Anita Blake poll!

[mhalachai]

In honour of Friday, an Anita Blake poll. Seriously, now, which book do you like? Dislike? Why? Discussion is key!




[Poll #555564]

Comments

[mlady-rebecca.livejournal.com]

I like the books for the character interaction and character growth. My favorite so far is "Incubus Dreams" because there was a lot of character growth in the book. My least favorite is "Obsidian Butterfly" because Anita and Edward were the only established characters in the book, and Edward doesn't do much for me.

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

Interesting. I liked OB because we saw what happens when Anita's removed from her comfort zone. (Plus I dig Edward as a foil for Anita, so)

The best part of ID for me was how Anita began to realize what she'd been doing to Nathaniel and Damian. How her discomfort at dealing with them as people was really hurting them ever more. Growth abounds :)

[calanor.livejournal.com]

I Love the Anita Blake series... but somewhere along the way... the author moved away from the supernatural elment to more sex.. I'm not a prude .. but I like backgrounds. Learning about the characters.. how each became who they are.. I like the mystery behind each book.. the next adventure.. it was like suddenly it moved.. from that to .. sex..

And Hopefully tomorrow I'll get all my AB books out of storage finally.. and get to read them all again.. :D

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

*lurves your icon*

Did you have a fave mystery? I think Circus of the Damned was pretty good... and I'm still coming up with explainations to who hired Edward to kill JC :)

[samira-86.livejournal.com]

My favorite book is The Killing Dance. I absolutely loved it because Anita and Jean-Claude finally got together and I adore him. My least favorite would be Incubus Dreams because I thought there were way too many sex scenes and I'm not terrible fond of the idea of bestiality. I mean don't get me wrong, I liked the sex scene with Jean Claude in his office and the one with her Jean Claude and Richard, but the ones with Byron and Requium I didn't like. We had never even met these characters before and she's doing them. I know everyone's probably thinking why do I continue to read the series if I don't like all the sex scenes, but I do still love the characters (mainly Anita and Jean Claude) and I'm also hoping the next book will have less sex in it but thats highly unlikely. There aren't too many books out there with a strong and domineering female character such as Anita. That is one of the main reasons I will continue to read the books. I guess I aspire to be like Anita, a no bullshit- imma kick your ass kind of girl. I hope what I said doesn't fall into the category of bashing.

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

Nope, not bashing at all. It's commentary on the contents of the book, and your thoughts. I consider bashing to be slagging the characters w/o purpose and slagging LKH herself. Studied discussion of the book is A-OK :)

I can see what you mean about Byron and Requium. I think that scene, more than anything, showed us how very much Anita has changed, and how she is finally letting JC be practical over her morals. Normally, Anita would never go near those two, for the very reason that she didn't know them.

I think the next book will have less sex. I hope so, anyway. Anita's finally broken down all her boundaries, the ones I think she's able to let go of, and now we can carry on. Of course, only time will tell :)

[sabriel-0405.livejournal.com]

The mystery part of the series is the least interesting to me - much like Martha Grimes and her Richard Jury mysteries. The mystery is secondary to the character interaction and growth. In the AB series, the mystery gives her reasons to be involved with the monsters but it is Anita's character growth that makes me continue to obsess, I mean read, the series.

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

Anita's character growth that makes me continue

Testify. She has come a long way, hasn't she? And imo, the mystery is only there to push Anita into making new realizations about herself.

[goddessvicky.livejournal.com]

My fav: Blue Moon. Why? Because I can't help but love Richard and to see him with Anita is just great. I like my men flawed. It gives them character, and Richard is like a shard of mirror. It will cut you but it shows you something about your self at the same time.

I'm reading Obsidian Butterfly right now. Don't get me wrong, I adore Edward. I love the interaction between him and Anita, and adding Peter and Becca into the story is amazing and gives him even more facets, but I think it drug on too long. I mean, I know Anita's in a new place I see why L.K. had to establish the area, but it still moves pretty slow.

I think I'm one of a very few group that loves the ardeur. It's SO hard for Anita to come to grips with. Throughout the entire series, we see how prudish towards other people is. Even when the pack/pard touch and she realizes it's not for sexual advances but for comfort, she's still a little squicky about it. I think the ardeur challenges her as a person and that's what makes it interesting.

And I'm a nymphomaniac and I think the more in one bed, the better, but hey.

[houses7177.livejournal.com]

I'm a fan of the ardeur plot too, though not for any nymphomaniac reasons. I think it's the ultimate push for Anita- someone who's touch-phobic to be forced to have sex with near strangers. It's a fascinating device, and one that I think LKH uses better than most people give her credid for- they get hung up on Ew!Sex! and don't pay attention to the forced development it causes. The Ardeur is forcing Anita to deal with her most deep seated phobias, which I as a reader like seeing.

[cissasghost.livejournal.com]

Well, I voted for 'Lunatic Cafe' as least favorite 'cause I really didn't like it when Anita was all in love with Richard and JC was the source of all evil, etc. It pissed me off. Yeah, JC's a manipulative bastard, but . . well, but I don't like Richard, but more than I dislike Richard as an individual character, I dislike the whole concept of Richard, the stereotypical "nice guy". They typically have Richard-like flaws, to do with having unrealistic expectations of everyone and nasty tempers that don't really match their ideals. I'm rather glad that the series went in the direction of showing that.

'Narcissas in Chains' was a close second, though, for the disliking, and I don't like the ardeur - or at least, I don't like how she's treated the ardeur, and I'll freely admit that's about me and my comfort zones and not about the plot (though I think the plot's suffered in a few places too). As a concept, the ardeur's not bad, but I don't like the degree of graphic detail she goes into for each and every sex scene. It makes the books seem sorta porn-like, and makes the ardeur seem like excuse-to-write-lots-of-graphic-sex-scenes rather than actual character development/plot. And I'm not sure that's entirely fair because there's been a significant degree of plot and character development going on around the ardeur - it's just how it seems.

Also there were spots in NiC that read a bit like bad slash fic. *Everyone* can't be gay or bi. It's a little statistically improbable. Yeah, you can explain it by saying all the werehyenas were probably infected by a.) Narcissus, or b) someone else who'd been infected by Narcissus, and his criteria for membership probably didn't have to do with SAT scores. So it wasn't totally, totally out there .. but it was a little off, and I'd just like to see a few more positive female characters get a little more focus.

Like-wise . . I loved 'Burnt Offerings'. Even though there wasn't much overt romance, it was Anita/JC being a couple and a team and such, and I'm a 'shipper at heart.

Also we had a whole wide emotional range of vampires for the first time - good vampires and bad vampires and all that. She likes to give Willie McCoy the credit, but I think something shifted in Anita's head with Warrick (who's name I may have misspelled). When she told him to watch out, that he was gonna burn himself? She was officially treating him like a person, in a way that had nothing to do with sex or loyalty or, well, *her*. He wasn't her friend, he was just a decent guy who she'd prefer not to see dead - sorta how she might interact with a cop she didn't personally know, actually. Other folks - JC, Willie McCoy - she tolerated their vampirism, 'cause they're her friends or lovers or whatever, they're something to her as individuals, and everybody has flaws, y'know? She didn't know Warrick enough for that - it just didn't matter very much that he was a vampire, in that moment, he was one of the good guys, one of the team. That was a major big old step for her.

And I just loved her giving the Council a crash course in the social contract theory of government - snerk.

-Sonya

[houses7177.livejournal.com]

I wholeheartedly agree about NiC. I read it and went 'holy slash fanfic Batman! They all drank gay-juice!'

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

I liked NiC because it stripped away all Anita's clothes inhibitions, but not her guilt. She was very fucked up in that book.

Burnt Offerings was a goody, and I'm with you on the shipper lurve in that book. They both worked together, and Anita let her misgivings about the marks and such fade away in teh face of danger.

[child-labor.livejournal.com]

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

Burnt Offerings... good book. Anita being all defendy of her people was amazing, and it's the first time that Anita and JC, in my mind, really work together to protect what they feel is theirs.

ID... I liked the books. The ending felt like a bit of an afterthought, agreed, but I really enjoyed the character development. My $0.02.

I suspect that the mystery in the last book will continue in the next one, or later on. It's too much of a loose thread to let along forever.

[houses7177.livejournal.com]

ID felt like half a book to me. A setup, if you will, where she brought up the mystery and didn't deal with it. Of course, 800 pages or whatever is a long set up, no matter how much I enjoyed the character development.

poll discussion

[(Anonymous)]

First I am Anonymous from a few days ago.
I don't have a live journal or any wonderful little pictures. :(
but i sometimes just can't help but respond on this forum.

I find the poll answers interesting.
I didn't read the AB books in order. In fact I read Cerulean Sins first then Guilty Pleasures. I found the early books more simplistic. The author has grown as a writer and the later books are more complex. There is a lot more sex, but a lot of it is metaphysical as well as physical. It MEANs more.
How unique: sex as responsibility!

Could this be what bothers people?

Anita has made things extremely hard on herself by not asking the right questions. I found it frustrating in the early books that she wouldn't ask JC about the marks or in later ones the audeur. She knew what she knew and wouldn't ask for help because she was right damn it! Well she was wrong in many ways and hurt others because she didn't ask for help understanding the situation she had gotten herself into. Some of that of course is what furthers the story, but some of the information was held to close to JC's beautiful chest.

Obsidian Butterfly was my least favorite book. The humanizing of Edward was just strange. While there was more mystery there were some really odd things too. The creature that the little man made out of assorted body parts and souls was too weird. Lunatic Cafe was my second least favorite. Richard and the rest of the pack power plays left me angry. I was ever so glad when the fur flew and a few characters died.

Narcissus in Chains ranks up there as one of the best. This book was where LKH took off in directions that are causing these discussions now.
As always I wanted to cuff Richard about the ears. He is such a mess.
The rest of the characters however were wonderful. LKH gave us so many new people to play with and the ardeur to try to understand. There was a lot that would cause people to be upset though, torture, S&M, Sex, more sex, more torture, the ardeur, lots of talk about abuse, homosexual, bisexual and more than 2 in a bed at once. Geewhiz, this book was full to the brim.
Good things happened in this book too. It set Anita up for learning to trust a few people. It gave her responsibility for more than just herself.
She is starting to understand that Love is Big and it expands and that sex isn't bad or naughty if you are of age and it is consentual.

2nd favorite is Incubus Dreams. Micah and JC and the idea of unconditional love. Damian and Nathanial and the realization that Nathanial is someone to love not just a responsibility. Or perhaps that the responsibility is to love him unconditionally too. Jason was unexpected in this book. Who knew he had a brain in that beautiful body?
A friend. Jason actually replaces some of the women friends she has lost, that he can help with the ardeur if needed is a bonus. Of course we do have Nathanial morphing during sex and of course Richard has to interrupt.
We couldn't have a story without Richard freaking out.

As I said before in the last few books Sex Means something. There are reasons for Sex. Sex = Energy. Sex = Power. Sex = healing. These are strange ideas for a lot of people. It messes with their religion, it doesn't sit well with their morals. It feels good to read these books and yet it makes people uncomfortable.
Next question, if it is making them uncomfortable why are They Still Reading the Books?
To psychoanalyze: It makes people feel good, but they don't think they should feel good about these things, so then they feel guilty or 'dirty' and then they complain, loudly, because they can.

Sorry to be so long winded.

Viki
crftyspider@aol.com

Re: poll discussion

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

Glad you can stop by. Your interepretation of ID is interesting, esp on Nathaniel.

Anita has made things extremely hard on herself by not asking the right questions.

I think that it's hard for the audience to see this clearly (or at least as clearly as Anita sees Richard fsck up) because of the 1st person POV, so it takes longer to get to this conclusion. And then wanting to scream at your narrator is hard, too :)

[watcher457.livejournal.com]

my most favorite was Obsidian Butterfly. first, it had edward, and he amuses me greatly. he's like an outside force looking in and it's a refreshing way to see what's going on. i also like it because it moved away from the increasingly convuluted relationship dilemma. don't get me wrong. i love the vast majority of the characters and how anita keeps getting dragged into everything, but it was, again, a step away and a chance to breath. It also was the last of the mystery stories. i love the way the plots evolved in the first books. it just dragged me along for the ride.

now, my least favorite was cerulean sins. i think the reason why was because that book made the attempt to have a mystery in it, but it felt like it was thrown in as an afterthought to me. it wasn't the point, and i understand that it can't always be the point, but i thought that it was fitted poorly into the story. it's a mystery, then there is ardeur and musette and belle morte and musette and sex and problems. oh, yeah. then the mystery resolution and it's over. it made me sad that it felt like such an afterthought.

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

it made me sad that it felt like such an afterthought.

It's funny, I felt the same way with the mystery in ID. It felt as if she was putting in the teaser for the next book, in that last bit.

Also, OB-Edward lurve :P

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

My fave book so far has to be Obsidian Butterfly, because we saw Anita removed totally from her element, and I think it helped her realize more than just lounging around St. Louis, avoiding the boys, what she had become.

My least fave was Lunatic Cafe. I do not like the characters of Raina and Gabriel, and what Anita did with Peggy's husband, threatening him with our crazies, pissed me off. Anita just annoyed me in general in this book, as she's now half an inch away from boinking Richard and I think it's partly because she's mad at her attraction to JC. Oh, Anita. Stop lying to yourself and those around you. Plus the Edward Ex Machina.

Lemme see... I love all the other books, tho. Maybe it's because I write Micah, but I enjoy the character. Seeing him out of his element, and Nathaniel in his at the strip club, was a very interesting turn of events.

What I would like LKH to do, is to develop some friends for Anita, the non-sexual kind. Ronnie's pretty much a write off, and everyone else Anita calls friend is someone she'd had sex with (police EXCLUDED but she can't tell them everything. I'm putting Larry in the police category because Anita cannot tell him the number of people she's been killing. It might get back to Tammy).

I'm digging the ardeur, and Anita finaly letting go some of her little delusions. Looking forward to the next book.

[taligator.livejournal.com]

The first Ab book I read was Narcissus in Chains. I picked it up at the Goodwill for a quarter and though "hmm sounds interesting". I took it with me to the hospital where I read it twice in two days while taking care of my Mom. I was hooked and squirming from the start and then went to buy the rest of the books. I read the entire series in 2 days and then re-read NiC for the third time. When I want to read AB, I read NiC. I associate that book with Anita Blake - it is to me the epitome of the series.

Here's why .. Anita is at her best in this book. She's truly a champion, she's protecting those who cannot protect themselves from an evil that could potentially destroy their world. Chimera was a danger not only to the shifter community but to the humands as well. A danger that could not continue to exist. Without a care as to WHO she was saving or why they were there in the first place she charges in. I love that about Anita. We know she went originally to save Nathaniel but she stayed for everyone else because she couldn't let them suffer. That's Anita Blake to me.

We also start to see Anita more as a sexual creature in this book and there is a lot of dissention about the shower scene with Micah but that is the hottest part of that book IMO but that's me. I personally like Micah because he's the yin to her yang.

I have so many things I love about this book but I'll refrain from going through each step of the book. But in the end it all comes down to her truly being a hero and fighting for what is right.

I would say that my choice of Cerulean Sins being my least favorite is because it was a waste of paper to read. I cannot (after all the readings) figure out the point of that book. I don't understand what we GAIN from it other than a lot of sex. Someone can enlighten me if they wish .. (perhaps you could do a book by book discussion?)

While NiC is my favorite book my two other favorites were Blue Moon and Obsidian Butterfly. OB was what proved to me that LKH could really write a good story. It was interesting and unique. She gave us AB without her attachments to show that she was a true character. She didn't need the sidekicks to be cool and powerful. Her power was hers. I would love to see more of Olaf as well because I think he was utterly captivating in his scariness. :)

Blue Moon is where we started to get more of Damian and I liked that he wasn't "just another Vampire". It gave me a picture of Richard that I didn't like and have continued to not like. I think Richard is poisonous to himself and Anita. Blue Moon was well-written and gave us new things to think about in the supernatural world, same for Blood Bones. It's not all about shifters and vampires.

Incubus Dreams isn't my favorite book but I think it was an important book. We learned a lot in the book and as pointed out, all that sex had a purpose. I need to re-read it, it's been awhile. *G*

I think that's enough for the moment. :)

Newbie questions

[(Anonymous)]

Hello all. I am new here and very curious about the AB universe. I was introduced to Mhalachai's journal and Inevitable through Beren's journal while I was reading Beren's Black Magic by Moonlight. That being said, I have noticed that there is a significant difference between Beren's AB characterizations and Mhalachai's. My question is: which characterizations are closer to canon? I am considering buying the series and I was wondering what to expect. Additionally, Nathaniel is my favorite character so far. When does he enter the series? Thank you very much!

Re: Newbie questions

[watcher457.livejournal.com]

good question. hmm... i think mhalachai is closer, but there is a very big catch. you have to keep in mind that, for a large portion of the story so far, mhalachai's anita is suffering trauma from the effects of the cruciatus curse that bellatrix put her through. anita isn't always so very unsure and scared. she is very vulnerable in this story. however, she is less likely to trust, more quirky... i think inevitable is truer to her character.

[uforeah.livejournal.com]

My Fave book was Burnt Offerings, although a close second is Blue Moon. I didn't want Anita to get with JC, when I read The Killing Dance for the first time, I finished it then walked up to my boyfriend (I was hanging out at his work all night), hit him in the chest with the book and yelled "She slept with the wrong guy!" then walked off. He was confused because he never read the books.
Anyway, the point was, I liked Blue Moon because Anita got Richard, and then he didn't just turn over and do whatever she wanted like JC did. He told her that if she couldn't be with just him, then he couldn't be with just her. And I like that.
I really like Burnt Offerings though becuase of two things, one, the leopards, and two, the scene towards the end with Anita and The Master of Beasts. That line gives me chills...and I'm sorry but ASHER!!!! do I need to say more? I mean really.
The least fave was hard to say. I chose OB because I missed the other characters. But I really liked the book.
Has anyone else noticed that none of us really discuss the first few books?

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

I think that the lack of discussion on the first few books is interesting as well, even as we spend most of our time talking about how Anita's changed. Someone said that Anita was really very unhappy in those books. Most of us like the relationships, I think, and those didn't take off until Killing Dance, I think.

[iamabee-buzz.livejournal.com]

I said my favourite was Cerulean Sins, but I think I'm in love with that book primarily because Jason's my favourite and we get to see a lot of him, and a whole new side of his character in that book. Plus, the Jason sex. :P I also loved Incubus Dreams because of the Nathaniel element in it, though I have to say I agree with what someone said above about how the whole book seems to be leading up to a climax that never occurs. It's like a novel of filler.
And because I can never make up my mind about anything, I have to add Burnt Offerings to the list of favourites, because I LOVE how Anita kicks ass in that book and finally joins with JC to defend all her "people." ♥

Least favourite is Bloody Bones simply because I don't find it even slightly interesting. I don't find the new characters (read: villains) to be at all intriguing, and there is very little development of the main characters, which is mainly what attracts me to the series as a whole. It is the only book that I avoid when I re-read the series.
I used to hate Obsidian Butterfly until I recently re-read it. I still feel as though it's more of a stand-alone book because of its focus on Edward and his life as opposed to Anita's interaction with the monsters and lovers at home in St. Louis, but I've gotten over the mental block that that initially caused me and grown to love it for its own sake.
I could go on forever discussing the high and low points of every book in the series, but I'll shut up now...and go re-read some Anita Blake because this post has reminded me of all the scenes and elements I'd forgotten I loved. :D

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

I'm also hard-pressed to find any redeeming qualities about Bloody Bones. Huh.

With the exception of that book, I think all the books are good, having good qualities. I'm not too sure on Laughing Corpse, but that may be because I dislike Anita at certain times, like when she used JC to torment the hooker.

I dig how in OB, Anita had to leave home to realize what it meant to her ;)

Enjoy the re-read