5 posts tagged “laurell k hamilton”
to be honest, i don't even know what exactly made me reach for this book; i was certainly not in the mood for a letdown, and i don't think i had any faith in the ability of this book to even entertain in any way--the last one was quite bad. i'm not sure any fans believe in Anita Blake anymore, and i would have to agree with them, lately. however, once i started reading, i did find myself pulled along despite myself, and i might actually be excited enough to say that LKH might be back. i'll probably regret saying it when she comes out with crap again though, but i sincerely hope not.
the first big sign that something was different about this was the presentation of an actual mystery within the book, and there were actual unknowns that anita has to solve, instead of just randomly knowing all the answers like some god. she actually spends almost the entire book trying to figure out where and what this villain is, unlike the past couple of books where the villain is just a pretense, because of course we know that anita is all-powerful and will kick his ass anyway. there is actually suspense in this book, and there is actually danger. i think we're beginning to get some of the elements from the earlier books back, and she does blend both together.. i wouldn't say exceptionally well, but decently by the end of the book. i wasn't disappointed, much, and that's a definite step for me and LKH's books.
secondly, a HUGE change between this and the more recent predecessors is that anita has insecurities. she questions herself constantly, and while i've read that some people on amazon are complaining that it's too whiny, come on: fans who have followed this series for a while will know that just having anita question anything is a huge step. i personally was sick and tired of reading about this omnipowerful god in a human body, and who knows exactly what she's doing, and anyone who's friends with her just somehow ends up okay no matter what. there's no believability in that, because we keep hearing that she's human, and she doesn't even begin to act like it. sure, in this book, we still keep hearing the 'holy crap she's powerful' stuff, but that i can deal with. i'd be annoyed from time to time, but i wouldn't hate the book so much i'd pour gasoline all over it. so, that's that.
and now i guess i'll move onto faults, some of which i've brought up already. there is one prevailing problem with her writing that i can't help but notice: all her characters seem to have the same voice. i mean i know, and it's nice, that LKH puts all of herself into her characters at all times, but the one thing that takes away believability is that people must have different ways of talking, different mannerisms and such. they can't all refer to the same thing the same way, or otherwise you begin to see the seams of the dialogue, and that's not good. for example: during sex, they all talk about 'prepping' her, and how many people in the world actually call foreplay that? these random strangers will say she's not 'prepped,' and she'll respond like it's completely normal that they happen to all use the same terms to refer to the same things. sometimes, that makes it so that the 'individual' characters i'm reading about appear to all be the same character--and it makes me wonder if that one character just so happens to be our author, Laurell K. Hamilton. if so, then it makes all the sex parts of it almost disturbing, because it would mean i'm reading someone else's sexual fantasies (or realities), and there's a certain sense of voyeurism in that.
secondly, when it comes to faults: i've read books that curl my toes with their sex scenes. this one does a little bit at some points, but mostly doesn't, which i'm sorry about. she takes all the passion out of her sex when she has everyone just pause in the moment and talk about it--and again, i bring up the 'is she prepped?' instance, because it shows up a LOT. not to mention that randomly a side character will just be like 'oh, are you too big?' and then 'no, it's okay, because if you do it this way she'll be okay'--what? is this dialogue even necessary? i know it doesn't do anything for me except make me roll my eyes, because you're gonna pause a sex scenes to talk about all the angles you can take? are you serious? maybe this process helps her write herself into it, i don't know, but the biggest issue with this is obviously that passion (we are talking about her theory of the ardeur here) shouldn't feel like a science. the moment she breaks passion down into the how and why, it is no longer passion, but again, a science.
and now that i've got that out of my system, i'll just state all the small things that might otherwise not have been worth a mention, but i remembered them, so why not. this book breaks continuity in some places, which makes it obvious that the editor wasn't combing too hard; or maybe the editor was concentrating on other areas so hard that she couldn't help missing one or two here and there, in which case it wouldn't be a biggie at all, because this book turned out well in comparison to her recent works, in my opinion. an example of this break of continuity is her cell phone ringtone; i don't even know why i noticed it, but she says she doesn't know how to change her ringtone. it starts out with her having a duran duran ringtone outside the circus, and then when she lands in vegas it had changed to a different ringtone. however, by the end of the book, she's still in vegas, and somehow it changes back to the duran duran song, without nathaniel ever being there with her--how? little things like that shouldn't even be worth mentioning, but i thought it wouldn't hurt. maybe they'll find the error and change it for the paperback edition.
she also closes the book by saying lust and love are really the same thing if you think about it--and i can't say enough how disturbing that is. because if we applied this theory to family members and other people we love, it's just downright gross. and if i'm taking it the way she meant it, that lust and love are the same thing when we're talking about significant others, NO, it's NOT the same thing. i can be completely lusting after someone i barely know at a bar, because they're attractive, but it doesn't mean i love them. i love my other half, because he's him. lust plays partially into it, but they are NOT to be equated. and because it's so obvious to me, i believe that that is possibly the most shallow comment i have ever heard from someone who's lived through that much, and i would've liked to think that she knew better than to write a closer like that.
*** SPOILERS *** i also felt that the last section of the book was a cheap way to get rid of a major god-like villain, but i don't know if anyone feels the same. and maybe it doesn't matter anyway, but if you get rid of the biggest and baddest already in this volume, then who's gonna be the villain for the next books? it kinda leaves her in a dead end as a writer, no? i mean it's nice that they're gone now, but really, what could possibly happen from here on?
but finally, i want to go back and say again that i am impressed with this book, because anita is once again human enough for me to relate to, and vulnerable enough for the suspense and danger to actually somewhat get to me. a character needs to be vulnerable, or otherwise what good is the plot? we also won't care for her otherwise. so i honestly think that this is a step forward, but again, others may disagree. it's my hope that LKH will keep improving from here, because she has given me hope that there is something to salvage out of this series again. and that's the best compliment i could possibly give a series i thought was long dead.
huh, this actually wasn't so bad. i'd expected sex scenes galore and no plot whatsoever, but there was actually development within the storyline, and there are problems solved. i think merry will always be cooler to me than anita.. must be the fairy thing. and you know, not bitching every female character that enters the scene out thing.
actually, it could be that i went into it with low expectations, but regardless, i ended up liking it. all the descriptions are pretty as usual, with the flower crowns and the glowing and what have you. and there are only three sex scenes--i counted! that's rather impressive, and i rather like the change. i still miss when it was like fade out for sex scenes in the first book, but she does handle them a bit more tastefully, and less like watching porn with the bad dialogue and storylines. i find holly and ash particularly attractive, if only because they seem like such devils most of the time--their characters are fleshed out a bit more in this volume, even though they were only in maybe max, one scene. i could maybe complain that doyle wasn't as prevalent as in previous volumes and that's not quite fair (since the title IS named after him, i presume?) but i've seen enough of him in the previous volumes not to miss it much, and besides--darkness could be referring to andais, which might actually be the case instead.
merry shows she can stand on her own in this volume--the previous ones have always been her bringing up pretty flowers or something, and then the men fight when it comes to defending her. she does okay for herself here, which i rather quite liked. ruthlessness is a character trait i like to see in her, apparently--because maybe i didn't even notice it before, but her acts of "kindness" may have been wearing thin for me, subconsciously. either way.
oh well. bottom line, she took two steps in the right direction, after the letdown of BLOOD NOIR. that's more than i expected from her, and for that i'll give her credit and an extra star. maybe she does hear her fans after all.
i'm really trying to think of a good way to open this entry, but at the current moment, can't. i think reading this book has befuddled my brains a little bit. anita blake blows out brains literally and figuratively, heh.
so. umm. i can't decide how this weighs against her last book into this series, since i barely remember it, and i can't decide whether there was anything to like in this book either, although there was certainly less to hate. a lot of the times, she would end the chapter by saying something as conclusive as "and then they have sex," but just when i start the next chapter and expect the aftermath or something, she would go into heavy detailing of the sex. not that i don't appreciate sex, but sex can both be done tastefully, and painfully. she took the painful route, or as she put it in her personal interviews, that she doesn't shy away from what bothers other people's comfort levels. if anything, i think someone needs to make her understand this: it's not my comfort level or my sensitivity that is bothered. it's that i really do get bored during the sex scenes, and that her sex scenes have just really begun to feel like reality tv. and god, i HATE reality tv. it's like watching some of your favorite characters go "you bitch, you slept with her again!" that.. NOT my cup of tea.
i suspect i've just described most of her fans' love/hate relationships with this series in general. i hope i've described it well enough to do it some justice, instead of being found by her one day and have her declare me a prude. because trust me, i've had sex that was way more inventive than what she describes. granted, not the 5 orgasms in a row that she describes, but i'm to this day having trouble believing someone can have that many orgasms within a couple of minutes. i would be more inclined to believe that it's not really an orgasm, just the loss of bladder control in the middle of the act.
okay, that probably went too far.
but anyway. the sex-so-boring-it-makes-my-eyes-cross is really the only problem i've ever had with AB as of late. that, and that there really weren't any mysteries going around anymore. take this latest installation, for example; there was no buildup, there was no climax. it attempted at both, but achieved neither, in my eyes. this series, for me at least, has definitely lost its grittier bit, from earlier on in the series. i like it when a character gets out of a hopeless situation by sheer will, by strength of character. i don't like it that a character gets out of a situation by having a magic wand, so to speak. if i wanted that, i'd watch disney. or watch some truly bad anime, or play a game with a hero with a serious superiority complex. but when i used to read anita blake, it made me understand her, feel sorry for her. now, it feels like an overdramatized episode of the o.c. what the hell happened?
now understandably, richard's insanity problem has been solved by the end of this. i think even LKH was getting tired of having to write his character's antics out, and jesus, good riddance. other instances that bothered me from time to time, or maybe bothered is too heavy a word, more like, distracted from the overall reading--she uses the same similes over and over again. i'm not sure if she realizes she's already written the phrase out before, but by god, if i read the phrase "the smile that gets his customers to part with their money" again, i am going to vomit. i thought LKH was supposed to be the queen of imagination here? what happened there?
i realize life must've been hard on her for her to write consistently. but i also sorely miss the AB of old. not the character, i'm fine with her character as is. but the seriously wondering what the hell will happen on the next page kinda thing, where a book just grips you and won't let go. i no longer fear for any of the characters, knowing that they are all probably immortal, with superpowers and no kryptonite in sight. that is grossly exaggerated and maybe i'm being unfair, but that's the gist of it. i mean really, i don't see any of them dying anytime soon, and she herself has said so. when kim harrison killed off a major character, it shocked many people into responding negatively, but the truth is that it makes all the characters that remain all that much more fragile, it brings into full relief the briefness of life itself. it's therefore sad to say that although LKH will never make me grieve for a character as much, i will also never feel for any of her characters as much. emotion works both ways.
i feel this rantfest is probably accumulated from a long time of reading her AB books and not being pleased with what i read. this, i will be glad to say, is neither amazing or awful, but as a result it's mediocre. i don't know if that's better or worse. next year at this time, when the next book is out and i'm settling down for another read, i probably won't remember the contents of this book much, much as how i can't for the life of me remember much of what happened in "the harlequin." i think it's sad that my once-favorite series is, in my eyes, dying. i keep crossing my fingers and hoping, though.
AFTERTHOUGHTS: i thought this was supposed to be a novella on the side, like one was written for micah? did she then not have enough time to write her full one either, or did i get something wrong? something else that somewhat bugs me, but not enough for me to have remembered in time to put in the full entry: if anita doesn't feel guilty for having so many men, then why does she keep trying to justify it throughout the book? this is another one of those things that she mentions repeatedly, to the point of where i'd just roll my eyes.
for a while, it seemed as if lkh was moving back toward her original vision of anita blake, and actually paying some heed to fans' advice and criticisms. she stopped trying to mask the sex as enjoyable and simply embraced the idea of a necessary evil. richard's change in this, too, seemed believable. he is jumping from one extreme to another, but is doing so with plenty of reasons that can be understood by readers, at least. overall, huge improvement. which is not to say that there aren't flaws, but those, in due time, can probably be worked on. mm.. specific flaws that come to mind include whining about the situation incessantly or talking for continuous chapters about feelings. a reader would probably like for events to happen in those spans of time rather than continuous dull dialogue. a good author makes a reader relate to the character through their actions and through simple explanation of certain character motive. you never have to psychoanalyze all 20 characters (even the minor ones) in the book, therefore wasting page numbers. instead of building dialogue where they talk about how they feel, it might be better if she built scenes where she demonstrates how they feel? it's also nice to see edward back with his duo of personas, but at the same time, it is his cold demeanor in the original books that drew readers toward his character. i felt like there was more ted forrester than edward the assassin in this attempt. another main criticism is just them all linking hands and walking toward the altar in the showdown near the end; lkh, must it be so cheesy? wholly unrealistic to imagine 20 men and a woman in the middle galloping toward the enemy merrily. what are we, dorothy and her yellow brick road?
but overall, nice to see that her lashing out at the critical fans became justified, somewhat. i'd like to say she showed them, but there is much territory to cover ahead.
well, since i'm in the nitpicking critical mood anyway, i figured i might as well rant about the other book that evoked such a strong response from me. this is the FIRST book i've preordered, EVER, and maybe it was that i got too much time between the 4th and 5th books to raise my expectations of the 5th, and apparently that is NOT a good thing. the book is 244 pages. that's NOTHING compared to everything else she's written. in fact, it's like.. a third of her usual. so what happens when she spends a good near hundred pages describing just SEX between characters? i think she's delusional. she's convinced that her fans are out to get her and they criticize everything she writes, when in fact she can easily look over her own work and understand exactly what they are saying about it: that no, mrs. hamilton, we don't hate your work. and it's not because we're prudes that we dislike your work: shoot, i LOVE sex. just don't do sex scenes madlib style and slap character names in the blanks. and sex is just one action, one event. hot sex is cool; just don't describe it excruciatingly. it's a turnoff. and i would like to feel like i bought something worthwhile; maybe sticking an actual plot in there would be nice. an entire novel(la?) of JUST SEX and some minor plot frames makes for erotica--NOT fiction. she's been dragging the visit to the seelie and goblin courts over 3 books; the least she could do is touch on one of those. fans everywhere have complained that this book feels more like an alternate reality springing from the middle of the last book; because that's what it is. supposedly, she revives the faerie dead gardens by the middle of this book, but then, that already happened in the end of the 4th book. so why is she rewriting the revival of the gardens? the timeline is then out of whack, and is she changing details already set in previous books? at the end of the 4th, she mentions that the next event would be standing with andais to confront taranis, king of the seelie court; it's supposed to happen immediately after the 4th book. IT NEVER HAPPENS IN THIS BOOK. talk about a major screwover of the timeline! okay, insult to injury: by the end of this book she and her harem go back to L.A.. SHE WILL NEVER GO TO SEELIE OR GOBLIN COURT. sure enough, at the end of this book the goblins play a part in being her allies, but then it's kind of cheap, isn't it? the goblins coming to her at the end of the book, it's like trying to make up for stuffing it so full of sex at the first half: whoops! no time for either court. maybe i'll just have them come to her. yeah. that'll work.
see my point?
MAYBE this book can act as a bridge and the next book will serve up some major plotline purposes. so basically, if the next book is good, this spurt of crap can still be forgiven. funny how the entire fate of the series hangs in the next book. if i still admired LKH i'd say she did it on purpose, but that was a long time ago. boy how i loved the first book. boy look how disgusted i am with the latest ones. well, i am a pretty harsh judge, but i don't hate this book. in fact, if my expectations weren't so high to begin with, i'm sure i'd have liked it at least a little; after all, she finally gets it on with sholto, who i've always liked from book 1. her worst yet, for me, is STILL danse macabre in the anita blake series. i have her next anita blake preordered. let's hope that doesn't disappoint. i like my anita blake to kick ass, not lie horizontal and worry about pregnancy all the time. if i wanted to read something like that, i'd go and check out some harlequin titles. but i don't. and i'll try my best to keep my faith in LKH at all.
