= Click on the book to read a sample chapter
 Laurell K. Hamilton born: 1963 in: Heber Springs, Arkansas
Homepage: |
Bibliography:
by L.K. Hamilton Comics:
|
Vampires live among us, especially in St. Louis. They work and want the right to vote but when they commit a crime Anita Blake, the Executioner, steps in together with the police. But mainly she raises Zombies for a living, a kind of lucrative but exhausting profession. Most of the time the vampires try to avoid Anita but when more and more of them die mysteriously, the vampire Master of the city employs her to do some research on her own. A rather dangerous business relation ...
The second part of the Anita Blake series is mostly about zombies. Eventually its the reanimation of the dead which is Anita's acutal day-job ... and not the execution of vampires. An zombie is running amok in St. Louis and it cruelly tears apart whole families. Before there are even more victims Anita has to find out who or what is doing this. Whoever made this zombie has to have a lot of power. And it's not certain that he still has control over the monster he created.
The third part of the Anita Blake series revolves around vampires again and especially their figth for ruling the city. Bloodless corpses are found, a new vampire-master seems to have arrived and Jean-Claude takes his efforts to woe Anita to a new level. But Anita only thinks about the mysterious Richard whom she met at the "Circus of the Damned", the new center of St. Louis' nightlife.
The pace of this story is definitely faster than in both predecessors. Like Anita during her investigations one can hardly catch ones breath while reading. One event comes after the other, when one vampire has been slayed the next werewolf is just around the corner. Sometimes this becomes a little bit too hectic. And some decisions Anita is making during the story are not easy to understand, especially regarding Jean-Claude. Here the story lacks some insight into Anita's motivation and train of thought. But the incredible finale makes up for all of it and it will be interesting to see how Anita will manager her business and private life in the future.
Anita's boss definitely doesn't want her to miss her newest lucrative assignment: to raise a whole cemetery full of corpses just to determine the owner of the land. But a much more serious evil is waiting underdeath to get raised. And not all beings involved are as innocent as they look. Especially the fairies who appear in this story for the first time.
In the pevious part "The Lunatic Cafe" Richard, Jean-Claude and Anita were bound in the so called triumvirat, which had helped to fend off one of the mightiest vampires but which also shows some side-effects. Even though Anita has ended her relationship with Richard and now has something going on with Jean-Claude the three are physically and mentally connected which doesn't really improve their personal relationships.
The first signs that sex would be an increasingly important ingredient in the Anita Blake novels were visible in previous volumes. In 'Blue Moon' Ms. Hamilton has (hopefully) reached the peak of this development, because this volume is about almost nothing else.
Anita is asked to help her old 'friend' Edward and she leaves her regular terrain to look into the murder of several families. In the meantime she gets glimpses into Edward's personal life which she hasn't thought possible. Her own men Richard and Jean-Claude don't show up hardly at all and that means for once the story doesn't revolve around sex and who is at the top of which clan-hierarchy. Its about a case which has to be solved before more people die. Anita is as cool and snotty as one remembers it from the beginning of the series. Hopefully the next part follows this path as well. Who needs those bizarre bed-escapades from Anita and her men when one wants to read a good horror-novel? Ok, I missed Jean-Claude a bit, I have to confess, but this part of the series is finally worth reading and recommending again.
After really liking the last novel I was full of hope for the continuation of the series. But no, instead we are back on square one: "Sex - yes - no - with whom - when - where - who's watching - and after all ... Anita isn't really into all of this and dosn't want to live like that at all". But the animal within her makes sure that she has no chance to calm down and instead she stumbles from one partner to the next. Even outside of the bed its all about satisfying one's needs. There is a story somewhere but its so thin and empty, its not worth remembering.
This part is no enrichment of the series and definitely no must-read.
"No one knows the dark desires of the soul better than New York Times bestselling author Laurell K. Hamilton. In Guilty Pleasures, she introduces Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter. Anita's small, dark, and dangerous. But when the city's most powerful vampire comes to her for help, Anita is faced with her greatest fear - a man capable of arousing in her a hunger strong enough to match his own."
Anita Blake is a real modern heroine: independent, small, strong, "gothic", with lots of contradictions and strange quirks. She has some good friends and interesting enemies. The stories take place in a surrounding which is very interesting for vampire-fans. Because the vampires aren't automatically the bad guys but are a rather mixed group of individuals with some very fascinating ones among them. Above all Jean-Claude who not only puts Anita off balance!
A combination of thriller and horror-novel with a heroine to watch out for. Funny, exciting and with lots of hints that there's more to come. Definitely a series to get hooked on.
[Dorothée Büttgen, June 01]
"The novels of New York Times bestselling author Laurell K. Hamilton take readers into the dangerous life of Anita Blake, animator and vampire hunter - a woman as good at rising the dead as she is at slaying the undead. Now, a creature from beyond the grave is tearing a swath of murder through St. Louis... And Anita will learn that there are some secrets better left buried - and some people better off dead."
Stylistically this part is much more graphic than the first one. During a bet deciding if Anita or her police-colleage has the better nerves at a crime scene it's not just the policemans stomach which is turning upside down. The reader might experience the same. But apart from that one will get the usual quick-witted verbal fights and the coffepot-jokes one expects.
[Dorothée Büttgen, September 01]
"Featuring Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, the novels do New York Times bestselling author Laurell K. Hamilton introduce readers to a world of supernatural pleasure - and pain. When a powerful, centuries-old vampire hits town, a battle of the undead ensues, with the soul of the city - and Anita's life - at stake..."
[Dorothée Büttgen, November 01]
"In Laurell K. Hamilton's New York Times bestselling series, vampire hunter and animator Anita Blake sinks her teeth into her work. But this day is busier than most. Two jobs pop up that make even Anita doubt her own capabilities: raising an entire graveyard of two-hundred-year-old corpses and finding out what happened to three Missouri teenagers - slaughtered in a way she has never seen before ..."
At the same time Anita tries to rescue a boy who was kidnapped by a vampire with a taste for young boys. She's gets help from Jean-Claude which turns the power structures of the vampire underworld of St. Louis upside down. Anita notices that Jean-Claude isn't invincible after all. And the reader learns a lot about new interesting variations on what vampires call "fun".
It seems that with Jean-Claude and Richard there may be enough men in Anita's life. But this novel centers around her relationship with another man: her "apprentice" Larry. Anita has to learn to share responsibilities and to trust into the capabilities of someone else. And that's not easy for someone like her after training herself to depend only on her own.
Because of the parallel plots the story sometimes seems to be a bit confusing, especially when the people suddenly have something to do with one another... But as expected its thrilling, fascinating and definitely nothing for sissys. Who always suspected that tight leather pants have to be uncomfortable gets to be confirmed. But a "zombie-raiser in training" like Larry has to get used to everything.
[Dorothée Büttgen, January 02]
"In Laurell K. Hamilton's New York Times bestselling novels, it's often hard to tell the good from the evil. Just ask Anita Blake. She seems to be developing a soft spot in her heart for vampires - one in particular. So, when an arsonist's flames begin licking at St. Louis's undead, it's up to Anita to save the very monsters she's sworn to destroy ..."
When the Vampire Council comes to St. Louis to force Jean-Claude to take his seat among them heavy fights start. The members of the council have a strange idea of fun and they try to convice Jean-Claude and Anita by torturing their friends. Astonishingly Anita needs a huge portion of diplomacy and persuasiveness to get everyone out unharmed. Killing isn't always the only way. But one isn't used to this behaviour from Anita and I needed a while to realize that she's really serious.
[Dorothée Büttgen, May 03]
"Danger makes the world go 'round in Laurell K. Hamilton's bestselling novels. Just ask Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter. Right now, her problems lie with her ex-fiancé - a werewolf who just got arrested on an assault charge. His guilt or innocence is not the issue. The fact that there's a full moon on the rise is ..."
To save her former lover Richard who is in prison because he is accused of rape, Anita goes to Tennessee. But because Richard is also the leader of the local werewolf pack and because Anita still is his official mate, a lot of werewolf rites have to be observed. The Tennessee vampire community is drawn into a power struggle, Anita learns a lot about her new abilities, but in the end its only about one thing: who will mate with Anita and will Richard further establish his role as leader of the pack? A lot of blood and other even more yucky stuff is flowing, fights are being fought and in the end everything comes as one already has suspected in the middle of the book.
For me its definitely the most unnecessary part of the saga. There's nothing more to say about it.
[Dorothée Büttgen, February 04]
"Whenever the phone rings before dawn something big is probably up, and the fact that Anita Blake has been up all night dealing with zombies doesn't make this call an exception. 'Ted Forrester needs backup from Anita Blake, vampire executioner,' Edward tells her, using the pseudonym he keeps for those rare times when he needs a legal identity. And she owes him a favor.
So by noon she's on a plane to Santa Fe, sun-drenched town of wealthy retirees, where in the last two weeks twelve people have been murdered. The dead ones had it easy; other victims have been completely flayed, but kept horribly alive by magic. Seeing them in the hospital, Anita feels uncharacteristically shaken.
Edward's 'Ted Forrester' identity has her nearly as spooked as the crimes: He's working with the local police, courting a likable widow with two kids, and generally making like a good ol' boy. Anita knows the real nature he's hiding beneath his mask of normality - and she finds 'Ted' perhaps more frightening than Edward. But she must put aside her fear to help Edward hunt down the greatest evil she has ever encountered. It's ancient and devious - and, in the end, she will have to face it alone."
[Dorothée Büttgen, July 2005]
"With the highly acclaimed Obsidian Butterfly, Laurell K. Hamilton's vampire hunter, Anita Blake, came into her own. She survived a supernatural onslaught unlike any she had ever faced before - and she did it without the two men in her life.
Now, six months have passed since Anita has seen either Jean-Claude or Richard. Six months of celibacy. Six months of indecision. Six months of danger. For her body carries the marks of both vampire and werewolf, and until the triumvirate is consummated, all three remain vulnerable.
But when a kidnapper targets innocents that Anita has sworn to protect, she needs all the help she can get. In an earth-shattering union, Anita, Jean-Claude, and Richard merge the marks - and melt into one another. Suddenly, Anita can harness both their powers. She can feel their hearts ... hear their thoughts ... know their hungers ...
Nothing can save Anita from a twist of fate that draws her ever closer to the brink of humanity - to finally surrender to the bloodlust, the beast, and the desire transforming her body and consuming her soul ..."
Anita's conflicts with her men are interesting for maybe the first 50 pages but since nothing else happens and the rest is known from the other books its booooring.
[Dorothée Büttgen, Januar 2008]
More great reviews from Bookworm's Lair:
