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David Zindell's Neverness, A Requiem for Homo Sapiens and all things Science Fiction and Fantasy
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 Post subject: Laurell K. Hamilton ~ Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter
PostPosted: Mon Apr 03, 2006 5:43 pm 
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Well, I've been wanting to try these books for a while now. A lot of people have been telling me at another board that I would like the first several books, as they are fast paced and tightly plotted mystery stories (though these same people have all warned me away from the later books in the series as they supposedly go from tightly plotted mysteries to non-plotted porn). This switch supposedly happens around the eighth book, depending on who you are talking to.

Anita Blake is a woman who has the ability to raise the dead (i.e. zombies). Those abilities seem to make her immune to vampire mind control, so she hunts rogue vampires. The vampires call her The Executioner as a result.

The first book in the series is called Guilty Pleasures, which is actually an apt title. Reading it is a guilty pleasure. It is certainly not ground breaking literature, but it is a fast paced and fun tightly plotted little mystery novel. So far so good. ******************************************************

Our lives are the songs that sing the universe into existence.~David Zindell
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 Post subject: Re: Laurell K. Hamilton ~ Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter
PostPosted: Tue Apr 04, 2006 4:09 am 
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I thought I would pop back in now that I have a bit more time and access to the internet (the kids are out of school this week, so time with the electronics is at a premium ).

I am enjoying Guilty Pleasures (the name comes from a strip club run by vampires in St. Louis). The book lacks the charm of Robin McKinley's Sunshine, the humor of Mary Janice Davidson's vampire queen series, or the depth of characterization of Charlaine Harris's Southern Vampire Mysteries - but it is fun mind candy.

The titles of the books (I believe there are also some short stories out there in anthologies, such as the one in Bite):


Guilty Pleasures
The Laughing Corpse
Circus of the Damned
The Lunatic cafe
Bloody Bones
The Killing Dance
Burnt Offerings
Blue Moon
Obsidian Butterfly
Narcissus in Chains
Cerulean Sins
Incubus Dreams
Micah


I have been warned off of the books after about the eighth. That is supposedly where they cease being action packed murder mysteries and turn into plotless group sex scenes, one after another. I guess that I will eventually find out!

In Guilty Pleasures, Anita Blake has been hired by the vampires of St. Louis to find out who has been murdering them. Now, Anita has (and has had) a license to kill vampires, but only ones that have gone rogue and are wantonly killing humans. She is a legally recognized executioner who works within the legal system. In this alternate world, vampires are legally recognized, and one of their centers is St. Louis. Anita does not want to work for the vampires, but they threaten certain things *killing her friends, etc) to force her to work for them. ******************************************************

Our lives are the songs that sing the universe into existence.~David Zindell
<i>Edited by: Duchess of Malfi at: 4/5/06 11:14 am
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 Post subject: Laurell K. Hamilton ~ Anita Blake series
PostPosted: Tue Apr 04, 2006 10:48 pm 
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I started The Laughing Corpse this morning, and it is more than a bit on the gross side. This one deals with the other side of Anita's profession - raising zombies rather than vampire hunting. Someone (quite likely crazy or evil or both) has raised a very old and powerful zombie (requiring a human sacrifice to do so). The zombie starts roving around St. Louis and eating still living people.

Anita is trying to find both the zombie and animator who raised it before more entire families are kileld and eaten. <i></i>


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 Post subject: Re: Laurell K. Hamilton ~ Anita Blake series
PostPosted: Wed Apr 05, 2006 6:18 pm 
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The Laughing Corpse was really gross with its descriptions of mostly devoured corpses.

Luckily the third installment, Circus of the Damned is nothing so nasty thus far. It looks as if a rogue master vampire has moved into the St. Louis area in an attmpt to take over the city. Anita has a very rocky working relationship with the current vampire master of the city, and it looks as if she might be trapped in the midst of a vampire war.

Incidentally, all three of the titles for the first books in the series are named after vampire owned and operated businesses in the alternate St. Louis the novels are set in.

As I said before, thus far these are tightly plotted and action packed little mystery novels. Pure mind candy, but fun. Guilty pleasures, indeed. ******************************************************

Our lives are the songs that sing the universe into existence.~David Zindell
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 Post subject: Re: Laurell K. Hamilton ~ Anita Blake series
PostPosted: Thu Apr 06, 2006 6:05 pm 
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The Lunatic Cafe is named for a little restaurant/club where the weres of St. Louis like to gather, near the university. St. Louis seems to have weres of various sorts, though most of the ones we have thus far met are either wolves or rats.

In this book, weres are vanishing, and the local leaders of the werewolf pack wish for Anita to help find out what is happening to them.

Unfortunately, Anita is getting a love life in this book. Parts of it read a lot more like a romance novel than a murder mystery.

While the weres are interesting (I actually sort of like the wererats), I am not enjoying this one as much as the first three. The romance angle is taking away from the plot. I find the question of who or what is kidnapping/vainshing/maybe murdering weres a lot more interesting than who Anita is dating. ******************************************************

Our lives are the songs that sing the universe into existence.~David Zindell
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 Post subject: Re: Laurell K. Hamilton ~ Anita Blake series
PostPosted: Thu Apr 06, 2006 10:29 pm 
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Lunatic cafe was the first one I read, probably not a best choice! Richard, schoolteacher and once a month a wolf and sometimes Anita's b/f, is an interesting character (BTW, if you've ever seen Laurell's husband, well you're looking at Richard in the flesh). And when I read I was about three quarters through when they went back to the mystery, and my internal dialogue was "oh yeah, the missing shape shifters". IMO, the resolution of the mystery was completely unsatisfactory. FWIW, I find her explanation of lycanthropy lacking some, too. Addtionally, I mentioned before it appears to me the books are fairly gun obssessed.

Regarding magic in the Anitaverse, it's fairly tricky since there are witches and wizards, but other types of magic are very specific and do not necessarily come with other power (example, Jean Claude's power over other vampires, and Anita's necromancy). Some readers like to compare the Anitaverse to BtVS, but I vigorously disagree with that comparison and see little similarities between the two.

All that to be said, the books have a huge fan base, literally millions of readers (take as comparison, no where near the fan base of Sunshine, BTW I found that book very Buffy-like), and Ms. Hamilton Anita sees really no end to the series ATT.

p.s. there's one plot point in Lunatic Cafe that could wig some out. taraswizard
Allan Rosewarne N9SQT/WDX6HQV
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W/T forever, always
Plan C - http://planc.bravepages.com/main.html
Buff_fans_Chicago http://tv.groups.yahoo.com/group/buffy_fans_chicago/<i>Edited by: taraswizard at: 4/6/06 3:33 pm
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 Post subject: Re: Laurell K. Hamilton ~ Anita Blake series
PostPosted: Fri Apr 07, 2006 7:08 pm 
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There is an extrememly nasty subplot in Lunatic Cafe involving rather nasty violent porno films (won't get more into it than that, as I do not want to give explicit spoilers). I also thought that the ending was not the greatest.

The first three books were very tightly plotted, with endings that did go along well with the plots. Of the four I have completed, Lunatic Cafe was the least satisfactory for me.

There is a lot of gun description, etc. in these books. Anita would rather shoot down a vampire in pieces with a shotgun than do a more traditional staking. She also carries a gun in pretty nearly every scene, or thinks about a gun, and she keeps a gun next to her shower, and next to her bed, etc.

I have not ever seen any of Buffy, though I have been meaning to for a long time. If BtVS is like McKinley's Sunshine (or should that order be reversed?), than I would probably like it a lot.

Speaking of Laurell's husband, the people who told me I would like the first books in this series (and hate the later ones) also said that the series went south after she started having problems in her marriage? I have no idea of whether or not that has any truth in it at all, or if it is just a nasty internet rumor with no graounds at all?? Taras, have you ever heard anything about that?

I have started Bloody Bones. This one so far seems to be back to a mystery, and less of Anita's love life. Anita gets called down for a very difficult zombie raising in the Branson area, and some nasty murders by vampires begin to happen in nearby small hill towns (Ozarks). Bloody Bones is the name of a roadside bar & grill out in the country near Branson. So the first five books are all named for supernaturally owned and/or operated businesses in the state of Missouri. ******************************************************

Our lives are the songs that sing the universe into existence.~David Zindell
<i>Edited by: Duchess of Malfi at: 7/22/06 10:00 pm
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 Post subject: Re: Laurell K. Hamilton ~ Anita Blake series
PostPosted: Sat Apr 08, 2006 7:56 pm 
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The Killing Dance seems to be more about Anita's love life again rather than solving any mysteries, though someone has put out a big hit contract on Anita. One of the men Anita is dating is a member of the local werewolf pack, and a lot of the book seems to be dealing with pack leadership issues thus far.

There is no business called the Killing Dance as such, but a vampire dance club is about to be opened in St. Louis called Danse Macabre; I have never studied French, bit I believe it means something like "dance of death". ******************************************************

Our lives are the songs that sing the universe into existence.~David Zindell
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 Post subject: Re: Laurell K. Hamilton ~ Anita Blake series
PostPosted: Sun Apr 09, 2006 5:32 pm 
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Burnt Offerings is the name of a vampire movie theme bar in St. Louis. In this episode, the Vampire Council comes over from Europe to visit St. Louis, and pretty much all hell has been breaking loose. Some religious fanatics are attacking the supernatural all over the city, and at least one Council member seriously wants to defeat Anita and the vampire master of the city...and the wereleopards want Anita to become their leader. ******************************************************

Our lives are the songs that sing the universe into existence.~David Zindell
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 Post subject: Re: Laurell K. Hamilton ~ Anita Blake series
PostPosted: Mon Apr 10, 2006 5:01 pm 
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OK, I have finally made it to the eighth book, Blue Moon, where supposedly everything in this series starts to fall apart.

Anita gets called to the Smokey Mountains in Tennessee. One of her boyfriends is arrested and in jail in a tiny town there for attempted rape. Well, that is pretty obviously a bunch of hogwash, so she not only has to get him out of jail, she also has to find out what is going on and why someone is trying to frame him. Throw in a bunch of politics with the local vampires and werewolves and witches, and the attempted possession of a living person by a dead werewolf bitch, and you get a pretty messy plot.

There is a plot, though it is not nice and tight like with the earlier books in the series. The problem is that the plot seems to exist primarily as a vehicle for Anita to get into sexual situations as often as possible with as many men as possible. Most of these situations are not consummated, but still... A lot of them are sort of gratuitous and icky.

If I had started reading the series with this book, I do not think I would read any more of it.

Since the library does have it, I think I will read at least one more, Obsidian Butterfly. It is set in Albuquerque, which is a city I truly like. I also hope that none of Anita's men will go along on the trip. ******************************************************

Our lives are the songs that sing the universe into existence.~David Zindell
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 Post subject: Re: Laurell K. Hamilton ~ Anita Blake series
PostPosted: Mon Apr 10, 2006 7:46 pm 
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Duchess, I donnot have knowledge of Luarell's marriage, and that is the first I heard of that theory (regarding a connection between the direction of the books as it relates to Ms. Hamilton's marriage).

I saw her in person the summer Incubus Dreams was released, part of her book tour for that volume she did a signing event at local suburban Borders, and IMO the store expected maybe one or two hundred guests and there were probably five hundred or more, and book signings went on till well after midnight.

To go a different topic, I think BtVS is like Sunshine on many levels. One theme of Sunshine is that Rae doe not want to fight demons and vampires, she wants to make cinnamon rolls, and one of BtVS's themes Buffy Summer's does not want to be the Slayer, Buffy want to be a regular HS student. Additionally, I know from Ms. McKinley's GoH speech at 2005 WisCon that she's a fan of the TV show. taraswizard
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 Post subject: Re: Laurell K. Hamilton ~ Anita Blake series
PostPosted: Tue Apr 11, 2006 11:21 pm 
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Well, I am a few chapters into Obsidian Butterfly, which is the name of a vampire club halfway between Albuquerque and Santa Fe. It is also the name of the very powerful vampire master of that area. She was once an Aztec, and has Aztec theme floor shows in her club.

Anita is called to Albuquerque by a friend who is a professional hit man. he needs her help, and is terrified by a serial killer/mutilator who is preying upon that area. Since this guy is normally fearless, you know whoever or whatever is doing the killings must be seriously monstrous.

I am enjoying visiting Albuquerque, though some details are a bit wrong. Hamilton describes the city as being located on a plain backing up to a wall of mountains, which is corect, but calls the mountains the Sangre de Christos, when the local people call them the Sandias. She also says the mountain backdrop is black, while I remember it as being red. Oh well. She does describe how beautiful it is and how good the local food is, both of which are very true. ******************************************************

Our lives are the songs that sing the universe into existence.~David Zindell
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 Post subject: Re: Laurell K. Hamilton ~ Anita Blake series
PostPosted: Wed Apr 12, 2006 10:49 pm 
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I have to say that I am getting to be both bored and tired of the sheer number of descriptions of male private parts, as well as readiness of said parts to perform a certain biological function.

How come every guy without pants in these books is so....large? Not to mention always so...ready to go? Why are there so many men without pants anyway? I am waiting for a fellow to come along who is too large for any normal human to physically accomodate him. ******************************************************

Our lives are the songs that sing the universe into existence.~David Zindell
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 Post subject: Re: Laurell K. Hamilton ~ Anita Blake series
PostPosted: Wed Apr 12, 2006 11:54 pm 
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Duchess, it appears you've come to the place the whole thing goes completely off the rails. However, as far as sales goes and AFAIK, her books have become more popular since Obsidian Butterfly. Interesting for Laurell show such an affection for Alburquerque, since in many interviews she emphasizes Anita's mixed ethnic heritage, IIRC one of Anita's grandparents came from Mexico. This why frequently in interviews when the subject of who might play Anita in a movie she emphasizes it can not be a cute blond starlet and Laurell's stock answer is 'Anita is part Mexican'. taraswizard
Allan Rosewarne N9SQT/WDX6HQV
Chicago area
W/T forever, always
Plan C - http://planc.bravepages.com/main.html
Buff_fans_Chicago http://tv.groups.yahoo.com/group/buffy_fans_chicago/<i></i>


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 Post subject: Re: Laurell K. Hamilton ~ Anita Blake series
PostPosted: Thu Apr 13, 2006 5:46 am 
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I belive Anita's mother was Mexican and her father was white (German). So Anita has dark eyes and lovely long dark wavy hair from her mother, but a very pale complexion from her father. She also sounds fairly petite. So a smaller girl of mixed ethnicity would probably fit the role pretty well. ******************************************************

Our lives are the songs that sing the universe into existence.~David Zindell
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