Saturday Shorts

This week I finally got around to finishing off the Sweet Oblivion series by Jordan Castillo Price.

Fluid
Michael and Bill are at a party where they get persuaded to pose for a photographer.  Later, Michael spots a female vamp leading a young man away and decides to follow them to check that the young man is OK.  They catch up with them at the young man's houseboat, something which both Bill and the female vamp are not happy about.  One of the things I love about the SO world that JCP has created is the way that she picks and chooses which elements of the vampire myth to include in her world building.  Here the focus is on the vamps' fear of water which at first is amusing but later less so when circumstances lead to darker matters.  This story is one from Bill's point of view and I liked that we see him as vulnerable and more world weary than usual, especially when he is frustrated at being a middle aged man in a young man's body.  A great story which is designed to further the character of Bill within the series.  Grade: Excellent.

Swarm
After Bill designs a tattoo for him, Michael tries to get Bill to talk about his artwork, which Bill feels is a lost cause now.  In an attempt to show Michael a mural he painted shortly before he was turned, Bill takes Michael to the cellar of an abandoned building where they encounter a nest of vampires who claim to be pacifists but look at Michael as though he were fresh meat.  This was one of the more bizarre stories in the Channelling Morpheus/SO series.  It's full of terrible tension as the two heroes negotiate with two separate vamp tattoo artists as well as the nest of so-called friendly vamps.  Told from Michael's POV, I got a sense of how deeply he is starting to care for Bill as, for once, his feelings are less about himself and more a concern for Bill and his artistic talents.  In many ways this story is a set-up for the final story in the series but I still enjoyed it a great deal.  Grade: Excellent.

Elixir
The pacifist vamps have taken a turn for the nasty as they attempt to run Bill and Michael out of town.  Our heroes are just fine about this but when Michael gets sick Bill finds himself having to ask for help from the creepy Dr Harmon or run the risk of losing Michael.   This story is told by interweaving present and past.  In the present Michael and Bill are having sex and that is then broken up with the main story of what happened to Bill and Michael when they discover that Michael is gravely ill and could either die or lose his arm.  The tension was turned up high as I anxiously followed the story to see how it was all going to turn out.  There were a few interesting things that I particularly liked about the story which is told from Bill's POV.  I liked that the vamps from the nest were an assortment of different ages, each defined by the clothes they wear as to when they were turned.  I liked Bill's increasing frustration over the limits of his vamp state as he tries to help Michael.  I also liked that Bill (and we) see a different side to Dr Harmon which redeems him slightly for his previous actions in other books.  Overall a great end to the series - although I do get the impression that Bill and Michael's story could continue, should JCP get the bug to write some more about these guys.  Grade: Excellent.

Go HERE to the Channelling Morpheus/Sweet Oblivion site for the links to all the books in the series.