A review by starryeyedreamer
Death Becomes Her by Michael Anderle

3.0

I read this entire series over a few days. Based on his own notes, the author appears to have written it (other than this, the first book) over a few months or maybe even weeks. Fast is the way to read it, because if you go too slow you'll trip over the clunky writing. Writing that fast the author jumps awkwardly between plot exposition, the internal dialogue of his characters, technical description of the fancy military/computer hardware they use, actual dialogue, and action scenes, and doesn't seem to have taken any time to sit back and say: 'Hey, maybe that bit would be better here than there.' The writing generally is not high quality, but I found the premise irresistible and the narrative ride fun.
The 'cussing', as my US friends refer to it, isn't a problem for me because I'm an Australian, but be warned, it is absolutely gratuitous - the author is clearly adding it in there because it amuses him. There are lots of characters, but the central one, though biologically female, and identifying as both heterosexual and female...well, let's just say you can tell the writer is strictly only one of the above. (On the other hand, her thoughts are way more recognisable to me than those Robert Heinlein put in the heads of his women so well done Michael Anderle for that - you recognise that humans are humans, even when they are female, or vampires, or werewolves.)
The writer openly admits that he wrote this to be pure escapist fiction and doesn't care about any of the other stuff. So, if you don't care too much about the other stuff either, can handle a lot of naughty words, and want to read a rollicking but distinctly un-woke tale of vampires and werewolves using expensive tech and massive amounts of violence to kill the bad guys and save the world, with occasional intervals for horizontal leisure activities, go for it.