Narcissus in Chains

This is my first and LAST Laurell K. Hamilton book to read. The only reason I read it was because a friend of mine wanted to start a book club and it was her turn to pick.

If I could give it zero stars I would. So let’s get cracking on everything that is wrong with this book. Since I have not read any other books in the series, maybe everything I hate has been addressed before. It’s up to you find answers but I seriously wouldn’t recommend it. Life is too short to read trash.

First the main character is called a “Vampire Hunter.” It would make sense then if she hunted vampires or if she was a vampire who hunted humans trying to kill vampires. She doesn’t do either. What she does do with vampires is pretty much what you can see on late night cable softcore movies.

At the beginning we are told some characters are in trouble. It must not be that life threatening because we spend the next 40 plus pages and a few sex scenes before we even get to rescuing the people who were supposed to be in trouble.

And that is pretty much the entire book. Someone needs help. Let’s have sex first. Then we save them. None of the characters peaked my interest. Some are written in just to be killed off later. A woman has sex with everything from vampire, to werewolves, to strange other creatures. You don’t even get to a gunfight until Chapter 40 of a 65 chapter book.

All of the male characters are either gay or bisexual. Everyone walks around naked. Hard to believe that none of the female characters are not bi too. Some chapters are really long and others really short. There is no balance between the action and the sex.

Certain interesting plot points arise but are neither explored or solved a sentence or two later in the novel with no context.

If you are a woman, a bisexual man or a homosexual man who enjoys whips and chains and women dating drama; maybe you will enjoy this book.

None of the villains were frightening. I never got the sense that danger was real. The main character didn’t even lose a loved one but she had time to molest someone and then say she saw them as a child.

I can’t say for 100% certainty that this is the worst book I have ever read but it does make the top 3 for sure.

Okay so I am reading these books for about the 5th time. I own all but the last two in the series but truthfully the books are not worth reading after book 16. I did notice that as an author she just does not remember her characters. Early when Anita was dating Richard and he got her a costume he asked what size and she says size 7 and Richard says I would of thought a smaller size and she said her bust was too big. So you get this picture of a slim person. Then in Burnt offerings when talking about her jean size she says she is 5 foot nothing but wears a size 13 pants because she was chunky. Then in this book she is now 5 feet 2 inches. Make up your mind already. I will say the slimmer version sounds more correct because other wise you have a fat not attractive short girl who is desired by every guy she meets. I call b.s. on that one.

I love the Anita Blake Series…or at least I did for a while. I miss the mystery the early books had. I’m sick of hearing about what a self-loathing person Richard has become. Her work for the police and for the necromancy firm seems to have basically disappeared and has been replaced by on-going, poorly written, self-loathing sex scenes. I love the scenes from a few of the earlier books, but now it’s become a chore for her and she still acts like it’s some moral fight constantly. She needs to develope a little bit. her character does not seem to have evolved throughout the series hardly at all, and all the other characters lost all their own will and personalities.
This book in particular did a lot of building with a lot of nitty gritty details as Anita dealt with a plethora of problems, with all of them leading up to a major confrontation where the mystery was solved. However, the mystery never felt front and center in the book, the mystery felt like it was thrown in there as a side “plot” to the more major theme of Anita saving everyone with her uber powers and pointing out how much better she is than everyone else in terms of her “morals”. When you finally get to the big finale at the end, everything closes up so fast that it feels like Ms. Hamilton simply got sick of writing this one and just said enough to make it end, then threw together a quick epilogue to quickly tie up all the loose ends she’d made throughout the book. There was a weak grasp at tying a previous character in from a previous book, but it was not developed enough to really work well.
I gave this 3 stars because I do really like these books, and she seems to come more to terms with herself i these than in the past books, BUT I have a feeling this may be the last book I read of this series. I no longer enjoy the direction these books have taken.

Honestly I do not understand all the negative reviews I saw for this book. I love the character development in this book. I was getting tired of the Scooby Doo mystery formula of the last couple of books. I even skipped over obsidian butterfly because I got bored. I wanted more romance, more magic, and I am glad Richard has been replaced. Some people have complained about the erotism but think it has always been in her books. This book just pushed Anita to overcome her prudishness and open her mind to new ideas. Bravo!

This book was exciting to read. It was hard to put down until I finished it. I loved the transformation Anita Blake has made from book 1 all the way to this book. Finally my frustration with Richard has finally come to an end. One lesson I definitely learned applies directly to me–be who you are and embrace it no matter what. Trying to fight against yourself is a loosing battle. Go Anita Blake for being a strong and exemplary woman. Well done Laurell Hamilton .

Galaxyaudiobook Member Benefit

- Able to comment

- List watched audiobooks

- List favorite audiobooks

- Bookmark will only available for Galaxyaudiobook member