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Laurell K. Hamilton, Danse Macabre: Got this one for free, and I’m glad I didn’t pay. Even though Anita now uses the word "foreskin" (but still not penis, dick or cock) and permits her harem to engage in hot man on man action, I was unengaged by the sex scenes, which take up a large portion of the 483 pages and leave comparatively little time for violence and vampire politics. The reason I didn’t care was Anita. I liked her when she was a killer who used moral rules as a substitute for a functioning conscience, but she’s now just a collection of tics: anger, sexual desire, psychobabble that for some reason convinces everyone with whom she comes into contact to understand and discuss their deepest motivations.
Unless Edward returns -- in which case I must see what fresh hell happens to him -- I am done. There wasn’t even one fight! Guns were brandished, but not fired, and all knives were used offscreen! But it's really the treatment of Ronnie that did it for me. Not only is Anita The Best Anything Ever and All Men Must Bow, the corollary is that other women are horrendous jealous harpies and also sluts, since they didn't have Anita's good reasons for sleeping with hundreds of men.
Also, when the big narrative hook is whether Anita’s pregnant and she keeps bemoaning her inability to use condoms reliably during emergency and accidental sex, it might behoove her to consider non-barrier methods of contraception. I’ll fanwank that lycanthropy messes up hormonal contraception, but, Anita, meet the IUD. Perhaps you’ve heard of it?
But illogic and sluggish plot are forgivable if I can have fun with the characters. I can’t, not any more. In one of the narrative’s many catchphrases, we are repeatedly informed that in terms of fairytale analogies, Anita can't be Cinderella, she has to be Prince Charming. This is true, just as she has to be the husband and Nathaniel the wife, because she hates and fears women. The narrative’s need to erase other women as people works even on peripheral characters. At one point, Anita goes to see her ob/gyn, who brings in a number of ob/gyn interns – only one a woman, and she’s the only one out of all the group who can’t take her eyes off the gun Anita refuses to remove even with her jeans off. Um, okay, because that’s a plausible male/female ratio in obstetrics (see p. 800), and because male doctors are naturally comfortable with guns! Later, there’s a vampire ballet troupe, only unlike most ballet troupes, there are only 3 or 4 women. Anita specifically notes the unusual composition, but there is no reason for it other than to keep women away from her. I might not have noticed these little details, but Ronnie’s character evisceration got my blood up. I can get my hot man on man action from non-misogynists, thanks.
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I miss when she actually dealt with ethical issues. The last one I really liked was the Edward-centric one.
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I am so glad I dropped the series before reading this.
I kind of wish I'd dropped it right after the Killing Dance, honestly.
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Pity. The early books -- the ones with violence rather than sex -- were a lot of fun.
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I even liked her romances with Jean-Claude and Richard because they were sweet and delicate, and the sex was all for *fun*.
But now sex is a necessity, not a pleasure, the politics are all but drowned in said sex and the rest of the universe has disappeared.
Obsidian Butterfly was one of the best of the lot. I don't even recognize her in the later novels.
Blergh
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After reading your review, I'm so glad that I didn't. It's really a shame, because I used to like this series, and after Obsidian Butterfly was anticipating an interesting sequel involving Edward coming back to St. Louis.
Not so much.
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Oh, irony.
So mostly, I was content. Until the Anita books I was reading--after I'd read them? I tried summarizing the plot to a friend: "Uh. Huh. Stuff...happens." And I was so...arrgh when I realized the Meredith Gentry books served no function anymore under the wave of hormone-ridden Anita. (Uh, literally?) Because at this point, the Merry Gentry novels are *better* than Anita Blake in that it delivers what's promised. "Who gets her pregnant?" as opposed to "Smart, edgy, mystery-thriller." So again, arrgh.
And yeah, Edward is a pretty cool character I'd like to see him bitchslap Anita back to some degree of kickass killer, but more than him... What the hell happened to Olaf, the (truly) scary, mysogynist serial killer in love with Anita? You know, the one even Edward was leery of? The one who promised to return and lay some gifts at her front door in St. Louis? (And at this point, I'm wincing at what LKH could do with *that*.)
Sorry for clogging up your comments, but I think I had to verbalize my discontent somewhere... I stopped buying Anita Blake a long time ago, but like a train wreck, I have to see slow down and see it happen, so I usually skim at the local B&N--because really, what more do you have to do than skim? I guess I always do it with a vague hoping that Anita's been returned to good. =/
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Oh, Olaf! There's just no way that would end well, by which I mean well for the readers, which is why I don't really want Edward to return. I'd have to read that book, but I don't want it to exist.
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http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_b/103-2936559-2503062?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=moon+called&Go.x=0&Go.y=0&Go=Go
Dead Until Dark
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_b/103-2936559-2503062?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=dead+until+dark&Go.x=0&Go.y=0&Go=Go
or Blood Price?
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0886774713/103-2936559-2503062?v=glance&n=283155
If you liked the early anita blake books, I think you'll enjoy those three books too.
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Just browsing through (I like to read your book reviews and fiction) and thought I'd make the more or less random comment: Blood Price is part of a series of books. I'd meant to take them off my shelves this week anyway, but now I have, and have confirmed that Blood Price is the first.
The characters will look very familiar to LKH I believe (I did wonder at one point if the authors were one and the same), but I also believe these books are better written. The second book, _Blood Trail_, has one of the best pictures of lycanthrope pack life/culture I've ever read (which, I realize, means little to nothing to you).
At least Tanya Huff had the decency not to write 800 page behemoths over and over. Characters progress.
There it is, for what it's worth.
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Good grief.