This series of books is actually somewhat entertaining as far as vampire novels go. While it doesn't hold up to
Bram Stoker's Dracula or the works of
Anne Rice, and to lots of other works out there, it's not exactly a total
flop. Admittedly
Laurell K. Hamilton is not exactly a top notch writer, but I still found these books at least somewhat entertaining. They are with their
flaws, of course, but they do have their
merits too. Without
spoiling anything, I'll try to sum up the series and some of the ups and downs.
First off, if it wasn't already obvious, these books are hardly for kids, moreso than usual. Due to Anita dealing with the baddest of the bad, and the evilest of the
evil, the matter tends to get rather
dark and
mature. Numerous parts of the book graphically depict
violence,
torture,
murder,
rape, and
sexual assault, and VERY often later on in the series, plain
old fashioned sex, if sex with various members of the
preternatural community can really be considered "
old fashioned". These aren't just minor
allusions to the acts, either. Hamilton doesn't pull any punches when describing what's going on. While most of the nastier stuff is neccesary for the story, it's still rather
disturbing to lots of people. Also, if you don't like sex scenes in books, I strongly advise you don't read past the fifth book or so, as it gets really bad, both in
quality and in
quantity. It wouldn't be so bad if most of them weren't worse than your average piece of internet
erotica, but it gets to be that way, save for one or two scenes that are actually
pivotal to the
plot.
The books still have some amount of
merit. The style, though it may not be considered a work of
genius, is at least
entertaining. Anita doesn't overdo the whole
hard boiled role and
Max Payne it up, but you do get a feel for just how she works. She also ends up
evolving throughout the books. Reading the first book you see that Anita is a far different character than she is in the latest installment,
Cerulean Sins. It's arguable that she has evolved almost TOO much, but more on that later. The main challenge in a book of this genre is the rules for the various
monsters and other
creepy crawlies that you bring up, and Hamilton brings up almost all of them.
Ghosts,
zombies,
wereanimals (not just wolves),
demons, and of course
vampires. On top of that, they all have to end up co-existing in the
modern world. If there's one area that Hamilton shines in, it's this one. The creatures in the books behave and have to act more or less as you'd expect them to and nothing is stretched out to be totally unbelievable. The rules she sets up for the vampires, for
example, are pretty standard. No sunlight unless you like being on fire and dying, crosses are bad if the wielder of the cross actually has faith in it, they still have to ask permission to enter a private place, and they can also reproduce with a human, though the risk of complications is rather high. Nothing is really totally out of the ordinary, and Hamilton does all make it work in a modern setting, mostly by making everybody aware of the fact that
vampires and
lycanthropes exist. They may not like it, but at least they're protected under the law, preventing every single
monster in the city from being dragged out into the
sun or set on fire. The characters are also rather memorable and all have lives and
developing characteristics of their own. Most every character that is ever introduced into the book ends up coming back later, and even the most ordinary characters are made into interesting characters with lives, not just another name to look at and casually remember throughout the book incase they end up coming into play again.
All of this development does sort of cause a problem that Hamilton seems to have
overlooked,
however. Though it's balanced out with the supporting characters, Anita is the main character, and thus ends up developing the most. This wouldn't be too bad, but it's done in
horrendous excess. Trying to explain exactly how would potentially spoil the books for those looking to read them, but in
D&D terms, Anita would end up being something like a character that was a level 10
fighter, level 6
mage with the
necromancer specialization, level 8
rogue, and like a level 5
ranger. She essentially ends up being everything at once, and it gets to be really sort of
laughable in her infinite
arsenal of acquired powers. As of this writeup Hamilton hasn't officially planned to continue the series past the current book,
Cerulean Sins, but if she does, she really needs to do something about that.
In conclusion, this book isn't for everyone, and isn't exactly among the
greatest literary accomplishments of the century by any means, but it's still at least an entertaining read if you're a fan of
vampire and other
preternatural mythology and can stomach some of the darker and raunchier
content. Most people who read the books either like them or hate them, few have an in between standpoint, which is totally understandable. It's something you can at least kill some time with if you're
bored. Go pick up
Guilty Pleasures at
Borders or
Barnes and Noble when you have
nothing better to do and give it a few chapters (or the entire book if you want to spend a few hours blatantly being a
cheapskate). Give it a chance. Maybe you'll like it, and at worst, you'll have passed an hour or two of time you'd otherwise spend doing
nothing.