Dead Witch Walking (The Hollows, #1) in Building a SciFi/Fantasy Library

Jun 21, 2008 Kati rated it liked it

Shelves: work-translations, urban-fantasy, in-english, 2010, 2008

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Re-read it for work-related purposes. And actually, it was much better the second time around. Or maybe Anita Blake's obnoxiousness simply desensitized me. Rachel is still dumb, but at least I like all the other characters, or at least I find them interesting enough to keep me going!

08/07/01 This book is lame, there is no other way how to say it. Rachel Morgan, the main heroine, is a little miss know-it-all and at the same time she is embarrassingly stupid. She considers herself a good runner (a ...more

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Apr 07, 2008 Elizabeth rated it liked it

Shelves: urban-fantasy

The story of a witch bounty hunter in an alternate reality where humans killed most of the species with genetically engineered drugs, which allowed witches, weres, vampires ect... to come out of hiding. Most of humanity has a hard time dealing with the fact that these other creatures exist, and the tension between the humans and the others was fascinating. The beginning alternated between interesting and dull, but it picked up toward the end.

So far I'm liking the "urban fantasy" genera. ...more

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Mar 12, 2008 Terri rated it it was amazing

Shelves: mysteries, paranormal

THis book was fresh and fun. Rachel Morgan and her co-workers are fascinating (esp. Jenks) and The world they live in very intersting

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Aug 29, 2007 Lou C rated it really liked it

Genetic engineering has wiped out a large portion of humanity in this modern day novel. The carrier of the virus was tomatoes. Humans find out next that supernatural creatures such as vampires and witches have always lived among them. They were immune to the virus and come out in an event called “the turning” to take their place in the population. Humanity still recovering from the virus reluctantly agrees to integrate these “people”. Those who are not human seem to have the blanket term “Inderl Genetic engineering has wiped out a large portion of humanity in this modern day novel. The carrier of the virus was tomatoes. Humans find out next that supernatural creatures such as vampires and witches have always lived among them. They were immune to the virus and come out in an event called “the turning” to take their place in the population. Humanity still recovering from the virus reluctantly agrees to integrate these “people”. Those who are not human seem to have the blanket term “Inderlander” applied to them. The book takes place around Cincinnati, and the area where Inderlanders live are called “the Hollows”.

Rachel Morgan is a witch and member of the I.S., a type of police force that handles supernatural cases. There is a human equivalent called the F.I.B., which has a rivalry with the I.S. This rivalry seems to be apparently how human / Inderlander relations goes as well.
Morgan’s career is going nowhere and she wants to strike out on her own. Doing so can be dangerous because agents have been rumored to have been killed for breaking their contract.

Morgan quits to go into business for herself. Two other agents join her to go freelance are Ivy; a living vampire, and Jenks; a pixie. Ivy has the means to pay off her contract, and pixies are considered free agents and not under contract. Morgan does not have much money but feels that since her boss doesn’t like her, he will rip up the contract. He does until Ivy quits and he blames Morgan for Ivy’s leaving and threatens her life because she has broken her contract.

The story focuses on Rachel trying to find a way to cancel the contract put out on her life. She also investigates shipments of illegal drugs coming into the city. The story is fun and easy to follow and the characters are likeable. Harrison needs to explain magic a little better and she uses terms that are not fully explained. There is violence, but it is not graphic and does serve to develop the story. Sexual tension and innuendo is present, but nothing graphic. The back-story of the characters is only briefly talked about, but will probably develop as the series progresses.
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Apr 14, 2008 Kimberly rated it really liked it

This is the first book in the Rachel Morgan series which (after Kelley Armstrong's Women of the Underworld) was one of the first paranormal series I really started to follow. Rachel Morgan is a witch living in a version of our world in which a plague spread by a genetically engineered tomato greatly decreased the human population, allowing supernatural creatures to "come out of the closet" so to speak. Rachel works as a runner for Inderland security until, fed up with the crummy jobs they assign ...more

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Jun 13, 2010 Lasairfiona rated it liked it

Shelves: iown, popcorn, kindle, havereadin2010

This book was just okay. Was this the author's first book? It read like one: good idea but the development... Not great. BUT I just read a review that says it picks up quite a bit in later books so if I can get them on the cheap I'll pick them up. ...more

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Aug 13, 2007 S.A. Parham rated it it was amazing

Shelves: paranormal

I sincerely hope that this series doesn't take the downward turn that LKH's Anita Blake novels did, or I shall just give up this genre entirely. Reviews compare Harrison somewhat blandly towards LKH and Charlaine Harris, but I actually found the book a bit better than Harris' work and maybe on a par with early LKH books. Rachel certainly does not seem to be superhuman, despite being an Inderlander witch, and the poor woman seems to have the sort of bad luck that no one ought to be privy to. I qu ...more

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Sep 03, 2007 Cindywho rated it liked it

Woot, more vampire fluff! This one does not take itself at all seriously. Despite fending off impending death, a sort of renegade FBI agent/witch deals with a garden full of pixies, horny vampires and the tomato-phobia of humans. It's just violent and absurd enough to make me crack a few smiles. (April 09, 2007) ...more

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