...wow.

[slr2moons]

Work Hell: week 5. Things are better now. Enough that when my neesan decided to use my Giftmas present to her of one day's worth of my free slave labor, I was able to agree. I'm now very sore from helping her paint one of her rental properties, and I almost have blisters. Owwww.

But that isn't what my subject line is about. No, that is for the book I just finished reading. I heard about it ages ago on LJ, wrote it down, found a copy through paperbackswap.com, started reading it Thursday night, and finished about 15 minutes ago.

So like the subject says, "....wow."

I know that Stephanie Meyer's Twilight series has a lot of fans, and hey, I own and have read all three volumes so far, and they're fun and enjoyable and I want to curl up on Jake's chest and go to sleep. But that book I just finished, Sunshine by Robin McKinley, completely eclipses poor Twilight. They deal with the same basic theme--a human woman/vampire man relationship--they are even both written in the first person for the female lead character, but....the two are in completely different leagues.

I'm sorry, Ms. Meyer. But Ms. McKinley owns you. No question in my mind.

Of course, I'm sure a large portion of the reason behind this is b/c I find the the main character in Sunshine (named Sunshine) so more engrossing and easier to relate to than Twilight's Bella. Sunshine is a 20-something grown woman with a job and her life in order, while Bella is an angsty woe-is-me teenager bogged in the high school doldrums. Sunshine is simply less annoying without all that teenaged wangst and baggage. I do like Bella, but I so often wanted to smack her on the back of the head and then steal Jake from her. 

The relationship Ms. McKinley creates between Sunshine and her vampire, Constantine, is so completely fascinating. Thrown together by chance, Constantine's honor saves Sunshine's life, then Sunshine's does the same for him in spades. An uneasy debt that grows into an uneasy alliance that morphs into an uneasy need that evolves into uneasy respect and maybe just maybe a hint of mutual affection. (Note: lust is definitely there, but I'm talking about genuine affection.) When I consider that intricate and defiitely earned relationship against the Bella/Edward infatuation love at first sight...Sunshine/Constantine seems stronger, and more valid. Believable. And makes me yearn for a sequel!! *frustrated noise of MOAR PLZ agony*

Oh yes. The world of Sunshine is more creative than the world of Twilight, too. I grant that the Twilight take on vampires is different than the norm, but the generic themes are the same standard. Vampires are beautiful, they can have special abilities, they're uberstrong and fast, they're ruled by old and very powerful vampires, etc etc etc. Sunshine vamps are nasty, evil, horribly WRONG walking undead. They are far from automatically beautiful, but they're irrestistably compelling, even as you wet yourself from fear. Edward is a walking saint who denies himself his true desire for dinner by living off animals....Constantine...still eats people. I think. Ms. McKinley doesn't reveal much about his eating habits b/c Sunshine herself doesn't want to know the horrible truth. Thus I fully suspect he still eats people. (NOM NOM NOM)

Aside from the characters, Sunshine eclipses Twilight for the storyline, too. In a nutshell, Sunshine is a drama adventure. Twilight is a pure romance novel. Sunshine is ultimately about the battle between good and evil and all the gray areas in between. Twilight is about Bella and Edward's relationship. To be fair, a focus on the unending fight does not instantly mean a superior story over a focus on a couple's romance, but....Sunshine packs so much more power.

And let's face it. Watching the changing dynamic between Sunshine and Constantine is awesome. Reading between the lines, wondering what that moment meant and how this bit of dialogue could be taken was completely engrossing. Twilight is quite straight forward cut-and-dried romance. We have the bit of tension in every volume of Twilight--is that Edward in the ballet studio? Will Bella survive? Will Edward come back? Will Bella survive? Will Bella be able to balance Jake and Edward? Will Bella survive? Will she or won't she get what she thinks she wants???? While we can't really take a good guess at what will happen with that last question, the answer to the main refrain of "will Bella survive???" is always going to be "yes". She's the star, the lead. Ms. Meyer can't kill her off. Bella's life is assured, simply because the series is a romance written for teenagers. Most teenagers can't handle tragedy. Particularly not if Ms. Meyer wants to keep having bestsellers. ^^;;

But with Sunshine we don't have that assurance. The book was written for an older audience. And characters in books meant for adults quite often die, or have really nasty things happen to them. You don't always know the lead wil survive unscathed, you don't always know she's going to get her man, you don't always know if she'll even succeed in the fight. That uncertainty makes for one gripping book. 

So. Sunshine, by Robin McKinley. Very good, very powerful. If you're looking for vampire fluff, you better stick to Twilight.