Laurel Hamilton...

[ravenus]

There is a sect of horror writers out there that do nothing but basically torture and mutillation, and then they all huddle together and tell each other how brilliant they are. But it's all the same, and in my opinion, not inventive.

Who are these people? Most of my contemporary horror reading is short stories from various anthologies and I find a lot of terrific short story writers whose stories are about anything but mutilation and torture.

 

[Circus Cranium]

Don't get me wrong, I am far from generalizing. That's why I said 'a sect'. I love horror, but like anything else it comes in different shapes and sizes.

and I can't name names or the hardcores will hunt me down and beat me with disembowelled intestines. And stuff. But there is Ed Lee of course. He's too famous to hunt me down I suspect.

 

[xRAZERx]

Is her work scary?

Well no it's not the kind of thing that keeps you up at nights in terror. But at times I have been hororfied over who/what she is going to have a close personal relationship with next...

 

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

Mhm. I'm quite content being horrified at my own relationships, thanks. I read horror for that sense of the bad numinious becoming manifest in the real world, presonally. It isn't visceral fear so much as that subtle sense of discord and dismay.

 

[ravenus]

But at times I have been hororfied over who/what she is going to have a close personal relationship with next...

Sounds like a regular soap queen...:yawn:

 

[Circus Cranium]

I know this is an LKH thread, but I'm curious, what horror authors Knivesout and Ravenous read. Maybe start a new thread?

 

[ravenus]

Heh, Ok, new thread coming up.Everyone can post the horror authors they read

 

[rune]

I've never quibbled much about the sex in the Anita Blake series, as it was too overwhelming to spoil the stories.

However, Narcissus in Chains, as definately gone beyond that now. By including a reason -the ardeur- for Blake to have more sex with more men, this story has degenerated into a porn book
There is an interesting storyline, at the start and it returns near the end. But the rest is just a sex story. This was disappointing

 

[rune]

Thank goodness Cerulean Sins was better than the book 10. It had a bit more story about it, and in fact I by the end i was wishing we'd got to know more about the terrorist that were following her around

 

[Michael]

I don't really think of "Anita Blake" as horror, although it has some elements of the genre. I think of it more as "Alternate World Fantasy." It was the fantasy that drew me in to begin with.

 

[rune]

I don't really think of "Anita Blake" as horror, although it has some elements of the genre. I think of it more as "Alternate World Fantasy." It was the fantasy that drew me in to begin with.

Have to be honest I like the fantasy mix in this series and it was that which drew me to read it

 

[Medieval]

Laurell K. Hamilton is pure genius.

That being said, the Anita Blake series is more of a horror/fantasy/romance/action/thriller/mystery combo. I just said in the Anne Rice thread that the Vampire Lestat is one of the most fascinating literary creations of all-time for me; Anita Blake is the sole other.

Yes, and they are getting to be a bit too pornographic to the point that the plots keep on taking the back burner for the sex. But still, you can't say it's as bad as it gets in the Meredith Gentry series.

Note: Obsidian Butterfly = True genius.

 

[rune]

Hamilton seems to have a writing style that I find easy and compelling I like both her Merry Gentry and Anita Blake series. Whenever I pick up one of her books I tend to be hooked within the first few pages, and hate putting down.

But can I explain why I feel this way about her style! I've read reviews finding her books shallow, and very light entertainment. I can agree partly about the light entertainment factor, but I find her characters very interesting and shallow at all.

 

[rune]

Just finished Incubus Dreams, well Hamilton has given Anita even more men to sleep with now

 

[Circus Cranium]

OH man, are you serious? I haven't read Incubus Dreams yet, and I was hoping LKH had taken Anita out of her 'ho' phase and gotten back to the killin and zombie raising.

 

[rune]

OH man, are you serious? I haven't read Incubus Dreams yet, and I was hoping LKH had taken Anita out of her 'ho' phase and gotten back to the killin and zombie raising.

I'm afraid I'm serious. She doubles the guys she sleeps with

 

[Mors Profundis]

LKH is a sado-masochist-which is ok, I liked that myself, once, but her worst failing is getting bogged down in lycanthrope politics, and trying to use every bit of the lore of the sidhe in her Merry Gentry stories.
She must have one of those books with the whole legend alpabetized, and be working her way from a-z!
From killing the monsters, Anita Blake has gone to having kinky sex with them, and the stories have lost the purpose they once had.
For hard-boiled fantasy, Glen Cook gets my vote-I liked the early Hamilton very much indeed, but now, her packs and pards and were-rats are getting to be too much like a small town Elks lodge in the middle of a fight over the building fund, the tale become tangled!
As for the fairie detectives, well, she's kept the stories pretty sleek, but Lordy, must we encounter every spook in the catalogue?
And if we must, will the woman tell us what text she's using-the world of the sidhe had a long time to develop in the minds of people, and if she going to use them all, at least give us a chance to keep them all straight.
It's more complex than the Lovecraft Mythos.
(Hey, think of it, Rawhead meets a shoggoth, will it be a fight to the death or love at first sight?)

 

[bob cold]

The sexual content has been toned down in Micah.

I thought that the book was much slimmer than some of the earlier offerings. The book seemed to lack some "oomph" in the story line.

She has another 2 or 3 new books coming out. Fingers crossed for a return to some fun books.

 

[Mors Profundis]

Anita Blake is a sort of Michelle Hammer, in a supernatural world, a cynical, hard-boiled gal in a cynical, hardboiled universe.
Until the politics and the sex.
Too many lycanthropes spoil the broth-are we to see were-mice(there are already were-rats!).
Vampires and zombies were were enough, coulda stopped with a wolf or two.
It gets confusing!

 

[BookStop]

I love Laurell K. Hamilton! Her Anita Blake series is one of my favorites. Have you tried Kelley Armstrong? Her books are also packed full of Fantasy (werewolves mostly) action with a little romance (not romance books though) Bitten, Stolen, and soon to be released, Broken. Charlaine Harris's Dead series is also alot like Anita Blake(only star of book is Sookie the waitress instead of Anita the bounty hunter).