All Together Dead

Sookie agrees to attend the vampire summit with the Queen after the destruction of Hurricane Katrina has swept through New Orleans. Since the storm several vampires are missing and territories are now depleted of their vampire as well as human population. Due to the death of the Queen’s husband she must stand trial at the summit and determine who her real allies are. While at the convention Sookie runs into some players from the past and most important of all she runs into the bell boy she met in Texas whom is also telepathic and has been working for the Texas district vampires. Between finding out who is friend or foe Sookie must confront her feelings for Eric, Bill and her Tiger. This book ends on a cliff hanger because your unsure is Sookie is now friend or foe with the vampire realm.

Sookie’s life has gradually been getting more complicated, and in Bk #7 the tense triangle between Eric, Sookie and Bill produces some unexpected and unwelcome results. Harris gives us a full panoply of vampire politics, with enemies both internal and external. The relationship between Sookie and Eric foreshadows what’s to come in the series ending. The after-effects of the vampires’ Summit will shake up everything, even Sookie’s small hometown.

Not sure if any other reviewers have mentioned this already, but I was intrigued by the introduction of the two alien bodyguards from the Britlingen Collective hired by the King of Kentucky, the tough professional mercenaries Clovache and Batanya. Ms. Harris wrote a short story about them (not a Sookie story). It’s called “The Britlingens Go to Hell” and is included in the 2009 “Must Love Hellhounds” anthology, and is a fun read that is quite different from anything else Ms. Harris has written.

**Additional edit** While in the process of re-reading some of my older anthologies, I realized that Ms. Harris did a SECOND short story about side characters in “All Together Dead” – the vampire dancers, Layla and Sean. It’s in the 2004 anthology called “Night’s Edge” – Ms. Harris’ short is called “Dancing In The Dark”.

Like the above-mentioned “Britlingens Go To Hell”, this short story focuses strictly on Layla and Sean, so Sookie et.al. do not appear at all. It’s the story of how Sean and Layla met, fell in love, and became permanent dancing partners. Straightforward and nicely done, and a charming vampire romance (if that isn’t an oxymoron, LOL)!

Book 7 picks up 6 months after the ending of book 6, but nothing has happened of import in those six months. Eric is still conflicted and the delegate summit was pushed back. So now it all comes crashing in on Book 7. Were a half smidge closer to something maybe happening with Eric, but then Sookie yet again finds herself in the stickiest of situations.

This is the best Sookie book I’ve read so far. It’s big and complex, filled with returning characters (Pam’s backstory is revealed, and we learn she reads Dear Abby columns) and new ones, like the mysterious armored Britlingens. The beginning of the book is almost a different story entirely. The first few chapters move along events in Bon Temps a bit before Sookie jets off to the vampire summit in Rhodes. There’s a lot of humor early on, especially during Halleigh’s wedding show. Sookie’s funny attitude continues to bubble up through the rest of the book until things get more serious.

The setting is quite different from the last book, which primarily took place in pre-Katrina New Orleans. This time Sookie finds herself in a pyramid-shaped hotel for vampires north of the Mason-Dixon line. It’s a neat place humming with activity and deceit. There are three separate mystery threads getting tangled up in all the hotel action. With everything going on, there’s barely enough time to think about the smaller details. The larger plot is easy enough to figure out, though.

Sookie is more introspective this time around. This lends weight to the book, making it a little more thought-provoking than other books in the series, not that it’s approaching literature or anything. Sookie finds herself in an interesting conundrum: she hates most of the vampires. They are vile creatures. Unfortunately, she also realizes that most of her confidence and self-worth over the last couple of years has come from the fact that she has been so crucial and helpful to them. She’s not quite sure what to make of herself. The vampires do some really devious things this time around; however, it’s humans that perpetuate the horrific disaster at the climax of the book. Even Sookie herself does a few things that she isn’t quite proud of.

This one wraps up a lot of persisting storylines. I’ve heard future books in the series aren’t as good. Although I’m still looking forward to reading them, I’m not surprised the quality dips a bit, because this one was so well done.

This is the seventh book in the Sookie Stackhouse series and you can tell from the beginning that it has a lot of action in store. From book 5, we’ve been told about this big Summit for the Vampires and it’s finally round the corner. A lot is hang in the balance in the Summit after hurricane Katrina which has a huge impact on the vampire Queen of Louisiana, Sophie-Anne’s financial situation. Apart from that, the Queen is facing accusation from Peter’s second in command, Jennifer, for his death and she will face a trial in the summit. And Sookie is yet again hired in the Summit to help the Queen with her negotiations.

When the group arrive in the hotel in Rhodes, which is where the Summit is held, they find out that Jennifer and the Arkansas group have bbeen murdered. And before they can investigate further, a suspected bomb is found outside the Queen’s suite which turns out to be only a false alarm. The summit begins and it starts with the wedding of King of Mississippi Russell and King of Indiana, with Eric as the “priest”! Apart from that, Sookie also gets to meet up with some old acquaintances such as Stan, who has risen from being a sheriff to the King of Texas, and Barry the bellboy, the other telepath that she knows of. Being aware of Sookie’s ability, the Queen orders Andre, her child and bodyguard, to do a blood exchange with her so that they can have a closer connection with her. This is however interrupted by Eric. Eric, being lesser of the two evils, bonds with Sookie instead and Quinn (being the event coordinator) walks in the middle of it.

With Sookie’s help, the Queen manages to get herself out of the accusation and is declared innocent. However, their problems are not over yet. The Fellowship of the Sun have come to know about the Summit and have set up plans to bomb the hotel! Sookie and Barry save the day and manage to get most of the key figures in the Summit to safety before the building collapses, with a few injuries (such as Quinn) and death (such as Andre).

This is a fun and action packed read with probably more glamour than previous books. Since there is so much going on in the book, you are left with thinking who’s behind the various plots. We get to know so much more about the vampire hierarchy, especially the ones in Louisiana. There are five areas in Louisiana and Eric is the sheriff for area 5. We get introduced to other sheriffs as well and we know more about the Queen and her bodyguards/children and her ability to telepath with her children and the ability to keep them close to her- in Charlaine’s world, a child leaves the maker at some stage.

We see new characters and also old ones coming together. It’s good to see Russell (King of Mississippi) and Stan (now King of Texas) and most of all Barry. I enjoy the way Sookie and Barry working together and the chemistry between the two telepaths. There is probably less humor in this book than the other books and it’s full of serious meetings etc. The only funny bit I can think of is to imagine Eric being the “priest” to perform the wedding ceremony and he gets the qualification from an “online” course!!!

Apart from the Summit, another key storyline of the book is of course Sookie’s love life. Her relationship is not going as well as it should be with Quinn and we also get to know more about Quinn’s background. From the beginning of the story, we are also revealed, from Pam, the personal conflict that Bill and Eric have with themselves regarding Sookie. And Pam also tells Sookie about the way that she was turned and her child-maker relationship with Eric which is good to know. Pam is a fun character to have in the books and would love to see more of her in later books. Back to Sookie’s love life, I have to say I am getting bit annoying with Bill as you can see in this book that he is still trying to get her back. As for Eric, even before the blood exchange, he is already behaving in a weird way towards Sookie which can lead you to suspect he remembers the time he spent with Sookie when he was under the curse. And with the blood exchange or blood bond formed between him and Sookie, they definitely become kind of closer but in a very strange way. I am glad to see the development between the two but question still remains whether there is really love between the two or because of the blood bond. I think this is something that we will find out a bit more in the next book.

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