{"id":235,"date":"2006-04-27T19:25:26","date_gmt":"2006-04-28T02:25:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/?p=235"},"modified":"2021-12-16T09:19:04","modified_gmt":"2021-12-16T14:19:04","slug":"blood-trail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/235","title":{"rendered":"Blood Trail"},"content":{"rendered":"

Blood Trail<\/a><\/em> (1992) Tanya Huff<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Okay, I did have a very strong drink to celebrate the end of the semester, so that may have been part of the reason why I laughed out loud several times last night while reading this book. Or, it could be that the book was actually amusing. Your call.<\/p>\n

Vicki receives a call from Henry, asking her if she would be willing to take on a case for some friends of his. What he fails to mention is that those friends are werewolves, and that someone with a high powered rifle has been killing the family off one by one.<\/p>\n

This one reads more like a traditional mystery, although we do learn who the killer is before our heroes.<\/p>\n

What I really liked about this story was the nature of the wers. Although they pass for human, they aren’t quite, and I found those differences very interesting. Especially, their attitude towards nudity. It makes sense, after all, for a being who can’t wear clothes in one form, to not be hung up on nudity the way humans are. After all, all the other creatures on the planet go about nekkid (except for those unfortunate pets whose owners insist on dressing them up) so what’s the big deal?<\/p>\n

Of course, I have no interest in going about with much more than 10% of my flesh exposed to the air, but if it makes other people happy, good for them.<\/p>\n

I also very much like Henry, and how from his birth (death? rebirth?) as a vampire he doesn’t kill, except as a necessity. I like the idea that at least some vampires has control over their natures to some degree, and can choose to kill or merely to feed. But then I’m a big fan of free will, so I like the idea that all creatures, even magical ones, have free will. And also like that Henry is very religious. It makes sense, of course, considering that he’s something in the way of an ethical vampire, but I like it very much.<\/p>\n

I’m also fascinated by what the different authors who write supernatural fantasy choose to keep as cannon for their magical and creatures, and what they choose to discard as mythical. It is of course reasonable that humans would get some things right and some things wrong regarding creatures we don’t really believe in, but different authors choose to keep different things.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, this story. I liked it. Very much. It was dark, of course, but it was also highly amusing at times, primarily in the dialog, or in Vicki’s thoughts. It was also a lot of fun to read. Nothing deep, but very enjoyable.<\/p>\n

If you liked Blood Price<\/em>, then you’ll almost certainly like Blood Trail<\/em>. If you have not read Blood Price<\/em>, you should be able to read Blood Trail<\/em> anyway, and not lose anything. (Let me mention one more time how much I love authors who can write a series, while finishing a plot in a single book. Yay!) So if you think supernatural fantasy, you should enjoy this. It is dark and a little gruesome, and there is some sex. But it’s not extremely gruesome, and there isn’t a lot of sex. And it’s good. Probably even without the whiskey.
\nRating: 8\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Blood Trail (1992) Tanya Huff Okay, I did have a very strong drink to celebrate the end of the semester, so that may have been part of the reason why I laughed out loud several times last night while reading this book. Or, it could be that the book was actually amusing. Your call. Vicki […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[12,2,291,16],"tags":[311,313],"class_list":["post-235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-8-10","category-fantasy","category-paper","category-supernatural","tag-tanya-huff","tag-vampires"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piQkW-3N","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":377,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/377","url_meta":{"origin":235,"position":0},"title":"The Repentant","author":"Michelle","date":"May 21, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"The Repentant (2003) edited by Brian M. Thomsen and Martin H. Greenberg I love short stories, so I tend to pick up anthologies when I come across them--assuming they look even remotely interesting. The Repentant looked particularly interesting, since it had several authors I particularly like: Tanya Huff, P.N. Elrod,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Anthology"","block_context":{"text":"Anthology","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/anthology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/05\/Repentant.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":237,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/237","url_meta":{"origin":235,"position":1},"title":"Blood Pact","author":"Michelle","date":"April 30, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Blood Pact (1993) Tanya Huff Surprisingly, I like Blood Pact a lot more than Blood Lines, the last book, although it was quite different than the previous four. In this book they battle not magic, but science: a group of researchers are reanimating the dead. I say surprisingly because the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fantasy"","block_context":{"text":"Fantasy","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/04\/Blood-Pact.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":236,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/236","url_meta":{"origin":235,"position":2},"title":"Blood Lines","author":"Michelle","date":"April 29, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Blood Lines (1993) Tanya Huff In the third book in the Victory Nelson Private Investigator series, an ancient mummy is released from his bindings and takes up where he left off--gathering power and souls for his God. Several strange deaths draw Mike Celluci, and then Vicki Nelson and Henry Fitzroy\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fantasy"","block_context":{"text":"Fantasy","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/04\/Blood-Lines.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":231,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/231","url_meta":{"origin":235,"position":3},"title":"Blood Price","author":"Michelle","date":"April 24, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Blood Price (1991) Tanya Huff I'm embarrassed to admit how long I've had this book without reading it. In fact, it's been so long that I'm not even certain precisely how long it has been, but I'm thinking I picked it up in '94 or '95, along with its two\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fantasy"","block_context":{"text":"Fantasy","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/04\/Blood-Price.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":122,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/122","url_meta":{"origin":235,"position":4},"title":"Assassin Fantastic","author":"Michelle","date":"September 12, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Assassin Fantastic (2001) edited by Martin H. Greenberg and Alexander Potter I know that Martin Greenberg puts together good anthologies, however there's something about the \"Fantastic\" that gets tacked onto the end of each anthology theme title that puts me off for some reason. However, I've always been fond of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Anthology"","block_context":{"text":"Anthology","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/anthology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2005\/09\/Assassin-Fantastic.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":446,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/446","url_meta":{"origin":235,"position":5},"title":"Many Bloody Returns","author":"Michelle","date":"September 23, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Many Bloody Returns (2007) edited by Charlaine Harris and Toni L.P. Kelner I pre-ordered this, not realizing it was in hardback. As much as I love anthologies, I'm not that excited about hardback books--especially anthologies where I don't know all the authors or the quality of the stories. 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