Customer Reviews

Fantasy in Death (In Death Series)

5 star:		(66)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(23)
2 star:		(17)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

When Bart Minnock, co-owner of a popular video game firm, is found brutally murdered Eve Dallas takes the case. And it's not an easy one for Eve.
Bart seemed to be a great, happy guy that nobody had trouble with. But finding a motive is not the only problem for Eve. Another is to find out how Bart was decapitated without anybody else in the room.
Eve must get past her own convictions about what is possible in the real world to close this case and find justice for Bart.

What I love about "Fantasy in Death" is that it concentrates on friendship. So there are lots of interactions between Eve and her colleagues, especially Peabody and Nadine. The scenes between Nadine and Eve are awesome and I like how the dynamics in their friendship are portrayed.
I was relieved that the new case is not so dark and hard to read like the ones in "Kindred in Death".
Another thing I love about "Fantasy in Death" is that this time Eve is the strong one in the relationship with Roarke. Roarke has some trouble to deal with the case because he knew the victim but Eve is there for him just like he is always there for her. It's awesome to see how she handles the fights with him and is understanding even when he hits her below the belt (for once Roarke is not 100% perfect!). But of course there are also some sexy and very sweet scenes between Eve and Roarke and whenever I read about them as a pair I'm just happy.
The mystery part of the story was very interesting and I didn't know who the bad guy was until it was revealed.

So, "Fantasy in Death" is another awesome book by J.D. Robb and I'm already excited to read "Indulgence in Death", coming in November 2010.

I love a good locked door mystery and J.D. Robb's Fantasy in Death delivers.

Long time friends Bart, Cill, Var and Benny are on the verge of releasing a state-of-art holo-game. Bart tests the game in the isolation and secured holo-room of his locked apartment and is killed. There are no clues. No weapon, no evidence of an intruder, no witnesses, nothing.

This is the crime super-cop, Lt. Eve Dallas, investigates with a little help from husband, Roarke. His input is more as a consultant and assists Feeney off screen, although he's there when Eve needs him. Eve struggles to understand e-tech, as always, but it is because she doesn't understand the environment that she can think of the unusual solution. I had my own suspects, but didn't truly settle on one until late in the book. Canny readers will pick up on the pivotal moment.

Fans of J.D. Robb will be excused for thinking this book is familiar with a particular scenario in the first of the series, Naked in Death, I know it rang a bell with me - but when you consider the two-year time frame, it's not such a leap.

I would have given the book five stars, except for the laziness of the copy-editor. This English version has unfortunate carriage returns in the middle of sentences, words that need spaces in between and comma issues. There are also problems with 'voice'. At one stage, I couldn't tell who was speaking, Roarke or Eve. Roarke doesn't have the speech patterns from previous books and the concept of 'friendship' is a bit belaboured.

Overall - if you can ignore the copy-edit problems - the story is great read and fans will be satisfied.

This, my fellow Eve and Rourke fans, is the the beginning of the end. Not in a horrible, "OMG, this series has totally gone downhill" but in the slow, beautiful way stories about couples come to a resolution. As Roberts says in the video on this page, people grow and change - Eve has had made amazing personal and emotional leaps from the first In Death novel and Rourke has been right beside her. "Fantasy" shows what happens when that growth starts to pay off. The entire time I was reading "Fantasy in Death", I felt like I was reuniting with friends I hadn't seen since their wedding and was now watching them interact as a couple that is deeply and passionately in love. Granted, Roberts sets it up way with a consistent narrative thread around relationships but not once did I feel she was pushing Eve and Rourke as a couple in the reader's face. Each time it emerged, it made perfect sense and was delightful to read. This is a series about Eve and Rourke and some books have been relationship-lite and cop-heavy. "Fantasy" is the ideal balance. Because it is book 30, the ending scenes gave my heart a bit of a stutter but the resolution only reinforced the consequences of Eve's growth as a woman and a wife. There is one meta-moment that I read as a shout out to fans (an Eve and Rourke conversation echoes comments that Nora Roberts has made about the end of the series) that made me chuckle and the technology has gone into truly science fiction, reinforcing that this is a series set in 2058. Like any good scifi author, Roberts/Robb has given us enough science to make is plausible and enough fiction to make it cool.

Fans of the series will no doubt read this book because that's what you do when a new one comes out. If you are new to the series and wondering if this is a good starting point, I say yes. Joining Eve and Rourke and Peabody (who I argue is one of the best written sidekicks in fiction) this far in their relationships will only make the journey from the beginning that much more enjoyable.

As an aside, all authors (romance or not) can learn so much about Roberts/Robb's skill with dialog. At a pivotal moment, when in the hands of a lesser author, Eve might scream, shout, beat her fist against her breast - she simply said three words and that sentence did more to communicate the depth of growth, emotion, and change in character than would seem possible.

J. D. Robb (Nora Roberts) opens up a new murder book when New York Police Detective Lieutenant Eve Dallas investigates a homicide involving a top video game designer in Fantasy in Death. The year is 2060 and the world is just enough different than ours to be interesting, although the chase for the murderer seems very familiar.

I enjoyed the idea of the entertainment available that late in the 21st century, but after seeing all the entertainment dollars that get spent every month and how much technology seems to jump every three or four years, I think Robb may have seriously underestimated where video gaming and virtual reality may be in the next 50 years.

Robb is a virtuoso at getting a story underway, though. Within just a few pages, she's introduced us to the murder victim, a new way of gaming, and a host of other SF elements that mesh really well in her story.

As usual, Dallas and her ex-criminal husband Roarke end up chasing the same murderer for different reasons, and they end up at cross-purposes now and again. It's a formula, but it's a formula that works and has worked for over 30 novels in this series so far.

Eve Dallas's family and circle of friends has grown exponentially over the books. Each of them show up for cameo bits pretty much as their lives continually get tangled with each other's.

For the most part, I enjoyed Eve's pursuit of the murder investigation. Robb has the procedure down pat, and she's got her characters firmly in place as she marches them forward.

However, the plot in this one seemed to spiral for a while and become repetitious in the middle. And there was no real reason to expand Eve's suspicions past the three surviving partners. The false leads weren't developed quite as expertly as Robb normally does. And the revelation of the killer's identity wasn't astounding in any way.

I did like the fact that Eve and Roarke ended up fighting alone in the virtual reality world, and that Eve "cheated" the perverted system for the win. Fantasy in Death might not be anything new for long-time readers, but it's a solid entry into the long-lived series.

Hmm. First let me begin by stating that I love, love, love Nora Robert's In Death series. I'm not a big devotee of her Nora Roberts novels, but I devour each In Death novel as soon as can. There is no doubt that Ms. Roberts is a fabulous writer and that Ms. Roberts excels at characters, and character development. Fantasy In Death is no exception. In this thirtieth book in the series, Eve and Roarke are just as fresh and interesting as they were in the first book. What I loved about this book are the personal interactions between the main and supporting characters. I laughed out loud whenever Eve and Peabody had a conversation that didn't have to do with the case. I melted into a puddle of goo whenever Eve and Roarke discussed their relationship. I also loved Eve's attempts to shake things up in their relationship by not allowing them to settle in a routine. And the accident in the end of Fantasy In Death . . . I loved it. It was different, tugged at the heart strings, and was amazingly written.

I did have a few problems with Fantasy In Death. The mystery was so-so to me. I didn't find it as gripping and interesting as it normally is. And it annoyed me to see Eve floundering through much of the book. I racked my brain trying to figure out why and I believe my problems stem from Fantasy In Death's first scene. It has a lot of action, but it also tells the reader how the victim died. Since I knew how the victim died, I knew the ending before Eve did and the journey it took for Eve to get where I was already at from page one, didn't grip me as much as it should've.

OVERALL

Loved the characters and the sub-plots but thought the main mystery could've been structured a little differently.

REVIEW COURTESY OF: [...]

"Fantasy in Death" was not one of J.D. Robb's better novels.

Others have summarized the plot enough, so I'll not waste your time.

What was wrong? It seems Ms. Robb's become complacent with this series. Summerset was only in for 1-2 scenes, as were Nadine, Mavis, Trina, and Leonardo.

The interaction with Peabody was great, and it's wonderful to see Peabody coming into her own as a detective.

The plot seemed weak and this book seemed shorter to me than her other books. And when Roarke lashes out at her at the hospital? I don't think so...they've been together two years now. That part seemed forced by the author. I can't see him telling her those hateful things, not when he turns around and thinks of her as his warrior.

Everything seemed either flat or forced.

Not one of Robb's better efforts. I'm glad I got this from the library rather than buying it. I'll save my money for other things.

There is much speculation about who writes some of the books churned out by the Nora Roberts/J.D. Robb factory and the James Patterson machine, as well as that of other too-too prolific writers. I'd bet my house and bank account that this is one book not written by Ms. Roberts/Robb.

An interesting insight I gained from reading Fantasy is that each of my favorite authors has a rhythm I automatically get in step with as I begin to read. Within two pages of Fantasy in Death, I felt as though I had swung into the first moves of the expected tango, while the author instead broke into a cha-cha at word one - we never did get in step with one another. As a result of the counter rythms, I had to reread sentences to grasp their meaning - like listening to a radio station that is slightly off the mark and hearing two songs at once, I was desperately trying to catch a voice I recognized.

The author's voice is noticeably different: more playful, less dark, less mature. Oh, the book was seeded with the usual signature Robb-ishes: the terse sentence fragment here and there, a few Eve tough-guy moments, the long-running Summerset antagonism, but someone's heart wasn't really in it and they never got all the way into Robb's shoes. When the practical and stalwart Peabody giggled and rolled her eyes a lot, we had a problem. When she and Eve Dallas traded double entendres in reference to a male anatomical part, ad nauseum, we had....girl chat?

From what I read in reviews, the In Death fans have come to understand Eve Dallas, a tortured soul constantly overcoming her past and living and breathing her job of avenging murder victims, to the exclusion of almost all else in her life. A seeker of justice. Dark, deep, prickly and defensive, but most of all vulnerable in a heart-breaking way. The Eve in Fantasy in Death is not that Eve. This one is a cheap imitation - worse - she is ordinary. What it comes down to is that while the book was entertaining as a stand alone, there was no Nora magic to it.

Like many of the 1-3 star reviewers, I love the "In Death" series, but Fantasy left me feeling cold. Easily the poorest book in the series, I hope that the next one gets back up to the quality I expect from Roberts.

I love the In Death books but this one was not the fun read I am used to JD Robb/Nora Roberts providing her readers. Usually I fly through these books because the writing is so good and suspenseful but with this one I'm on the last few chapters and I am struggling to get through them. The dialogue between Eve and Peabody is usually hilariously funny, but in this book it felt like bathroom humor from a guy movie. There is a scene where Eve and Roarke get into an argument and I have no clue as to why they got into an argument even with the explanation that the characters gave as to why they were mad at each other. The argument was pointless and unnecessary to the storyline. All the detectives that usually make up Eve's team for most of her cases were almost all non existent in this book. When I started reading this book I was so looking forward to seeing these characters again because they provide such good comic relief in the books. Also what the heck happen to the other characters like Mavis, Leonardo, etc. They and Roarke humanize Eve and soften her to the readers. Ugh!!! I have read other reviewers ratings and some of them mentioned that it was like a different person (ghostwriter) wrote this book and I could not agree more. If this book was not written by a ghostwriter, then I hope whatever funk Ms. Roberts was in when she wrote this book she got over with the next book and all the others to come. I know there is pressure to meet deadlines but she is a moneymaker for her publishing house, so even though she has signed contracts to meet certain deadlines I don't think they will get too mad if she says a book is not going well and she needs an extension. I know I'm not a writer and could not understand the pressure she and other successful authors are under but don't disrespect your loyal readers and just put something out for the sake of money and because you need to meet a deadline and have something out on the market. Don't disrespect your readers like that.

I'm constantly amazed that even after 25+ books, Nora Roberts (aka JD Robb) still manages to come up with fresh story lines for these mysteries! In this installment, we have her take on the "locked room" mystery. The victim is killed inside a highly secured room playing a game - so how did the killer get in and out unseen?

The series is set in the future, but that is usually low key in terms of the stories themselves. However, this time the future setting becomes more prominent as technology is key to the crime. The victim is a game designer, but in the future that means holorooms (just like the holodeck in Star Trek!) and the game he died while playing is critical to Eve's investigation. The last couple of books minimized the roles of the supporting characters a lot. That trend is reversed here. Since technology is front and center, Roarke takes an even bigger role in the action than in previous mysteries and we get more of McNab and Feeney as well. McNab and Peabody even go undercover at a gaming convention! There is a lot of humor, but also some unexpected, but necessary, tension between Eve and Roarke. Their fairy tale marriage could easily become boring, but Robb keeps it real by having them argue, get angry and say hurtful things - then have hot make-up sex. The romance is still a strong factor in the series, but has never overshadowed the mysteries.

Overall, another satisfying read and strong entry to the series. I am grateful Nora is so prolific - even twice a year isn't enough for me. Can't wait for the next book!