Dead but Not Forgotten: Stories from the World of Sookie Stackhouse

A lot of scorned fans refused to buy this book, but I couldn't resist a peek. It was totally worth it. Some stories were out of sync - i.e., you just knew Harris wasn't the one writing it, and therefore just barely passable, while others were perfection with frosting and sprinkles in top. True fans of the series severely dislike the rules of the universe being bent even a little, however when a writer knows the characters and how they'd behave it makes the story awesome. I'd love to read more books like this in future - it was a great series, and over too soon for this fan-girl. Harris hit a home run with this series, too bad she abused it so at the end.SPOILER°°°°°°The story involving "Bubba" (aka: Elvis) made me laugh out loud in places! This is my favorite character of the series, and one (in my opinion) that didn't get nearly enough print time. Who'd have thought brindle was his favorite flavor? ;)On a side note, many fans took umbrage to Sookie ending up with Sam at the series end, but hey, the signs were there all along - like blinking red neon arrows - if you go back and re-read all the books. I admit I was "Team Eric" myself (if there is such a thing) and HATED the way Harris chose to make that go down. Anyway, I did enjoy reading this book. It was a fine idea.

Nobody's Business featuring Kevin and Kenya--I liked this one a lot because it gives us some believable back story for Kevin's and Kenya's relationship. It also treats Kevin with a little more dignity than he was afforded on True Blood. GRADE: B+Tyger, Tyger featuring John Quinn, his mother and his sister Frannie. As usual, Quinn is at the mercy of some nefarious entity that wants to exploit his were-tiger abilities. As in the SVM novels, Quinn is put in a position to have to sacrifice himself to save his mother and sister. For me this was the same-old, same-old, but a good deal more graphic brutality. This is one I could have done without. I would have much preferred a story where Quinn finds some happiness instead of more brutality. GRADE: C-The Real Santa Claus featuring Diantha and Mr. Cataliades. This one read like poorly written, juvenile fan fiction. The author took one of Ms. Harris' quirkier, more unusual characters, dumbed her down and put her into a story with a very lame premise. The author could not seem to find a consistent voice for Diantha and her interactions with Sam and Sookie were very out if character. GRADE: FTaproot featuring Andy Bellefleur. Nice story showing that Andy is still smarter than the average bear. We get to know Andy a little better as he works to solve Lafayette's murder, relives his first big crush and helps Sam survive the invasion of a Hollywood film crew. There is an interesting surprise twist to this story that gave it a little extra punch. GRADE: BKnit a Sweater Out of Sky featuring Amelia Broadway and Bob. Amelia, one of a Charlaine Harris' more annoying characters is still tinkering with magic and trying to expand her powers. She seems to have developed some sense of responsibility in this story that shows her trying to get a handle on weather so that she might be able to ameliorate future south Louisiana storms. Bob is there to both temper her enthusiasm and provide assistance and all goes well until she meets up with an unpleasant, show-off witchy competitor. The results are mildly entertaining. GRADE: CThe Million Dollar Hunt featuring Mustapha Khan. You may remember Mustapha as Eric Northman's day man in the later SVM novels as well as the tough, motorcycle riding, Blade influenced, lone werewolf who happens to be gay. In this excellently written, absorbing and tense story Mustapha and a variety of other Were animals compete in a reality competition that is reminiscent of Survivor, ManTracker and the Hunger Games. All the Were competitors travel a path to the $1 million prize that is fraught with deception, danger and double cross, but in so doing, Mustapha finds a pack even if only temporarily. It is a bit longer than the other stories up to this point and is very well done. GRADE: ABorderline Dead featuring Desiree Dumas. Do you remember this character from Living Dead in Dallas? I certainly didn't and had to refer to the Sookie Stackhouse Companion to recall who she was, and I finally did. Barely. Desiree's left The Bat's Wing and the life of a fang-banger behind in Dallas and is forging a new life for herself in Arizona. This story is a blend of contemporary events and supernatural characters but it doesn't have the feel of a story connected to the SVM universe. It's well written, but ultimately not very interesting. GRADE: CExtreme Makeover Vamp Edition featuring Bev Leveto and Todd Seabrook, the hosts of a vamp-centric makeover show, Best Dressed Vamp, mentioned briefly in Dead and Gone. Sent by Eric Northman to ready a reluctant vampire bride for her wedding to one of Phillipe de Castro's men, Bev lets go of the past and embraces her present. Bottom line, the story is about two characters that I didn't much care about and is rather silly. GRADE: C-Don't Be Cruel featuring non other than Bubba, aka The Man from Memphis. This is the story of Bubba's near crucifixion at the hands of Russell Edgington told from his POV. The writing is choppy and adds nothing new to Bubba's role in the SVM which is a pity since Bubba is a favorite character who often provided comic relief. There are many stories that could have been told about Bubba's vampire life but the author chose the least interesting possibility. GRADE: DWhat a Dream I Had featuring Alcide Herveaux. Alcide is one if my favorite SVM characters who would have been good to and for Sookie, I think. The author of this story believes that we'll see the beginning of Alcide's bad luck with women and we do, but more importantly we get to see some of the depth of Alcide's character in this interesting and touching glimpse into Alcide's past. GRADE: B+Another Dead Fairy featuring Claude and Claudine Crane, Sookie's full fairy cousins. Unfortunately Another Dead a Fairy is very reminiscent of the plot of "Fairy Dust," the story about the death of Claude and Claudine's sister, Claudette. Same song, second verse as a cousin is murdered and consigned to the Summer-lands. The murderer is even connected to the murderer of Claudette. Too little originality for my taste. GRADE: DThe Bat Signal featuring Luna Garza, Hunter and Remy Savoy. Luna Garza helped rescue Sookie from the Fellowship of the Sun in Living Dead in Dallas. I'm sure you remember Hunter, Sookie's telepathic young cousin and his father, Remy. The threesome team up to find a teenaged runaway shifter in this well told and engaging story that is true to the world if the SVM. GRADE: AThe Sun, the Moon and the Stars featuring Pam Ravenscroft. I had really high hopes for this one and it did start well with a good, in character telling of Pam's turning by Eric. Unfortunately it devolved into a silly, caricatured story with multiple flashbacks involving one of Pam's early lovers and a plot to kill Eric. Very disappointing. GRADE: CWidower's Walk featuring Eric Northman 201 years after his marriage to Freyda. She's dead and Eric has returned to Louisiana to fulfill his promise to always protect Sookie. Of course, Sookie is long dead, but his promise appears to extend to generations of her progeny. This meandering, frequently confusing attempt to reflect on his life and feelings about his time with Sookie and her life after him was the biggest disappointment in the entire anthology. Mary Janice Davidson, an author whose Undead series of books are generally fun to read, provides us with a plodding story of navel gazing about the past. She fails to capture either Eric's voice or his character. GRADE: D-OVERALL GRADE FOR THE ANTHOLOGY: C.

I personally found this book to be fascinating and at some points a better read than the original Sookie Stackhouse series. Probably because it brought together so many different enthusiasts and talented authors. It's even more interesting to see who each other chose to focus on. When at first I would read an intro into the short story and see that at was about a character I barely remembered, I thought, "why would anyone focus on this character, and why would I want to read it?". As I kept reading, it became clear how wrong I was to misjudge, and that the world Charlaine Harris created has provided such a rich assortment of characters to elaborate upon. I LOVED this books, which is itself, "a rich assortment" of stories About characters you never new you liked.

I have been waiting for quite some time to find this used at a good price. I am a huge fan of the Sookie series, although I had some reservations about this book beforehand. The other follow-up type book, After Dead, was a complete disappointment that left me hesitant about this one, and I am also not generally a short story fan. However, I knew eventually I would end up buying and reading it to complete my collection. I was very pleasantly surprised by this book! Overall it was a good collection of stories about many favorite characters from the series, although of course I enjoyed some stories more than others. It was fun to read from their points of view for a change (Diantha!). I liked the short intro to each story explaining a bit of why the author liked the character they chose to write about. I was sad to finish this book, I could have kept reading these fun stories. It was a very nice revisit to Sookie's world and some familiar characters.

a very different take on some of the peripheral, and not so peripheral characters in the True Blood series of novels, featuring the wonderful Sookie Stackhouse. Some of the stories were very good indeed, beautifully written and crafted, and the various authors really seemed to identify with the characters they were writing about. all in all, i'm glad I bought it!! The True Blood novels are amongst my very favourite reads, and I revisit them frequently ... i'm almost at the stage of being able to quote the dialogue ... a true addict!!

There was one story that had some hint of possibility but most were mind numbingly dull. The main issue was that they aren't written by Harris just in the Stackhouse universe. There was no wit, no charm, just lots of swearing an mediocre stories.

I loved the True Blood series and was sorry that they ended - Dead but not Forgotten is a wonderful idea for other authors to pick up one of the characters from the series and write a small story about them - and gather them as a small collection. Great fun and a good read.

I enjoyed these stories, but not as much as the Sookie Stackhouse novels.

I am in the middle of reading this ,and the short stories are strange and compelling. I am sorry the series has ended, I want more!