I have read six of the Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series books by Laurell Hamilton. The main reason I keep reading the series is to see Anita finally. Get. Laid. The plot is not bad, either, although it is not good in every book. Anita is often irritating and the writer repeats the same plot tricks and machinations to make Anita react in her very familiar, annoying, stubborn, inconsiderate way. Which means, whenever there is a new woman around, she is usually taller than Anita and she will inevitably insult and irritate the protagonist until she springs into action and 'proves' herself. Whenever there is a new bad vampire in the series, usually it's a man torturing or wanting to rape some poor helpless woman, or it's a woman torturing someone weaker, so once more Anita has to save the day. And it's the same plot element, recurring in every book. Again, and again, and again. One would have expected word of Anita kicking so much ass going around and making other vampires wary, but no, it never happens. They consider Anita the ideal candidate for their inane little power games and idiotic self-confirmation experiments. And Anita is always happy to rise to the challenge, making you wonder who's the most stupid and childish of the two, the vampire that doesn't know the extend of Anita's powers or Anita who does.
Anyway, Anita does get laid, at the end of book six, just as I was about to eat my socks out of sheer frustration. But then another frustration comes along. The sex scene itself, which is description, not erotica. Because erotic writing is so much more than description of what goes in where and the kind of noises people make when they fuck, or about licking foamy water from each other. I check on wiki and see that reviewers comment on how the series becomes boring from book 14th onward. Unfortunately for me, the boredom concerning sex descriptions started in book six. I felt cheated to expect something for so long and not get it in the end. And yes, the books are erotically charged, but that's what they remain; charged. That tension is not released. At least I have not seen it released yet.
*Sigh*
"Few mainstream books delve so deeply into pure, unadulterated erotica"?
Wait for me, motherfuckers. Just you fucking wait.
Anita Blake
Reader reaction to the series's shift in tone from crime noir thriller to focus more predominantly on the sexual themes in the series has been mixed, starting with Narcissus in Chains when the main character of Anita Blake becomes infected with the ardeur. The ardeur is a supernatural power inadvertently given to Anita by her vampire Master Jean-Claude
that gives her massive amounts of power but also demands that she have
sexual intercourse with several different people through the course of a
day, sometimes in large groups. Reception to these dynamics and to the
usage of sexual abuse, incest, and rape in later books has been mixed,[3]
with some reviewers commenting that the character of Anita spent too
much time "obsessing about whether or not she’s a slut" while others
remarked that the erotic themes enhanced the series.[7]
In response to these comments, Hamilton issued a blog entitled "Dear
Negative Reader" where she addressed a growing number of readers on the
Internet that was expressing disappointment in the series's changes.[3][8]
In the blog Hamilton told the readers that "life is too short to read
books you don’t like" and that if they found that the current subject
matter pushed "you past that comfortable envelope of the mundane" then
"stop reading" and speculated that some of the readers were either
"closet readers" or comment based on others' opinions.[3][8] The blog entry was negatively received by some readers.[3]
Critical reviewers have also commented on the amount of sex in later books, as in a 2006 review in the The Boston Globe of Micah.
The review was largely negative, stating "we were not impressed.
Hamilton no doubt appeals to romance and erotica lovers, but it does not
take long for the clichés and the constant droning about sex to become
tiresome."[9] Other reviewers for The Kansas City Star and Publishers Weekly also commented on the rise in sexual themes in the series.[10]
The reviewer for the Kansas City Star stating that "After 13 erotically
charged books, boredom has reared its ugly head for the 14th novel in
Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake series, as eroticism becomes mere
description..." and Publishers Weekly commenting that Blood Noir
had a "growing air of ennui, which longtime readers can't help sharing
as sex increasingly takes the place of plot and character development".[11]
In contrast, a Denver Post review of Danse Macabre
took a more positive view of the eroticism in Hamilton's work. Although
it noted that "[t]hose looking for mystery and mayhem on this Anita
adventure are out of luck" it also stated that "the main attraction of
the Anita Blake novels in the past five years has been their erotic
novelty", and "[f]ew, if any, mainstream novels delve so deeply into
pure, unadulterated erotica".[12]
Taken from here:
With all that said and done, let me add a few pictures of Jean Claude, Anita's vampire boyfriend just for kicks... Damn, if I had such a character in my books I would write the new Iliad with sex-obsessed, penis-brandishing, humping-you-unexpectedly-in-dark-corners vampires.
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The last two pictures are taken from here:
http://arianne023.deviantart.com/art/Jean-Claude-and-Anita-Blake-322530203
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