Burnt Offerings (edition 2002)

Sturm und Drang

And another series with huge potential that crashes and burns - and I can't decide if it does it in a ball of flames, or a sputter of wet firecrackers. OMG. Let's talk about the characters I used to love. I had SUCH the high hopes that I was going to go through this whole series as happy with the remainder as I was with the first couple in the series. Sigh.

Let's see. Anita is working with Jean Claude, as usual. Things are going to hell in a handcart, as usual, as the `Vampire Overlords" decide that JC and AB are too strong to leave alive. Anita gives her protection, not only to the submissives of the wolf pack (see "The Killing Dance) but also to the Pard - the Leopard pack. Her growing `psychological confusion' (read `doesn't pay attention, think things through, develop anything even approaching emotional maturity, or consider the depth and importance of the responsibilities that she is accepting - these are people's LIVES she is being so cavalier with) ends with the submissives being brutalized, gutted and gang raped. When she finally gets her head out of her backside, and goes to the hospital to try to help "protect" the submissives, she winds up having a hysterical fear fit in front of the most submissive members of two packs. She might as well have rolled over on her back and peed herself. And she is supposed to be protecting - LEADING these poor people?? I wanted so badly for Anita to be the strong, tough, dependable, and yet human and caring person she started out being developed as. Instead, she is decompressing into a nasty, self centred, whiny, fearful, (insert disappointing descriptor here) waste of ink and paper. I am soooooo disappointed!

Richard - while I understand why and how he is going into psychological meltdown, I no longer either respect him, or pity his plight. He hates himself, what he is, and what it is going to require to do the job he has taken on. But he, like Anita, would rather piss and moan than take the necessary responsibility. And pissing and moaning gets people who depend on them killed. He loves Anita completely - but he hates himself so much, instead of setting the stage to show her his wolf in a safe, controlled environment (Killing Dance) he throws her in the middle of Dante's Inferno, in a manner guaranteed to shock and appall her to her toes - to drive her away. In this installment, he continues to torment her, and himself (and every poor soul around them), while have a total burnout and again letting down the people that depend on him.

Hysterics. Nervous breakdowns. Temper tantrums. It is all just too, too middle school. Do none of these people ever GROW UP??? Richard wants Anita. Anita wants Richard and Jean Claude. Fine. Richard and Anita need to just grow the freak up. They are a triad now, so act like one. Jean Claude is used to menage - Richard and Anita need to grow up and realize that if the pull is so strong, it is for a reason, and they should exploit it. Everyone is happy, everyone draws on everyone else's strength, the sex would be incredible (voice of experience - and besides, with their link? And we KNOW that Hamilton's coming `sex party' setup, it would be perfect, and the Sturm und Drang factor could go away, allowing for MUCH MUCH MUCH better character and non homo-sapiens species development) . . . and I don't get a migraine from listening to the two of them bitch and whine and put everyone else s lives at risk so they can have a pissing contest. I didn't expect this to turn into a cross between the "Eclipse" series and the "Clique" series (yes, I know some teenagers). Again, too, too middle school.

I'm tired. I can't even finish this one. The only person I still respect is Jean Claude. I adore some of the new characters - Stephen, the leopards Anita has failed. But it isn't worth the aggravation of putting up with Hamilton turning this into a literal `Circus of the Damned". Hamilton had the opportunity to develop a marvelous series of depth and breadth. She was introducing new characters, in depth profiles of new types of non homo sapiens species. I was quite pleased and hopeful, even though there were definitely some things I could have lived without. But I am tired. Time is precious, there are a lot of books I want to read, and Hamilton has blown it already, with fourteen or so more volumes in the offing and no hope in sight. A crushing disappointment. LOL. Maybe I will have to join the family of fan fiction writers and rewrite this volume myself the way it should have been written, just for my own enjoyment and to take the bitter taste out of my mouth! I could `wrap the series up' for myself in an enjoyable manner, and pretend that this whole screw-up didn't disappoint me so deeply! ( )

There's a lot to like about the Anita Blake series, and a lot to hate. I've been reading them back to back, so I'm up to my eyeballs in both right now.

Anita is a pretty great character - partly because she is so annoying. She is tough and graceless, incredibly violent yet incredibly loyal, a wiseass who never, ever lets go of her schtick.

At first I was really into her dilemmas - is she becoming a monster, what is the difference between the monsters and the people? When does she stop being a protector of humanity and start being a sociopath? The thing is, all Anita does - over and over and yet over again - is say something like, "Am I becoming a monster? Oh well, can't worry about that now - time to shoot someone!" - this question is not getting much more nuanced. Just repeated.

I will also admit that the more costumey the series becomes, the less I like it. In the beginning the series did have more of a connection to reality; normal people with abnormal problems. But in Burnt Offerings the characters all have theatrical names like The Traveler and Yvette, and they're always wearing these absurd outfits that are at a very minimum dated - lots of lycra and bicycle shorts, mixed with frilly lace tops, and chaps, and dear lord but it is leather leather leather. Leather capes, leather pants, leather thong underwear, leather coats, leather boots (Hamilton will describe every boot that Jean Claude wears in loving detail, as though she hasn't already described fifty other different black boots, and they are always "riding" his legs).

And while we're on the topic, it drives me nuts that Anita dresses so badly - I literally cringe every time that Hamilton makes sure to specify that Anita is wearing a fannypack. A fannypack, for crying out loud. No. Really. A fannypack.

And I do not - I really, really do not - need to know what color the swoosh on Anita's Nike's is, every time that Anita sticks her feet in a pair of shoes. But Hamilton says it anyway. Every time.

When Hamilton describes somebody's clothing, she'll end up with "and x shoes and y accessory completed the outfit" - I had no idea I could grow to hate the words "completed the outfit" but I really have. Actually, Hamilton has a habit of repeating phrases - "bench press a Toyota" is another one. Vampires are always strong enough to "bench press a Toyota." Wearing a gun strapped to the inner thigh chafes. She says that at least twice every book. The list could go on. At first I really, really liked Hamilton's style - sassy, discursive, hard-boiled. Now I wish that she had a few more tricks up her sleeve.

Another admission. I was chewing my nails waiting for Anita and Jean Claude to finally, finally have sex. Now that they have I don't really know if I need to read any more. I don't like Richard Zeeman. He is whiny, he is a broken record (it is stuck on this line: "I am so hideous! Woe is me!"), and Anita is right when she says that they'd never work out.

Frankly, I think the series might be stagnant by this point. The characters haven't gotten more complex. They've just gotten more powerful, and into bigger messes. More scenery, less content.

I like dirty novels well enough and I might read more of the series just for that. But more sex won't constitute "growth" or "complexity" any more than Anita's ever-increasing list of supernatural powers do.

And, last but not least, a little friendly notice to all the authors in the world, or at least the ones who write in English: If you don't speak French, do not put French in your books! It will be incorrect, and then people who speak French will read your book, and then they will be annoyed and feel superior! I know, because that's what happens to me when Hamilton makes mistakes with her French. ( )

I very much wanted to give this one a fair chance, but I still couldn't bring myself to like it. It makes me a little sad because I remember enjoying the Anita Blake series so much when I was younger, but I do feel the quality of the books have started declining, probably about a book or two back.

This one was my least favorite so far. It did have its high points, but on the whole I just couldn't spot a cogent plot no matter how hard I looked. Random sequences seemed like they were thrown together, mixed in with some vampire politics and a healthy dose of drama from Anita's love life. And speaking of which, I too am noticing what a lot of reviewers have observed, which is the series' direction into more sexually charged waters. So much of it was unnecessary in this book. And what has LKH done to Richard?! She has turned him into a petulant, immature and jealous 13-year-old brat.

After reading this book, I also realized how wonderful it would be if GoodReads had a separate rating system for audiobooks. By itself, I think the novel would have gotten a 1 or 1.5 star rating from me. But the narrator for the audio version is amazing! She makes even the mediocre story engaging with her voice acting, and she's probably the only reason why I'm going to continue giving this series a chance. My county library has the next two books available in audio format to borrow. ( )

Book 7th the Vampire Council is in St. Louis to test Jean-Claude triumvirate and his people. Anita also has to deal with the wereanimals and an arsonist setting vampire-owned businesses ablaze with vampires in the buildings. ( )

This book marks the first appearance of Nathaniel the were-leopard, with his lavender eyes and vanilla scent. I'm tempted to take two stars off the rating just for that.... Otherwise, this is still classic Anita Blake, before it took a dive off a precipice in Narcisssus in Chains. Anita's life had gotten much more complicated in the last book where she finally broke the books-long sexual tension and became Jean-Claude's lover. Naturally that has all sorts of fall out as does her taking out Gabriel, the leader of the local were-leopards. Yes, back then, actions in the books before did have consequences in the Anitaverse. This book offers a lot of action--a lot of violence really, some of which is disturbing. On the other hand, it's not all blood and guts. One aspect I really liked in this book was the exploration of Jean-Claude's past with Asher and Julianna. This is a book where I still liked Anita for all her flaws--and the world Hamilton was building. ( )