Susan Hated Literature

So I bought my shiny shiny Nintendo DS Lite last night. And got a great deal from Argos. €149 for the console, a game^[1] and an accessory pack. So basically I paid for the console and got the rest of the stuff for free. I also bought one of those Brain Training thingies. Which was supposed to cost 30 quid, only they only charged my 15. Score!

And I’ve gone ahead and ordered my R2 card plus 2gb micro card so once that arrives I’ll be well sorted for all my gaming needs.

In other news Carl’s RIP Challenge comes to an end today. And for it I read Fool Moon by Jim Butcher, The Prestige by Christopher Priest, Danse Macabre by Laurell K. Hamilton, Wormwood by Poppy Z.Brite, Lost Souls by Michael Collins, and The Road by Cormac MacCarthy. And I’ve just bought Stephanie Meyer’s Eclipse^[2] so I’ll read that this evening. And there are plenty more reviews for you to investigate here.

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Author: Laurell K. Hamilton
ISBN: 1841494747 DDC: 813.54
#14 in the Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter verse
Read for the RIP Challenge
See also: LibraryThing ; Voracious Reader ; It’s not the heat, it’s the humanity

It was the middle of November. I was supposed to be out jogging, but instead I was sitting at my breakfast table talking about men, sex, werewolves, vampires, and that thing that most unmarried but sexual active women fear most of all - a missed period.

It all went downhill so quickly in this series. The first few books were good solid entertainment. Plenty of action and fairly decent characters. But now they are all merely vehicles for Anita to have sex with as many people as she can. And to top it all they are badly written as well. Thank god I got this one from the library and didn’t shell out actual cash for it.

Continue Reading »

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ISBN: 0515140872
Author: Laurel K Hamilton
Series: Anita Blake #13
DDC: 813.54

It was half past dawn when the phone rang. It shattered the first dreams of the night into a thousand peices so that I couldn’t even remember what the dream had been about.

I’m not really sure why I picked this book up, after the last few turned into nothing but porn I thought I’d give them a miss. But it was only €7, and I’ve read the others so I thought I may as well be a completioniest. But this doesn’t really seem to be the same as the others in the series. Its shorter, and there really isn’t any plot. I mean there is a storyline about raising some fella who died of a heart attack before he could testify to the FBI, but that isn’t what the book is about. It is just the setting Hamilton chose to get Micah and Anita on their own.

In a way this is a character piece. Micah has never really had a strong role in any of the other books, so this is Hamilton’s chance to explain a bit about him, and his background. And there isn’t even that much sex. So little plot, little smut, its all about character interaction and Anita and Micah getting to know each other a little better.

I do have to wonder about the cover though. Honestly look at it and say it isn’t off-putting.

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Author: Laurell K. Hamilton
Part I here; You might as well read it first

I know, I know, I said in my first review of these books that I prolly wouldn’t be buying the rest, but who am I to resist a bargain, and of course there is my completest tendency So I’ve now read them all apart from no.4 Lunatic Cafe, I’m sure I’ll get around to it.

First, the good points, less of the Nikes. Yeah!

But apart from that this review is going to be fairly similar to the other; I am talking about the same ‘verse, with the same characters and everything. Only difference, way more sex, and a whole lot less story, plot and characterisation (I guess I’m on to the bad parts already).
My favourite of all of these books is Obsidian Butterfly, because Hamilton actually gets her ass in gear and tells the story. There are characters that we learn about, and who doesn’t love the character of Edward, what with his love of killing?

But that one book excepted it feels like Hamilton has decided to give plots a wide berth, and instead focus not just on emotion, but sex. And boy it feels like you cant turn a page without landing in the middle of another sex scene. In my opinion that is just plain boring. As Kelley Armstrong wrote somewhere; there is only so much “sex in the woods” that one person can write before it becomes crap (my words there, but you get the gist). And frankly I don’t need all those indepth descriptions everytime Anita does someone. Sure, I get that sex is important, and because of certain things that happen, becomes a power source, but still. I mean at times it is just plain ridiculous.

So ridiculous in fact that the mystery in the last two books need not exist. Its not even dealt with, just brought up in order to get Anita into position for sex in a different position, or situation or with someone new. Yawn.

Yet, despite this I do like the characters of Anita, Jean-Claude and the others. But we don’t get to see enough of them as anything but sex on legs. And as for Richard and his hang-ups, my god has that been going on for an age and a half.

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