I just wanna do a little comparison between the tv show and the books by Charlaine Harris, let's start with the books (because I don't think that all the viewers have read the books).
So a little background is required, I think it was the first week of January of 2009 when I downloaded a ton of e-books and among them was Charlaine Harris's books series, by that time I was a little biased with the whole Twilight Saga thing so I went for the Southern Vampire Mysteries series, "vampire" being the key word keeping my attention, anyways, I read the first one, Dead Until Dark in an afternoon, I found it kind of short really, and with no surprise I was totally hooked by the story and it's not that this is the greatest book of the decade, because it isn't, for example; the writing sometimes goes off point and some of the characters are just so over the top, but like I said I liked the story.
The way Sookie's brain works is really interesting, I can just imagine what it would be like to hear everyone's thoughts with no filter to them whatsoever, an absolute nightmare, so to go from that to then met a Vampire and hear nothing (they are supposed to be dead with no electric brain waves, so Sookie can't pick up their thoughts or at least that's the explanation of the book) must be an absolute relief, so I don't blame her for getting involved with vampires in any way.
Also what I really liked about the books is the way that the vampire big revelation works, (they reveal themselves to the world because of the synthetic blood, meaning that they don't need humans to feed) . I don't really think this is a big theme in the show, although it's kind of there and assumed, it doesn't have the big impact portrayed in the books, because there you really get the whole accepting/rejection of people, Charlaine describes this in the books like the situation is kind of the same thing we face today with the Gay marriage laws, for example, where we see all these people against it while others are in favor. So it's a really interesting theme that is present throughout the books.
Now, after reading the first I couldn't just stop there, so I read a book a day until I was finished (at the moment there where 8 books, now there are 10 and counting) and what I have to say after reading them all is that Eric Northman is one of my favorites characters ever, that's why I read them really and Charlaine must have realized what a strong character he is too, because Eric slowly made his way into the spotlight and obviously, I'm not complaining about it.
Others characters I really liked and I hope I will see in the TV Show are Amelia, Claudine and Claude, they where really fun to read, I love Amelia's personality and I absolutely adore Claude's attitude, he's such a bad ass, Claudine actually appeared in the latest episode of True Blood, I don't really get why are they portraying her as a fairy straight forward, but honestly the show has its own way to tell the story.
In the process of comparing the books with True Blood I must say that my conclusion is that I like them both for very different reasons, I love that they kept Lafayette around in True Blood for example, and the little side stories they have added, like Godric being Eric's maker, and Jessica's story (I really like how her role is to explain what is like to be a new vampire).
The only thing that concerns me though, is that I don't know how they will evolve from those story lines, because every time they change something it gets more complicated to follow it from the books perspective, like with Eric's maker, we know that it wasn't Godric but Appius Livius Ocella a very disturbing roman vampire who made him, so there you have it and as much as I like were this is going, I just can't wait for the Eric show time (this meaning the adaptation of book 4), I hope they make it good, and knowing the boldness of Alan Ball I know it will be good.
To finish this post, I will say that I still recommend reading the books, because it's always good to read, but keep in mind that what you'll read is not True Blood, but the story that inspired the series, which can be very different.
So a little background is required, I think it was the first week of January of 2009 when I downloaded a ton of e-books and among them was Charlaine Harris's books series, by that time I was a little biased with the whole Twilight Saga thing so I went for the Southern Vampire Mysteries series, "vampire" being the key word keeping my attention, anyways, I read the first one, Dead Until Dark in an afternoon, I found it kind of short really, and with no surprise I was totally hooked by the story and it's not that this is the greatest book of the decade, because it isn't, for example; the writing sometimes goes off point and some of the characters are just so over the top, but like I said I liked the story.
The way Sookie's brain works is really interesting, I can just imagine what it would be like to hear everyone's thoughts with no filter to them whatsoever, an absolute nightmare, so to go from that to then met a Vampire and hear nothing (they are supposed to be dead with no electric brain waves, so Sookie can't pick up their thoughts or at least that's the explanation of the book) must be an absolute relief, so I don't blame her for getting involved with vampires in any way.
Also what I really liked about the books is the way that the vampire big revelation works, (they reveal themselves to the world because of the synthetic blood, meaning that they don't need humans to feed) . I don't really think this is a big theme in the show, although it's kind of there and assumed, it doesn't have the big impact portrayed in the books, because there you really get the whole accepting/rejection of people, Charlaine describes this in the books like the situation is kind of the same thing we face today with the Gay marriage laws, for example, where we see all these people against it while others are in favor. So it's a really interesting theme that is present throughout the books.
Now, after reading the first I couldn't just stop there, so I read a book a day until I was finished (at the moment there where 8 books, now there are 10 and counting) and what I have to say after reading them all is that Eric Northman is one of my favorites characters ever, that's why I read them really and Charlaine must have realized what a strong character he is too, because Eric slowly made his way into the spotlight and obviously, I'm not complaining about it.
Others characters I really liked and I hope I will see in the TV Show are Amelia, Claudine and Claude, they where really fun to read, I love Amelia's personality and I absolutely adore Claude's attitude, he's such a bad ass, Claudine actually appeared in the latest episode of True Blood, I don't really get why are they portraying her as a fairy straight forward, but honestly the show has its own way to tell the story.
In the process of comparing the books with True Blood I must say that my conclusion is that I like them both for very different reasons, I love that they kept Lafayette around in True Blood for example, and the little side stories they have added, like Godric being Eric's maker, and Jessica's story (I really like how her role is to explain what is like to be a new vampire).
The only thing that concerns me though, is that I don't know how they will evolve from those story lines, because every time they change something it gets more complicated to follow it from the books perspective, like with Eric's maker, we know that it wasn't Godric but Appius Livius Ocella a very disturbing roman vampire who made him, so there you have it and as much as I like were this is going, I just can't wait for the Eric show time (this meaning the adaptation of book 4), I hope they make it good, and knowing the boldness of Alan Ball I know it will be good.
To finish this post, I will say that I still recommend reading the books, because it's always good to read, but keep in mind that what you'll read is not True Blood, but the story that inspired the series, which can be very different.
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