Narcissus in Chains

Anita Blake is taking a much needed vacation. She's been away from most of her friends in St. Louis for the better part of six months. She's spent the time thinking, meditating, and learning to control her power and the psychic marks she shares with Richard and Jean Claude. Now she's hoping to reconnect with her friends and lovers and reassess matters.

Unfortunately for her, she will not be able to do this at the leisurely pace she originally imagined. Enemies have come to town and her absence from the men in her life have allowed the wolf pack to weaken and Jean Claude's powers to wane. Now she's playing catch up while trying to deal with a whole new battery of supernatural problems. It seems that reconnecting the marks with her two show more boyfriends has led to her unexpectedly taking on the powers of a succubus from Jean Claude. To further complicate matters, a brief but bloody tussle with some murderous lycanthropes has left her possibly infected with lycanthropy and likely to become a leopard at the next full moon.

Richard is not pleased and quickly dumps her and moves to depose her as lupa. Oh. And there's someone new in town. He's also a wereleopard and his beast and Anita's have apparently mated almost at first sight. The awakening of the ardeur causes them to fuck almost immediately. Both Jean Claude and Richard are different levels of skeptical but they'll all have to put their suspicions aside if they are going to survive the latest serial killer who is targeting were alphas.

This is the book that jumps the dildo-finned sex shark. This book is absolutely manic. Every page is either sex scenes or gun fights and sometimes both at once. That being said, it's at least not as tedious as some of the later books. I'd rather have Anita running bizarrely from one life threatening situation to the next instead of getting bogged down in extended dialogue scenes or whatever else.

Despite that fact that you can almost feel the plot accelerate downhill, I still enjoyed this book. It's silly fun and has some of my favorite characters returning which was a relief after the last book. I am also liking Micah more than I remembered, although I still resent LKH for never giving Jean Claude enough time. He really is Anita's soul mate but he's always taking the back seat and bearing the brunt of Anita's wrath over her own insecurities. show less

Another delicious read so cram packed with detail that I almost want to go back and instantly reread it because I am sure I missed a lot. The ardeur has appeared and from here on in likely too much sex.
Rereading in 2018 with more attention to detail...aware of inconsistencies and sections that should have been excised. I wanted to understand why so many fans were negative about this book and complained that it was where the wheels fell off the Anita Blake express. I actually enjoyed the book this time as much as all the other times. The roiling of beasts between Micah and Anita together is too long and boring...even the first time. Too much repetition. The sex wasn't overwhelming. Interesting cast of characters introduced. Relationships show more progressing as expected. Backstories being filled in nicely. It is hard not to keep feeling that Anita Blake is far too much of a Mary Sue but I think part of that problem is...we forget it is fantasy land, superhero shit. I mean, really, vampires, shapeshifters, witches, magic, necromancers, sorcerers, and demons, so why not superwoman. Most readers know that just because a writer's book has a serial killer written with much detail..that the writer is not in real life a serial killer or ever even dreams of being one and is not writing out his personal fantasies. So why do people think/assume that LKH is writing hers as Mary Sue. Part of the problem is she has put a bit too much of her personal life out in public and proselytizes for polyandry like it is the latest and greatest invention and the best thing since sliced bread and anyone who doesn't agree with her is backward and uptight and needs therapy. Suspension of disbelief is what is called for....Anita is a sponge or a new kind of vampire...that absorbs powers and traits from everyone and everything she touches. The fact that she is not a character a reader can identify with or even particularly care about is beside the point if the action and the other characters and the story keep you reading...that is what a book should do. It seems that there is an explanation for each new power...they do not just appear. So, so far, this is still a viable series and has not jumped the shark yet for me. ONE Quibble.....very end, throw away in epilogue...cobra king and son died. IS THIS ANY BLOODY WAY TO GIVE CLOSURE TO THE DEATH OF JANE TALBOT'S SON ANDY. As a reader I am not even sure she meant Andy. He was alive when she went for Rex the lion. No mention of Rebecca/Ursa's death. Like these people whose lives started the investigation were of no bloody importance at all when the dust settled. All that shit of sex and melding of beasts and size of cocks and colour of shirts....not even a full fucking line for the deaths of two characters who have a back story and readers...hey remember us????? we care what happened to Andy Talbot and Ursa/Rebecca and the cobra king. Bloody writers can't seem to get their priorities straight sometimes. People's lives are more important than orgasms. show less

First read: June 2006
Re-read: December 2017
Rating: 4/5 stars

This is the book where the Anita Blake series takes a huge turn away from the urban fantasy/police procedural plots that endeared the character and the world she lived in to an awful lot of fans and introduced a concept changed the way Hamilton wrote this series for years to come.

*SPOILERS AHEAD*

Anita returns to Jean-Claude and St. Louis after her self-enforced six month absence. Following the events of Obsidian Butterfly Anita has realised that avoiding fulfilling her part in Triumvirate with Jean Claude and Richard has done more harm than good. She finally bonds fully with them, and in doing so unleashes new powers that flow between the three of them, most significantly, show more gaining Jean-Claude's Ardeur - his vampiric ability to feed through lust and sexual contact.

At the same time, Anita is trying to focus on being a true Nimir-Ra to her wereleapord Pard (and meets the enigmatic Micah, who seems to be trying to hold together another Pard on his own) while also trying to quell a rebellion that Richard seems intent on ignoring in his Pack.
There is so much going on in this book, and here we start to see the different roles Anita has to take on come together. While her personal abilities as Necromancer and aide to the local police take a backseat, her roles as Nimir-Ra, human servant to Jean-Claude, and Lupa come to the fore, along with the revelation that Damien, a vampire she saved, is now also reliant on her for life-force and his continued sanity - becoming in effect a 'vampire servant' to her.

Almost as a bonus feature, there is a short mystery element towards the end of the novel that feels like Anita of old. I loved this section, which is why I understand why so many readers left the series after this book. It signals huge changes in plot, in tone, and in genre. Honestly, I still personally enjoy this series (as evidenced by the fact I'm doing a whole series re-read up to Dead Ice which was the last new Anita Blake novel I read.) For me, the only book where I considered quitting the series was Incubus Dreams which is yet to come in my re-read. Overall I still find Anita's world fascinating and Narcissus in Chains was an entertaining page turner which added more depth and detail to that world and the characters within it. show less

This for me is where the series went to crap. Before this I'd rate no book in this series lower than a four, but this one falls off a cliff. I held on and read to book 18, Flirt, because I had genuinely loved the series until this book, and back then once I invested in a series I kept with it, and with the books published up to The Harlequin, momentum kept me going, at least until I had to wait for the next book to be published. But Hamilton did something here that made me want to hurl the book against the wall. I thought, she didn't just do that! But she did, and it wasn't an aberration or anything that was ever "fixed" and so completely changed the direction of the books from fun paranormal noir to soft porn. To explain what went show more wrong and how I felt, first I have to explain what originally appealed to me, then what Hamilton did here, and thus get into spoilers. So if avoiding them is important to you, you might not want to read beyond the next paragraph.

When I grew up there was no Buffy the Vampire Slayer, who appeared not long before the Anita Blake novels appeared. (Although Anita as a necromancer had appeared even before that in a short story.) There weren't many kick-ass action heroines around, so growing up I really appreciated them. I loved Anita's voice at first. She was a tough-as-nails take-no-crap woman in a male-dominated milieu and I found it easy to root for her. She had her vulnerabilities and hangups, but I thought Hamilton was pushing her in an interesting direction. I liked the dynamic between Anita, Jean-Claude and Richard. Jean-Claude, the vampire, started out fairly menacing, and the whole plotline with the different marks, with Anita struggling to remain human, resonated with me. Richard the werewolf represented something different: someone struggling himself to remain human, but perhaps in vain given his basic nature. And you could see Anita struggling not just between the two men, but what they represented. Learning that not all such "metaphysical" creatures should be seen as monsters, but struggling with the darkness within herself and where to draw the line. And I liked that Anita had a web of relationships beyond men she was romantically involved with, such as Dolph her colleague on the police force and her friend Ronnie Sims.

Spoilers Start Here--for this and future books

All that changed with this book. In this book Anita becomes a "succubus" because of the ardeur that forces her to have sex to feed it, and forces men to have sex with her who are drawn by it. So the fuel that drives the plots of the Anita Blake series from here on, a series that had been focused on a independent, tough take charge heroine... is rape. I hated that. And this book also adds one of my least liked regular characters in the Anitaverse--Micah--as well as marks the increase in importance of Nathaniel, a character I loathe. After this book Richard and Jean-Claude become more and more marginalized until in some books all we get are brief telephone conversation with them. And the sex takes over until there's little plot or scenes beyond the bedroom and Anita has an entire harem of men never developed beyond eye and hair color. That hadn't changed up to book 18. show less

I loved Narcissus in Chains. It is the book that Anita must face that her views on sexuality must become looser or she won't survive. I enjoyed her inner struggle. And I very much appreciated the way it was tied to the larger story line so her decision to engage in more promiscuous sex was based in something real.

And can I just say, hello Micah! This new man in Anita's life is a mystery in many ways, but seems to be just what Anita needs. He's uncomplicated, something she is completely missing in her other relationships. Sure, he has his reasons for wanting to be with her, but he's willing to without coming between her and other men.

The mystery in Narcissus in Chains was only vaguely hinted at in the first three quarters of the book. show more The beginning of the book was solely focused on Anita's personal, pack, and pard problems. Anita's issues need the focus and the book doesn't suffer for it. When the mystery comes to the forefront, every personal issue tackled in the beginning of the book shows how important it was to get settled earlier.

Narcissus in Chains changes the entire vibe of the entire Anita Blake series. Some fans will dislike the turn towards sexy paranormal romance, but others will see it as a clear evolution of the series. The sex scenes are hot and I love the new sexiness of the series that Narcissus in Chains begins. show less

I've seen porno novels that have less graphic sex. Of course, this one's written light years better than any of them, but that doesn't make the sex any less graphic. In spite of that, I really like the characters in the "Anita Blake" series and continue to read them. The series has evolved greatly since the first book when she was a just a vampire hunter and not sure in which direction her career would take her. If you read this series you should really be aware of the amount of sex throughout all these books.

I suppose this contains some sort of spoilers, so reader beware.

This is my least favorite Anita Blake book so far. Too much blood play. Too much gore. I understand why people have said that the books went downhill because the author seemed more interested in fan service than a good story.

There really wasn't police work in this one. The plot seemed like an afterthought or just a way to get Anita into a variety of sexual situations. I didn't find the sex scenes in this book to be steamy. Most were too grotesque for me (your mileage may vary).

The book was long and could have been shorter if the gratuitous sex and torture scenes were eliminated or not gone into gory detail.

I hope Anita isn't turning into a Mary Sue. All the monsters and show more men seem to if not fall in love ith her, they want to have sex with her.

The *ardeur,* a sexual hunger has now awakened in Anita. To me it seemed to come out of nowhere. There were indications that her vampire lover had a special power of seduction, but now it turns out this is a hunger that needs to be fed along with the blood he needs. As his human servant, Anita has this hunger too. WTF?

Just seems like a flimsy excuse to allow Anita to have wanton sex with whoever is near.

I finished the book and the ending was full of action, but it took a looong time to get there. I also thought the Big Bad came out of nowhere. I don['t remember the BBEG being introduced prior to this book. Perhaps I didn't remember. But more breadcrumbs in prior books would have been helpful. Or even more breadcrumbs in the beginning would have been good.

So ... not a fan of this book.

I started the next one and I'm hoping to like it more. If not, I'll stop reading.I'm missing the next 2 books in the series, an then have a few more. But if the next one doesn't deliver, then I think I'll stop. Life is too short and there are too many other books I want to read. show less