Three dollars and some change

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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

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child-labor.livejournal.com

From: (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

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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.

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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.

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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

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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 :)

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it didn't feel so blaringly obvious in ID, imo. and edward lurve... *sighs*

so... is edward going to put in an appearance in inevitable? come on, you can tell me. :D

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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.

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Edward will factor in, in some way, to Inevitable. You'll be happy to note that he's not a Malfoy relation. However, I cannot say when he will show up, or in what capacity.

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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.

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i couldn't see edward related to the malfoys, but only for the pure and simple fact that they don't deserve someone as efficient as him. it would give the clan a group apolpexy (er...) to know that they have a muggle relation that is more dangerous then them, lol.

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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 :)

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Well, you know. Blond. Ruthless. Maybe a squib. Anyway, SO not going to happen. Cross my heart.

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*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 :)

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thank you. wonder how many times he's been obliviated for trying to kill a wizard and seeing magic...

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I'm addicted to Potterpuffs.. addicted I tell you.. only if they had more Harry/Sev ones I would be even more addicted LOL

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Give her time, she'll make more :)

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PS.. I thought I was gonna get my books out of storage.. but I couldn't find them...

It looks like I'm gonna look for a lot of the books on EBAY.. I have before.. and they go cheap..

I would like to write a book where Harry is part of clan and Ebil!Dumbledore bounded his shapeshifting and so forth... :)

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