Anita Blake Vampire Hunter Series by Laurell. K. Hamilton
These books seem insipred by White Wolf's World of Darkness RPG. Vampires, werewolves, and the like, live among us. They have just been declared legal. However, especially vampires, have to be policed. Therefore we have the special vampire slayer corps, which is where Anita Blake comes in. Despite vampires now being legal, the world is still a very dangerous place. Vampire politics it not for the faint hearted, and woe to the one that is caught in the net. The main strong point of the book is the description of where human and vampire society meet: some humans are drawn towards the vampires; some are fascinated by the promise of eternal life, others find them sexually attractive. The vampires are not slow to define their niche: whatever the humans want from them, they provide, at a price... from the murky world of vampire churches which literally promise eternal lives to seedy nightclubs where humans and vampires can live out their sexual fantasies on each other are truly nightmarish.
Guilty Pleasures, The Lunatic Cafe and Circus of the Damned are pretty standard. Anita is a necromancer-she raises the dead whether she wants to or not-as a child she unintentionally raised her beloved pet dog from the grave to the horror of her step-mother. What she discovered is that because she is such a powerful necromancer she will raise the dead whether she consciously wishes to or not, she may as well do it for a living-and a very good living she makes at it too. Anita is small-5' nothing, powerful-martial arts/weapons-guns, knives, swords, and hates all non-humans. She is half mexican/half anglo and her mother died when she was very young in car accident in which she would have lived had she been wearing a seat belt. Anita is haunted by her mothers death and practices and forces all of her friends to practice staunch automobile safety. After her mothers death-Anita is raised by her anglo father and disapproving step-mother who she does not get along with at all. She goes to college where she falls in love with and dates an anglo man who she is intimate with before marriage-a huge no-no for her-who later dumps her because his family is racist and disproves of her mexican heritage. Anita is a staunch Christian and her faith plays a major role in her life and her morals in the first few books. She is a self-described "good girl" who has been somewhat abused by life. She works for a professional necromancy agency raising the dead for a living and leaves catholicism behind-when it forbids necormancy-she instead becomes an Evangelist (?). She also occassionally works with the police on supernatural cases. She is a vampire executioner and legally licensed to carry out vampire executions but seems to feel that the only good vampire is a dead vampire. Most of the books center around a case which Anita is solving with the police.
Anita is very pale, with long very, very curly jet black hair, she is large busted with a compact powerful build. She is niether attractive nor unattractive-but at home in jeans, sweat pants, t-shirts and tank tops. She is very modest and pretty much uninterested in dating or romance at all. She has horrible scars on her arms and chest from various vampire attacks. She lives frugally-though she is well paid-and has few friends. All in all she is a strong character if somewhat boring and rigid.
In Lunatic Cafe, Bloody Bones, The Killing Dance and Burnt Offerings Anita pretty much hates non-humans, especially vampires and she despises humans who love them. She sees vampires are extremely manipulative-using their vampire powers to entrap and enslave humans-and not to be trusted ever. She is being persued by Jean-Claude who she inadvertantly helps to become Master of the City in the first book. Against her will he forces her to take the first 2 marks-in a series of 4-making her his human servant. Anita struggles against Jean-Claude and refuses his advances staunchly. Then she meets a companion of his-Richard. Richard is beautiful, tall, built, with long dark hair, bedroom eyes and a nice guy. Richard is also a Christian with strong morals, no sex , dating or romance in his life either. Also saving hismelf for marriage to "right" woman. Yet, Richard is a real sweet-heart. He values life and truly believes that all conflicts can be solved non-violently. He is a big compromiser and seems very able to support Anita without demanding too much of her. Anita falls for Richard and they begin to date. At some point Anita learns that Richard is a werewolf-as well as a middle school teacher. Richard is involved in a struggle with the Alpha of his "pack". Richard and Anita begin dating and Jean-Claude is able to manipulate Anita into dating him as well by threatening Richards life and safety if she refuses. It turns out that wolves are Jean-Claudes animal to call-all vampires have an animal that they can call to them. Anita, Jean-Claude and Richard form a triumverate of power to fight off stronger vampires and were-animals. During this time Anita and Richard become engaged, decide to have sex after Anita sees Richards animal. Richard finally confronts and kills the alpha and takes over as alpha of the pack. Anita freaks out and runs to Jean-Claude-well to his bed. She and Richard pretty much break up after that. She is seeing Jean-Claude and while she is still somewhat involved in Richards pack-she is his Lupa-which is basically the Alphas girl friend or wife-a role until Anita always held by werewolves. There is some drama with Anita becoming mama of the pack.
In Blue Moon Anita goes out of town to save Richard from a prejudiced small town in which he is being accused of rape because of his work with Trolls. Richard has also stopped living his monk like existence and seems to be sleeping his way through the werewolf females-and a few human females as well- in an attempt to get over Anita and also to find a Lupa to replace Anita. Anita and Richard semi-get back together in this book and for awhile Anita is seeing both Richard and Jean-Claude-but she is bothered by the fact that Richard will not be monogamous to her since she is still with Jean-Claude. Anita eventually stops seeing both of them and focuses on herself for a while.
Obsidian Butterflies sees Anita in the west helping her friend the psycopath Edward-who is living as his alter ego-Ted. I really liked this book. Edward has always been one of my favorite characters-his simple joy of killing and just plain strange psychotic behavior. I always thought he was a good balance for the bad non-humans in the books. Anita has her first story that does not include either Richard nor Jean Claude and it goes very well, it seems Anita has come into her own.
Naricussus in Chains is when all of the freaky sex stuff starts. Anita pretty much breaks it off with Richard-who she has started seeing again-or rather he breaks it off with her. Anita is starting to turn into a vampire in some ways. She can call the dead to her-as a necromancer-includig vampires who "die" when the sun is up. This is how she inherits Damian an ancient vampire of Jean Claudes. Anita does pay a price for this power-the ardeur-which requires her to feed much like a vampire must but what she feeds on isnot blood but lust. Anita has been taking care of the were-leopards since she killed Gregory the old Nimir-Ra or alpha of the wereleopards "pard". In this book she gets scratched by a wereloepard in the heat of a fight and gets her own "beast". She also meets Micah-a wereleopard with a "pard" who wants to join her pard and they are soulmates of a sort. Anita sleeps with him within 10 minutes of meeting him and discovers that she is Nimir-Raj to his Nimir-Ra and by the end of the book they have joined pards and caring for their wereleopards jointly. Richard demotes Anita to "Bolvek" which is a ruthless enforcer who kills for the Alpha and dumps her. Anita is devastated but seems to assuage her heart and spirit by having both Nathaniel and Micah in her bed and heart.
By Cerulean Sins the "arduer" has pretty much taken over Anitas life and the book does have a plot line but also involved lots of sex between Anita and multiple werewolves and vampires. Most of whom are only sleeping with Anita who while she sleeps with multiple men. Anita can not at all handle her "men" sleeping with other women. Anita no longer refers to herself as a "good girl" nor as a christian much either. She has also somehow become very beautiful and hot and all of these men want her. She wears micro mini skirts and 6 inch spike heels. Gone is the bad ass gun toting jean girl-now enters glamor sex goddess. The books have just gotten plain different and Anita now bears small resemblance to the Anita of the first few books.
Incubus Dreams is just one long erotic encounter after another. I recently finished this book. It got horrible reviews and I while I was not horrified by it, I have to admit it was pretty boring. Mostly full of kinky unappealing sex (lots of S&M and flesh eating) and murder. I think the entire story takes place in 3 or so days. Yet, this is longest Anita Blake book yet. Maybe 150-200 pages actually dealt with the story. Anita had sex with easily 10 or so guys through the story and each chapter was like another sex scene. It got boring after a while.I liked the Anita Blake books. The first 3 were really, really good. I even liked up to Obsidian Butterfly-the characters were frustrating in many ways and I did not like how rigid Anita was, but truly. This has just become unreal. It is just so unbelievable because of how Anitas character began. Anita was anal, controlling, conservative and saving herself for marriage. At the age of 25? she had one sexual partner-that was a guy she was engaged to in college. Now-she is having more than one sexual partner an hour-in her ofice, in the car, by the side of the road, in the parking lot of a strip club, almost every single male character introduced in any of the Anita Blake novels has now slept with her-not to mention the few she met and fucked in this book. She is having an "active" relationship with Jean-Claude and Asher (vampires) as well as sleeping and living with Nathaniel and Micah (wereleopards)- and still sleeping with various and sundry vamps and werewolves. As of the end of this book she is also bringing Richard (werewolf) back as her lover every 3 days. Because her lust (ardeur) is just too much for her 4 regular guys to handle all alone. Oh , I also forgot Damian-her vampire-who dies if she does not have sex regularly-now every 4-6 hours. I swear-it is wonder the character can walk and sit down, much less has time to eat, drink and work.I think LKH is clearly winding this series down. i will certainly read the rest of the Anita Blake series, but I will also be glad to see that series laid to rest because it has just gotten way out of hand
Guilty Pleasures
The Laughing Corpse
Circus of the Damned
Lunatic Cafe
Bloody Bones
The Killing Dance
Burnt Offerings
Blue Moon
Obsidian Butterfly
Narcissus in Chains
Cerulean Sins
Incubus Dreams
Guilty Pleasures, The Lunatic Cafe and Circus of the Damned are pretty standard. Anita is a necromancer-she raises the dead whether she wants to or not-as a child she unintentionally raised her beloved pet dog from the grave to the horror of her step-mother. What she discovered is that because she is such a powerful necromancer she will raise the dead whether she consciously wishes to or not, she may as well do it for a living-and a very good living she makes at it too. Anita is small-5' nothing, powerful-martial arts/weapons-guns, knives, swords, and hates all non-humans. She is half mexican/half anglo and her mother died when she was very young in car accident in which she would have lived had she been wearing a seat belt. Anita is haunted by her mothers death and practices and forces all of her friends to practice staunch automobile safety. After her mothers death-Anita is raised by her anglo father and disapproving step-mother who she does not get along with at all. She goes to college where she falls in love with and dates an anglo man who she is intimate with before marriage-a huge no-no for her-who later dumps her because his family is racist and disproves of her mexican heritage. Anita is a staunch Christian and her faith plays a major role in her life and her morals in the first few books. She is a self-described "good girl" who has been somewhat abused by life. She works for a professional necromancy agency raising the dead for a living and leaves catholicism behind-when it forbids necormancy-she instead becomes an Evangelist (?). She also occassionally works with the police on supernatural cases. She is a vampire executioner and legally licensed to carry out vampire executions but seems to feel that the only good vampire is a dead vampire. Most of the books center around a case which Anita is solving with the police.
Anita is very pale, with long very, very curly jet black hair, she is large busted with a compact powerful build. She is niether attractive nor unattractive-but at home in jeans, sweat pants, t-shirts and tank tops. She is very modest and pretty much uninterested in dating or romance at all. She has horrible scars on her arms and chest from various vampire attacks. She lives frugally-though she is well paid-and has few friends. All in all she is a strong character if somewhat boring and rigid.
In Lunatic Cafe, Bloody Bones, The Killing Dance and Burnt Offerings Anita pretty much hates non-humans, especially vampires and she despises humans who love them. She sees vampires are extremely manipulative-using their vampire powers to entrap and enslave humans-and not to be trusted ever. She is being persued by Jean-Claude who she inadvertantly helps to become Master of the City in the first book. Against her will he forces her to take the first 2 marks-in a series of 4-making her his human servant. Anita struggles against Jean-Claude and refuses his advances staunchly. Then she meets a companion of his-Richard. Richard is beautiful, tall, built, with long dark hair, bedroom eyes and a nice guy. Richard is also a Christian with strong morals, no sex , dating or romance in his life either. Also saving hismelf for marriage to "right" woman. Yet, Richard is a real sweet-heart. He values life and truly believes that all conflicts can be solved non-violently. He is a big compromiser and seems very able to support Anita without demanding too much of her. Anita falls for Richard and they begin to date. At some point Anita learns that Richard is a werewolf-as well as a middle school teacher. Richard is involved in a struggle with the Alpha of his "pack". Richard and Anita begin dating and Jean-Claude is able to manipulate Anita into dating him as well by threatening Richards life and safety if she refuses. It turns out that wolves are Jean-Claudes animal to call-all vampires have an animal that they can call to them. Anita, Jean-Claude and Richard form a triumverate of power to fight off stronger vampires and were-animals. During this time Anita and Richard become engaged, decide to have sex after Anita sees Richards animal. Richard finally confronts and kills the alpha and takes over as alpha of the pack. Anita freaks out and runs to Jean-Claude-well to his bed. She and Richard pretty much break up after that. She is seeing Jean-Claude and while she is still somewhat involved in Richards pack-she is his Lupa-which is basically the Alphas girl friend or wife-a role until Anita always held by werewolves. There is some drama with Anita becoming mama of the pack.
In Blue Moon Anita goes out of town to save Richard from a prejudiced small town in which he is being accused of rape because of his work with Trolls. Richard has also stopped living his monk like existence and seems to be sleeping his way through the werewolf females-and a few human females as well- in an attempt to get over Anita and also to find a Lupa to replace Anita. Anita and Richard semi-get back together in this book and for awhile Anita is seeing both Richard and Jean-Claude-but she is bothered by the fact that Richard will not be monogamous to her since she is still with Jean-Claude. Anita eventually stops seeing both of them and focuses on herself for a while.
Obsidian Butterflies sees Anita in the west helping her friend the psycopath Edward-who is living as his alter ego-Ted. I really liked this book. Edward has always been one of my favorite characters-his simple joy of killing and just plain strange psychotic behavior. I always thought he was a good balance for the bad non-humans in the books. Anita has her first story that does not include either Richard nor Jean Claude and it goes very well, it seems Anita has come into her own.
Naricussus in Chains is when all of the freaky sex stuff starts. Anita pretty much breaks it off with Richard-who she has started seeing again-or rather he breaks it off with her. Anita is starting to turn into a vampire in some ways. She can call the dead to her-as a necromancer-includig vampires who "die" when the sun is up. This is how she inherits Damian an ancient vampire of Jean Claudes. Anita does pay a price for this power-the ardeur-which requires her to feed much like a vampire must but what she feeds on isnot blood but lust. Anita has been taking care of the were-leopards since she killed Gregory the old Nimir-Ra or alpha of the wereleopards "pard". In this book she gets scratched by a wereloepard in the heat of a fight and gets her own "beast". She also meets Micah-a wereleopard with a "pard" who wants to join her pard and they are soulmates of a sort. Anita sleeps with him within 10 minutes of meeting him and discovers that she is Nimir-Raj to his Nimir-Ra and by the end of the book they have joined pards and caring for their wereleopards jointly. Richard demotes Anita to "Bolvek" which is a ruthless enforcer who kills for the Alpha and dumps her. Anita is devastated but seems to assuage her heart and spirit by having both Nathaniel and Micah in her bed and heart.
By Cerulean Sins the "arduer" has pretty much taken over Anitas life and the book does have a plot line but also involved lots of sex between Anita and multiple werewolves and vampires. Most of whom are only sleeping with Anita who while she sleeps with multiple men. Anita can not at all handle her "men" sleeping with other women. Anita no longer refers to herself as a "good girl" nor as a christian much either. She has also somehow become very beautiful and hot and all of these men want her. She wears micro mini skirts and 6 inch spike heels. Gone is the bad ass gun toting jean girl-now enters glamor sex goddess. The books have just gotten plain different and Anita now bears small resemblance to the Anita of the first few books.
Incubus Dreams is just one long erotic encounter after another. I recently finished this book. It got horrible reviews and I while I was not horrified by it, I have to admit it was pretty boring. Mostly full of kinky unappealing sex (lots of S&M and flesh eating) and murder. I think the entire story takes place in 3 or so days. Yet, this is longest Anita Blake book yet. Maybe 150-200 pages actually dealt with the story. Anita had sex with easily 10 or so guys through the story and each chapter was like another sex scene. It got boring after a while.I liked the Anita Blake books. The first 3 were really, really good. I even liked up to Obsidian Butterfly-the characters were frustrating in many ways and I did not like how rigid Anita was, but truly. This has just become unreal. It is just so unbelievable because of how Anitas character began. Anita was anal, controlling, conservative and saving herself for marriage. At the age of 25? she had one sexual partner-that was a guy she was engaged to in college. Now-she is having more than one sexual partner an hour-in her ofice, in the car, by the side of the road, in the parking lot of a strip club, almost every single male character introduced in any of the Anita Blake novels has now slept with her-not to mention the few she met and fucked in this book. She is having an "active" relationship with Jean-Claude and Asher (vampires) as well as sleeping and living with Nathaniel and Micah (wereleopards)- and still sleeping with various and sundry vamps and werewolves. As of the end of this book she is also bringing Richard (werewolf) back as her lover every 3 days. Because her lust (ardeur) is just too much for her 4 regular guys to handle all alone. Oh , I also forgot Damian-her vampire-who dies if she does not have sex regularly-now every 4-6 hours. I swear-it is wonder the character can walk and sit down, much less has time to eat, drink and work.I think LKH is clearly winding this series down. i will certainly read the rest of the Anita Blake series, but I will also be glad to see that series laid to rest because it has just gotten way out of hand
Guilty Pleasures
The Laughing Corpse
Circus of the Damned
Lunatic Cafe
Bloody Bones
The Killing Dance
Burnt Offerings
Blue Moon
Obsidian Butterfly
Narcissus in Chains
Cerulean Sins
Incubus Dreams
posted by Laileanah | 6:15 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home