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igenlodeA sudden jump ahead in the Anita Blake series, according to the random logic of which books I get my hands on -- and things have moved on a long way, chronologically (characters are contacted on mobiles in place of radio carphones), stylistically (there's little of the 'hard-boiled' flavour left) and not least in terms of Anita's complicated extracurricular life: she's now trailing an entourage of wounded, needy supernatural dependants with a high percentage of improbably attractive males among them, not to mention intermittent attentions from the ghost of a sadistic werewolf nymphomaniac she killed earlier...
Put like this, it should perhaps have been obvious that the series was about to disappear up its own metaphorical fundament; but in fact, although "Blue Moon" is by this stage hovering at the edge of what I could accept, Anita -- and the author -- still has things more or less under control. Most importantly it still has an interesting plot and characters you still actually care about...
Reading the online discussion of Laurell K. Hamilton's latest books, I think I've realised what went wrong with them (and no, I'm afraid it doesn't look any more as if I am going to venture back into the series, even if the new books are sitting right next to the ones I want to read; just as I have successfully abstained from Jill Paton Walsh's 'completion' of an unfinished Lord Peter Wimsey novel, despite its continuing presence alongside Dorothy L. Sayers. The right to do so cannot be doubted -- the strength was enough, barely!)
But what LKH appears to have done is to have started writing fan-fiction: stories using her existing lead characters that consisted of nothing but angst and excuses for sexual encounters, to the exclusion of original plot, action or characterisation -- in other words absolutely typical bad fanfic. (And let's face it, how many good fanfics actually contain any new adventures for the characters as opposed to excuses for exploring their mutual relationships? Of my three "Pirates of the Caribbean" stories, for example (see links, left), only one does so -- and that one is the weakest...)
This new turn in Anita Blake fiction is something of an ironic fate for an established author; although if it was intended in a conscious exercise in giving the fans more of what they wanted, it seems to have failed. There are an awful lot of disgruntled groups out there, at least one on Livejournal:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
lkh_lashouts.
"Blue Moon", on the other hand, is still in the pre-watershed era (although only just), and by and large it's still very readable, although it teeters along the edge at times of what I can comfortably tolerate. (And I'm not talking about the explosive central sex scene here: as a pale, short-haired, eight-stone five-foot-four weakling, I may not empathise with Anita's eulogies over rippling locks and tanned bulging muscles, but it is the emotion behind the union -- as in its equivalent in "The Killing Dance" -- that carries the erotic charge. Both have been a long time coming, and are deserved.)
No, it's the way that sexual elements now seem to be getting involved in practically every other relationship in Anita's life that leaves me in a state of discomfort: unlike the fans who hasten to declare themselves to be quite modern and liberated about it all, I'm quite open that I am a prude and I don't enjoy this. The saving grace is that in this book Anita isn't encouraging it either... The reason why the next book, "Obsidian Butterfly", was to come as such a welcome return to form is that the author managed to extract her heroine from her whole touchy-feely lycanthrope/needy immortal scenario and send her off to do what she does best: make sarcastic remarks and solve supernatural mysteries with the aid of some dubious allies and a serious array of weaponry.
While the indulgences that would later kill off the series are here on display, "Blue Moon" also has points going for it that would go missing in later books. A further glimpse into the supernatural ecology of Anita Blake's America, for example (I could have done with more of this material on the trolls and less of the dominance face-offs!), more on the thoroughly likeable Zeeman family (here we get to meet matriarch Charlotte), a chilling human villain (even if the local vampire threat is, in the end, a bit underplayed) and above all despite everything a sense of optimism: Anita is reunited with her estranged lover without destroying their relationship with Jean-Claude, she has finally found the trustworthy mentor and teacher she has lacked for so long, the werewolf pack issues seem to have been sorted out, and she has even had evidence that her actions haven't corrupted her soul. If the series had ended at this point, for all its flaws, we could reasonably have assumed a happy-ever-after -- and that's one reason why I like this book.
Unfortunately -- after "Obsidian Butterfly" -- the series didn't...
Put like this, it should perhaps have been obvious that the series was about to disappear up its own metaphorical fundament; but in fact, although "Blue Moon" is by this stage hovering at the edge of what I could accept, Anita -- and the author -- still has things more or less under control. Most importantly it still has an interesting plot and characters you still actually care about...
Reading the online discussion of Laurell K. Hamilton's latest books, I think I've realised what went wrong with them (and no, I'm afraid it doesn't look any more as if I am going to venture back into the series, even if the new books are sitting right next to the ones I want to read; just as I have successfully abstained from Jill Paton Walsh's 'completion' of an unfinished Lord Peter Wimsey novel, despite its continuing presence alongside Dorothy L. Sayers. The right to do so cannot be doubted -- the strength was enough, barely!)
But what LKH appears to have done is to have started writing fan-fiction: stories using her existing lead characters that consisted of nothing but angst and excuses for sexual encounters, to the exclusion of original plot, action or characterisation -- in other words absolutely typical bad fanfic. (And let's face it, how many good fanfics actually contain any new adventures for the characters as opposed to excuses for exploring their mutual relationships? Of my three "Pirates of the Caribbean" stories, for example (see links, left), only one does so -- and that one is the weakest...)
This new turn in Anita Blake fiction is something of an ironic fate for an established author; although if it was intended in a conscious exercise in giving the fans more of what they wanted, it seems to have failed. There are an awful lot of disgruntled groups out there, at least one on Livejournal:
lkh_lashouts."Blue Moon", on the other hand, is still in the pre-watershed era (although only just), and by and large it's still very readable, although it teeters along the edge at times of what I can comfortably tolerate. (And I'm not talking about the explosive central sex scene here: as a pale, short-haired, eight-stone five-foot-four weakling, I may not empathise with Anita's eulogies over rippling locks and tanned bulging muscles, but it is the emotion behind the union -- as in its equivalent in "The Killing Dance" -- that carries the erotic charge. Both have been a long time coming, and are deserved.)
No, it's the way that sexual elements now seem to be getting involved in practically every other relationship in Anita's life that leaves me in a state of discomfort: unlike the fans who hasten to declare themselves to be quite modern and liberated about it all, I'm quite open that I am a prude and I don't enjoy this. The saving grace is that in this book Anita isn't encouraging it either... The reason why the next book, "Obsidian Butterfly", was to come as such a welcome return to form is that the author managed to extract her heroine from her whole touchy-feely lycanthrope/needy immortal scenario and send her off to do what she does best: make sarcastic remarks and solve supernatural mysteries with the aid of some dubious allies and a serious array of weaponry.
While the indulgences that would later kill off the series are here on display, "Blue Moon" also has points going for it that would go missing in later books. A further glimpse into the supernatural ecology of Anita Blake's America, for example (I could have done with more of this material on the trolls and less of the dominance face-offs!), more on the thoroughly likeable Zeeman family (here we get to meet matriarch Charlotte), a chilling human villain (even if the local vampire threat is, in the end, a bit underplayed) and above all despite everything a sense of optimism: Anita is reunited with her estranged lover without destroying their relationship with Jean-Claude, she has finally found the trustworthy mentor and teacher she has lacked for so long, the werewolf pack issues seem to have been sorted out, and she has even had evidence that her actions haven't corrupted her soul. If the series had ended at this point, for all its flaws, we could reasonably have assumed a happy-ever-after -- and that's one reason why I like this book.
Unfortunately -- after "Obsidian Butterfly" -- the series didn't...