Sunshine

Rating:
Summary: 300 page long ad for an upcoming series
Review: "Beautiful Writing"? You've got to be kidding me! This writer is repetitive in the extreme in her use of phrases and her character details. Reading this book it's as Yogi Berri said, "I'ts Deja Vu all over again". The main character is a baker, and by page 100 you're already sick of hearing descriptions of her great cinnamon rolls. By 300, you're well past apathy into utter boredom.

The world the author creates here, sadly, is potentially extremely interesting. The Vampires have a backstory that is eluded to, and at seems at least as interesting if not more so than the interview with a vampire world. Yet, the clues and hints that are given at page 100 are barely extrapolated on by the end. I don't mind not being given the answers. I like mysteries. But, to keep momentum you have to supply more and more questions. Here you begin with 10 questions and end with 9 questions.

Yet, the book ends with a whimper. There's no twist, or new interesting angles. The card on the table on page 1 are the same as whats there at the end. It simply feels like a come-on to buy the next books in some series. Avoid.

Rating:
Summary: Best book I've read all year!
Review: Rae "Sunshine" Seddon lead a normal but happy life as a baker in a coffeehouse until one night she gets kidnaped by vampires. She's held captive as a perspective meal for another vampire captive but he refuses to kill her. In her attempts to escape, Sunshine discovers more about herself and her past than she ever wanted to know and she's afraid she may loose her normal life forever.

Robin McKinley is my favorite author and when I found out she was writing a book about one of my favorite subjects (vampires) I was ecstatic. But I didn't even have a clue this book would be so good. I'm not exaggerating a bit when I say that out of the eighty or so books I've read this year, this one is my favorite. McKinley has created a very interesting and original world that's equally fantasy and horror. The main character was also really great. She managed to be strong with out being one of those overly tough female characters that seem to be so popular in vampire books these days. I also really loved the not quite romance between the main characters. Anyway, this book is well worth the hardcover price so go get it now.

Rating:
Summary: Sunshine*****
Review: Wow I really loved this book!! Usually I don't like Robin McKinnly's books, but this book was so good! I hope there's a sequel to this book! This book was just so suprising and creative. I loved it and hope people give it a chance!

Rating:
Summary: Deeper than your average fantasy
Review: I truly enjoyed Sunshine. The story has a great plot and great characters, with twists and turns and little idosyncracies that make it a joy to read. I thought the world McKinley brought to life was fascinating. I would love to see a sequel.

I'm very amused by the reviewers who think this book is boring or tedious. This is not your typical vampire blood and gore and sex story. It has depth to it. It has a sense of humor. It's subtle. It has art to it, in the best literary sense. Buffyesque? Yeah, I can see it. The Buffy series had a similar sense of wry humor, the same way of celebrating the ordinary, even while the heroine is living through the extraordinary. But this is no Buffy copycat. Sunshine has a world of its own, and McKinley makes that world real.

Robin McKinley is a true wordsmith. She brings such richness to her work... it's incredible, the layers and levels that she creates. You can read and reread it and always come away with something new. This is a quality that I've always loved in her other works, and it's defintely there in Sunshine.

Bottom line: If you're looking for a flimsy story that goes straight from point A to point B, with nothing substantial inbetween, this is not for you. But if you're looking for a well crafted tale that goes beyond the average fantasy... read Sunshine.

Rating:
Summary: Entertaining and Compelling
Review: Sunshine by Robin McKinley is a fantastic book. Other reviews have provided an introduction so I will focus on its unusual aspects. First, it is a tale about vampires. I enjoy vampire stories but my favorite is probably still Dracula. I like the Anita books but they are a bit too gruesome for my tastes. The Anne Rice novels read like plot outlines-when will the author make some connection to the reader? Sunshine is the best written of the popular vampire novels with which I am familiar. Sunshine, the main character, is a baker at a local coffee shop. She grows and develops through the book. The book has a nice level of terror without becoming needlessly grotesque. It is suspenseful and very compelling. The pace is stately. It is a book to savor rather than to speed-read. A lot of elements are not completely explained and there are plenty of mysteries left at the end of the book. However, it does have a clear plot and much is resolved in the course of the book. As others have pointed out, there is room for a sequel, but it is not clear that Robin McKinley will ever write it. If she did I would certainly buy it. The other addition that I would appreciate would be an appendix with recipes-not a common feature in a horror story. If you enjoy a strong plot, clever word play and beautiful writing you will enjoy Sunshine. I recommend it very highly.

Rating:
Summary: Stunning. Fabulous.
Review: I resisted reading this book for many months, despite hearing glowing reviews from friends. Which was strange, since generally I like Robin McKinley's work, but I just couldn't imagine reading yet another vampire story. What could she do that hadn't already been done to death (pardon the pun) by other authors?

But finally I gave in and bought the book, and was immediately amazed. McKinley has created a richly detailed alternate version of our world, where the survivors of the voodoo wars cling to the normal rhythms of life, in spite of the lingering threat from vampires and demons. The heroine Sunshine is immediately engaging and sympathetic. As she comes in to her powers, she is forced to face the dangers that others choose to ignore.

The relationship with the vampire Con is particularly well done. There are none of the cliches here. Con isn't handsome, he's not an immediate love interest, and there's a clear sense that he is alien to Sunshine's world. And yet somehow he and Sunshine manage to form an alliance of necessity that grows into something more.

I loved this world and these characters and was sad when the book ended. I truly hope she'll be inpsired to write a sequel someday.

Rating:
Summary: Beautiful and mysterious and leaves me wanting more!
Review: I haven't read that many of Robin McKinley's books, and although Beauty is one of my most favorite books, she was always just an OK author for me. Reading "Sunshine" has really boosted my opinion of Robin McKinley.

This book had me hooked right from the beginning. It was so imaginatively written and so gorgeously detailed that I totally felt like I was in Sunshine's world. Sunshine's first person narrative was very interesting because it was almost a stream of consciousness type of narrative. It takes awhile to fully understand what she's talking about becasue she takes her time explaining what's going on. At times this was frustrating, because I would be lost and confused, but eventually through her explanations things just fell into place - it was like a lightbulb clicking on over my head. I loved that feeling because as I read on the story became more lush and full and more intriguing. I couldn't put the book down.

Sunshine was a really interesting heroine. I kind of had a love/hate relationship with her. At times I really liked what she did - she would do what she set her mind on doing, even if it was not the most conventional of actions, and even though she may have debated the issue in her head. Then, there were times I just wanted to shake her and ask her what she was thinking. Sometimes I could not relate to her character - probably because her personality just brushed me the wrong way. She would just think things that would bother me.

But then again she's not perfect. I can't expect her to do and say everything I wanted her to do or say or think. She just realized that she has all these new powers and that she is an extremely strong magic-handler as well. Of course she would struggle with using magic, especially when she's been brought up her entire life to think and behave like a normal human. And she would struggle with working so closely with a vampire, the most feared and hated creature in her world. She struggles with herself and finding out who she really is, but gradually she does work things out and grows and matures in how she views herself and the world. She's not a static character that acts in predictable way. For me, Sunshine was wonderful character because she was a reluctant heroine, but who finally embraces all that she has.

I've read other reviews of this book and I'm somewhat baffled by some people's comments. I don't know why people keep comparing Sunshine to Buffy, or saying they are too similar. Just because they both deal with vampires and have spunky personalities does not mean they should be compared. Sunshine is a unique person, and should be viewed as such. I personally don't see all that many similarities between her and Buffy.

The other character in the book that I have to talk about is Constantine. I've never really been into reading books about vampires, but I may change my mind. Constantine was one of the most fascinating characters I've ever read. It may be because I wasn't able to experience what he was thinking, or that I didn't get to see much of him, but I found myself breathlessly waiting for any scene he was in. Con was so enigmatic, but I loved everything about him. Anything he did or said was perfect. He was the "good" vampire, breaking the sterotypes of what Sunshine thought vampires would be like. He is reticent and thoughtful, but also noble and honorable, two traits that I love to see in a character. And even though he was not very good to look at, and was probably extremely scary to be around, I found him irresistably sexy. McKinley did a wonderful job creating his air of mystery.

I really wished there were more of Con in the book. And when Sunshine and him meet, I wished there was more interaction between the two. We were to understand that there was a strong bond between the two, but we rarely got a chance to see how deep that bond went. I had to make up my own ideas about what their relationship really was like. And I'm going to have to make up my own ideas about what's going to happen to them in the future.

I also felt McKinley spent too much time on subjects that were just background. It was interesting to see what Sunshine's life was - the coffeehouse and SOF. And I understand that her whole life is the coffeehouse, but there were too many details about the goings-ons in the coffeehouse and the antics of SOF. I felt that it was too much filler, when we could have spent more time exploring Sunshine's feelings and maybe understanding what her magic was like.

McKinley also could have fleshed out some of the other characters a little more too. Mel is probably the one person I wanted to learn more about, behind Constantine. He's a complete mystery also, with his multiple tattoos and unknown past and his cool demeanor. I want to know why he's content with the life he leads and why he's with Sunshine and what he feels for he. Sunshine's mother was also interesting too because she was married to Sunshine's powerful magic-handling father, Onyx Blaise. Yolande was also another great character that we don't know much about.

I loved these characters, despite whatever flaws there were. It is the characters in the book, mainly the ambiguous and mysterious (Constantine, Mel), that made me give this book 5 stars. They were so compelling they pulled me through the story and kept me turning the pages. I highly recommend this book.

I did not want this book to end. Unfortunately for me, it had to. But the ending was not really an ending - there is still a story to be told. And if there is any hope in the world, there will be a sequel.

Rating:
Summary: McKinley, as always, tells the tale beautifully
Review: I'm not generally interested in vampire tales. But this is McKinley, and I adore her writing. The only disappointment associated with this book is that it had to end. The tale is masterfully woven, deep and lush, with the kind of thoughtful story-telling that one just doesn't think of until one reads something written by McKinley and realizes how much more there is to a story. Like others, I would love a sequel, but I know McKinley receives her stories rather than writes them, and like her, we must all be patient and hopeful rather than demanding. One of the elements I love so much about McKinley's writing is she creates an our world/not our world in her stories. There are cars and mechanics and cinnamon rolls - just like our world - yet there are also a whole host of other kinds of creatures and items that exist matter-of-factly in her worlds that simply don't exist in ours. Yet when you read about them, there is no disconnect.

As with any novel, "Sunshine" is not for everyone. It is well suited for those who enjoy beautiful writing, a fantastical plot and atmosphere, a good tale and a good (subtle) moral understory. That said, I feel a small bit of pity for anyone who doesn't read McKinley's novels and misses out on her extraordinary talent.

Rating:
Summary: Stick with it
Review: This is my first Robin McKinley novel. The story is great. Unfortunately you have to wade through a lot of peripheral stuff (for lack of a better word) to get to the story. However, the story is worth the work. I will probably pick up other Robin McKinley books and continue to push on to the great story.

Rating:
Summary: Deliciously baked but not quiet done.
Review: I found, Sunshine, to be a wonderfully engrossing read. Even in some of it's laidback scenes you still want to keep reading. Brilliant setting and fantastic words.
The one disappointment about this book for me was it's ending. It leaves you wishing there had been more to it. Maybe not exactly feeling that there should have been, but nonetheless, wishing it.