Gwen’s review of Blood Noir (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, Book 16) by Laurell K. Hamilton
Urban fantasy hardcover released by Berkley 27 May 08
I’ve heard people describe this book as “florid” and reviews using phrases like “growing sense of ennui”. I agree and I disagree. Read on to find out where I depart ways with other reviewers and where I think they may have a point… At the end of this post, there’s also a little bonus review of Hamilton’s 5 June 2007 release, Strange Candy – a single author anthology.
I’ve been reading Anita Blake novels for a long while. I wouldn’t say they’re an auto-buy, though I do always end up reading them and normally sooner than later. There’s a lot of things that I find compelling about Hamilton’s AB books – the paranormal elements, the kick-ass heroine who always seems to get more powerful, and interesting plot lines.
There’s a lot I don’t find so compelling about the Blake novels, too. Anita’s emotional dithering is, as always, painful to drag thru even if now she seems more at peace with herself than ever before. And can I say I hate Richard? I have always hated Richard. Sometimes he is sweet, but always he is annoying. I don’t understand Hamilton’s purpose behind leaving the Loser around and I hope she kills him off soon. I just don’t have patience for annoying men, whether in novels or real life.
In my opinion, the start of the last few AB novels have been almost lethargic and Noir is no exception. We spend the first half of the book examining Jason’s familial navel lint. For those of you who are unaware of who Jason is, he’s Jean-Claude’s pomme de sang (blood donor) and one of Anita’s good friends. Jason’s dad is dying and he talks Anita into going home with him to prove to his SOB of a dad that he’s not gay. There’s an awful lot alluded to and left totally unexplained about this part of North Carolina and Jason’s family – one of things that can really bug me about a book. I like nicely tied off loose ends, and, while the ends don’t have to end happy or even neatly, it’s nice to have just some identification of what that point meant or that it might mean something in the future.
After a sleepy first half, the book picks up considerable speed and ends with a full-out bang. I really love it when Anita’s bad side comes out. She’s so much more in control and so much more interesting. We’re still left hovering at the end of the book – not quite knowing what Belle Morte has in mind for our happy troupe, but I don’t imagine that will be left in question in the next book,
I recommend this book to any fan of the Anita Blake novels and to fans of LKH. While it could be read as a standalone, some some small amount of confusion, I don’t think it should. You need some of the background from the earlier novels to understand Marmee Noir and others.
Grade: B-
Summary:
A favor for Jason, vampire hunter Anita Blake’s werewolf lover, puts her in the center of a fullblown scandal that threatens master-vampire Jean- Claude’s reign-and makes her a pawn in an ancient vampire queen’s new rise to power.
Read excerpts here – links at the bottom of the page.
Gwen’s review of Strange Candy by Laurell K. Hamilton
Paranormal anthology released by Berkley 5 Jun 07 (hardcover 5 Oct 06)
This is a single author anthology released last year, containing 14 little tidbits from LKH. Among them are a couple of Anita Blake stories, a cute cupid story, a grimly funny story about a super hero turned villain, various other paranormal oddities, and many others – some short, some not. It’s an interesting little book that is worth picking up from a UBS or used from Amazon.com. I enjoyed it, though was underwhelmed a couple of times.
Overall Grade: C+
Summary:
The #1 New York Times bestselling author’s short story collection-including an all-new Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter story-now in paperback.
From a woman who marries into a family of volatile wizards to a couple fleeing a gang of love-hungry cupids, from a girl who seeks sanctuary in the form of a graceful goose to the disgruntled superhero Captain Housework, readers will revel in the many twists and turns of fortune in these fantastical fairy tales and lush parables. Even hardened vampire hunter and zombie animator Anita Blake gets blindsided by the disturbing motives of her clients in the new “Those Who Seek Forgiveness” and in “The Girl Who Was Infatuated with Death.”
No excerpt available.
Click on the Anita Blake Vampire Hunter series tag or on Laurell K. Hamilton tag to read more about this series or this author.
Thanks for writing a review of this book that didn’t just go over the same old, same old. I made the mistake of looking at the reviews on Amazon and wow those people are BITTER. So it’s lovely to see a review that doesn’t just say .. we want the old books again, blah, blah, followed by calling the author every name under the sun.
Chez – I haven’t had much luck with Amazon reviews of fiction. I’ve bought a couple of books I was on the fence about because of those reviews, and very much regretted it.
Non-fiction book reviews seem to be much more balanced. I’ve had very good luck buying those based on the amazon reviews.
I don’t know what the deal is with amazon and fiction reviews. Perhaps giving a wide open soap box to that many people begs for crap to get posted.
Personally, I think amazon should delete anything that has any kind of personal attack in it – there’s no place for that in a book review, IMHO. Attack the book, sure, but not real people. That’s just dumb.