The opposite of up

[mhalachai]

Allow me to clarify my rabidness about the Anita Blake books:

They're books. I tend to focus on the positive and the things I like in them, as I dislike to the extreme the crap that comes off a lot of the AB forums on the Internet, but that doesn't mean I'm blind to the books faults. These days, all that I read goes through the "Anita Blake fanfic" filter, so it's likely I'm looking at the books in a different way than you lot.

So here it is: As opposed to the normal sunshine and cheer that goes around here, take the opportunity to nitpick, to say what you don't like about the Anita Blake books/characters/cover art etc. Thing is, if you say you don't like something, you need to say why.

Also, feel free to comment anonymously.

ETA PS: There are now spoilers for Micah and the Danse Macabre teaser in this thread. FYI KTHNX.

Comments

[goddessvicky.livejournal.com]

I don't like how Anita has become so self-doubting lately. It seems like the more men she has around her telling her that's she's perfect, the more she feels like they're lying. She was so honest about herself in the first books when she only had her own opinion of herself. I miss the tough as nails Anita.

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

I hadn't thought about it that way. You're right... Almost as if letting herself be loved means she can't be so certain about herself.

Strange.

[eiranea.livejournal.com]

The cover art (for the British books at least) really, really pisses me off. For one thing, I swear there are a dozen descriptions in the books that mention Antia having curly hair (or have I just completely lost the plot), she's wearing a tank top and some kind of weird belted holster, not her shoulder holster at all... then there's the fact that she's wearing a short skirt and boots, which while it does happen is hardly 'normal Anita-style'. Then there's the odd cross that she's holding, it's got to be a good 1'6" long and I'm sure nothing like that is mentioned, ever. And then we get to thinking that she's standing so that we see her left arm, no sleeves remember, and there's NO scars. Not one. Now correct me if I'm going crazy, but Anita has scars on her left arm, lots of scars. ~headdesk~

Uh, yeah. That's me ranted out. I think ~g~

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

Huh. Yeah, I see what you mean. All the books I've got (I only started reading like a year ago) are the newer US paperback covers.

A good comparison on covers can be seen on LKH's site. For example, for CotD:
http://www.laurellkhamilton.org/Anita/CircusOfTheDamned.htm

I like the newer covers a lot more.

[askani.livejournal.com]

i dont like some of the new covers. as in with all the nude body parts. some of the old covers were a bit cheesy, i admit, but its a bit better than people thinking you are reading p0rn or something. :/

although i like the ob cover, as its done nicely.

[(Anonymous)]

Preach woman preach! Well Ive thought all the Anita Blake books were great, Richard got on my nerves sometimes, I would of slapped him a long time ago, But hey! He will learn lol. I love these books, But i think theres to much sex, not that I have a problem with it and I understand why she has to do it all the time, but I loved the first couple of books when she was at crimes scenes more often. I dunno! My opinion. BTW Mhalachai, I totally love you fanfic storys. =)

Seconded

[hartswood47.livejournal.com]

The sex is lovely and all, but it's gotten to the point that in "Micah" I felt like the whole story was her relationship with Micah and that sex scene and very little solving of mysteries. All the answers to our questions were sort of dumped on us at the end after she woke up in the hospital. Very little foreshadowing/crime solving.

[beachmouse.livejournal.com]

Micah had its moments, but it was like LKH came up with an outline for a longer story, only wrote the parts of the outline that would be fun to write, then filled in a bit around the edges of the fun parts to have it make sense, and then sent it off to the publisher.

down

[(Anonymous)]

For one, I don't really like the new covers (nude goods). I can't really bring the books to school, as it is slightly inappropriate.

For another thing, I don't really like how protective Anita can be. Soon, she'd end up protecting everybody. She won't have enough hands.

[souliesoul.livejournal.com]

As has been talked about above, the covers irritate me a lot. The woman on the front? Don't know who the hell she is, but she sure isn't Anita Blake. LKH went through all the trouble of describing Anita over and over (short, very curly hair, huge collection of scars that keeps growing) and yet she or whoever gets to decide what coverart is used ignore what Anita actually looks like!
One of the recent books read like she'd learnt a new sex tip and desperately wanted to share it with us all, so brought it in with every guy Anita had sex with in the book (and there was a lot of sex to be had). Forget which one it is though.
It's also kind of disappointing how much Anita has let herself move away from her supposedly strong veiws/beliefs as the series progresses. I realise that it's character growth necessary to the story LKH wants to tell and that it's natural for that sort of thing to change anyway, but still. Disappointing.
There are other niggles, but those three are the ones that I thought of first. Heh.

[whispers-of-me.livejournal.com]

I really enjoyed the first few books before Anita started getting the power of the week ~ and I really enjoyed the last book because it is finally making sense why several of the earlier books show Anita developing a new power every time you turned around. Now, it seems that the last few books were actually leading up to Anita discovering exactly what her flavor is in prenatural powers...That being said, I'm hooked on the books and there is no way I could stop reading now ~ I'm to addicted to Nathaniel, Damien, Jason and the pard. I do have some dislikes that I hope get resovoled in the next book. Is it wrong of me to hope she is pregnant? What a real life downer that would be for our heroine!

Like many of the comments here, I dislike the fact that Anita is self doubting. It bothers me because I started reading the books because she was self assured and confident ~ however I can understand why she has become self-doubting due to the different things that have happened in such a short time.

I also dislike how Richard is portrayed, on one hand he is a wonderful Ulfric but he is in such conflict that I have hard time believing that he is a good Ulfric. You can't be a leader and be at war with oneself ~ even with all the good back up that he has in the pack.

I also dislike that Jason is being utilized as fluff. His character seems to be evolving however so I will just say that I am waiting to see him come into his own so to speak.

[houses7177.livejournal.com]

Here I hope she isn't because I read the AB books for fantasy, not real life issues. What's appealing about the books is that they are so out there, so surreal. The very thought that's she's pregnant, or possibly so, is so offputting it makes me not want to read the next book. THat's not entertainment for me, that's a bucket of cold water and chucking me right of of the story.

Covers

[(Anonymous)]

Actually, I thought was Anita would look like was the second book when they had the woman looking up and it was green. I thought it was a good way to describe Anita a little bit...

[http://users.livejournal.com/_finn_/]

To start off, here (http://www.likesbooks.com/ppp20032.html#anita) is a complete parody of the theme of my complaint.

Okay, so it's not quite that bad =P But the whole sex thing is a bit overwhelming at times and I find that somewhat offputting. If I want to read smut, I'll download porn off the internet. It's what put me off reading the more recent books in the series.

I'm quite happy with some fanfic though, as it often tends to expand on the characters without necessitating a whole lot of sex (which proves it's possible...)

Hmm

[stealthyshade.livejournal.com]

A couple things.
A) The covers... they've been talked to death on this thread, but the naked women? Annoying. I mean, CotD and NiC were the only ones without a half-naked women on the cover (barring Micah, which I have my issues with that I'll get to in a second) and it gets annoying.
B) Micah. I really dislike this book. It reads like a last minute slapped together story. I mean, the idea is good: Anita gets unexpectedly thrown together with the man she least understands in her life, character revelations and development ensue. But the way it was written: It was too short. The mystery hadn't had time to properly develop, and it was like an episode of Scooby Doo, introducing the bad guy as a afterthought, when we've never met him. Then with Micah, the scene in the hotel room felt very forced to me. He told her about his attack... but I can't explain it, it just felt like the wrong time for it. Then the sex scene was just their for the hell of it. "You're always so tight after I do you by mouth." That... that was just a bit ridiculous. Could just be my issues with oral on girls, but whatever. I just felt like her outline for writing it was: "Larry injured, Anita and Micah go to Philly, they have an insecure moment, Micah reveals something about himself for no reason, they fuck, anita gets scared by her power, but does nothing to stop its growth (though with DM coming out soon... I hope it deals with this), the bad guy gets mentioned as an afterthought, her zombie breaks the rules of zombies ( i think... it believed he killed him, but wasn't the point that it would go after exactly who killed it, not who it thought did? I don't know) and she goes home."
Oh, and the cover had micah with straight and messy long hair. HE HAS CURLS.
C) Not enough edward. I can't remember if he re-appears after OB, such as ID, but honestly, he's the benchmark for Anita. One thing I really do like about these stories is her inner conflict between her job, protecting those she loves, and her sociopathy. He is her benchmark for how far she's progressed. I'm really afraid that LKH will make her draw on Edward, and I love edward, so that would be sad. And pointless, cause in OB it shows he cares about her as a friend and all, so it would just be annoying.
D) This baby stuff... wow. It really serves no real purpose. I mean, sure its like, "Oh crap, another complication" But really... it would fuck up her life a lot yeah, but if she had one 1. Abortion- She isn't catholic anymore, but I dont know her views on it 2. She has it, and then... who raises it? It would have soooo many fathers, and Richard would feel so bad about or 3. She prepares to have it and it either develops Vlad Syndrome or she gets hurt and it damages it.
E) I realized that you use so many contractions when talking about this.
-Stealthy Shade

[cgilmore.livejournal.com]

Two of the others nailed the points that drove me away from the AB series:

First, and most obnoxious to me, is the snowballing list of powers. I figure in another 2-4 books or so, she'll form a third triumverate, then use the power of the triumverate of triumverates to stage a daring raid on the Dark Mother...and then have wild, kinky sex with her! Then they'll join forces to usher in a utopia of poor widdle misunderstood monsters having wild, kinky sex! Then the universe will be destroyed, but Anita will ascend to godhood and rebirth the universe, only with no monsters, because the monsters weren't really monsters in the first place, and it'll be *our* world, and that'll be Just. So. Awesome. Because, like, Anita will be having wild, kinky god sex!

Seriously, sometimes LKH's work reads like a bad Mary Sue as written by someone who isn't getting enough (or possibly any). Sometimes it reminds me of Rice's Lestat fetish, and it crosses the line from annoying me to creeping me out.

[cissasghost.livejournal.com]

. hrm .. I think we've probably had this conversation already. :)

The religious cop-out, I think, really tops my list. I am not Christian, but I once was, and I remember the rules. Anita is supposed to be devoutly Christian - flaring crosses and all that. Now there are lots of little nitpicky details of modern sexual morality that are not clearly defined in the Bible and could be easily argued, but I'm pretty damned sure that having multiple lovers and being married to none of them, is pretty much a no-no.

Now, is this a moral problem for me, personally, as a reader of the books? Not really, within the established context of everybody being okay with it, consenting, concerned with each other's feelings, etc., etc. It works, great.

But "it works, great" as a life philosophy sort of precludes sincere devotion to a faith with fairly set and fairly strict teachings about these things, so I'm kinda sick of hearing Anita think and say it. It bugs me. Is it necessarily unrealistic? No, lots of people tend to obey the rules they like, whatever their faith may be. But LKH seems to be portraying any moral qualms Anita has, as remnants of a puritanical upbringing, and of no actual validity.

And that's . . . a cop-out, as already stated. She's made choices, and I'm not saying that they were wrong choices, but there's this saying about eating cake and having it too .. and LKH seems to want to let her character do that, and that strikes me as either sloppy character development or a big old Acme anvil of an agenda on the author's part. Or a little of both.

.. and I'd like to see more plot, less porn, really. Or at least, some plot that isn't resolved by way of porn. Sex is grand, sex is powerful, but there are other things of import in anyone's life, in any relationship more than 24 hours in duration. I'd really, one of these times, like to see Anita work some problem out with one of her guys by . . having a conversation, or having a screaming fight, or both, just so long as they do it with clothes on.

[iamabee-buzz.livejournal.com]

Well, my brain is too melted at the moment to really think about what I dislike about the books (except for the fact that I know I feel that if the sex gets any rougher or more frequent, someone's gonna die)...

but I want to take a moment in defense of the cover art. :P
Simply because in most cases, the artists or graphic design people who create the covers, or those people who choose the covers have never actually read the books. They probably get the blurb on the back and the genre of the book in the most limited cases, and maybe a brief description of a character (i.e. short white woman with dark hair kicking vampire ass) to work from. And that's it. So...while I may not think that the covers represent the characters or the storylines to the utmost, I can't really blame them either.

*is done*

[deepfishy.livejournal.com]

I'd like the focus of the story to shift back to the other parts of Anita's life - the zombie-raising, the helping RPIT, the being vampire executioner. I mean, she's been dumped in preternatural politics and most of the people around her are the monsters, and I don't really have a problem with that, but there's also a lot of sex on screen, and not all of it feels necessary. Would it be so bad to fade out on occasion, especially when it's just a routine feed-the-ardeur? Less angsting would be nice, too (I guess this falls under "Anita's become more self-doubting").

Richard's on-again, off-again acceptance of himself is also irritating, and I wish he'd straighten himself (and the Pack) out. As the books progressed, he sometimes seemed more like a petulant child than a biology teacher. I like that they explore the angst of being an unwilling monster, but it feels like he hasn't moved on much.

Actually, what annoys me most is what happened to Dolf. He used to stand up for Anita around outsiders, and was always interested in learning more about preternatural creatures. Now he basically hates her, and I don't think what's broken between them will ever be fixed. Yeah, he's got issues in the family, but I don't like how it played out. I think it made him weaker and less rational, and that makes me sad :(.

Having said all that: I still buy the books, I still read the books, and I still love the world.

[deepfishy.livejournal.com]

Ack, Dolph. Dolph.

*shakes internal spellchecker*

[semirose.livejournal.com]

Definitely agree with a lot of the Anita comments, I mean in the beginning she was fun and all her insecurities made sense cause her powers were growing and she was young and not really used to the preternatural world, but seriously, girl has got to grow up and realize that doing things and then angsting over them and then continuing to do things where the only difference is being bitchy towards everyone else is really not the answer. Also, it's been awhile, but really, does almost everyone like worship her now? Ugh, I need books to reference, but her interactions with all the other characters were so much fun in the first few books and in the last few they've just deterioated into sex and wangst. Bah, maybe I'll do some re-reading over Spring Break.

Also, her religious hang ups bug the hell out of me. I'm a practicing Catholic and it's just ugh. Seriously, from the way she views the church she had to have had religious doctrine beaten into her or something, and then she just goes and disregards everything and then starts going in about how God still lights up her crosses for her so he can't have forsaken her yet and so of course everything she's doing is okay so lets keep on doing but oh no, gotta question and whine about every move and this is one long ass sentence that doesn't really make sense and is just me rambling about things that I vaguley remember.

Oh, and I have an issue with how sex orientated the books have gotten. And really, I've read better threesome/moresome sex in fics. I mean, I don't need a bad/odd/crazy sex scene every 20 pages. Really.

Plus there's the whole Nitasue thing going on lately (or maybe always, just really blatant lately) girl can defeat anything now I guess.

Honestly, I read the books for the other characters, and some of them have been warped by Anita in the last couple of books, sad. I think I liked her until the triumverate thing (or maybe a little after, can't remember anymore) and I am sad that I don't really enjoy reading her character anymore.

[semirose.livejournal.com]

Oh oh, and all the talk about her being short. Seriously? Girls got Mexican blood, she's not gonna be tall, but really, she's what 5'3''-5'4''? For someone of her ethnicity that's pretty average. And that's about how tall I am and the only time I felt short was when I was dating a guy who was like 6'2'' and had to dance with him. I have a friend who is Latina who's 4'11'', another who's Chinese who's between 5' and 5'1''. That's short.

And I really can't believe she hangs around with so many guys who are around her height. I mean do lycanthropes just pick short guys to turn? It's just weird, I had one guy friend who was my height, and I think even he's a little taller than me now.

[kyani-no-kokoro.livejournal.com]

I highly dislike the fact that, though every book is longer than the next, there's less and less (coherent) plot in each one. LKH keeps bringing up all sorts of new and interesting plot twists, but then they're just...forgotten. And meanwhile, the books are filled with WAY too much sex. I like a well-written sex scene as much as the next girl, but it's just getting ridiculous.

[hartswood47.livejournal.com]

I have to say that out of the books later in the series "Obsidian Butterfly" was my favorite, probably because it was all asskicking and crime solving and no sex. I also wonder if LKH gets a lot of reader feedback complaining about too much sex. Maybe DM will be different because she knows what her readers want. [hopeful]

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

Ooh, I loved OB. Good mystery/Anita on unsolid ground. Plus, Edward.

[eavling.livejournal.com]

It disturbs me that I cannot recommend these books to my friends on account of the profusion of gratuitous and overly descriptive sex (which is a novelty in some ways, but is still the subject of nagging by my cultural sensibilities.) I feel embarrased to read the books in public because of the nudity and eroticism of the cover art, (with oldschool, Emily Post style ettiquette looking over my shoulder.) I feel like I'm carrying around a Romance novel ( you know...the ones with a picture of a hulk of a manly man embracing a voluptuous and bodice-clad woman.) Like when I was reading Micah in the bookstore, there was a man on my right and another on my left, and I was desperately trying to hide that damn cover (lovely art, but not my taste in book cover.)

What is interesting to me is that LKH was asked during an Italian interview why her books had so little sex. In her blog, LKH said that that was the first time she had ever been asked that.

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

That's an interesting point. I found that if I folded over the first cover, it'd only show that leopard print and that was okay. But yeah. I like the hardbacks because I can *remove* the dust jacket.

I find interesting the differences between the European and American views on sex and violence. In Europe, sex on TV, no problem, but the violence is what's censored. Makes sense to me. But that's probably because I'm Canadian.

[denitta.livejournal.com]

I'll start by saying that I don't have so much of a problem with the sex in the books. It's probably because the first LKH book I read was NIC, so I sort of came into the fandom ass-backwards. I had no idea just how many books there were and when I got them, I got them as the local bookstore had them in stock, so my reading of the series was a bit disjointed. I have since read the whole series in order once or twice and am actually in the process of doing so again, and I still like the later books first.

Maybe I'm like a baby duck and I'm just following what I know, but I like the relationships that Anita has developed in the later books, and I "feel" the lack of them in the earlier books, so they're not as much fun for me to read. I can understand others' dislike of the Anita in the later books for her lack of confidence, but I do think that makes her a little more real. I'm a fan of happy endings and the like so when she is with pard and the pack and the vamps and all the friends that she has made over the years through being a ball-busting bitch, I don't have a problem with it. I skim over the sex parts cuz there's only some many ways Part A can fit into Slot B.

I'm intrigued by the spoiler for Danse Macabre, particularly the much-expanded one on her site that takes the scene a bit further. I want to know what what's going on with Dolph and I keep wondering if Harry is going to bring anyone with him when he comes back for Christmas (oops wrong story), but I'm still interested and I don't see that ending any time soon.

[catherinecookmn.livejournal.com]

LKH has Famous Authors Syndrome, a disease which counts among its victims JKR, the late Patrick O'Brian, and pretty much any major author whose books represent a sizable chunk of his/her publisher's profits. This disease causes the writer's latent dislike/distrust of editors (the old-fashioned term for "paid betas who are very merciless and thorough") to overwhelm his/her common sense, causing them to refuse to let editors do more than correct typos.

There's a reason that Penthouse Forum letters usually feature 'first encounters' between people. It's because, on the printed page at least, the first sexual meeting between two or more people is usually the most interesting, or at least the most sexually charged. Unless there's a particular reason to delineate a sex/love scene in autopsy-like detail -- especially when you've got a character who literally is forced by the ardeur to have sex more often than she goes to the bathroom -- much of the sex scenes in the later books can be dealt with in a paragraph or even a sentence.

[catherinecookmn.livejournal.com]

Oh, and almost forgot:

((((hug))))

[crazy-vasey.livejournal.com]

There's never enough Zerbrowski. Never. Other than that I don't really have any major complaints. I preferred the earlier books before Anita started getting all the funky powers but that's nothing major. Saying that, I've only read the first nine books of the series so far and from what I've heard the sex-obsession starts to really kick in with the next one, which will without a doubt piss me off.

[shallanelprin.livejournal.com]

As a whole, I love the Anita Blake books. Unlike some people I've run across I actually liked ID, but only because of character/relationship development in the Nathaniel area (one of my fave characters). In the next book I wish for more crime solving, more relationship issues, and most of the sex to be 'off-screen'. More plot, less porn. Then I would be a very happy girl.

[uforeah.livejournal.com]

First off let me say that I love the series and since I am pretty much the only person in my circle of people that reads it I spend a lot of time talking to myself about them.

I don't mind the sex, I was surprised that it took so long for it to become a major part of the story because of how sexually charged the books were from the begining. I do however mind that the sex seems nearly rote and I don't like that Anita has a OMGTHATWASAMAZINGNEVERSTOP!!!!!111!!!! orgasm every single time she has any form of sex. Every single time. That's just not very likely for most women out there...like at all.

Also, I don't like that we don't see zombie rasing and the inter office meetings nearly as much. What happened to Manny? He has been gone for a while and that makes me sad.

The biggest thing that bothers me is that until this last book, there was never any mention of Anita's time of the month. I mean when you sleep with vamps and weres both of which are turned on by blood and can sometimes lose control over it, shouldn't that you bleed for several days a month factor in a little? I don't want over sharing about it but it would be interesting to see how they deal with it even just once so we understand.