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

[shopteacher-guy.livejournal.com]

I think I am one of those sad people who actually find the world of "Inevitable" more interesting than the cannon they come from. NOT all Fan-ficiton mind you but a few authors seem to do more with it. I am reading all the AB books and they are good, but because I came to AB through "Inevitable" I look to THAT as my canon...

[penyn-1600.livejournal.com]

I started reading the AB series with NIC, when Anita was already involved with Jean Claude and Richard and was just getting involved with Micah. You would think, because of that, that I would be more comfortable with the whole multiple relationships thing. Personally, I just find it really complicated and when I read the first couple of books in the series I found it hard to reconcile the old Anita with the new Anita. Anita, no matter what, is tough and doesn't take crap from anyone. But it feels like, in the later books, the LKH has been moving Anita into a direction that I don't think is all that realistic. And its the multiple relationship thing, so much as the sex with random supernatural men that she's not even romantically attached to. That feels sort of out of character and that's make me uncomfortable because I don't like it when a character I like is made to do something that isn't realistically within their personality to do. You know what I mean? I understand her emotional connections to Jean Claude, Richard, Micah, and even Nathaniel. Her being with each of them at the same time isn't a character violation because the fact that she cares about them is within the realm of reality. But the sex with guys that she doesn't even particularly doesn't really feel like something the old Anita or the new Anita would realistically do. So, that kind of bothers me. So, I guess you could say that I don't like the ardeur and don't see the point of it, as far as Anita's character or the plot goes.


And wasn't there a whole the original Mom of the vampires storyline that all of the sudden was brought up and then dropped like a hot potato? Or did I imagine that?

[maeglinyedi.livejournal.com]

The thing I most dislike about the later AB books is the whole ardeur plot. Let me start by making a couple of disclaimers. I don't mind sex in books. Hell, I love sex in books. I don't even mind a female character sleeping around with various men (I'm from Holland. We're a liberal bunch here). In fact, the whole Anita wanted to marry Richard before she fucked him plot-line from the earlier books kinda baffled me, but anyway, that's not the point.

What I truly hate about the ardeur plot-line, is that it changes Anita's motivation to have sex. She doesn't want to have sex, she needs to have sex. And on top of that, the ardeur is something that takes away consent. It forces her to have sex, whether she likes to or not. There is nothing romantic or arousing about it, at least not in my book.

Because, you know, something that takes away consent and forces a person to have sex twice a day sounds a lot like rape to me.

I get the feeling that LKH started the AB series and didn't feel comfortable writing sex yet (or publishing it). Then as the series progressed, she discovered this new hobby – writing sex – and wanted to put some in the AB books, but damn, she'd written Anita as a chaste girl who wanted to marry a guy before diving into bed with him. She managed to get her into bed with Jean-Claude, but that's only one vampire and writing only sex scenes for him and Anita would get boring pretty quickly.

So she came up with the worst possible plot in the history of plots: OMG, let's just give her a new power that will force her to have sex with dozens of sexy men!

*headdesks*

That's really how the whole ardeur plot feels to me when I read the books. It's a cheap, easy way to have your characters fuck, and it adds nothing to the plot or character development, because it doesn't really offer the characters a choice. And choices are always more interesting to read about than outside forces.

What I also noticed is that LKH is disabling characters that could possibly call Anita on her sudden change of behavior in the sex department. Edward, who would have a few interesting things to say about recent developments, methinks, hasn't shown up in the last 3 books. Before, we saw him at least every other book, but now he's mysteriously vanished from the planet, or so it seems. And from what I know, he won't show up in DM either.

Dolph. My god, what the hell happened to poor Dolph. I didn't recognize him in CS. Now, I don't want to go tell an author how to write her own character, but damn, LKH really fucked Dolph over in the characterization department. And I think she did it because previously she'd written Dolph as a pretty well-balanced, intelligent guy, who'd definitely have a few (true!) things to say about Anita's behavior.

And then there's Ronnie, who has also mysteriously vanished, mostly, and when she shows up again (in the teaser from DM), she's suddenly jealous of all the sex Anita has with dozens of men. ...Right.

So, to make a long story short: I don't really have a problem with sex in the AB series, but I do have a BIG problem with how the sex is written. And all the angsting Anita does about it. That gets old very, very quickly. Plus the fact that the sex has mostly replaced the plot in the books. I love plot! Gimme back my plot!

And then there's of course the fact that Anita is a blatant Mary Sue, with superpowers (and she gains more every day, or so it seems), and every man she meets adores her and wants to fuck her. Well, every incredibly handsome, cute, well-hung guy she meets. The other guys either vanish (Edward), suffer from character assasination (Dolph), or are the bad guys who want to kill her (and in most of those cases, even the bad guys want to fuck her too).

*sighs*

That just bores me to tears.

At the moment, I'm slugging through Cerulean Sins. I still have about 50 pages to go, but my god, this book is dull. I fear for Incubus Dreams, which I have here on my desk waiting to be read, and I'm not even sure if I'll ever read Micah or Dance Macabre.

I still love plenty of the AB fanfiction out there, but AB canon has lost most of its appeal to me be now.

[(Anonymous)]

What i really disliked, was that Incubus dreams seemed as if it had no plot at all! It was just one long story about Anita having sex again. Also I don't like that Micah has center stage and that Jean-Claude (and Asher) have been pushed to the background

[nessataleweaver.livejournal.com]

that's why I stopped buying the books and started getting them from the library instead, I think. I don't have anything against sex scenes or mystical sex at all, but I wish she'd get back to writing plot instead. I started reading these for a strong character and strong plots. Not lots of gorgeous men swarming around Anita like a queen bee, having sex I'm never going to get (granted, that's one of the reasons I read the Eve Dallas books - I'm certainly never going to find a guy like Roarke in real life!), for what seems to be the flimsiest and most deus ex machina of reasons. Stopping only to kill things. The books started off as a prose version of really good horror movies - the last few would really only appeal to guys on screen, with being nothing but sex and violence.