Micah

Up until this book I’ve enjoyed the series. Of course, the others were actually book length. Don’t let the page count fool you because a lot of pages are a teaser for another book. This is worth about $1.99 at most. The fault lies with the publisher and not the author. It’s a shame because Laurell will get the blame. As a short story it’s ok. There’s not much of a story because, again, it’s a short story. I enjoyed the first 7 books especially because the people and plots were well developed and not a lot of time was wasted on lengthy and unbelievable sex scenes. I started to enjoy it much less when it seems as if Anita Blake became more like “Debbie Does Dallas”. Surely, one to three sex scenes should be more than enough for any book; but, not only are they increasingly frequent they are starting to interfere with my enjoyment of the stories.

I read this series several times years ago but not this book. I went back to reread again and felt like I was missing something and decided to buy this book. You are missing NOTHING by not reading it. Anita takes Micah to raise a zombie in Philly. She gets attacked after raising it. She finds out she has 4 types of lycanthropy in her blood, lion, wolf, leopard, and something they don’t recognize. She heals quickly. The doctor is angry because he thinks she knows how she has 4 different kinds and won’t share in a way that would help others. The fed in charge was one of the feds on the case when Micah got changed and we learn a few more details about that. There are a few details about the case about the zombie that needs to be raised. Tammy goes into labor and it gets stopped. That’s the end of what you need to know about this book.

I’ve grown increasingly disappointed and quiet bored with this series. Now I’m super missed they stole a full books charge price for a tiny 4 scene short short story. I kept hoping the author would get a hold of her libido after a couple misguided books of it and return to books with an actual plot. Sadly, that hasnt been the case. I won’t waste any more time of money on this series. Looks like she continued in this vein, with double digit numbers of books, guess money talks! I’m bored to tear and I want my money back.

I truly loved this series when it came out, and recommended it to many others. Somewhere along the way the tone of the books took a wrong turn, and became more and more long drawn out ridiculous sex scenes between Anita and an ever increasing number of male lovers. And Anita doesn’t leave one lover for a new one, nope, she just adds another one to the bed. I think she currently is sleeping with what ……….5 guys at the same time? Maybe 6… To each his own. If you can wrap that around a great story I’ll still read it. But each successive book has less and less mystery/story/plot then the last. This one actually truly has NONE.

I stopped reading the series a few years back at book 7, but came back and tried again….made it through 4 more, stopped again……..here a year later I have wasted money on THE worst one ever, how this can be a ‘book’ I don’t know……….buying it on Kindle you don’t see that it’s actually just a short story you are paying for. A short story about Micah and his over sized male parts and how his poor feelings have been hurt all his life by the rejection and ridicule he has experience at the hands of so many females till guess who, Anita. Somewhere in there was a story that could have been developed and I was waiting to see what would happen when low and behold I turned the page, and it was over. Just like that. What happened? Who cares. What a waste of money, worthless book. Don’t waste your money, please!! There’s no story here, no character development, zero plot. If you want to read pure smut……….this is your book.

I’m done with the series, but I’m kind of angry about that because I loved the early characters of Jean Claude, Edward, and a few others. They used to be some darn good stories 🙁

Whoever decided that Laurell K. Hamilton’s “Micah” should be marketed as “An All-New Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter Novel” made a big mistake. Certainly a lot of grief could have been avoided if we were not being told that a book that has only eleven chapters, 1.5 line spacing, and insists chapter numbers always appear on the right with a blank page behind it (and usually in front of it) was a “novel’ just like “Incubus Dreams” with its 82 chapters. The people at Jove should know how to do this because they did it with “Blood Upon My Lips,” the “new Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter tale” published in the “Cravings” anthology (that was 85 pages without chapters and with normal spacing in a hardcover book, which makes it a short story, versus 245 pages in this paperback, so “Micah” is longer, but that only makes it a novella). The fact that “Micah” follows up more on “Blood Upon My Lips” than “Incubus Dreams” should have been a clue too.

The plot, as befits the size of the story, is relatively simple. Anita gets a phone call in the middle of the night from an old friend and agrees to go to Philadelphia to raise a dead witness for the F.B.I. so the zombie can provide testimony. She needs to take somebody with her to feed the “ardeur,” and as if the title does not give it away already for various reasons it has to be Micah, who gets to go as her “assistant” (I have to admit, that every time I see Micah’s name I think of Jimmy Carter because in his Inaugural Address he quoted from the book of Micah, which seemed to be the first time most Americans had actually heard of that particular minor prophet). In Philly there are a pair of FBI agents waiting, one who has dealt with Anita before and is not happy to see her, while the other actually knows Micah.

Basically the novel has two key scenes. The first involves Anita and Micah in a hotel room alone with each other, and if you have not yet picked up on the idea that width is more important than length, here is another lesson (parenthetical aside omitted to save my marriage). The second is the scene at the ancient graveyard (Philadelphia has been around a long, long time) where Anita has to do her animator bit. It has been a while since she has done this, although her necromancer power has played a key role in other respects, and there are a couple of complications. Anita is now so powerful that blood is not necessary to do what needs to be done, but that has a downside in an ancient graveyard. Then there is the judge who wants things explained and the defense attorney who is asking way too many questions.

I like the second scene a lot more than the first, because this gets us back to old school Anita Blake. For me the most horrifying scene in the entire series is still the ending of “The Laughing Corpse,” which was about raising the dead in a graveyard. But Hamilton finds a way of cutting the scene short, just when it is getting interesting (my complaint on “Danse Macabre” as well). Up to that point I was learning towards rounding up on this story, despite the novel hyperbole, because the sex was actually more physical than metaphysical this time around and I always like it when Anita talks out things with her enemies, even if they are just mob lawyers. Another problem is that by calling this a novel you might be wondering if this was a real honest to goodness novel that Hamilton abandoned, but I do not think that was the case. You could go beyond where this one ends, but there is really no reason to do so, and clearly the point is not the case, but the first night along with Micah.

The back of the book has the first chapter of Hamilton’s next Anita Blake novel, “Danse Macabre.” It runs 31 pages, which is basically the length of the first two chapters of “Micah,” underscoring what a trifle this “novel” really is, although ironically the end of the first paragraph should be enough for most fans to want to pick up “Danse Macabre” (although clearly some will have a hard time getting over their anger as this book). Do you have to read “Micah” before you read “Danse Macabre”? Having read both I would say at this point the answer is no, because if there is something being set up in terms of Anita’s ever-growing powers in this attempt to raise the bead, I did not see it in her newest novel. If after years of trying to decide between Richard and Jean-Claude you actually opted for Micah as the “man” for Anita, then you should like this one.

Galaxyaudiobook Member Benefit

- Able to comment

- List watched audiobooks

- List favorite audiobooks

- Bookmark will only available for Galaxyaudiobook member