The Works of Laurell K. Hamilton

[Deleted]

Eh, I've given up on the Anita Blake books, I prefer to delude myself that the series ended at book 6. I haven't even tried to read the Merry Gentry series.

[Deleted]

I think the Anita Blake books are pretty much okay up to Obsidian Butterfly, actually. She does start sleeping with people, but only one at a time, and it doesn't take over the plot. Hell, Obsidian Butterfly manages to be a whole book without any sex at all, and none of her sex toys even in the same town as Anita.

I manage to read Narcissus in Chains without wanting to kill her, because despite the porn stepping up, and the whole stupid ardeur malarky, there's still a decent plot. But after that, it's all downhill. Cerulean Sins is bad, Incubus Dreams is awful, and by Danse Macabre she's not even trying to write plots any more. It's just sex all day with as many people as possible, and character assassination for anyone who tries to stop her.

The first two Merry Gentry ones aren't too bad. She's already got too much sex in them, but there are stories that happen outside of the sex. After that, the "plots" seem to involve moving from one room to another and having a lot of sex in the hallway.

It probably wouldn't bother me as much if (a) she would still write a proper story around the sex scenes, and (b) it actually sounded like good sex. But it's boring porn, and that's pretty unforgivable.

[venusdiva429]

If I want good vampire porn, I'll read stuff from Ellora's Cave. Otherwise...bitch, please. She sounds like she's grown silly and overly entitled.

[Margo]

Erinyes, I agree exactly, except I only sort of liked the first Merry Gentry book.

Oh no, she's assassinating Edward next. He was the only character that remained pure by avoiding her latest oeuvre. He was unspoiled. Clean. Whole. I don't even know how she managed to come up with him. She only seems to be able to copy her characters off of real people, so I have trouble believing she'd know a true sociopath like Edward.

Is there a masochist here willing to read the next book and report on Edward's well-being?

[Deleted]

She can't kill Edward. Come on.

[Deleted]

I'm sure she won't kill him, but he'll probably fall in luuuurrrrve with Anita and follow her around making puppy dog eyes for the entire book while she angsts over whether she should sleep with him. Or no, she's completely beyond angst at this point, isn't she? She'll sleep with him without hesitation.

[Deleted]

Hah, Edward - the REAL Edward LKH would've written before she got turned into Anne Rice - would kill this Anita. And you know what? It wouldn't even be a contest because she'd be fucking all the time and not on her guard.

Actually, I have no idea how she'll deal with Edward...she said over and over that Anita and Edward were not at all even slightly attracted to each other. But since she's written out every character who wasn't a sex toy (Larry, Bert, Dolph, Zerbrowski...), I don't see it going well.

[Margo]

Sorry, guys, I blame school - I meant character assassination, not actual death. I'd much prefer his death, the sooner the better, than what she'll do.

[Inkyblott]

I just finished Strange Candy, a book of Laurell K. Hamilton's short stories. I didn't really care for the fantasy stories. Admittedly, I think I'm biased against any story with characters name *blank* *blank* Spellcaster. Her traditional fantasy stuff just seems clunky in comparison to the other stories.

There are two Anita Blake stories, both of which are actually okay and a couple of other short stories. The frustrating thing about the book is that you can really tell just how far her writing has fallen off. None of these stories were basically PWP sex stories or seemed designed to remind readers of just how sexy and desirable the main female character is. Well, all except for the last story which stars Anita Blake and her vampire.

I'm hoping to come across the newest Merry Gentry novel because I'd like to at least finish the series. At least these books aren't massive tomes taking nearly 1,000 pages to descibe the events of one day (looking at you Robert Jordan).

[Deleted]

At least these books aren't massive tomes taking nearly 1,000 pages to descibe the events of one day (looking at you Robert Jordan).

Except...they kind of are. The first couple weren't, but the rest definitely are. Touch of Moonlight (or whatever it was called, something with the moon) took place over about eight hours, during which time she had a lot of sex and arguments. And I gather in the next one she pretty much walks down a hall, and...that's it. Well, she has sex with a lot of people.