Death of a Series

There is nothing worse than falling out of love with a book series.

Actually, I think I've fallen out of love with author's entire collection. What could I possibly be talking about? I'm talking about the works of Sherrilyn Kenyon, bestselling author of urban fantasies and paranormal adventures. She is no Tolkien or even a Stephen King for that matter. Her books are not literature. They are fun. And that's why I loved them. They were simple reading but most importantly, they were entertaining. That's why I read them. I wasn't expecting to be intellectually challenged or gain some insight into the human condition. I was looking for an escape. Yes, they have terrible titles such as Sins of the Night and Unleash the Night and Seize the Night (the theme here would be "night shenanigans") but I didn't care. And yes, in case you were wondering, they are technically romance novels. Melodrama all around! But that isn't why I enjoyed them as much as I did. I loved the overarching story lines.

dark hunter
symbol

In her Dark-Hunter series (terrible name) classic mythology plays a huge part. The ancient gods are real and they still have the power to control or protect humankind, etc, etc. Think of it as a grown up version of the Percy Jackson series.

One of the main characters is Acheron (named after the River of Woe that flows in the underworld) and he is the last of the Atlantean gods (not counting his mother, Apolymi The Destroyer,  who is trapped in Atlantean hell for reasons and if she ever gets out, she'll destroy the world... but other than that she's a pretty nice lady). So Ash, as he prefers to be called (and thank god, because properly pronouncing Acheron is a bitch), and his immortal buddies (aka the Dark-Hunters) fight the Daimons (which are kinda like vampires but they don't want your blood; they want your soul. because they were cursed 11,00 years ago by Apollo to die painfully at the age 27 and the only way to escape that fate is to consume the souls of the living...yeah). There is revenge to be had, justice to seek, evil plots to be thwarted, and death to laugh in the face of.

ash's personal
symbol

All the big names of Greek mythology make an appearance: Zeus, Hera, Apollo, Artemis, Eros, Athena, Hades, and so on. (also, there is an entire pantheon of Atlantean gods that Kenyon created on her own) Then some Celtic gods like the Morrigan and Camulus come to make mischief. And then some Egyptian gods, some Sumerian gods, some Norse gods (Loki included), and even some Native American gods show up. And I'm pretty sure she's gearing up to introduce her version of Lucifer.

a shapeshifter's
symbol

Yup, we got your shapeshifters, witches, oracles, angels, fallen angels, gods, demigods, and every type of demon you could possibly think of. Basically Kenyon threw in all a bit of everything. Like supernatural gumbo. Which is an apt description because the majority of the books are set in New Orleans.

The individual stories are kinda lame. I was always aware of that. And they generally follow the same basic formula: two tortured souls meet; they are instantly attracted to each other; they must deny their feelings for reasons; someone or something wants to kill them and/or take over the world; they have to work together to save everyone from the latest Big Bad; at the last minute they win and end up together living happily ever after; and then they show up again throughout the series to help the next supernatural, star-crossed lovers save the world. Fine. Whatever. It's not Shakespeare, but it's pretty damn entertaining. Like I said, I was in this for the escape.

Side note: I know I'm making it sound a little flat, but the plot of the series as a whole is actually rather complex. It's not something you can just start in the middle of. So it has its merits.

But now, after my brief taste of being an English Major, my ability to read these fun little stories and escape has been utterly destroyed. All the flaws that I was able to completely overlook before are now so glaring that I have to shield my eyes. I find myself criticizing every little thing (and there are a lot of things). The heroes that I found kinda charming before are now just two-dimensional rehashes of each other. The story lines, the characters, the dialogue! All of it now appears to be so hackneyed that I can barely stand it. And she uses the same lines over and over and over!

 league symbol

And the destruction is not limited to that one series. I was also reading another series by Kenyon called The League. It's kind of like Firefly or Star Wars except there are no well-thought-out, multidimensional characters who exchange smart and snappy dialogue. But there are people running around in space, hopping from planet to planet in their different spaceships, and undermining a tyrannical government (which in this case is called "The League" and they are basically a bunch of ninja assassins). There is even a little smuggling, a few blaster battles and some telekinetic shit happening. But, just like the other Kenyon series, I can no longer read these books to escape because I have discovered the writing is terrible.

yet another symbol
lady likes symbols
everybody gets a
symbol!

And then there is a third series by Kenyon that I was reading (the woman writes a lot of series). This one was called Belador. Basically more of the same: lots of supernatural stuff going on, people need to save the world, etc. I enjoyed the first book a great deal. I had just bought the second one when I started taking English courses at school. Now that book sits on my shelf, unread and gathering dust. I don't know if I'll ever be able to read it.

I miss escaping into the elaborate (if not derivative and more than a little cheesy) worlds that Kenyon created. I hope that one day I will once again be able to ignore the writing itself and just enjoy a fun story.

Another side note: there are currently 24 books in the Dark-Hunter series, of which I own 20; there are currently 7 books in The League series, of which I own 4; and there are currently 5 books in the Belador series, of which I own 2. That's a lot of money so I had better be able to enjoy them again soon!

I don't want to think about how much money is sitting on this shelf...