Obsidian Butterfly

First, let me say that this is the LAST GOOD Anita Blake book Laurell K. Hamilton wrote. Hence the five star rating. Everything that follows it take it as given that I rated them 1 star.

I am frankly mystified. Anita Blake used to be a series I waited eagerly to read. Then after Obsidian Butterfly (the last GOOD story LKH wrote) it was like someone flipped a switch. Or maybe LKH had a ghost writer that quit and she had to find someone else. Or maybe it was more about her personal life. The difference was so stunning I went to the bother of reading the book dedications. What I noticed was that Obsidian Butterfly (GREAT) and previous books was dedicated to her first husband, Gary. The next book, Narcissus in Chains (TERRIBLE) and subsequent books was dedicated to her new love, Jonathan. Maybe that’s all it took to completely ruin LKH’s writing style. I read some of the comments Ms. Hamilton added to later copies of some of her books where she seems to think she’s a fantastic writer of erotica. I struggled through Narcissus in Chains and Cerulean Sins even though I don’t care for the Micah character and positively hate the man-slut Nathaniel. Still trying I decided recently to give Incubus Dreams a try. Started off ok with an actual story and Dolph was back – for 20 pages. THREE HUNDRED AND SIXTY PAGES of horribly written literotica later, the book picked the story back up – briefly. Anita has turned into an angst-ridden slut, Richard probably represents everything LKH hates in “someone”, no clue and don’t want to know who Mica and Nathaniel represents. What happened? I’m kind of afraid to read the next book. At the rate Anita is becoming all powerful, I have a feeling eventually she’s going to wake up one morning and find that God is definitely ok with her because SHE is God and she loves herself.

Whatever, Ms. Hamilton — leave the literotica to those who do it better. Try to rediscover what a good story is. Try not to repeat yourself so very much. To find Incubus Dreams I went to a Half Price Book store. I searched Horror (where you used to be able to find LKH with the good vampire books). I searched Science Fiction/Fantasy — no luck there either. Finally I asked and the lady looked in the computer and found LKH in Paranormal Romance. After reading Incubus Dreams I told them they need to put LKH in the literotica section even though it doesn’t deserve that either. I won’t even pay half price for any other LKH books.

If you want to read really good books, try Anne Bishops “The Others” series or Michelle Sagara’s “The Chronicles of Elantra.”

Having read the reviews of LKH’s books following 10-12, I’m not wasting even half-price to add them to my library. Not when I literally skipped most of Incubus Dreams. Of the 658 pages, less that a fifth were worth reading. In fact you can just skip chapters 5-68 and save yourself some pain.

I’m 9 books in to the Anita Black series and Laurell Hamilton keeps cranking up the tension. There are 25 books in this series.

Spoilers are marked below. Proceed at your own risk.

Our heroine, Anita Black, keeps getting more and more damaged as well. Some of this is external.
At one point she’s comparing scars with Deuce, one of Riker’s mercenaries… “What did it?” “Vampire.” He raised his shirt up… “Mortar round.” Some of it is internal. Sometimes this is from choices innocently made (which have consequences that she couldn’t have foreseen) but sometimes it’s from events outside of her control.

In this novel *** spoiler *** we encounter Aztec-themed vampires who mistakenly think that they are gods. Very plausible culturally; feathers, obsidian, and a Quetzalcoatl Draconus Giganticus. Instances of giving and taking life force; taking results in a “mummified” person (who may still be conscious) *** /spoiler ***.

We get more back story on Edward (“Ted”) and we meet two of his backups, Bernardo and Olaf. Olaf may become *** spoiler *** the exact opposite of a romantic interest for Anita *** /spoiler *** in future novels.

I like that Anita is getting more explicit about her belief in God, being a monotheist, and asking for His help. It clarifies things when Itzpapalotl *** spoiler *** and the Red Woman’s Husband *** /spoiler *** claim to be “gods” but Anita knows that there is only one and they are not He.

I wish trollhunds were real. I’d imagine that they’d look like an Irish Wolfhound but even bigger and with more attitude. Actually, I’m glad that we don’t really have Greater European Forest Trolls. That would be like going on a hike and encountering a small allosaur with an empty stomach.

At this point in the series we should all know what we are in for!

We are invested in these characters and story lines. When things get thrown for a loop it makes your gut hurt because “OMG What was Laurell thinking!”

And of course it always works out in the end in some way. Not always the prettiest way, but *spoiler alert* Anita walks away from this one as well. So, whew, we know there’s going to be another one.

I do think there was a lot of good character development in this one. I love how Laurell has Anita talk through her issues in her head, and every once in while partially with someone else.

Anita gets bumped around in this one. But Edward is there, which at least makes her feel better. I think this piece of the series had the scariest of the “monsters” so far. And even the “good” guys are scary as all get out, and not very nice.

It’s a little stressful to read if you get as into as I do!

Hitman/preternatural bounty hunter Ted Forrester, who we know better as Edward, calls in his marker and needs Anitas help. Anita travels to New Mexico to identify and kill off what appears to be a new type of threat. In this tale, with the usual characters left behind, Anita gets to know Teds surprising personal life. We also get a little on the Mayan culture and face more than one type of monster.

Plenty of gore, action, confrontations and situations new to Anita, and for the first time we see that the things shes witnessed working with the police is getting to her.

We do meet other characters that play a role in future books as theyre part of Edwards/Teds life. One is a particular threat to Anita. Im hoping that another one shows up in a future book, but has not yet as of this writing.

Once again the world and character building are fantastic and Ive re-read this book a number of times over the years. There is one scene that some will find particularly disturbing.

Not my favourite Blake novel, in fact of all of them so far this is probably the one I disliked the most. Mainly because Anita fannies around for the majority of it, describing her guns a million times and I really couldn’t care less about them. She also goes on and on about how and why she’s a badass – we get it you don’t have to keep explaining! No Richard or Jean Claude but that didn’t harm the plot, in fact I liked that they took a break from the book. Anita can hold the plot on her own when she’s not moaning and telling you exactly what she’s wearing how how she has hidden her weapons – again! I hope it was a bad one off.

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