Long before I fell in love with Urban Fantasy as a genre, I had heard about Laurell K. Hamilton’s Anita Blake series. And I mean that in the most disparaging sense possible. Every time I read something about the series it was sex, sex, and more sex. The word pornography was thrown around very casually. And as I hate it when the plot of a book serves merely as a pretense for endless sex scenes that add nothing to the story/characters, I avoided this series much in the same way that I avoid blow drying my hair in the shower.
That is, until I read an interview given by Laurell K. Hamilton in Writer's Digest that asked her to respond to the too much sex criticism and her response changed my mind:
WD: YOU'VE BEEN CRITICIZED FOR HAVING TOO MUCH SEX IN THE ANITA BLAKE SERIES. HOW MUCH ATTENTION DO YOU PAY TO CRITICISM? DOES IT IN ANY WAY AFFECT HOW YOU WRITE THE NEXT BOOK?
LKH: It's funny. I've never had an American tell me they were bothered by the violence in my books. In Europe they're bothered by the violence and in America they're bothered by the sex. The only downside to the sexual content is losing younger readers. Sex isn't bad; it's a deity-given gift. But I initially never wanted to put sex on paper. There isn't a real sex scene until book five. At book six I finally realized my main character was going to have sex with the man she was dating. I initially wanted to take the 1940s pan to the sky, but the camera hadn't flinched in five books. I didn't want to do it, but I thought, what does this say about me? I don't mind writing violence but flinch at writing sex. (Click here to read the interview in its entirety).
What? Not a single sex scene in the first five books? This was not the Anita Blake I had heard about. And even then its hardly the ‘sleep with anything that moves’ reputation I’d been hearing about, so I decided to pick up the first three books in the omnibus Club Vampyre (Anita Blake Vampire Hunter Omnibus: Guilty Pleasures,The Laughing Corpse and Circus of the Damned) and guess what? No sex. There is romance of course, but primarily these are UF mysteries (think hard-boiled), and fun ones at that. Anita is tough with as-yet unrealized potential, Jean-Claude is alpha, the world is well imagined and realistic in a paranormal sort of way, and there appears to be juicy meta-narrative arc waiting to be told in subsequent books. Add a touch of romance and its everything I love about urban fantasies. I am prepared to jettison this series if and when they begin to live up to (or should I say down to) their bad press, but in the meantime, Go Anita!
Book Blurb for Guilty Pleasures: Anita Blake may be small and young, but vampires call her the Executioner. Anita is a necromancer and vampire hunter in a time when vampires are protected by law--as long as they don't get too nasty. Now someone's killing innocent vampires and Anita agrees--with a bit of vampiric arm-twisting--to help figure out who and why. Trust is a luxury Anita can't afford when her allies aren't human. The city's most powerful vampire, Nikolaos, is 1,000 years old and looks like a 10-year-old girl. The second most powerful vampire, Jean-Claude, is interested in more than just Anita's professional talents, but the feisty necromancer isn't playing along--yet. This popular series has a wild energy and humor, and some very appealing characters--both dead and alive.
Book Blurb for The Laughing Corpse: Millionaire Harold Gaynor wants to hire Anita Blake to raise a 283 year old corpse. Of course this kind or animation would require a white goat - a human sacrifice. Anita doesn't do human sacrifice, but Harold does not want to take no for an answer. If that wasn't bad enough Dominga Salvador wants Anita to partner with her in the zombie business, but it involves keeping the human soul trapped inside the dead body. Anita wants nothing to do with Dominga or her work, but when the voodoo queen sends something foul and rotting in her window, it is all Anita can do to survive.
Book Blurb for Circus of The Damned: A group of vampires are murdering humans. That's nothing unusual, but they are killing them with multiple bites and draining them of blood. They will rise as vampires, but they will rise as beasts - animalistic vampires that will slaughter everything in their path.
As if that wasn't enough trouble, a master vampire has come to town and wants to make Anita his human servant. New Master of the City, Jean-Claude, wants to mark Anita to keep her safe, but Anita would rather die than become a slave to any vampire. With two master vamps fighting for Anita's soul, an undead war has begun.
Thanks for this! I had been avoiding LKH's Anita Blake series for the same reason as yours. But I was told by Patricia at Patricia's Vampire Notes that books 1-4 were worth reading then you can skip up to Skin Trade where LKH goes back to the root of these books. I had forgotten all about that until I read your post. Oh and I love omnibuses! I plan on seeing if I can find it. Great post!
ReplyDeleteSkin Trade is okay again? Good to know b/c I gave up after book 6. Thanks for the tip :)
ReplyDeleteI stopped at book 7. I felt like her books were losing their purpose, their plot. I feel the same with her Merry Gentry Series.
ReplyDeleteI am going to try to finish the series for Finish that Series Challenge 2010.
I really enjoyed Anita Blake as a kick ass vampire slayer. It was only when
ReplyDeletethe book's started with the sex way to much did the story plot turn to
Boring. I hope Laurell K. Hamilton changes the books so they are more
intriguing and suspenseful to read!
the sex is annoying, but the rest of the anita blake series is good. read books1-5, then stick to skin trade, which is pretty chaste until the end, with only one sex scene.
ReplyDeleteby the way, although theres only one sex scene in flirt, it doesnt count when the whole book's only 150 pages long.
ReplyDeleteI don't know too many people who disparage the entire Anita Blake series. IF they do, I doubt they read UF as a whole or have really read the original books. Its a generally agreed upon thing that the original handful were brilliant to begin with and wonderfully written, Until you get to the later books. You won't understand, until you experience it for yourself, and you should. I think we all should read her. LKH opened the doors, she set the stage, she was the originator of nearly every UF female character out there that is the tough girl role. LKH came first. I'd argue with anyone who says otherwise. She said in an interview I read,(loosely paraphrased) "If imitation is the most sincere form of flattery...I'm really flattered." I loved that.
ReplyDeleteI think everyone should give big props where they are due. But the writing changed (in my opinion for the worse, the editing became poor, the characters history began to change as if even she had lost control of where the series was going) and she adapted a literary device and when it began to ruin the series, refused to recognize it and let it go. Maybe you'll be in the minority and love all of them. The first 5-6 are brilliant and classics. Enjoy, I know I did. After that...wow. It's like anti-sex. Good books with good erotica in them should make you want to go seduce someone. Bad erotica makes you want to take a shower like you rolled in something nasty. The last books make you wish you could take a shower for your brain. It's not prudery because I'm american. I like well written sex with lots of good tension. But if your MC screws everything (and I do mean everything)that moves in a book...where is the sexual tension? THere is none.
She gave us UF as we know it, and then she took another path, and you know what part of me, while I hate what happened to the character she created that I had grown to love, respects the fact that she doesn't care what anyone thinks. Anita Blake is hers. If she wants to make her a caricature of herself, its her choice. She's the boss. That is the beauty of being a writer. We get to create our own worlds, and she gets to run her world any way she sees fit. I for one am grateful to her. I just won't buy her anymore.
L Blanchard
www.dangerousromance.com