubt it'll happen. The book also is actually a prequel to the series, taking place in 1996, and sets up various things for the series.
Pretty much, though, it's clearly Kenyon having to write a book because the publisher wants more Dark Hunters books. I think I read at her website that there are supposed to be 40 or so by the end.