{"id":555,"date":"2008-04-19T19:49:04","date_gmt":"2008-04-19T23:49:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/?p=555"},"modified":"2021-12-16T09:15:22","modified_gmt":"2021-12-16T14:15:22","slug":"the-becoming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/555","title":{"rendered":"The Becoming"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Becoming<\/em> (2004) Jeanne C. Stein<\/a><\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>Anna Strong is a bounty hunter. She and her partner David are trying to bring in a bail jumper when he attacks them both, and his attack on Anna turns her into a vampire. (This isn’t a secret. This story is about how she becomes a vampire.)<\/p>\n

So. Another vampire story. Lots of those out there. Does this one manage to be different? Yes and no.<\/p>\n

The vampires in Anna’s world are very different from those in ours. They can walk in sunlight for one thing, which has allowed to remain the hidden in plain sight. But some things from folklore remain true, and the vampire’s desire for blood is one of them. This change in the mythology I liked, although the vampires in Anna’s world seem to have all the strengths of the vampires of folklore, including super strength and speed and an ability to control others to some degree.<\/p>\n

Where it doesn’t much differ from many other vampire books is that there is lots of boinking. OK. Vampire sex is the most awesome sex in the world. Fine. We got it. Now shut up about it.<\/p>\n

But the real strength of this book is the story. It goes in directions I didn’t expect, which was a very nice touch. There is also a focus upon whether Anna keeps or loses her humanity to her vampire nature. And that was quite interesting as well.<\/p>\n

As far as the story arc, the primary arc was finished, and that is how Anna becomes a powerful vampire, and resolves the problems that come from that, including finding the vampire who turned her. There are very many questions left unresolved, but they are the kinds of questions that would take more than a single book to unfold, so I don’t mind too much. So there is a lot we don’t know, but the primary plot arc is concluded. But I can also see how the author might have a tendency to leave lots of things hanging at the end of a book, which will annoy me if it gets to be too much.<\/p>\n

So it was a decent supernatural fantasy. Way too much focus on sex, but that tends to be par for the course with many supernatural fantasies (which is why I am always so excited when I find a series that isn’t all about sex). But the writing was good, and the story was good, so I’ll pick up the next book in the series and see what I think of it.
\nRating: 7\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Becoming (2004) Jeanne C. Stein Anna Strong is a bounty hunter. She and her partner David are trying to bring in a bail jumper when he attacks them both, and his attack on Anna turns her into a vampire. (This isn’t a secret. This story is about how she becomes a vampire.) So. Another […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_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":[2,291,16],"tags":[313],"class_list":["post-555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fantasy","category-paper","category-supernatural","tag-vampires"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piQkW-8X","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2524,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/2524","url_meta":{"origin":555,"position":0},"title":"Vampires: The Recent Undead","author":"Michelle","date":"September 13, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Vampires: The Recent Undead (2011) edited by Paula Guran As with many anthologies, this one has some stories I especially liked, and others I didn't care for at all. I believe I'll focus on the ones I liked. The anthology opens with Holly Black's story, \"The Coldest Girl in Coldtown.\"\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/vampires-the-recent-undead.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1312,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/1312","url_meta":{"origin":555,"position":1},"title":"Hunting Ground","author":"Michelle","date":"August 30, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Hunting Ground (2009) Patricia Briggs Anna was still getting used to the idea of being married to Charles when they go to Seattle his father--the Marrok. The American werewolves are planning on coming out, and the European wolves have been invited to ask questions of the Marrok about how they\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\/2016\/05\/Hunting-Ground.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4617,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/4617","url_meta":{"origin":555,"position":2},"title":"Reborn","author":"Michelle","date":"May 24, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Reborn (2014) CC Hunter This is part of the Shadow Falls series, but Kylie's arc is completed, and we now come back to Della, who was the character who introduced me to Shadow Falls in her short story and \"Turned at Dark\" (still free!) then again in the novella \"Saved\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"Reborn","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Reborn.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3584,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/3584","url_meta":{"origin":555,"position":3},"title":"Teeth: Vampire Tales","author":"Michelle","date":"February 24, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Teeth: Vampire Tales (2011) edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling This is an Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling anthology, so as always, there are fascinating bits of folklore. Rice, not garlic, was the most effective means of keeping Chinese vampires at bay, for they had a strange compulsion to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"Teeth-Vampire-Tales","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/Teeth-Vampire-Tales-199x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":17534,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/17534","url_meta":{"origin":555,"position":4},"title":"Bloody Acquisitions","author":"Michelle","date":"June 26, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Bloody Acquisitions (2016) Drew Hayes (Fred, the Vampire Accountant) Despite what film and television might have led to you believe, joining the undead does not inherently make one suave, cool, or even particularly more socially competent. Apparently, I need to become a vampire. While in life my reaction speed was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8.5\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8.5\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-5-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"Bloody Acquisitions","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/Bloody-Acquisitions.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":975,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/975","url_meta":{"origin":555,"position":5},"title":"Halfway to the Grave","author":"Michelle","date":"February 22, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Halfway to the Grave (2007) Jeaniene Frost Cat is half-vampire, and since her mother has told her of her history, has dedicated her life to killing every vampire she can find. Her heritage gives her heightened senses and strength beyond that of a normal human, but her hunt is surprised\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/02\/Halfway-to-the-Grave.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=555"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}