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Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter #12
Incubus dreams
Nuovi inquietanti casi da risolvere per la sexy eroina creata dalla penna di Hamilton Laurell K. In “Dreams” la cacciatrice di vampiri Anita Blake si trova ad avere a che fare con un vero e proprio succhiasangue serial killer. Per la prima volta la famosa protagonista, le cui complicate storie sono valse alla scrittrice più di sedici traduzioni nel mondo e milioni di copie vendute degli episodi della saga, si decide a chiedere aiuto. Conflitti professionali e psicologici attanagliano Anita. Non sappiamo se l’investigatrice riuscirà a superare i suoi limiti e ad uscire viva da questa eterna ed ennesima battaglia contro il male, ma anche contro se stessa. Il passato della cacciatrice, i suoi sogni e i suoi incubi tornano a perseguitarla, a chiederle di essere risolti una volta per tutte. E’ una corsa contro il tempo questo libro della Hamilton, caratterizzato da una forte tensione erotica. La tematica sensuale in questo dodicesimo libro della scrittrice, uscito in lingua inglese già diversi anni fa ed attesissimo in italiano, è infatti preponderante. Le trame investigative si intrecciano sempre più con storie romantiche e dallo sfondo erotico, così il personaggio poliziesco di Anita che nei primi libri sembrava più concentrato nella sua caccia contro il male acquisterà invece contorni sfumati, più prettamente fisici e sessuali. La vena magica di Dreams prende potenza con nuove abilità super umane di cui la protagonista verrà in possesso grazie al contagio con alcuni personaggi strani. La negromante diventa una vera strega della metropoli, un essere dai poteri soprannaturali che potrebbe aggirarsi nelle nostre metropolitane, invadere i nostri incubi e allo stesso proteggerci da essi. E’ molto nera questa favola della Laurell e il bene e il male si stringono sempre la mano. Le strade americane in cui Anita combatte e sfida i suoi nemici rendono questo racconto molto urbano e moderno. Qui sta la chiave del successo di questa saga appassionante che mescola il romanzo al noir, il fantasy alla erotic story. Le donne tratteggiate dalla Laurell, Anita in primis, sono sempre forti, ben delineate e pronte a vivere senza uomini affianco. “Dreams” è prima di tutto una sfida.
822 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2004
722 people are currently reading
9988 people want to read
About the author
Laurell K. Hamilton
424 books25.8k followersLaurell K. Hamilton is one of the leading writers of paranormal fiction. A #1 New York Times bestselling author, Hamilton writes the popular Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter novels and the Meredith Gentry series. She is also the creator of a bestselling comic book series based on her Anita Blake novels and published by Marvel Comics. Hamilton is a full-time writer and lives in the suburbs of St. Louis with her family.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,217 reviews
September 15, 2014
"We're wasting time with all this personal sh!t.”
WARNING: Sorry about the gif spam. I make an effort to keep it to a minimum in my reviews, but this one needed some gifs or I would go mad.
PLOT:
Oh, you expected a plot summary of this book?
Okay, I'll try to be serious now.
Larry is marrying that horrible, evil, wicked Tammy. Anita is one of the groomsmen. Because. She drags along her two boytoys. Because. She is called to the scene of a crime. Apparently strippers are being killed.
Whoaaaaa, that was way too much plot! Put that away until the last 15% of the book, because we need to have Anita hump everything in sight. She practically makes out with Nathaniel at the wedding, humps Damien, flirts with Richard, and forms a new Triumvirate. Why? Because.
Anita flies by her office to show that there is no such thing as a strong woman not named "Anita Blake" in this universe. She wears a super-short skirt and scanty attire and is p!ssy when the police at a strip club mistake her as a stripper. It's not because she looked like a stripper, and it's a logical assumption to make; oh, no, they are just sexist pigs.
And then, Anita hops from one dick to the other. I am not kidding; she has some form of sex like a half dozen times in a few hour time period.
Eventually, after whining endlessly about how awful it is to have a harem of men that willingly want to have sex with her, Anita goes to find out who's killing the strippers in THE most abrupt transition I have ever read in an Anita Blake book. If you are expecting it to be interesting...be prepared to be disappointed.
And because we can't go an hour in this book without Anita jumping something, Anita has sex with Micah one last time before the book ends.
This is THE WORST Anita Blake book I've read. I didn't like "Obsidian Butterfly", but I will admit it was because of the misogynistic themes and the child rape. The story wasn't actually half bad. This piece of sh!t, this horrible excuse for a "novel" should NEVER have been published. It is a badly written, poorly executed, bloated, boring, dull insipid, whiny teenaged wet dream that ought to have STAYED on FanFiction.net instead of making its way into the published world.
Let's just get this out there: Anita Blake is a Mary Sue, pure and simple. Any hint that she might not be is completely torn away in this book. She whines about how she doesn't have one single person to call her own - when she has THREE BOYFRIENDS. She can say horrible things about other people - but when Ronnie jokingly calls Anita "weird", Anita bites HER BEST FRIEND'S HEAD OFF. Anita is the most unpleasant, unlikable, REPULSIVE character I have EVER read. Sure, Anita likes to pretend she's grown up, that she doesn't bite people's heads off or start fights, but NOTHING in this book proves to me that Anita has grown up beyond 14 years old.
The "men" in Anita's life have absolutely no personality and almost nothing to distinguish themselves from each other. Jean-Claude calls Anita "ma petite". Micah is Anita's height and they share clothes (yes, they apparently do this). Nathaniel has long hair and acts like a freakin' 1950's housewife - that is, when he's NOT acting like a 5 year old. Asher has golden hair. Damien is constantly near death. Richard is an @$$. There IS NO OTHER CHARACTER to these people. Hell, cardboard cutouts would have more personality than these nameless, featureless, colorless lumps for Anita to have sex with.
And boy, does Anita have sex!! I lost track of how many times Anita had sex or talked about sex or whined about sex or gave tips about sex or talked about how she liked to fondle a man's junk in her mouth before it was rigid. It was ridiculous. It was literally like reading some teenaged girl's masturbatory fantasy. Like climbing into bed with Laurell K. Hamilton.
I cannot take credit for this image; one of my amazing commenters posted it on my status update
And the sex scenes WERE NOT SEXY. I would venture to say that 90% of them, Anita HAD to perform or die from the stupid ardeur. All of the sex scenes were so bloated with talking, pre-, post-, and DURING SEX that I wanted to scream, "JUST HAVE SEX ALREADY!!" And I swear, Anita can never have sex with just one person. Oh no, she has to have two people, even if one is just watching. Awkward much?
And the ardeur...I cannot believe how stupid this thing is getting. You know, it could ALMOST be an interesting plot point. I can see it, lurking under the surface. The desire and lust that Anita wants to bring out, but her morals hold her back. But it is done SO WRONG. Instead of Anita growing up and learning to love sex, Anita just continues to act like a child and whine about it. Instead of having CONSISTENT RULES, the ardeur basically changes to whatever LKH needs it to at the time. That's why it can be that Anita goes from feeding it every 12 hours to every 6 and then to not at all in a 24 hour period. YOU DO NOT DO THIS. You do not create rules and then violate them. And you don't create rules that make Fizbin look like an easy game to learn.
And now, if it's a Tuesday with a full moon, you must have sex with a half werewolf while a vampire's human servant is watching, while standing on his head over a bucket of warm milk.
Other characters were equally as laughable. As I've said a billion times before, every single woman in this series is useless or hateful to Anita. Jessica, Tammy, and now my poor, poor Ronnie - they are all horrible people that are no where near as awesome as Anita Sue.
Jessica is upset because Nathaniel was single, but now he is with Anita. And of course, who's fault is that? Jessica's. Because Anita is blameless and pure, who deserves every hot man that appears in these novels. And of course, not Nathaniel's fault for not clarifying it with her. Nuh-uh! No man has EVER led a woman on!
A woman who wants to resurrect her son turns violent in Anita's office when Anita refuses to raise him. Who's fault is that? Definitely not Anita's! It's totally the woman's fault for being emotional and irrational (I half expect someone to blame the woman for being all hormonal because of her period!)
Ronnie feels threatened when Louie tries to corner her and marry her. When the two break up over their differences, Ronnie, in the depths of her despair, goes to a cheap club to get drunk and try to drown her sorrows. She calls Anita, asking for a ride. And what is Anita's response?
Aw, what a WONDERFUL FRIEND. I wish I had a female friend as heartless, cold, and selfish as Anita Blake!!
What plot there is in this book is boring and dull, a regurgitation of plots from previous books. It's not particularly bad, per se, but it is NOWHERE NEAR good enough to be able to sludge through 80% of this crap.
And then your favorite and mine...the writing! Here are some of the brilliant quotes that LKH GOT PAID TO WRITE. Just to clarify: She wrote them. An editor read them and GAVE THEM THE OK. They MADE IT TO PUBLISHING. PEOPLE ARE TRYING TO SELL YOU THIS WRITING.
Sit back and enjoy the...
Top 5 Best (Worst) Quotes That LKH Suckered People Into Paying Money For:
5. "I watched the vampire come at me like a comet streaking across the heavens, something elemental and otherworldly." I have always been a fan of paranormal celestial beings myself.
4. "The front of his pants spilled open, and he spilled out. Either he wasn't wearing any underwear or it couldn't keep him contained...the sight of him nude excited me, made me nervous, afraid in that Oh My God, where am I going to put it all sort of way." Quick! Someone get a mop!
3. "You don't fall in love with your steak, because it can't hold you, can't press warm lips in the bend of your neck and whisper 'Thank you' as it glides down the hallway in the charcoal grey slacks that fit its @$$ like a second skin and spill roomy over the thighs that you happen to know are even lovelier out of the pants than in." I think the metaphor is dead, LKH.
2. "It wasn't my pulse I was choking on; it was as if the terror itself were wet silk, and I was trying to swallow it. Slick, wet, suffocating." Metaphor OVERLOAD!!
And my absolute favorite...
1. "His pulse beat like something alive inside his skin." OMG, he's ALIVE?!?! NO WAY!! Who would have thought something with a PULSE was ALIVE??
And from this point on, LKH is never allowed to use ANY of the following words or phrases again:
- frown harder
- spill
- very male
- tight
- wet
- f@#$ me
- metaphysics
- blue, blue eyes
- blush harder
I thought I was never going to finish this fecal matter. I cannot believe this stupid piece of sh!t is 26 hours long. NOTHING happens in this book. The mystery doesn't matter, Anita grows no closer to figuring out all the "metaphysical" bullsh!t that LKH has invented for her life, Anita still whines about having 6 boyfriends and near constant sex, and to make matters worse, ALL the characters suffer. Larry has disappeared. Ronnie is unrecognizable. Jean-Claude is almost never around. Sure, Nathaniel gets a bit of a plot, but adding him as an official member to Anita's dick closet is NOT what I call character development.
This is the poorest excuse for a book. I've been harsh on this series; I've gotten mad at it numerous times. But THIS book is sh!t, pure and simple. Most of the rest of the books have had SOME redeeming quality. Even "Narcissus in Chains" and "Cerulean Sins" fell into the "so bad it's good" territory with the atrocious writing. This book is so bloated, so boring, so dull that it is nigh unreadable.
I don't to read about what gets LKH off. I don't want to read about her Mary Sue proving everyone to be not as much of a tough @$$ as she is. Because that is what this series is quickly becoming. No, when I open these books, I want to read about a vampire hunter, an executioner that KILLS PARANORMAL BADDIES. If there is sex, great. But when a good 80% of the book is about sex, having it or talking ENDLESSLY about it, I AM GONE.
Will I be returning to Anita Blake, Vampire Sex Gymnast? I honestly don't know; this book was so terrible, that I am half tempted to call it quits here. I have taken two breaks during this series; THIS IS THE BOOK THAT I MAY QUIT ON. (In case you are doing a comparison...)
AVOID AT ALL COSTS.
I couldn't think of a good way to incorporate this into the review proper, so just enjoy this post-review beauty
WARNING: Sorry about the gif spam. I make an effort to keep it to a minimum in my reviews, but this one needed some gifs or I would go mad.
PLOT:
Oh, you expected a plot summary of this book?
Okay, I'll try to be serious now.
Larry is marrying that horrible, evil, wicked Tammy. Anita is one of the groomsmen. Because. She drags along her two boytoys. Because. She is called to the scene of a crime. Apparently strippers are being killed.
Whoaaaaa, that was way too much plot! Put that away until the last 15% of the book, because we need to have Anita hump everything in sight. She practically makes out with Nathaniel at the wedding, humps Damien, flirts with Richard, and forms a new Triumvirate. Why? Because.
Anita flies by her office to show that there is no such thing as a strong woman not named "Anita Blake" in this universe. She wears a super-short skirt and scanty attire and is p!ssy when the police at a strip club mistake her as a stripper. It's not because she looked like a stripper, and it's a logical assumption to make; oh, no, they are just sexist pigs.
And then, Anita hops from one dick to the other. I am not kidding; she has some form of sex like a half dozen times in a few hour time period.
Eventually, after whining endlessly about how awful it is to have a harem of men that willingly want to have sex with her, Anita goes to find out who's killing the strippers in THE most abrupt transition I have ever read in an Anita Blake book. If you are expecting it to be interesting...be prepared to be disappointed.
And because we can't go an hour in this book without Anita jumping something, Anita has sex with Micah one last time before the book ends.
This is THE WORST Anita Blake book I've read. I didn't like "Obsidian Butterfly", but I will admit it was because of the misogynistic themes and the child rape. The story wasn't actually half bad. This piece of sh!t, this horrible excuse for a "novel" should NEVER have been published. It is a badly written, poorly executed, bloated, boring, dull insipid, whiny teenaged wet dream that ought to have STAYED on FanFiction.net instead of making its way into the published world.
Let's just get this out there: Anita Blake is a Mary Sue, pure and simple. Any hint that she might not be is completely torn away in this book. She whines about how she doesn't have one single person to call her own - when she has THREE BOYFRIENDS. She can say horrible things about other people - but when Ronnie jokingly calls Anita "weird", Anita bites HER BEST FRIEND'S HEAD OFF. Anita is the most unpleasant, unlikable, REPULSIVE character I have EVER read. Sure, Anita likes to pretend she's grown up, that she doesn't bite people's heads off or start fights, but NOTHING in this book proves to me that Anita has grown up beyond 14 years old.
The "men" in Anita's life have absolutely no personality and almost nothing to distinguish themselves from each other. Jean-Claude calls Anita "ma petite". Micah is Anita's height and they share clothes (yes, they apparently do this). Nathaniel has long hair and acts like a freakin' 1950's housewife - that is, when he's NOT acting like a 5 year old. Asher has golden hair. Damien is constantly near death. Richard is an @$$. There IS NO OTHER CHARACTER to these people. Hell, cardboard cutouts would have more personality than these nameless, featureless, colorless lumps for Anita to have sex with.
And boy, does Anita have sex!! I lost track of how many times Anita had sex or talked about sex or whined about sex or gave tips about sex or talked about how she liked to fondle a man's junk in her mouth before it was rigid. It was ridiculous. It was literally like reading some teenaged girl's masturbatory fantasy. Like climbing into bed with Laurell K. Hamilton.
I cannot take credit for this image; one of my amazing commenters posted it on my status update
And the sex scenes WERE NOT SEXY. I would venture to say that 90% of them, Anita HAD to perform or die from the stupid ardeur. All of the sex scenes were so bloated with talking, pre-, post-, and DURING SEX that I wanted to scream, "JUST HAVE SEX ALREADY!!" And I swear, Anita can never have sex with just one person. Oh no, she has to have two people, even if one is just watching. Awkward much?
And the ardeur...I cannot believe how stupid this thing is getting. You know, it could ALMOST be an interesting plot point. I can see it, lurking under the surface. The desire and lust that Anita wants to bring out, but her morals hold her back. But it is done SO WRONG. Instead of Anita growing up and learning to love sex, Anita just continues to act like a child and whine about it. Instead of having CONSISTENT RULES, the ardeur basically changes to whatever LKH needs it to at the time. That's why it can be that Anita goes from feeding it every 12 hours to every 6 and then to not at all in a 24 hour period. YOU DO NOT DO THIS. You do not create rules and then violate them. And you don't create rules that make Fizbin look like an easy game to learn.
And now, if it's a Tuesday with a full moon, you must have sex with a half werewolf while a vampire's human servant is watching, while standing on his head over a bucket of warm milk.
Other characters were equally as laughable. As I've said a billion times before, every single woman in this series is useless or hateful to Anita. Jessica, Tammy, and now my poor, poor Ronnie - they are all horrible people that are no where near as awesome as Anita Sue.
Jessica is upset because Nathaniel was single, but now he is with Anita. And of course, who's fault is that? Jessica's. Because Anita is blameless and pure, who deserves every hot man that appears in these novels. And of course, not Nathaniel's fault for not clarifying it with her. Nuh-uh! No man has EVER led a woman on!
A woman who wants to resurrect her son turns violent in Anita's office when Anita refuses to raise him. Who's fault is that? Definitely not Anita's! It's totally the woman's fault for being emotional and irrational (I half expect someone to blame the woman for being all hormonal because of her period!)
Ronnie feels threatened when Louie tries to corner her and marry her. When the two break up over their differences, Ronnie, in the depths of her despair, goes to a cheap club to get drunk and try to drown her sorrows. She calls Anita, asking for a ride. And what is Anita's response?
"I'd had enough...of Ronnie dragging our asses down here, enough of her self-destructive indulgence."
Aw, what a WONDERFUL FRIEND. I wish I had a female friend as heartless, cold, and selfish as Anita Blake!!
What plot there is in this book is boring and dull, a regurgitation of plots from previous books. It's not particularly bad, per se, but it is NOWHERE NEAR good enough to be able to sludge through 80% of this crap.
And then your favorite and mine...the writing! Here are some of the brilliant quotes that LKH GOT PAID TO WRITE. Just to clarify: She wrote them. An editor read them and GAVE THEM THE OK. They MADE IT TO PUBLISHING. PEOPLE ARE TRYING TO SELL YOU THIS WRITING.
Sit back and enjoy the...
Top 5 Best (Worst) Quotes That LKH Suckered People Into Paying Money For:
5. "I watched the vampire come at me like a comet streaking across the heavens, something elemental and otherworldly." I have always been a fan of paranormal celestial beings myself.
4. "The front of his pants spilled open, and he spilled out. Either he wasn't wearing any underwear or it couldn't keep him contained...the sight of him nude excited me, made me nervous, afraid in that Oh My God, where am I going to put it all sort of way." Quick! Someone get a mop!
3. "You don't fall in love with your steak, because it can't hold you, can't press warm lips in the bend of your neck and whisper 'Thank you' as it glides down the hallway in the charcoal grey slacks that fit its @$$ like a second skin and spill roomy over the thighs that you happen to know are even lovelier out of the pants than in." I think the metaphor is dead, LKH.
2. "It wasn't my pulse I was choking on; it was as if the terror itself were wet silk, and I was trying to swallow it. Slick, wet, suffocating." Metaphor OVERLOAD!!
And my absolute favorite...
1. "His pulse beat like something alive inside his skin." OMG, he's ALIVE?!?! NO WAY!! Who would have thought something with a PULSE was ALIVE??
And from this point on, LKH is never allowed to use ANY of the following words or phrases again:
- frown harder
- spill
- very male
- tight
- wet
- f@#$ me
- metaphysics
- blue, blue eyes
- blush harder
I thought I was never going to finish this fecal matter. I cannot believe this stupid piece of sh!t is 26 hours long. NOTHING happens in this book. The mystery doesn't matter, Anita grows no closer to figuring out all the "metaphysical" bullsh!t that LKH has invented for her life, Anita still whines about having 6 boyfriends and near constant sex, and to make matters worse, ALL the characters suffer. Larry has disappeared. Ronnie is unrecognizable. Jean-Claude is almost never around. Sure, Nathaniel gets a bit of a plot, but adding him as an official member to Anita's dick closet is NOT what I call character development.
This is the poorest excuse for a book. I've been harsh on this series; I've gotten mad at it numerous times. But THIS book is sh!t, pure and simple. Most of the rest of the books have had SOME redeeming quality. Even "Narcissus in Chains" and "Cerulean Sins" fell into the "so bad it's good" territory with the atrocious writing. This book is so bloated, so boring, so dull that it is nigh unreadable.
I don't to read about what gets LKH off. I don't want to read about her Mary Sue proving everyone to be not as much of a tough @$$ as she is. Because that is what this series is quickly becoming. No, when I open these books, I want to read about a vampire hunter, an executioner that KILLS PARANORMAL BADDIES. If there is sex, great. But when a good 80% of the book is about sex, having it or talking ENDLESSLY about it, I AM GONE.
Will I be returning to Anita Blake, Vampire Sex Gymnast? I honestly don't know; this book was so terrible, that I am half tempted to call it quits here. I have taken two breaks during this series; THIS IS THE BOOK THAT I MAY QUIT ON. (In case you are doing a comparison...)
AVOID AT ALL COSTS.
I couldn't think of a good way to incorporate this into the review proper, so just enjoy this post-review beauty
August 4, 2017
Okay, so I had been warned beforehand that this series would eventually "jump the shark" and turn into a crap-fest. And, here we are. Crapfestville!
Crapfestville's neighboring towns
Here's the thing, I don't mind sex in a book if it is a part of the bigger plot in these kind of books. Or, if it's just straight-up a paranormal romance novel. But, this...ugh! This is like someone who is having a clusterfuck in their head that they decided to write down for posterity and got paid a bunch of money because the previous books were good.
I knew they should have stopped at "H" is for Horny.
The problem with this story is that there is no real story here. Sure, there is supposedly a serial killer case, but there are probably 50 pages of the almost 600 pages devoted to it. The rest of the book is devoted to Anita arguing with her lovers and screwing every male with a pulse. There is one part of the book where Anita, Jean Claude, and Richard have an argument in a bed that lasts for 50 pages. 50 Pages!!! Of a boring argument!! That is the same amount of time devoted to the actual serial killer. Personally, I would rather have been killed by the serial killer than to read this conversation. It was painful.
Especially if he is going to be the death of me.
Now, this is the funny thing. I have read the next two books after this. Why? I have been moving and these are the books that I kept on hand to read while everything was packed and the internet was out. It doesn't get any better - that's my advance warning for the next two reviews that I will be writing. ;)
Get ready to visit.
Crapfestville's neighboring towns
Here's the thing, I don't mind sex in a book if it is a part of the bigger plot in these kind of books. Or, if it's just straight-up a paranormal romance novel. But, this...ugh! This is like someone who is having a clusterfuck in their head that they decided to write down for posterity and got paid a bunch of money because the previous books were good.
I knew they should have stopped at "H" is for Horny.
The problem with this story is that there is no real story here. Sure, there is supposedly a serial killer case, but there are probably 50 pages of the almost 600 pages devoted to it. The rest of the book is devoted to Anita arguing with her lovers and screwing every male with a pulse. There is one part of the book where Anita, Jean Claude, and Richard have an argument in a bed that lasts for 50 pages. 50 Pages!!! Of a boring argument!! That is the same amount of time devoted to the actual serial killer. Personally, I would rather have been killed by the serial killer than to read this conversation. It was painful.
Especially if he is going to be the death of me.
Now, this is the funny thing. I have read the next two books after this. Why? I have been moving and these are the books that I kept on hand to read while everything was packed and the internet was out. It doesn't get any better - that's my advance warning for the next two reviews that I will be writing. ;)
Get ready to visit.
August 25, 2010
I don't think I've ever been so relieved to finish a novel, since it ate so much of my time. In my hardcover version, there are 658 pages of the smallest type I've ever seen in any other hardback. To say the least, it was painfully long.
Not that I care how long a book is. If a book keeps me interested enough, I'll be happy to read thousands of pages. But Incubus Dreams is painfully slow, simply because not much is going on. If you've ever read/heard an interview with Laurell K. Hamilton, you've probably heard her go off about how all her books are a "full meal" and such, but over the huge duration of this novel, she somehow manages to not resolve the main storyline: the vampire serial killer(s). She had plenty of room to resolve a fairly simple murder mystery, and somehow, she couldn't. That's not a "full meal" to me. And even if she did resolve it, the plot wasn't that interesting to begin with. Strippers in the area are being killed by vampires. By LKH standards, that's pretty dull.
Plenty of reviewers warned me about the large amounts of sex going on in this book, so I wasn't too shocked to find that Anita has sex with everyone. Pretty much every main character with a Y chromosome has sex with Anita in this book, along with a few extra men no one has even heard of before. But really, these "sex scenes" don't have a lot of sex actually going on. It's a lot of talking about sex before and after they do (for example, Jean-Claude, Richard, and Anita are naked in a bed and feel the need to talk about what they plan on doing for fifty pages before actually doing it). Oh, and of course, if Anita happens to have sex with a perfect stranger, we get a twenty-page narration consisting of, "Oh, that probably wasn't a good idea." I'm just tired of the whole idea of the ardeur (which is bad, since it was only introduced three books ago), mainly because it's getting in the way of the mystery/action/suspense plots.
And what was up with the terrible spelling/grammatical errors? I've never seen so many blatant spelling errors ever in a book. Do these editors not spell-check?
There's just something about this book that feels off. I'm not sure what it is, but this novel is definitely not up to par with others in the series. While I wouldn't recommend skipping it (there are some significant developments in relationships, Anita's powers, etc.), I would not go into it with high expectations.
Not that I care how long a book is. If a book keeps me interested enough, I'll be happy to read thousands of pages. But Incubus Dreams is painfully slow, simply because not much is going on. If you've ever read/heard an interview with Laurell K. Hamilton, you've probably heard her go off about how all her books are a "full meal" and such, but over the huge duration of this novel, she somehow manages to not resolve the main storyline: the vampire serial killer(s). She had plenty of room to resolve a fairly simple murder mystery, and somehow, she couldn't. That's not a "full meal" to me. And even if she did resolve it, the plot wasn't that interesting to begin with. Strippers in the area are being killed by vampires. By LKH standards, that's pretty dull.
Plenty of reviewers warned me about the large amounts of sex going on in this book, so I wasn't too shocked to find that Anita has sex with everyone. Pretty much every main character with a Y chromosome has sex with Anita in this book, along with a few extra men no one has even heard of before. But really, these "sex scenes" don't have a lot of sex actually going on. It's a lot of talking about sex before and after they do (for example, Jean-Claude, Richard, and Anita are naked in a bed and feel the need to talk about what they plan on doing for fifty pages before actually doing it). Oh, and of course, if Anita happens to have sex with a perfect stranger, we get a twenty-page narration consisting of, "Oh, that probably wasn't a good idea." I'm just tired of the whole idea of the ardeur (which is bad, since it was only introduced three books ago), mainly because it's getting in the way of the mystery/action/suspense plots.
And what was up with the terrible spelling/grammatical errors? I've never seen so many blatant spelling errors ever in a book. Do these editors not spell-check?
There's just something about this book that feels off. I'm not sure what it is, but this novel is definitely not up to par with others in the series. While I wouldn't recommend skipping it (there are some significant developments in relationships, Anita's powers, etc.), I would not go into it with high expectations.
August 9, 2012
Incubus Dreams: Wherein Anita Gathers Superpowers Like Beads at Mardi Gras (and in much the same way you earn beads at Mardi Gras).
I tried to do live updates in the comments while reading this, but had to stop just over halfway through the book. I thought it would be fun, but it wasn't. At all.
I wish I could identify a plotline for you here; there's something about murdered strippers, but that can hardly count given it's only present for about ten pages at the start of the book and then a few chapters at the end. In between there's a vast plot wasteland where no one mentions the murders at all. AT ALL. You could be forgiven for forgetting it entirely. Halfway through the book we graze past Animators Inc for two totally unrelated mystery hooks, but then abandon both of them to return to nothingness.
But if the murders aren't the central plot, then what is? Horribly, we're left with Anita's internal monologue about her new "powers" and the multiple supernatural/sexual relationships she has with any number of worshipful, abjectly submissive men. I started reading this assuming that this would be bad, but I had NO IDEA it would be quite this bad. I absolutely hate prolonged unpacking of unearned emotional torment, and that's basically all that happens in this book. Much of it is spent justifying three-ways. Much of it chest-thumps about how manly Anita is, and how she wears the pants in all of her relationships and how her boyfriends are "wifely". Not subtly either - full-on conversations about it, repeatedly. And off we go, circling the drain indefinitely.
But how on earth do you fit so much tormented angst into one book? By ramping up "ardeur", of course! This piece of supernatural bullshit was introduced a few books ago, but now it goes into overdrive and forces Anita to basically go into heat every 6 hours. Which means lots of sexy opportunities to sleep with people and then dive into chapters of long, tormented, defensive thinking about the act. I guess you could say the central plot is Anita controlling that, but she doesn't really. She just flails, and we get eyeball-searing sex scenes and what I thought was going to be a bad but entertainingly outraging read turned into something that ended up feeling like an endurance test. I felt sick upon finishing this, I think because it was so much effort to keep reading when my brain was actively trying to shut down and throw me into a coma. You know the sickness you get when you stay up 72 hours in a row on a project, and by the end you're not sure if you're going to vomit or pass out? Felt like that.
Let's do a tour of the characters, shall we? Jean-Claude spends much of his time either talking to Anita on the phone or in her head, and I have to imagine this makes him a pretty useless Master Vampire if he's checked out for much of the day coaching his girlfriend on every single thing that happens to her. Nathan appears to have adopted Stepford Wives as his own personal bible. Micah is... there? Honestly, all of the men in this book just sort of trail after Anita, asking if she's okay, offering to sleep with her, chipping in with advice about pretty much everything and putting up with her frequent tantrums. Richard is the outlier, and that's because he continues to behave like a psychotic teenager who just had a growth spurt and has crazy impulse-control issues. The number of times Richard appears on the scene and should basically be shut down with "Not your business, turn around and get out" is infinite, but Anita never does, she just delves once more into his multilayered bullshit. He's been having the same issue for about ten books. This is boring.
Before I head into spoiler territory, let me just note that Laurell K Hamilton appears to have discovered the word "spill" while writing this 12th (dear god!) installment in this series. It's used to describe anatomical features, to describe hair, to describe body parts emerging from pants, to describe candles falling into a bath. At one point I counted four instances on a single Kindle page. It only appears in sex scenes, and it can feel like it's the only verb used in those scenes. Totally weird, but given the uptick of simple spelling errors in the second half of the book, I'm guessing the editor stopped reading too soon to notice the problem. I'd usually say something like she should give back half her fee, but let's face it, the woman's suffered enough. Call it hazard pay and have done with it.
And now the details:
Much of Anita's so-called problems are rooted in the fact that she never does any research, never wonders about the rules of her "powers", and shows about at much empathy as an eggcup. She keeps saying "I never thought of that" when someone's reaction is explained to her, but the fix for her dangerous ignorance is to actually pay attention to people on a personal level, and she can't do that. Because then she couldn't have a "realization" and waste another twenty pages of my time shuffling round talking to people in her head and resolving absolutely nothing.
There's also an over reliance on Hamilton's own mythology. You can't have it both ways - either you set firm rules for your worldbuilding and then have characters experience the consequences of their actions within those rules, or you loosely define the rules and make the discovery/exploration part of the story. But that's not what's happening here. Instead, we get new rules and powers thrown in as consequences of mundane actions, seemingly at random. That makes reading less like a journey, and more like a laundry list. It is unspeakably bad.
This is a nothing book. There is nothing there except sex scenes, and they are outside my wheelhouse. What does it for Hamilton emphatically does not do it for me, and I think at this point we can all agree that the border between what is Anita Blake and what is Hamilton is the finest of lines, so now I know waaaay too much about how Hamilton likes her men and sexual practices. They're pretty much the opposite of how I like mine - I do not like long-haired, effeminate, submissive men, so she strikes out for me with each and every scene. The descriptions are excruciatingly technical, and this isn't erotica because that requires the writing to be erotic. This isn't. It's porn.
If we were to consider this form of porn art, then this book does this for me:
I'm done. I like reading bad books for the outraged thrill, but this was too awful for enjoyment. I'm not up for reading any more of Hamilton's dream diaries. I'm out.
I tried to do live updates in the comments while reading this, but had to stop just over halfway through the book. I thought it would be fun, but it wasn't. At all.
I wish I could identify a plotline for you here; there's something about murdered strippers, but that can hardly count given it's only present for about ten pages at the start of the book and then a few chapters at the end. In between there's a vast plot wasteland where no one mentions the murders at all. AT ALL. You could be forgiven for forgetting it entirely. Halfway through the book we graze past Animators Inc for two totally unrelated mystery hooks, but then abandon both of them to return to nothingness.
But if the murders aren't the central plot, then what is? Horribly, we're left with Anita's internal monologue about her new "powers" and the multiple supernatural/sexual relationships she has with any number of worshipful, abjectly submissive men. I started reading this assuming that this would be bad, but I had NO IDEA it would be quite this bad. I absolutely hate prolonged unpacking of unearned emotional torment, and that's basically all that happens in this book. Much of it is spent justifying three-ways. Much of it chest-thumps about how manly Anita is, and how she wears the pants in all of her relationships and how her boyfriends are "wifely". Not subtly either - full-on conversations about it, repeatedly. And off we go, circling the drain indefinitely.
But how on earth do you fit so much tormented angst into one book? By ramping up "ardeur", of course! This piece of supernatural bullshit was introduced a few books ago, but now it goes into overdrive and forces Anita to basically go into heat every 6 hours. Which means lots of sexy opportunities to sleep with people and then dive into chapters of long, tormented, defensive thinking about the act. I guess you could say the central plot is Anita controlling that, but she doesn't really. She just flails, and we get eyeball-searing sex scenes and what I thought was going to be a bad but entertainingly outraging read turned into something that ended up feeling like an endurance test. I felt sick upon finishing this, I think because it was so much effort to keep reading when my brain was actively trying to shut down and throw me into a coma. You know the sickness you get when you stay up 72 hours in a row on a project, and by the end you're not sure if you're going to vomit or pass out? Felt like that.
Let's do a tour of the characters, shall we? Jean-Claude spends much of his time either talking to Anita on the phone or in her head, and I have to imagine this makes him a pretty useless Master Vampire if he's checked out for much of the day coaching his girlfriend on every single thing that happens to her. Nathan appears to have adopted Stepford Wives as his own personal bible. Micah is... there? Honestly, all of the men in this book just sort of trail after Anita, asking if she's okay, offering to sleep with her, chipping in with advice about pretty much everything and putting up with her frequent tantrums. Richard is the outlier, and that's because he continues to behave like a psychotic teenager who just had a growth spurt and has crazy impulse-control issues. The number of times Richard appears on the scene and should basically be shut down with "Not your business, turn around and get out" is infinite, but Anita never does, she just delves once more into his multilayered bullshit. He's been having the same issue for about ten books. This is boring.
Before I head into spoiler territory, let me just note that Laurell K Hamilton appears to have discovered the word "spill" while writing this 12th (dear god!) installment in this series. It's used to describe anatomical features, to describe hair, to describe body parts emerging from pants, to describe candles falling into a bath. At one point I counted four instances on a single Kindle page. It only appears in sex scenes, and it can feel like it's the only verb used in those scenes. Totally weird, but given the uptick of simple spelling errors in the second half of the book, I'm guessing the editor stopped reading too soon to notice the problem. I'd usually say something like she should give back half her fee, but let's face it, the woman's suffered enough. Call it hazard pay and have done with it.
And now the details:
Much of Anita's so-called problems are rooted in the fact that she never does any research, never wonders about the rules of her "powers", and shows about at much empathy as an eggcup. She keeps saying "I never thought of that" when someone's reaction is explained to her, but the fix for her dangerous ignorance is to actually pay attention to people on a personal level, and she can't do that. Because then she couldn't have a "realization" and waste another twenty pages of my time shuffling round talking to people in her head and resolving absolutely nothing.
There's also an over reliance on Hamilton's own mythology. You can't have it both ways - either you set firm rules for your worldbuilding and then have characters experience the consequences of their actions within those rules, or you loosely define the rules and make the discovery/exploration part of the story. But that's not what's happening here. Instead, we get new rules and powers thrown in as consequences of mundane actions, seemingly at random. That makes reading less like a journey, and more like a laundry list. It is unspeakably bad.
This is a nothing book. There is nothing there except sex scenes, and they are outside my wheelhouse. What does it for Hamilton emphatically does not do it for me, and I think at this point we can all agree that the border between what is Anita Blake and what is Hamilton is the finest of lines, so now I know waaaay too much about how Hamilton likes her men and sexual practices. They're pretty much the opposite of how I like mine - I do not like long-haired, effeminate, submissive men, so she strikes out for me with each and every scene. The descriptions are excruciatingly technical, and this isn't erotica because that requires the writing to be erotic. This isn't. It's porn.
If we were to consider this form of porn art, then this book does this for me:
I'm done. I like reading bad books for the outraged thrill, but this was too awful for enjoyment. I'm not up for reading any more of Hamilton's dream diaries. I'm out.
September 4, 2011
Yet another one of my faves in the Vampire Hunter series. A lot of fans are against the current storyline and how Laurell has turned the lead character into a full-blown Succubus, but I know she has a plan and we just have to be patient and wait for it all to unravel.
If she were a man writing such detailed sex scenes, no one would have a problem with it. Sorry, but this is the 21st century. I have yet to see her write anything that didn't have some semblance of purpose as the storylines progress from book-to-book.
If she were a man writing such detailed sex scenes, no one would have a problem with it. Sorry, but this is the 21st century. I have yet to see her write anything that didn't have some semblance of purpose as the storylines progress from book-to-book.
January 9, 2012
As we read further into the Anita Blake series, the theme is more colorful, and surrounded by relationships, sex, blood and more sex. A metaphysical handicap forces Blake to “feed” off of someone as she screws him. It was a neat idea, but in the end it gets a little old. I mean, how many people could she possibly have sex with?
Look! A bad guy! Hold on, I must have sex with this stranger before I can function. I enjoy a nice twisted sexual triangle any day, but the "adeur" has become something of a repetitive dripping stream of bullshit. If I wanted to read about unusual and alternative sexual relationships, I’d read the Beauty series by Anne Rice.
Unfortunately I do love this series, and will continue to be a faithful reader and fan My one wish is that the adeur thing would be cooled down a bit, maybe even become a “skill of the past” .. Leave her current relationships alone, maybe kill off a few guys and we might just have a series about a vampire hunter and bloody brains without every other page discussion what it takes to orgasm our way through an adeur feeding.
I recommend this book to anyone that has read this series from the beginning. At this point, nothing is going to make sense unless you have a good idea of background on how we got here.
Intense and descriptive sexual content, with SERIOUSLY alternative and although deliciously played, a scene between Anita Blake and a leopard? Perhaps sexually disturbing to some, and just may be intriguing to others! Woo! Weird but awesome
This book should be kept away from children, as well as teenagers. I advise that this book and from here on out, the series be read by adults only.
~Happy Reading!
Look! A bad guy! Hold on, I must have sex with this stranger before I can function. I enjoy a nice twisted sexual triangle any day, but the "adeur" has become something of a repetitive dripping stream of bullshit. If I wanted to read about unusual and alternative sexual relationships, I’d read the Beauty series by Anne Rice.
Unfortunately I do love this series, and will continue to be a faithful reader and fan My one wish is that the adeur thing would be cooled down a bit, maybe even become a “skill of the past” .. Leave her current relationships alone, maybe kill off a few guys and we might just have a series about a vampire hunter and bloody brains without every other page discussion what it takes to orgasm our way through an adeur feeding.
I recommend this book to anyone that has read this series from the beginning. At this point, nothing is going to make sense unless you have a good idea of background on how we got here.
Intense and descriptive sexual content, with SERIOUSLY alternative and although deliciously played, a scene between Anita Blake and a leopard? Perhaps sexually disturbing to some, and just may be intriguing to others! Woo! Weird but awesome
This book should be kept away from children, as well as teenagers. I advise that this book and from here on out, the series be read by adults only.
~Happy Reading!
January 12, 2012
I think this is it for me. When I started reading this series, it was for a great crime/action/paranormal book. And then the Richard vs. Jean Claude thing started and I was all for some romance. I don't mind a sex scene thrown in here or there, they liven things up in the right places. But somewhere around book 10, or maybe a little before, I lost my great action novel and apparently started reading erotica with the same series name.
This book start out relatively strong. Someone dies, and Anita is called to the scene. It feels like old times again and we start out with a good mystery to think about. Then it gets put on hold for almost the entirety of the book so Anita can have sex with every male that crosses her path. I honestly don't know why she bothers to get out of bed in the morning (or evening, I suppose), let alone get dressed. What leaves me baffled is she's STILL cringing over all of it. Christ, let it go. I realize she can't help a lot of it and she's learning to deal. But I feel like it's either she's having sex or complaining about having sex, or arguing with someone about having sex. The part where we learn that Nathaniel likes to bake is a relief by comparison. Anyway, sometime in the last maybe 150 pages or so, the author remembers that she started a plot somewhere in the beginning, and maybe she should conclude it before Anita's legs fall off.
I'm going to read the reviews for the next books, and hope I find something promising because I loved the first few. It would be a tragedy to find that the series just keeps going along this vein, or somehow just degenerates even more.
This book start out relatively strong. Someone dies, and Anita is called to the scene. It feels like old times again and we start out with a good mystery to think about. Then it gets put on hold for almost the entirety of the book so Anita can have sex with every male that crosses her path. I honestly don't know why she bothers to get out of bed in the morning (or evening, I suppose), let alone get dressed. What leaves me baffled is she's STILL cringing over all of it. Christ, let it go. I realize she can't help a lot of it and she's learning to deal. But I feel like it's either she's having sex or complaining about having sex, or arguing with someone about having sex. The part where we learn that Nathaniel likes to bake is a relief by comparison. Anyway, sometime in the last maybe 150 pages or so, the author remembers that she started a plot somewhere in the beginning, and maybe she should conclude it before Anita's legs fall off.
I'm going to read the reviews for the next books, and hope I find something promising because I loved the first few. It would be a tragedy to find that the series just keeps going along this vein, or somehow just degenerates even more.
March 10, 2009
Holy mother of God. I remember reading the reviews for this book - they said there was a lot of sex. Well. They weren't lying. She has sex every few pages or so. As someone pointed out, how is she even able to walk after that?
Now, I am as much of a fan of sex as the next person, and maybe even more than the next person, but come on! How much can a person (I mean the person reading not the person experiencing :P) take? Speaking of which, how much can the person experiencing take too? Isn't there a physical limit? Granted, Anita is stronger than most humans, but still.
Other than the sex, there was hardly a plot. The crimes definitely took a back burner to everything else. Hamilton even introduced a character that had a tremendous ability to wreak havoc but went nowhere with him. Was it just me, or were there tons of spelling mistakes too?
Oh, and as a lot of people reviewing on Amazon pointed out, all the open threads Hamilton left from the previous books were completely untouched and unexplored. No substance.
Needless to say, it was a very disappointing read (which doesn't mean I won't read the next one). I mean, I suppose it followed well from her latest books - more and more sex as they progress. If that's the case, imagine the next one.
Note: Check out some of the reviews on Amazon. They're great! (Before or after reading the book.) Also, I'm not saying the sex wasn't great. *falls over*
Now, I am as much of a fan of sex as the next person, and maybe even more than the next person, but come on! How much can a person (I mean the person reading not the person experiencing :P) take? Speaking of which, how much can the person experiencing take too? Isn't there a physical limit? Granted, Anita is stronger than most humans, but still.
Other than the sex, there was hardly a plot. The crimes definitely took a back burner to everything else. Hamilton even introduced a character that had a tremendous ability to wreak havoc but went nowhere with him. Was it just me, or were there tons of spelling mistakes too?
Oh, and as a lot of people reviewing on Amazon pointed out, all the open threads Hamilton left from the previous books were completely untouched and unexplored. No substance.
Needless to say, it was a very disappointing read (which doesn't mean I won't read the next one). I mean, I suppose it followed well from her latest books - more and more sex as they progress. If that's the case, imagine the next one.
Note: Check out some of the reviews on Amazon. They're great! (Before or after reading the book.) Also, I'm not saying the sex wasn't great. *falls over*
November 10, 2011
(Original review Jan 2007)
Overall 2/5
Story 2/5
Re-Readability 3/5
Characters 2/5
There’s a plot here. I’m sure. I read through all 752 pages of this, the 12th Anita Blake novel, and there were vague hints of a plot toward the end. I think. The rest of the book, though, should have been subtitled, “How I Stopped Worrying and Came to Love Wanton Sex.”
I mean, really. By the end of the first chapter, Anita — erstwhile vampire hunter and current multi-discipline sex queen of St Louis — has boffed two strangers. A few more chapters, a few more strangers. By the end of the book pretty much every lycanthrope or vampire Anita’s run across — certainly every series regular — has gotten down and dirty with her.
There are a few moments where there’s, well, interesting stuff happening. All’s not well with the vampiric Church of Eternal Life, there are some rogue vamps doing Very Bad Things, there’s another powerful vampire doing cunning things, and …
… and, of course, Anita has New Amazing Powers, which lead to New Mystical Complications, even as she continues her steady evolution toward being the Mystic Queen of the Midwest (one must assume).
But enough of that trivial leavening. We’re here for the hot, sweaty, and other-fluidly vampire-necromancer-lycanthrope sex, right? Am I right? Evidently I am. And that’s not to mention frequent polemics on sex, strangers, B&D, S&M, following your bliss, accepting your kinks, and other received wisdom from the woman who can’t decide if she’s being driven to being a slut because of metaphysical compulsion or because it’s fun.
Not that I necessarily have a problem with sex, or books with sex scenes — but, really, fergoshsakes, after a while it gets repetitive. And boring. And repetitive. Most books would be satisfied with a cut scene from when things get hot and heavy to the aftermath. Not "Incubus Dreams" (or, frankly, most of the recent AB books); we end a chapter just as things are getting hot and heavy — and the next chapter is all about the hot-and-heaviness. At length (which is ironic on multiple levels).
(Note to copy editors: the synonym for “god” you are looking for is “deity.” Not “diety.” No matter how many times you let it be typed that way.)
If I didn’t already have the next book in paperback, I’d have seriously considered giving up. But I did, and it was thin, so …
Overall 2/5
Story 2/5
Re-Readability 3/5
Characters 2/5
There’s a plot here. I’m sure. I read through all 752 pages of this, the 12th Anita Blake novel, and there were vague hints of a plot toward the end. I think. The rest of the book, though, should have been subtitled, “How I Stopped Worrying and Came to Love Wanton Sex.”
I mean, really. By the end of the first chapter, Anita — erstwhile vampire hunter and current multi-discipline sex queen of St Louis — has boffed two strangers. A few more chapters, a few more strangers. By the end of the book pretty much every lycanthrope or vampire Anita’s run across — certainly every series regular — has gotten down and dirty with her.
There are a few moments where there’s, well, interesting stuff happening. All’s not well with the vampiric Church of Eternal Life, there are some rogue vamps doing Very Bad Things, there’s another powerful vampire doing cunning things, and …
… and, of course, Anita has New Amazing Powers, which lead to New Mystical Complications, even as she continues her steady evolution toward being the Mystic Queen of the Midwest (one must assume).
But enough of that trivial leavening. We’re here for the hot, sweaty, and other-fluidly vampire-necromancer-lycanthrope sex, right? Am I right? Evidently I am. And that’s not to mention frequent polemics on sex, strangers, B&D, S&M, following your bliss, accepting your kinks, and other received wisdom from the woman who can’t decide if she’s being driven to being a slut because of metaphysical compulsion or because it’s fun.
Not that I necessarily have a problem with sex, or books with sex scenes — but, really, fergoshsakes, after a while it gets repetitive. And boring. And repetitive. Most books would be satisfied with a cut scene from when things get hot and heavy to the aftermath. Not "Incubus Dreams" (or, frankly, most of the recent AB books); we end a chapter just as things are getting hot and heavy — and the next chapter is all about the hot-and-heaviness. At length (which is ironic on multiple levels).
(Note to copy editors: the synonym for “god” you are looking for is “deity.” Not “diety.” No matter how many times you let it be typed that way.)
If I didn’t already have the next book in paperback, I’d have seriously considered giving up. But I did, and it was thin, so …
May 25, 2011
This book is where I gave up. I would say it was like Custer’s Last Stand for me…but I didn’t die and I think Custer was an arrogant douche bag.
Anyway, I’m drifting here.
I’ll give LKH one thing—Anita isn’t a static character. She goes from hardass, kick-ass, screw-you (not literally though) heroine into Anita Blake sex kitten who sometimes kills vamps when she’s not having metaphysical three way sexy time and other random sexy time to tame that damn ardeur.
(You may be under the mistaken impression that the villain in this book is a serial killer. However, the true villain is the ardeur which has replaced Anita with a sexy pod person enslaved to rampant boot knockin’)
Damn you, ardeur. DAMN YOU!
The book is slooooooooow.
Then Anita straps it on (her Browning yah pervs) and there is a good, tense scene where she actually lives up to her Executioner title. But it’s at the end, so if I were you I’d skip to that first and say you’d read the rest.
Did I mention the book is slow? Cuz yeah, it’s pretty glacial.
Anyway, I’m drifting here.
I’ll give LKH one thing—Anita isn’t a static character. She goes from hardass, kick-ass, screw-you (not literally though) heroine into Anita Blake sex kitten who sometimes kills vamps when she’s not having metaphysical three way sexy time and other random sexy time to tame that damn ardeur.
(You may be under the mistaken impression that the villain in this book is a serial killer. However, the true villain is the ardeur which has replaced Anita with a sexy pod person enslaved to rampant boot knockin’)
Damn you, ardeur. DAMN YOU!
The book is slooooooooow.
Then Anita straps it on (her Browning yah pervs) and there is a good, tense scene where she actually lives up to her Executioner title. But it’s at the end, so if I were you I’d skip to that first and say you’d read the rest.
Did I mention the book is slow? Cuz yeah, it’s pretty glacial.
June 18, 2017
I have officially given up on Antia!
After the last two books gave me a serious case of squint-eye, I had almost given up, but I decided to give Anita the benefit of the doubt one more time and try and ignore the fact that she now seems to have sex with every single male character in the series.
Well, I tried, peeps. Really, I did. But I have to draw the line at this one. It's devolved into Erotica sprinkled with only the tiniest morsels of paranormal plot, and I don't even read Erotica.
This series was meant to be Urban Fantasy, and it was a damn good one. Now it's vampire/shifter porn. Talk about being mis-sold on a premise. I wouldn't have ever picked up the first book at all if I'd known this was going to happen. And it just makes me so sad because Anita books 1-7 were great. Okay, the love triangle was annoying, but the plots were rich and innovative and she really set the benchmark for female-led UF. So it's even more of a kicker than she's now become such a joke character. LKH needs the memo that you can't just switch genres on your readers half way through a series and not expect to lose most of them because of it.
Apart from the fact the books are now boring and somewhat icky to read, they also feel very disingenuous. Am I supposed to believe the Anita that we met in the first book, who didn't even think you should have sex before marriage, suddenly likes to participate in group sex and other things that I'm too polite to even type? Any "love scenes" (and I use that term with reference to this book, very loosely), have to be relevant for me. I'm not saying it always has to be hearts and flowers, but it has to at least be believable and fit what's happening and the character's personalities. This is just ridiculous now, and I can't bear to watch it any more. So I am officially calling it quits.
Do let me know if I miss any further hilarity in this car-crash series from here on out. I'm no longer bothered about spoilers so feel free to tell me what you like.
1 star ★
After the last two books gave me a serious case of squint-eye, I had almost given up, but I decided to give Anita the benefit of the doubt one more time and try and ignore the fact that she now seems to have sex with every single male character in the series.
Well, I tried, peeps. Really, I did. But I have to draw the line at this one. It's devolved into Erotica sprinkled with only the tiniest morsels of paranormal plot, and I don't even read Erotica.
This series was meant to be Urban Fantasy, and it was a damn good one. Now it's vampire/shifter porn. Talk about being mis-sold on a premise. I wouldn't have ever picked up the first book at all if I'd known this was going to happen. And it just makes me so sad because Anita books 1-7 were great. Okay, the love triangle was annoying, but the plots were rich and innovative and she really set the benchmark for female-led UF. So it's even more of a kicker than she's now become such a joke character. LKH needs the memo that you can't just switch genres on your readers half way through a series and not expect to lose most of them because of it.
Apart from the fact the books are now boring and somewhat icky to read, they also feel very disingenuous. Am I supposed to believe the Anita that we met in the first book, who didn't even think you should have sex before marriage, suddenly likes to participate in group sex and other things that I'm too polite to even type? Any "love scenes" (and I use that term with reference to this book, very loosely), have to be relevant for me. I'm not saying it always has to be hearts and flowers, but it has to at least be believable and fit what's happening and the character's personalities. This is just ridiculous now, and I can't bear to watch it any more. So I am officially calling it quits.
Do let me know if I miss any further hilarity in this car-crash series from here on out. I'm no longer bothered about spoilers so feel free to tell me what you like.
1 star ★
December 10, 2021
First read: August 2006
Re-read: Feb-March 2018
Rating: 2/5 stars
Incubus Dreams has always been my least favourite book in the Anita Blake series. When I read it originally I thought it deviated heavily from the previous books in terms of the ratio of personal relationships vs the supernatural politics and police procedural aspects of the plot.
My opinion hasn't changed during the re-read. There were some good moments; we got an update on Larry's life and what he's doing now, Dolph seems to be getting a bit more accepting of Anita's new life choices, Ronnie appears for the first time in age, and Anita seems to be growing as a person, allowing Nathaniel to get closer to her and accepting that her life has taken a very different path to where she thought it would go. I also liked the zombie raising that we get to see, and how the growth of Anita's power in other areas of her life impacts on her natural abilities.
However the crime that is introduced at the very start of the book is only mentioned infrequently until the end when it gets solved, and I disliked one very significant plot development that takes place in Incubus Dreams and that is I struggle with Damien as a character. I don't intensely dislike him, the way I do with Richard, but he seems so unnecessary to the overall story. He seems to exist only to act as an example of Anita's growing powers. I think he slows the story down and takes up way too much page time. Another side effect of this plot choice is . This also slows the story and detracts from the more interesting parts of the plot.
Overall I found Incubus Dreams to be the slowest and least entertaining book so far in my re-read of this series.
Re-read: Feb-March 2018
Rating: 2/5 stars
Incubus Dreams has always been my least favourite book in the Anita Blake series. When I read it originally I thought it deviated heavily from the previous books in terms of the ratio of personal relationships vs the supernatural politics and police procedural aspects of the plot.
My opinion hasn't changed during the re-read. There were some good moments; we got an update on Larry's life and what he's doing now, Dolph seems to be getting a bit more accepting of Anita's new life choices, Ronnie appears for the first time in age, and Anita seems to be growing as a person, allowing Nathaniel to get closer to her and accepting that her life has taken a very different path to where she thought it would go. I also liked the zombie raising that we get to see, and how the growth of Anita's power in other areas of her life impacts on her natural abilities.
However the crime that is introduced at the very start of the book is only mentioned infrequently until the end when it gets solved, and I disliked one very significant plot development that takes place in Incubus Dreams and that is I struggle with Damien as a character. I don't intensely dislike him, the way I do with Richard, but he seems so unnecessary to the overall story. He seems to exist only to act as an example of Anita's growing powers. I think he slows the story down and takes up way too much page time. Another side effect of this plot choice is . This also slows the story and detracts from the more interesting parts of the plot.
Overall I found Incubus Dreams to be the slowest and least entertaining book so far in my re-read of this series.
December 21, 2019
First, the cast list:
Of the vamps, we saw plenty of Jean-Claude and Damian, plus Buzz (who hasn't been around much lately) and Malcolm, plus we were introduced to Requiem, Byron, Wicked, and Truth. With the wolves, we saw plenty of Richard and Jason, and we were introduced to Clay and Graham. With the leopards we saw plenty of Nathaniel, Gregory, and Micah. With the wererats, we saw Dr. Lillian, Claudia, and Louie. We saw Ronnie. With RPIT we got Tammy, Jessica Arnet, Zerbrowski, and Dolph. And with Animators' Inc, we got Larry, Bert, and Mary (daytime secretary). Oh, and several phone calls with Marianne.
Not as full of a reoccurring cast as the last two books, but all the principals were onstage except for Asher, who we saw dead to the world in Jean-Claude's bed, but never awake and aware.
Spoilers beyond this point....
This was the third book in the triad where the ardeur first held sway. The ardeur was responsible for breaking down a lot of Anita's barriers, and, in some ways Richard's, as well. During the three books, Anita moved Jean-Claude's lover's lists of guys from her heart into her bed. She also called to herself a new Tri, bringing more power both to her and to Jean-Claude and Richard. A new power plateau, indeed. The ardeur eventually broke both Anita and Richard of their reluctance to be food for the vampires, both blood and the ardeur.
And I love that this book ended with Richard on the hopeful list. Poor Richard, will he never catch up to his life?
And a nice round out to the triad of books was Jean-Claude, Richard, and Anita full-filling the promise they felt after marrying the marks in "Narcissus in Chains". Sharing a bed (MFM) and power.
(Reviewed 04/06/2009)
Of the vamps, we saw plenty of Jean-Claude and Damian, plus Buzz (who hasn't been around much lately) and Malcolm, plus we were introduced to Requiem, Byron, Wicked, and Truth. With the wolves, we saw plenty of Richard and Jason, and we were introduced to Clay and Graham. With the leopards we saw plenty of Nathaniel, Gregory, and Micah. With the wererats, we saw Dr. Lillian, Claudia, and Louie. We saw Ronnie. With RPIT we got Tammy, Jessica Arnet, Zerbrowski, and Dolph. And with Animators' Inc, we got Larry, Bert, and Mary (daytime secretary). Oh, and several phone calls with Marianne.
Not as full of a reoccurring cast as the last two books, but all the principals were onstage except for Asher, who we saw dead to the world in Jean-Claude's bed, but never awake and aware.
Spoilers beyond this point....
This was the third book in the triad where the ardeur first held sway. The ardeur was responsible for breaking down a lot of Anita's barriers, and, in some ways Richard's, as well. During the three books, Anita moved Jean-Claude's lover's lists of guys from her heart into her bed. She also called to herself a new Tri, bringing more power both to her and to Jean-Claude and Richard. A new power plateau, indeed. The ardeur eventually broke both Anita and Richard of their reluctance to be food for the vampires, both blood and the ardeur.
And I love that this book ended with Richard on the hopeful list. Poor Richard, will he never catch up to his life?
And a nice round out to the triad of books was Jean-Claude, Richard, and Anita full-filling the promise they felt after marrying the marks in "Narcissus in Chains". Sharing a bed (MFM) and power.
(Reviewed 04/06/2009)
April 11, 2018
This series is my total guilty pleasure. And before anyone gets on me - yes, Anita is a total Mary-Sue and sits very comfortably on her high horse. But I've come to realize that I don't read this series for her, I read it for the other characters.
Incubus Dreams has Anita knee deep in a vampire serial killer case. Some vampire group is killing female strippers and everything seems to point to the Church of Eternal Life and their master, Malcolm. On top of the case, Anita is trying to balance her personal life and the emerging of new powers between her, Richard and Jean-Claude.
What I liked was learning more about the pasts of some of our characters - mostly Nathaniel and Damien. The supporting cast really makes up this book series because, let's be honest, if it was just about Anita I would have chucked it so long ago. And let's not forget my boy Jason - he's still here and still going strong as my favorite character.
But I've also noticed a shift in Hamilton's writing here. It seems as if the plot is becoming more 'how much sex can I include and with how many different partners' as opposed to what made the books good in the first place - Anita's actual work (both zombie raising and police work) and the intimate (not sexual) relationships with our core group. I hope that Hamilton starts to reign it in and get back to what it began with before it just becomes a series about sex.
Incubus Dreams has Anita knee deep in a vampire serial killer case. Some vampire group is killing female strippers and everything seems to point to the Church of Eternal Life and their master, Malcolm. On top of the case, Anita is trying to balance her personal life and the emerging of new powers between her, Richard and Jean-Claude.
What I liked was learning more about the pasts of some of our characters - mostly Nathaniel and Damien. The supporting cast really makes up this book series because, let's be honest, if it was just about Anita I would have chucked it so long ago. And let's not forget my boy Jason - he's still here and still going strong as my favorite character.
But I've also noticed a shift in Hamilton's writing here. It seems as if the plot is becoming more 'how much sex can I include and with how many different partners' as opposed to what made the books good in the first place - Anita's actual work (both zombie raising and police work) and the intimate (not sexual) relationships with our core group. I hope that Hamilton starts to reign it in and get back to what it began with before it just becomes a series about sex.
March 14, 2011
"We're a u-fucking-nique bunch here in St. Louis."
This one was a re-read for me. I had forgotten how many of my favorite scenes were in this book. Anita and Nathaniel in her office (the neck biting and animal instincts were very hot), a savage Damian reinstating his blood oath to Anita, her laughing in Primo's face when he tried to best her in magic, the introduction of Wicked and Truth.... *sigh*...... so many wonderful things happen. I really enjoy Nathaniel's character and the first half of the book focuses mainly on him. This is actually where his relationship with Anita began. If Micah is the queen to Anita's king (because we all know she's the man in her pard relationships), then Nathaniel makes the perfect mistress. I like that he's the sweet kid that finally starts to show a bit of a dominant side. But there were some things that weirded me out that I had to try to overlook, like the aprons and tea sets and high pony tails and mascara . . . that was a little much for me, but hey, whatever works I guess.
Now on to the two things that really disappointed me.
First - Anita's job. Her relationships dominated for the majority of this story so much that by the time that she got back to a crime scene I had forgotten that crimes were even occurring. Her work has become a side note and the magical powers that she is trying to control and the new ones that are developing, along with her personal relationships is what this book is really about. Honestly, a lot of the problems with Anita's loss of control with her power is her own fault and it frustrates me. How many times did they have to tell her that she has to feed ALL of her needs fairly regularly? She's smart, but apparently stubborn trumps that. Damian had near death experiences and she still doesn't fix the problem. Ridiculous.
Second - The threesome that I've wanted to read about for so very long. I was too excited when I thought Anita and Jean-Claude and Richard were going to get it on! I mean, I knew Richard wasn't going to start exploring the other team, but the idea of the two of them even cooperating while being in bed with Anita *fans self* is something that I always hoped would happen. . . . . So why did they have to talk it to death!?! I don't think I've ever been so frustrated with two people in my life! I don't know who I was more upset with, Anita or Richard. They argued and complained about it so much that it took most of the excitement away by the time they got down to it. =(
Overall, this is one of my favorite Anita books. It's a very long 722 pages, but it's a lot of kinky, bloody, fun.
"Then what were you doing inside this place?" A look of near evil joy crossed his face. "Oh, I get it. You like to look at other people's beans and wienies."
This one was a re-read for me. I had forgotten how many of my favorite scenes were in this book. Anita and Nathaniel in her office (the neck biting and animal instincts were very hot), a savage Damian reinstating his blood oath to Anita, her laughing in Primo's face when he tried to best her in magic, the introduction of Wicked and Truth.... *sigh*...... so many wonderful things happen. I really enjoy Nathaniel's character and the first half of the book focuses mainly on him. This is actually where his relationship with Anita began. If Micah is the queen to Anita's king (because we all know she's the man in her pard relationships), then Nathaniel makes the perfect mistress. I like that he's the sweet kid that finally starts to show a bit of a dominant side. But there were some things that weirded me out that I had to try to overlook, like the aprons and tea sets and high pony tails and mascara . . . that was a little much for me, but hey, whatever works I guess.
Now on to the two things that really disappointed me.
First - Anita's job. Her relationships dominated for the majority of this story so much that by the time that she got back to a crime scene I had forgotten that crimes were even occurring. Her work has become a side note and the magical powers that she is trying to control and the new ones that are developing, along with her personal relationships is what this book is really about. Honestly, a lot of the problems with Anita's loss of control with her power is her own fault and it frustrates me. How many times did they have to tell her that she has to feed ALL of her needs fairly regularly? She's smart, but apparently stubborn trumps that. Damian had near death experiences and she still doesn't fix the problem. Ridiculous.
Second - The threesome that I've wanted to read about for so very long. I was too excited when I thought Anita and Jean-Claude and Richard were going to get it on! I mean, I knew Richard wasn't going to start exploring the other team, but the idea of the two of them even cooperating while being in bed with Anita *fans self* is something that I always hoped would happen. . . . . So why did they have to talk it to death!?! I don't think I've ever been so frustrated with two people in my life! I don't know who I was more upset with, Anita or Richard. They argued and complained about it so much that it took most of the excitement away by the time they got down to it. =(
Overall, this is one of my favorite Anita books. It's a very long 722 pages, but it's a lot of kinky, bloody, fun.
"Then what were you doing inside this place?" A look of near evil joy crossed his face. "Oh, I get it. You like to look at other people's beans and wienies."
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Read
September 7, 2016After a very strong start with Guilty Pleasures & Laughing Corpse this series has taken a drastic turn from it's well written and exciting mystery/modern fantasy action beginnings into a embarrassingly disconnected plot nightmare sandwiched in between more and more descriptive and frankly unbelievable sex scenes.
The main character, Anita Blake, has evolved from a near virgin, vampire hating, stickler for the letter of the law to a cold blooded murdering "I'll sleep with anything within a 5 mile radius whore".
Talk about character development.
Initially the series was very intent about making connections between Anita's developing powers and solving the big murder to stop the bad guys. Now it's degraded into endless pages of sex with strangers and/or multiple partners all of the werewolf and/or vampire variety and oh by the way, that murder you started the book with you forgot to get back to for 150 pages in between your latest sexual encounter.
Don't get me wrong, the occasional departure into "romance" can be a worthwhile part of a story line but any book where I can read about getting your cervix bumped mentioned about half a dozen times really shouldn't be listed in any other genre but erotica...
TLDR? Disappointing spiral into the toilet bowl from promising beginnings.
The main character, Anita Blake, has evolved from a near virgin, vampire hating, stickler for the letter of the law to a cold blooded murdering "I'll sleep with anything within a 5 mile radius whore".
Talk about character development.
Initially the series was very intent about making connections between Anita's developing powers and solving the big murder to stop the bad guys. Now it's degraded into endless pages of sex with strangers and/or multiple partners all of the werewolf and/or vampire variety and oh by the way, that murder you started the book with you forgot to get back to for 150 pages in between your latest sexual encounter.
Don't get me wrong, the occasional departure into "romance" can be a worthwhile part of a story line but any book where I can read about getting your cervix bumped mentioned about half a dozen times really shouldn't be listed in any other genre but erotica...
TLDR? Disappointing spiral into the toilet bowl from promising beginnings.
April 25, 2014
Ehm a copak se stalo s dějem? Nějak jsem ani nepostřehla, jak ty vraždy vyřešili... Nějak se z jedné postele dostala přes x dalších a najednou měla vyřešenou vraždu?
Jo a Richard je šílený debil :D
Jo a Richard je šílený debil :D
March 30, 2020
Twelfth in the Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter erotic urban fantasy series revolving around Anita Blake, necromancer, vampire executioner, and middle-class American with middle-class values thrust into a "partnership" with a vampire descended from a long line of vampires using lust as their primary tool.
My Take
Incubus Dreams is about acceptance: Tammy and Lawrence's Halloween marriage; Anita and Nathaniel; the Wicked Truth; Richard realizing that he's a hindrance; Anita's preferences in bed; and Damian's being accepted as a person with rights.
The key points are Anita's forming her second triumverate [sic] with Damian and Nathaniel which encourages Richard to acquiesce in merging their primary triumvirate. [We know this won't last!] The three of them also begin to analyze just what characteristics each has gotten from the other two…a useful exercise brought about by Anita's second triumveirate.
I do enjoy this series. Anita is such a kick-ass little thing. I especially enjoy when she forces acceptance on the big bruisers simply by being herself. The girl lives a full life with her harem, her job at Animators, Inc. and her encounters with Bert, the policework with which she's involved, her relationship with Ronnie, and the insights she uncovers about herself. Yeah, she and Richard both frustrate the heck out of me as well. It just keeps ya wonderin'.
In some ways, this is a very happy story with all the acceptance going on. Marriage, new triumvirates (re-)forged, warriors brought into the fold, Richard is actually trying, sexual preferences acknowledged, remodeling...
Busy, busy, busy...In some ways, this is a very happy story with all the acceptance going on. Marriage, new triumvirates (re-)forged, warriors brought into the fold, Richard is actually trying, sexual preferences acknowledged, remodeling...
Busy, busy, busy...
The Story
Anita is appalled that she welcomes a request to come to a murder scene when she's supposed to be at Tammy and Lawrence's wedding reception. A reception where she only makes more trouble for herself with Detective Jessica Arnet who is confused about the crossed signals flashing from Anita and Nathaniel. Hers is not the only confusion as Louis has asked Ronnie to marry him, sending Ronnie into a major fit. With a huge conflict between Ronnie viewing a future of monogamous bliss when she wants more what Anita has with her harem of men.
The major tragedy is a killing spree as an old master vamp kills his way across St. Louis easily stumping the St. Louis Police Department as he skips off to Skin Trade. The only one who doesn't buy the fake-out is Anita.
There are some pluses in Incubus Dreams, the Wicked Truth is absorbed into Jean-Claude's family; Richard, Anita, and JC finally merge their triumvirate; and, it Asher, Richard, and other friends helping to convert Damian’s basement coffin room into a space of his own.
The Characters
Anita Blake is a 26-year-old necromancer with a high kill-count in taking out vampires and other monsters as well as a Federal Marshal. A petite little thing, Anita is currently dating, officially, Jean-Claude while living with Micah and Nathaniel. Although Nathaniel is only "food" as are Jason, Requiem, Byron, and lord knows who else due to the ardeur which Anita has inherited from Jean-Claude through their triumvirate.
Micah is the Nimir Raj to Anita's Nimir Ra; leopard king to leopard queen. Micah and Anita live together along with Nathaniel, a stripper at Guilty Pleasures, one of Jean-Claude's clubs. Micah is also the leader of the Furry Coalition, an organization which promotes cross-shifter support and acceptance as well as liaises with government organizations such as the police and hospitals.
Jean-Claude is a 300+-year-old vampire who is the Master of the City of St. Louis. He is very much in love with Anita almost as much as he is love with power. Power which Jean-Claude sees as a way to protect himself and his vampires from stronger vampires who have hurt him and others in the past including his maker, Belle Morte. Anita is never sure with Jean-Claude if he's maneuvering her for power or simply from love. Jason is Jean-Claude's pomme de sang, a werewolf, and a stripper at Guilty Pleasures. Under Richard's rule, Jason still puts himself in danger to protect Anita from Richard's anger.
The Thronnos Rokke are...
...a clan of werewolves of whom Richard Zeeman, a junior high science teacher, is Ulfric. And he hates what he is. Richard wants the white picket fence with 2.5 children. Instead, he's a werewolf with the power of life and death over his wolves. He's also incredibly conflicted over Anita. He hates and loves her. He hates that she's more comfortable with the monsters than he is and wants nothing to do with her. Yet he also loves her and becomes violently jealous of the men in her bed.
the Regional Preternatural Investigation Team (RPIT) is...
...a division within the police department that deals with all things supernatural. Lieutenant Rudolph "Dolph" Storr is in command. Sergeant Zerbrowski is the main go-to guy on the vampire serial killings. Although there is a sheriff who throws his weight around until Anita shoves it right back at him. Then there's the Mobile Reserve, a SWAT team led by Captain Parker, that must enter the trap baited by a live hostage.
The Church of Eternal Life is...
...a vampire church with Malcolm as its Master. They are indulging in some very risky behavior with their eternal members; Jean-Claude and Anita will have to fix this soon. And make RPIT much happier.
The Cover
The cover is so very golden with the Anita propping herself up while blindfolded and wearing a very sexy teddy with partial lace cups. I suspect the red blindfold is simply to suggest the new depths to which Anita must accustom herself as she tries to understand her pard. The title, Incubus Dreams refers to the strip club on the other side of the river where yet another victim of the serial vampire killers is found.
My Take
Incubus Dreams is about acceptance: Tammy and Lawrence's Halloween marriage; Anita and Nathaniel; the Wicked Truth; Richard realizing that he's a hindrance; Anita's preferences in bed; and Damian's being accepted as a person with rights.
The key points are Anita's forming her second triumverate [sic] with Damian and Nathaniel which encourages Richard to acquiesce in merging their primary triumvirate. [We know this won't last!] The three of them also begin to analyze just what characteristics each has gotten from the other two…a useful exercise brought about by Anita's second triumveirate.
I do enjoy this series. Anita is such a kick-ass little thing. I especially enjoy when she forces acceptance on the big bruisers simply by being herself. The girl lives a full life with her harem, her job at Animators, Inc. and her encounters with Bert, the policework with which she's involved, her relationship with Ronnie, and the insights she uncovers about herself. Yeah, she and Richard both frustrate the heck out of me as well. It just keeps ya wonderin'.
In some ways, this is a very happy story with all the acceptance going on. Marriage, new triumvirates (re-)forged, warriors brought into the fold, Richard is actually trying, sexual preferences acknowledged, remodeling...
Busy, busy, busy...In some ways, this is a very happy story with all the acceptance going on. Marriage, new triumvirates (re-)forged, warriors brought into the fold, Richard is actually trying, sexual preferences acknowledged, remodeling...
Busy, busy, busy...
The Story
Anita is appalled that she welcomes a request to come to a murder scene when she's supposed to be at Tammy and Lawrence's wedding reception. A reception where she only makes more trouble for herself with Detective Jessica Arnet who is confused about the crossed signals flashing from Anita and Nathaniel. Hers is not the only confusion as Louis has asked Ronnie to marry him, sending Ronnie into a major fit. With a huge conflict between Ronnie viewing a future of monogamous bliss when she wants more what Anita has with her harem of men.
The major tragedy is a killing spree as an old master vamp kills his way across St. Louis easily stumping the St. Louis Police Department as he skips off to Skin Trade. The only one who doesn't buy the fake-out is Anita.
There are some pluses in Incubus Dreams, the Wicked Truth is absorbed into Jean-Claude's family; Richard, Anita, and JC finally merge their triumvirate; and, it Asher, Richard, and other friends helping to convert Damian’s basement coffin room into a space of his own.
The Characters
Anita Blake is a 26-year-old necromancer with a high kill-count in taking out vampires and other monsters as well as a Federal Marshal. A petite little thing, Anita is currently dating, officially, Jean-Claude while living with Micah and Nathaniel. Although Nathaniel is only "food" as are Jason, Requiem, Byron, and lord knows who else due to the ardeur which Anita has inherited from Jean-Claude through their triumvirate.
Micah is the Nimir Raj to Anita's Nimir Ra; leopard king to leopard queen. Micah and Anita live together along with Nathaniel, a stripper at Guilty Pleasures, one of Jean-Claude's clubs. Micah is also the leader of the Furry Coalition, an organization which promotes cross-shifter support and acceptance as well as liaises with government organizations such as the police and hospitals.
Jean-Claude is a 300+-year-old vampire who is the Master of the City of St. Louis. He is very much in love with Anita almost as much as he is love with power. Power which Jean-Claude sees as a way to protect himself and his vampires from stronger vampires who have hurt him and others in the past including his maker, Belle Morte. Anita is never sure with Jean-Claude if he's maneuvering her for power or simply from love. Jason is Jean-Claude's pomme de sang, a werewolf, and a stripper at Guilty Pleasures. Under Richard's rule, Jason still puts himself in danger to protect Anita from Richard's anger.
The Thronnos Rokke are...
...a clan of werewolves of whom Richard Zeeman, a junior high science teacher, is Ulfric. And he hates what he is. Richard wants the white picket fence with 2.5 children. Instead, he's a werewolf with the power of life and death over his wolves. He's also incredibly conflicted over Anita. He hates and loves her. He hates that she's more comfortable with the monsters than he is and wants nothing to do with her. Yet he also loves her and becomes violently jealous of the men in her bed.
the Regional Preternatural Investigation Team (RPIT) is...
...a division within the police department that deals with all things supernatural. Lieutenant Rudolph "Dolph" Storr is in command. Sergeant Zerbrowski is the main go-to guy on the vampire serial killings. Although there is a sheriff who throws his weight around until Anita shoves it right back at him. Then there's the Mobile Reserve, a SWAT team led by Captain Parker, that must enter the trap baited by a live hostage.
The Church of Eternal Life is...
...a vampire church with Malcolm as its Master. They are indulging in some very risky behavior with their eternal members; Jean-Claude and Anita will have to fix this soon. And make RPIT much happier.
The Cover
The cover is so very golden with the Anita propping herself up while blindfolded and wearing a very sexy teddy with partial lace cups. I suspect the red blindfold is simply to suggest the new depths to which Anita must accustom herself as she tries to understand her pard. The title, Incubus Dreams refers to the strip club on the other side of the river where yet another victim of the serial vampire killers is found.
December 27, 2011
Aannnnnnd.... This is where I just gave up...
I adored books 1-10, 11 was meh, and I tried so hard to like ID, even just to get through it. I'm a bit OCD when it comes to finishing books, and series. I guess I'm always afraid I'll miss something really good if I don't finish. I tried to read ID for weeks and got only 1/2 way through, considering I usually finish a book in a couple of days, that's really saying something. It's just one giant mess.
I have no problem with the sex, I generally have no problem with a character driven story, and I have no problem with a 'plot light' book. What I do have a problem with is the almost complete lack of plot, 100's of pages of the same metaphysical scene/problem that makes no sense, and I just couldn't do it anymore. Add to that the complete massacre of beloved characters, the ridiculousness of Micah, and Nathaniel, and I'm so over it.
One other thing I noticed this go around with Anita, is that while I used to thoroughly enjoy all the lesser characters, there are now so many that they are very much interchangeable, and unfortunately down right forgettable.
I'm guessing this is what happens when author's start 'churning them out' for contracts rather than actually having a plot in mind. This is the first series ever that I didn't finish.
I adored books 1-10, 11 was meh, and I tried so hard to like ID, even just to get through it. I'm a bit OCD when it comes to finishing books, and series. I guess I'm always afraid I'll miss something really good if I don't finish. I tried to read ID for weeks and got only 1/2 way through, considering I usually finish a book in a couple of days, that's really saying something. It's just one giant mess.
I have no problem with the sex, I generally have no problem with a character driven story, and I have no problem with a 'plot light' book. What I do have a problem with is the almost complete lack of plot, 100's of pages of the same metaphysical scene/problem that makes no sense, and I just couldn't do it anymore. Add to that the complete massacre of beloved characters, the ridiculousness of Micah, and Nathaniel, and I'm so over it.
One other thing I noticed this go around with Anita, is that while I used to thoroughly enjoy all the lesser characters, there are now so many that they are very much interchangeable, and unfortunately down right forgettable.
I'm guessing this is what happens when author's start 'churning them out' for contracts rather than actually having a plot in mind. This is the first series ever that I didn't finish.
December 17, 2009
I started reading the Anita Blake series two weeks ago...while at the beginning it seemed interesting, though just another vampire book, now I'm starting to that this is a complete waste of time.
The most important thing about this book is that Anita has a lot of sex. Continuously. With everybody and everywhere. You start wondering how she can walk anymore, if every two chapters she has sex with someone. Unfortunately, sex is not just a little spice added to the plot of the book. Sex is about everything that happens in this book. There is no plot and eventually, in the end, you will come to the conclusion that nothing changed. You could skip this book and not miss anything.
I understand that the sex was meant to make the books more attractive, and a bit of sex did make earlier books spicier. However, this book has reached a point where sex is not even interesting anymore.
I was utterly disappointed, no plot, just sex. This is not the way to write a book. Basically, the quality of the writing and of the storyline is really, really low.
The most important thing about this book is that Anita has a lot of sex. Continuously. With everybody and everywhere. You start wondering how she can walk anymore, if every two chapters she has sex with someone. Unfortunately, sex is not just a little spice added to the plot of the book. Sex is about everything that happens in this book. There is no plot and eventually, in the end, you will come to the conclusion that nothing changed. You could skip this book and not miss anything.
I understand that the sex was meant to make the books more attractive, and a bit of sex did make earlier books spicier. However, this book has reached a point where sex is not even interesting anymore.
I was utterly disappointed, no plot, just sex. This is not the way to write a book. Basically, the quality of the writing and of the storyline is really, really low.
January 8, 2010
This is a huge doorstop of a book and the latest installment of Anita Blake's sexcapades with beautiful otherworldly men.
This one begins at the wedding of Larry & Tammy whom after this interlude are not mentioned again. Anita is one of Larry's groomsmen. Her dates are Micah and Nathaniel. Hey, why bring one when you can have two?! Anita's trying to duck out on dancing with them when she's called to visit a murder scene. Yay, a murder investigation, I thought, the book is getting back to the series roots. No need to get excited though as it's only a small moment before we get back to the sex with the beautiful creatures.
As expected at this point in the series, the book features lots of sexual tension with Nathaniel (he of the beautiful violet eyes and desire to be bound and beaten) and Damien, and Asher, and Richard, and Jean Claude and Micah and . . . well, you get the picture. When the book begins Micah is Anita's #1 bed-mate and partner but as the book progresses Nathaniel finally moves up a little in the ranks. I was thrilled to see this as I have soft spot for Nathaniel.
This book was described to me by a friend who enjoyed the earlier books as "boring porn" and I can easily see why she felt this way. The sex with strangers which fills far too many pages is dull, unnecessary and frustratingly vanilla. How many men does Anita need in her harem anyway? It has reached ridiculous proportions. She'd be waddling like a penguin if she were human . . .
However, I still thought it was much better than the last few Anita Blake books because the author delves a little deeper into some of the relationships. The Jean Claude/Richard triangle is explored. Micah breaks down and becomes more than just another pretty face though he's quickly forgotten for most of the book. Nathaniel comes into his own and becomes a little less of a doormat for Anita to use for feeding her various hungers and for cooking and cleaning. Hey, where can I get a Nathaniel, anyway?
Like my review, the plot is all over the place. At one point Anita is called in to raise a zombie. I had almost forgotten she's a necromancer so it was nice to see her "working" again. But that plot which I found very interesting quickly went nowhere. She's also called in to investigate a suspected vampire serial killer targeting strippers. This plot fizzles and limps to a less than fulfilling end. In between the short moments of work, Anita seems to be angsting about the way her life has turned out and dealing with the ardeur and attempting to reconcile her feelings and complicated relationships with all of her boys.
Incubus Dreams managed to hold my attention for most of its many pages which is something most books can't manage to do but I'm on the fence about reading the next one.
This one begins at the wedding of Larry & Tammy whom after this interlude are not mentioned again. Anita is one of Larry's groomsmen. Her dates are Micah and Nathaniel. Hey, why bring one when you can have two?! Anita's trying to duck out on dancing with them when she's called to visit a murder scene. Yay, a murder investigation, I thought, the book is getting back to the series roots. No need to get excited though as it's only a small moment before we get back to the sex with the beautiful creatures.
As expected at this point in the series, the book features lots of sexual tension with Nathaniel (he of the beautiful violet eyes and desire to be bound and beaten) and Damien, and Asher, and Richard, and Jean Claude and Micah and . . . well, you get the picture. When the book begins Micah is Anita's #1 bed-mate and partner but as the book progresses Nathaniel finally moves up a little in the ranks. I was thrilled to see this as I have soft spot for Nathaniel.
This book was described to me by a friend who enjoyed the earlier books as "boring porn" and I can easily see why she felt this way. The sex with strangers which fills far too many pages is dull, unnecessary and frustratingly vanilla. How many men does Anita need in her harem anyway? It has reached ridiculous proportions. She'd be waddling like a penguin if she were human . . .
However, I still thought it was much better than the last few Anita Blake books because the author delves a little deeper into some of the relationships. The Jean Claude/Richard triangle is explored. Micah breaks down and becomes more than just another pretty face though he's quickly forgotten for most of the book. Nathaniel comes into his own and becomes a little less of a doormat for Anita to use for feeding her various hungers and for cooking and cleaning. Hey, where can I get a Nathaniel, anyway?
Like my review, the plot is all over the place. At one point Anita is called in to raise a zombie. I had almost forgotten she's a necromancer so it was nice to see her "working" again. But that plot which I found very interesting quickly went nowhere. She's also called in to investigate a suspected vampire serial killer targeting strippers. This plot fizzles and limps to a less than fulfilling end. In between the short moments of work, Anita seems to be angsting about the way her life has turned out and dealing with the ardeur and attempting to reconcile her feelings and complicated relationships with all of her boys.
Incubus Dreams managed to hold my attention for most of its many pages which is something most books can't manage to do but I'm on the fence about reading the next one.
Read
May 22, 2024Spoilers: A very dense installment in the series—in more ways than one. Anita’s ardeur continues to wreck her life; as she fights it, it gets worse. This is the novel where Anita FINALLY realizes that she’s in love with Nathaniel. Nathaniel, Damian, and Anita become a second triumvirate on accident and it shakes the power in all of them + Richard and Jean Claude. The longest / most painfully negotiated scene between Richard, Anita, and Jean Claude truly takes ages to get through due to Richard’s self-loathing and Anita’s stubborn foot-in-mouth reactions. They get there in the end but it’s a slog for the reader. This book is about sex, way more so than the other books in the series so far. We meet Requiem. We discover Malcolm’s Church of Eternal Life vampires don’t take blood oaths. We meet Wicked and Truth, and Anita binds Truth to her. The murder mystery in this one is very back burner and doesn’t get resolved—strippers are being hunted by a rogue pack of vamps (it’s Vittorio, he is not caught).
Other musings on this book:
Anita’s ability to call out Richard for his blatant homophobia while ignoring her own in regard to women drove me insane in this 2024 reread. Again, I know she has a personal reckoning later and it gets resolved, but wow is it painful to read and supposedly “normal” in the context of this novel.
I still continue to grate on the Madonna / good Christian girl vs. whore / slut dichotomy. I know these were written by a woman who was raised in a different time—1970s and 1980s, not millennial or whatnot—so the mindset is very different. And the books themselves were written in the early 2000s when the larger culture was also thinking about things in a much more repressed way. Anita walked so today’s authors could run. But it still gets me, and I like to point it out in case other readers think I’ve missed it and/or aren’t bothered.
Other musings on this book:
Anita’s ability to call out Richard for his blatant homophobia while ignoring her own in regard to women drove me insane in this 2024 reread. Again, I know she has a personal reckoning later and it gets resolved, but wow is it painful to read and supposedly “normal” in the context of this novel.
I still continue to grate on the Madonna / good Christian girl vs. whore / slut dichotomy. I know these were written by a woman who was raised in a different time—1970s and 1980s, not millennial or whatnot—so the mindset is very different. And the books themselves were written in the early 2000s when the larger culture was also thinking about things in a much more repressed way. Anita walked so today’s authors could run. But it still gets me, and I like to point it out in case other readers think I’ve missed it and/or aren’t bothered.
February 27, 2019
Poor strippers! Why kill them? :(
I'm sad that Anita just dancing in front of strangers makes her afraid. But Nathaniel is great at getting her to let go.
Nathaniel is so a 1950's wife! lol.
I'm happy for Damian that he can now be in the sunlight but sad it freaks him out.
Also happy they have a triumverate with Nathaniel now.
I'm sad that Anita just dancing in front of strangers makes her afraid. But Nathaniel is great at getting her to let go.
Nathaniel is so a 1950's wife! lol.
I'm happy for Damian that he can now be in the sunlight but sad it freaks him out.
Also happy they have a triumverate with Nathaniel now.
August 29, 2019
Still full of magic
November 11, 2021
Anita esta aprendiendo a vivir con el "ardeur", pero ahora tiene problemas mas grandes en su vida amorosa. Resulta que Nathaniel quiere tener sexo con ella, y Damian quiere pertenecerle tambien, si a eso anadimos a su relacion con Jean-Claude y Asher, y que ahora Richard quiere que el triunvirato tenga el poder que deberia, la vida sexual de Anita paso de ser casi monja a ser poliamorosa.
El problema con eso es que quiere a todos sus hombres, todos de manera diferente, pero los ama a todos, y ellos deben aceptar que para alimentar su "ardeur" a veces necesita mas companeros dispuestos que solo ellos.
Mientras tanto existe un grupo de vampiros que esta asesinando a stripers del otro lado del rio, y ella debe ayudar a la policia a buscar y ejecutar a los culpables, aunque muchos de ellos no lo veran con los mejores ojos.
Su vida personal es un desastre, su vida profesional es un desastre, su trabajo es un desastre, pero debe sobreponerse a todo para poder seguir adelante y lograr encontrar un balance en su vida.
Este libro peco de aburrido, demasiadas descripciones psicologicas redundantes, demasiados escenas de sexo casi sin sentido, demasiadas cosas pasando a la vez, no hay una linea detrama definida. En los ultimos libros las tramas se han vuelto cada vez mas confusas, menos logicas, como si el autor quisiera implementar mas de una en el mismo libro a la vez. Esto hace que la trama se vuelva aburrida, sin sentido y que el lector se sienta tan fastidiado del asunto que abandone la lectura.
Yo en algunos momentos tuve que esforzarme para seguir leyendo, incluso no brincar capitulos o parrafos que me parecian redundantes o repetivos para poder terminar la lectura. Otra cosa que me fastidio tambien, fue que en cada libro intenta hacer a la prota mas y mas sobrenatural practicamente de la nada, ademas con cada "poder" pareciera que se vuelve mas estupida, pero sigo con la esperanza de que los proximos libros la cosa mejore, por lo que voy a seguir leyendo, hasta que llegue el libro que no lo soporte mas y abandone la saga.
El problema con eso es que quiere a todos sus hombres, todos de manera diferente, pero los ama a todos, y ellos deben aceptar que para alimentar su "ardeur" a veces necesita mas companeros dispuestos que solo ellos.
Mientras tanto existe un grupo de vampiros que esta asesinando a stripers del otro lado del rio, y ella debe ayudar a la policia a buscar y ejecutar a los culpables, aunque muchos de ellos no lo veran con los mejores ojos.
Su vida personal es un desastre, su vida profesional es un desastre, su trabajo es un desastre, pero debe sobreponerse a todo para poder seguir adelante y lograr encontrar un balance en su vida.
Este libro peco de aburrido, demasiadas descripciones psicologicas redundantes, demasiados escenas de sexo casi sin sentido, demasiadas cosas pasando a la vez, no hay una linea detrama definida. En los ultimos libros las tramas se han vuelto cada vez mas confusas, menos logicas, como si el autor quisiera implementar mas de una en el mismo libro a la vez. Esto hace que la trama se vuelva aburrida, sin sentido y que el lector se sienta tan fastidiado del asunto que abandone la lectura.
Yo en algunos momentos tuve que esforzarme para seguir leyendo, incluso no brincar capitulos o parrafos que me parecian redundantes o repetivos para poder terminar la lectura. Otra cosa que me fastidio tambien, fue que en cada libro intenta hacer a la prota mas y mas sobrenatural practicamente de la nada, ademas con cada "poder" pareciera que se vuelve mas estupida, pero sigo con la esperanza de que los proximos libros la cosa mejore, por lo que voy a seguir leyendo, hasta que llegue el libro que no lo soporte mas y abandone la saga.
October 18, 2012
This book epitomizes all that went wrong with this series. It starts tantalizingly like the early books, seeming like it might be another noir-like supernatural mystery. And there were several developments that would be enough for several books, which might be cool if they were followed up in either the book or the series. But I don't think Hamilton had any clue any longer (if she ever had) about where she wanted to take this series. Many people, including me, complain about the focus on sex. In this 750-page book, if you took away the chapters-long sex scenes, you'd have a novella. I'm not against sex. I am against badly written sex that turns out to be filler. And by this point I think the sex isn't just cheesy and pointless. It's distraction. It's a symptom of a deeper problem, that Hamilton will not or cannot develop her characters further. In the earlier books we were teased about where the triumvirate of Jean-Claude/Anita/Richard might lead. Would Anita gain another mark and lose her humanity? How would Richard and Jean-Claude come to terms with each other? Even with my objections to Narcissus in Chains, there was at least potential for how things might develop with the pard. But all that is lost as Anita adds more and more men to her harem, rather than develop the relationships she has. The book is a mess. And not all the sex in the world can hide that.
November 25, 2014
wasn't quite sure how to rate this... some parts I enjoyed while others I was thinking "okay, i get the point can we move on?" at times it almost felt like two different books.
i'm not a prude, i don't mind hot sex scenes in a book... but when its overkill, thats when I get bored/annoyed... It was interesting learning new tidbits about the Ardeur and Anita controlling it but for me it got tiresome seeing one sex scene then a few pages later... it kind felt like she was repeating herself too much... at times I wanted to give up on the book and not finish it.
The crime part to me was more interesting and not a whole lot of time seemed devoted to that.
Did have some sympathy for Richard once we learn some of his reasoning and he earns points for trying to change but still don't trust him.
The stuff with Micah and Nathaniel were sweet though... you can tell they really care about Anita... Jean Claude wasn't as present in this book but he stole every scene he was in, love that bastard hehe :)
the new situation with damian/nathaniel/anita is interesting, it'll be interesting to see how everyone;s new abilities will develop
all in all, i mostly enjoyed myself but if the books continue to be this smutty, i may just give them away and keep the older ones
ignore any typos please haha, bit tired
i'm not a prude, i don't mind hot sex scenes in a book... but when its overkill, thats when I get bored/annoyed... It was interesting learning new tidbits about the Ardeur and Anita controlling it but for me it got tiresome seeing one sex scene then a few pages later... it kind felt like she was repeating herself too much... at times I wanted to give up on the book and not finish it.
The crime part to me was more interesting and not a whole lot of time seemed devoted to that.
Did have some sympathy for Richard once we learn some of his reasoning and he earns points for trying to change but still don't trust him.
The stuff with Micah and Nathaniel were sweet though... you can tell they really care about Anita... Jean Claude wasn't as present in this book but he stole every scene he was in, love that bastard hehe :)
the new situation with damian/nathaniel/anita is interesting, it'll be interesting to see how everyone;s new abilities will develop
all in all, i mostly enjoyed myself but if the books continue to be this smutty, i may just give them away and keep the older ones
ignore any typos please haha, bit tired
April 25, 2013
I start most reviews with a recap. That would require there to be plot for me to recap. Ok fine, I’ll try:
Anita gains new woo-woo (lots of sex is needed)
Relationship angst
Strippers are murdered, people manage to care about that at the end of the book.
There, done.
It never ceases to amaze me how a book can go on for so long before anything relevant happens – and there can be no greater example of this than Incubus Dreams which also sets a pattern for most of the later Anita Blake books: beyond the sex, angst, relationships issues and random new super powers Anita pulls out of her vagina every book (or including them all) is the simple irrelevancy.
This book begins with Larry and Tammy’s wedding. Now, you would be forgiven for forgetting these characters since they’ve hardly been mentioned for several books and certainly not played any significant role since... well, Larry not since Burnt Offerings I think. And nor will they in the next 9 books. Why are they here? Why are we devoting so much page space to a pair of characters who have been virtually dropped from the series?
It’s not like these moments are supposed to show Anita’s mundane life as we saw in earlier books (when she actually worked and helped in police cases rather than spending her whole time with her harem), or if it’s supposed to be, it does it extremely poorly because this ISN’T her daily life – spending time with these people is a one off out of her daily life of harem-management. It is an irrelevant distraction from who Anita is, what matters to her and what she does – and the whole thing was just used as a vehicle to describe Anita’s relationship with Nathaniel anyway, with only a brief consideration of the bride and groom.
Then there’s Ronnie and her issues – again, taking up pages and pages from a character who has all-but been dropped from the series and ends up being, yet again, another vehicle to talk about Anita’s issues.
Except for one, painfully brief, wave from the plot we actually get through 30% of this book without anything substantial happening. We have these brief vignettes of irrelevant characters. We have interminable pages of her naval gazing over Nathanial (basically summed up with “should I have sex with him?), a new super-power randomly appearing for random reasons of randomness. And Damian’s creator popping in for… reasons and doing… stuff. No, really, I have no freaking clue why Moroven decided to get involved or what she hoped to achieve or why nor what purpose it served in the story; it could have been crafty foreshadowing but, 9 books later, it still hasn’t lead anywhere. It’s a plot hook with no line attached.
In fact, I take it back, we get through most of this book without anything substantial happening. There’s Damian (cured by sex), Ronnie’s issues (used to show how mean she is to Anita because all women must hate her), there’s Nathaniel’s issues (more sex) there’s an argument she has with a client (which leads to sex with Nathanial) and issue with Primo at one of Jean-Claude’s clubs (which leads to sex with Requiem and Byron). She goes to see a client at a cemetery (woo-woo sex with Requiem and Graham). And this isn’t even all the sex. Seriously, she has sex with everyone in this book, pretty much. And has to talk about it - all the damn time. Some of these sex scenes and their post/pre-sex warm up/angst session go on for 50 pages or more! Sweet gods of lust, just shag and move on already!
There’s no plot here. The story about some strippers being murdered is a random interlude between the angst and sex. It just hides in a corner, occasionally waves for attention, then disappears. We don’t even have any kind of conclusion to it. It’s more bad guys arrive, kill some strippers, are ignored, eave fodder behind, go away. The end. Woo-woo is involved
This huge cast of characters is also beginning to spawn all its little side-plots – like Ronnie and her issues, Arnet after Nathanial (oh look, women jealous of Anita! All women, everywhere, ever. Female friends are forbidden!), Gregory and Stephen’s father, Richard’s endless whining – but they’re all just THERE. It’s not developed, they just occasionally pop up and then disappear.
Also I am really sick of the Ardeur – not just because it turned this book into porn (and I don’t use that world lightly, but this book has no plot and a series of woo-woo incidents that set up the next set scene. A story where there’s no plot and only convoluted set ups for sex scenes is porn) but for the way it destroys the very concept of consent. Anita does not want to have sex with Nathaniel. This could not be made clearer. She does not want to have sex with him. She does not want to have intimate contact with him and is desperately trying to preserve as much space between them as she can. The only reason she is intimate with Nathaniel is because she is forced to by the damn awful Ardeur. Which is already bad enough but the damn Ardeur comes with a secondary plague: Super Wise Dear Abby Jason (hereby known as Jasby). Yes, Jason who, frankly, I don’t like. I don’t like his constant sexual come ons that he knows makes Anita uncomfortable. And I don’t like his “I read all the advice columns so that makes me super duper wise” pathetic pseudo-therapy that he gives Anita, because the crumb of it that is actually right is only right because Anita has the emotional maturity of a 10 year old with an almost stalkery obsession with her ex-boyfriend in college which she really needs to get the hell over already.
Read More
Anita gains new woo-woo (lots of sex is needed)
Relationship angst
Strippers are murdered, people manage to care about that at the end of the book.
There, done.
It never ceases to amaze me how a book can go on for so long before anything relevant happens – and there can be no greater example of this than Incubus Dreams which also sets a pattern for most of the later Anita Blake books: beyond the sex, angst, relationships issues and random new super powers Anita pulls out of her vagina every book (or including them all) is the simple irrelevancy.
This book begins with Larry and Tammy’s wedding. Now, you would be forgiven for forgetting these characters since they’ve hardly been mentioned for several books and certainly not played any significant role since... well, Larry not since Burnt Offerings I think. And nor will they in the next 9 books. Why are they here? Why are we devoting so much page space to a pair of characters who have been virtually dropped from the series?
It’s not like these moments are supposed to show Anita’s mundane life as we saw in earlier books (when she actually worked and helped in police cases rather than spending her whole time with her harem), or if it’s supposed to be, it does it extremely poorly because this ISN’T her daily life – spending time with these people is a one off out of her daily life of harem-management. It is an irrelevant distraction from who Anita is, what matters to her and what she does – and the whole thing was just used as a vehicle to describe Anita’s relationship with Nathaniel anyway, with only a brief consideration of the bride and groom.
Then there’s Ronnie and her issues – again, taking up pages and pages from a character who has all-but been dropped from the series and ends up being, yet again, another vehicle to talk about Anita’s issues.
Except for one, painfully brief, wave from the plot we actually get through 30% of this book without anything substantial happening. We have these brief vignettes of irrelevant characters. We have interminable pages of her naval gazing over Nathanial (basically summed up with “should I have sex with him?), a new super-power randomly appearing for random reasons of randomness. And Damian’s creator popping in for… reasons and doing… stuff. No, really, I have no freaking clue why Moroven decided to get involved or what she hoped to achieve or why nor what purpose it served in the story; it could have been crafty foreshadowing but, 9 books later, it still hasn’t lead anywhere. It’s a plot hook with no line attached.
In fact, I take it back, we get through most of this book without anything substantial happening. There’s Damian (cured by sex), Ronnie’s issues (used to show how mean she is to Anita because all women must hate her), there’s Nathaniel’s issues (more sex) there’s an argument she has with a client (which leads to sex with Nathanial) and issue with Primo at one of Jean-Claude’s clubs (which leads to sex with Requiem and Byron). She goes to see a client at a cemetery (woo-woo sex with Requiem and Graham). And this isn’t even all the sex. Seriously, she has sex with everyone in this book, pretty much. And has to talk about it - all the damn time. Some of these sex scenes and their post/pre-sex warm up/angst session go on for 50 pages or more! Sweet gods of lust, just shag and move on already!
There’s no plot here. The story about some strippers being murdered is a random interlude between the angst and sex. It just hides in a corner, occasionally waves for attention, then disappears. We don’t even have any kind of conclusion to it. It’s more bad guys arrive, kill some strippers, are ignored, eave fodder behind, go away. The end. Woo-woo is involved
This huge cast of characters is also beginning to spawn all its little side-plots – like Ronnie and her issues, Arnet after Nathanial (oh look, women jealous of Anita! All women, everywhere, ever. Female friends are forbidden!), Gregory and Stephen’s father, Richard’s endless whining – but they’re all just THERE. It’s not developed, they just occasionally pop up and then disappear.
Also I am really sick of the Ardeur – not just because it turned this book into porn (and I don’t use that world lightly, but this book has no plot and a series of woo-woo incidents that set up the next set scene. A story where there’s no plot and only convoluted set ups for sex scenes is porn) but for the way it destroys the very concept of consent. Anita does not want to have sex with Nathaniel. This could not be made clearer. She does not want to have sex with him. She does not want to have intimate contact with him and is desperately trying to preserve as much space between them as she can. The only reason she is intimate with Nathaniel is because she is forced to by the damn awful Ardeur. Which is already bad enough but the damn Ardeur comes with a secondary plague: Super Wise Dear Abby Jason (hereby known as Jasby). Yes, Jason who, frankly, I don’t like. I don’t like his constant sexual come ons that he knows makes Anita uncomfortable. And I don’t like his “I read all the advice columns so that makes me super duper wise” pathetic pseudo-therapy that he gives Anita, because the crumb of it that is actually right is only right because Anita has the emotional maturity of a 10 year old with an almost stalkery obsession with her ex-boyfriend in college which she really needs to get the hell over already.
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February 7, 2009
If you’ve read one Anita Blake book, you’ve read them all… Actually, this wasn't always the case, but lately, since Anita lost all or most of her scruples, we just find her in bed with a bunch of guys, vamps, lycanthropes, every few pages. She is living the orgy. And while this might make some of us tingle with jealousy, and some of us just tingle lasciviously, mostly, it just gets exhausting. Does Anita sleep? I’m exhausted on her behalf. And in this particular book, I was DYING for a plot. Really. There are people being killed by some invading master vamp, and we don’t find out much about it because Anita is too distracted by her many lovers. She can’t keep track of them all and neither can we. I’m starting to feel like I did with Jean M. Auel’s Plains of Passage – could y’all just stop screwing around and do something? I’m boooored. I need a bit more plot with my sex, please. I’ve heard all of this stuff before, and I want to see/hear something new. There’s the continual battle with Richard and his self-hatred to deal with, and Anita thinking, oh I musn’t come on to Nathaniel because he is sweet and depends on me – but she gets over that eventually. I feel like half the book is arguing about who she can or can’t get it on with and the other half is her throwing caution to the wind and getting it on. And THAT, my friends, reads more like romance novels than it does Anita Blake, executioner. I devoured this series when I first found it, and it's really gone down hill since then. I skimmed a lot here, reading agead to see if anything interesting was *ever* going to happen. I was ready for another big show down between Jean Claude and the invading vamps, but it never happens. Have to say I was disappointed. Titillated for about an hour, but then disappointed. Sorry, Laurell, I hope your next one’s better.
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