From /tmp/sf.4146 Tue Aug 9 01:52:42 1994 Path: lysator-ifm-isy.liu.se!lysator.liu.se!news.kth.se!aun.uninett.no!trane.uninett.no!eunet.no!EU.net!uknet!lyra.csx.cam.ac.uk!pipex!bnr.co.uk!corpgate!news.utdallas.edu!rdxsunhost.aud.alcatel.com!aur.alcatel.com!news From: RCTST2@vms.cis.pitt.edu () Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: GUILTY PLEASURES Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Date: Fri, 01 Apr 1994 02:22:02 GMT Organization: not specified Lines: 43 Approved: sfr%sheol@concert.net (rec.arts.sf.reviews moderator) Message-ID: <01HAMTIGN1G2C3UWTU@vms.cis.pitt.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: aursag.aur.alcatel.com GUILTY PLEASURES by Laurell K. Hamilton a Review by Ray Tate GUILTY PLEASURES is a horror novel classified as fantasy and shelved under science fiction. Confused? Apparently if the book doesn't have a skeleton or a child with glowing eyes on its cover, the book can't be classified as horror. It's the law. However, this is horror. The story takes place at a time when vampires have been given the rights of living citizens and features a likable hero--Anita Blake or as the vampires have come to know her, the Executioner, no relation to Mr. Bolan. When a vampire crosses the line (Being citizens they too must obey the laws), Anita is called in to take care of the problem. "How would you like that stake, sir? Wooden, please." A number of vampires have been found dead, and the vampire lord arranges for a meeting with Anita to find the culprit. This is not a spoiler, believe me. GUILTY PLEASURES is a book for people who have grown tired of the oh-so-sexy-yet-oh-so-misunderstood vampire and long for the return of the predatory monsters exemplified by the likes of Max Shreck and Christopher Lee. This is not a book in which you will find the Frank Langella disco Dracula. This is not a book in which the heroine trips on her high heels to allow the monster to catch up to her during the chase. This book was written by a woman tired of cliches. Laurell Hamilton's style is crisp and clear. The descriptions for the most part leave the reader with good visuals, and there are a many nods to Raymond Chandler, Hammer Films and of all things DOCTOR WHO--anyone having seen "Remembrance of the Daleks" will know what I'm talking about after they read the book. In short, a very cool first volume in what must become a series. %A Laurell K. Hamilton %T Guilty Pleasure %S Anita Blake:Vampire Hunter %V Number One %I Ace Books;Fantas %D October 1993 %G ISBN 0-441-30483- %O pb; price:$4.99 USA From rec.arts.sf.reviews Fri Sep 11 16:00:07 1998 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed1.news.luth.se!luth.se!Cabal.CESspool!bofh.vszbr.cz!howland.erols.net!netnews.com!newsswitch.lcs.mit.edu!news.media.mit.edu!not-for-mail From: hklaus6073@aol.com (HKlaus6073) Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Blue Moon, by Hamilton Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Date: 09 Sep 1998 20:33:06 -0400 Organization: AOL http://www.aol.com Lines: 36 Approved: wex@media.mit.edu Message-ID: NNTP-Posting-Host: tinbergen.media.mit.edu X-Newsreader: Gnus v5.3/Emacs 19.34 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.sf.reviews:2102 BLUE MOON by Laurell K. Hamilton Review Copyright 1998 Harriet Klausner High school teacher and alpha werewolf Richard Zeiman is unable to cope with observing his former lover, zombie raiser and vampire executioner Anita Blake, in the arms of his rival, Jean Claude, master vampire of St. Louis. Richard leaves town to compete his thesis on preternatural biology. However, he selects the wrong town to study the Smokey Mountain troll because no one welcomes him in the area. Instead, the police frame him with the alleged raping of a local girl. When Anita learns that Richard has been incarcerated, she has no doubts of his innocence. She immediately flies to Tennessee to arrange bail. She also ascertains that someone covets the land that the trolls currently inhabit and that individual is willing to exterminate the beings to obtain their desires. Like old times Richard, Anita, and some of her supernatural pals work together in an effort to discover whom is the person performing the evil deeds in this small Tennessee town. One of the most endearing aspects of a Laurell K. Hamilton novel is that the reader can never guess the direction the story line is going to lead the reader to as the characters can end up in any situation. This is true of BLUE MOON, a first rate work fiction, that has appeal to mystery, fantasy, and horror fans. However, this particular work will appeal to a mainstream audience because it includes a maturing on the heroine's part as she learns that she does not have all of life's answers. It will be easier to believe in vampires and werewolves than wait for the next tale in this terrific series. Harriet Klausner %T BLUE MOON %A Laurell K. Hamilton %I Ace %D Nov 1998 %O $6.99 %P 415 pp. %G ISBN 0-441-00574-8 From rec.arts.sf.reviews Sun Jun 20 12:17:11 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!nntp.primenet.com!news-peer1.sprintlink.net!news-in-west1.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!rpi!gatech!18.181.0.27.MISMATCH!sipb-server-1.mit.edu!senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!usenet From: tillman@aztec.asu.edu (P.D. TILLMAN) Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Burnt Offerings, Laurell K. Hamilton Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Date: 15 Jun 1999 17:10:19 -0400 Organization: Software Agents Group Lines: 64 Sender: wex@tinbergen.media.mit.edu Approved: wex@media.mit.edu Message-ID: Reply-To: tillman@aztec.asu.edu NNTP-Posting-Host: tinbergen.media.mit.edu X-Newsreader: Gnus v5.3/Emacs 19.34 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.sf.reviews:2375 Burnt Offerings by Laurell K. Hamilton Review Copyright 1999 Peter D. Tillman [As a review of a book in a continuing character series, it probably should be considered a spoiler for earlier volumes. --AW] Rating: "A" -- strongest Anita Blake since The Laughing Corpse. I realize I'm a ways behind here -- I've found that if I read these without a few months break between books, I get vampire-overdose. Anyway, the previous 3 or 4, while good, didn't blow me away. So I'm pleased to report that Anita Blake is back to full voltage, with more complex plot and characters and a (somewhat) lower body count. The Grand Guignol's still here, as is Hamilton's ability to make a fundamentally silly premise into a great story. Bet you can't read just one. In this outing, the Vampire Council's come to town from Europe, on suspicion that Jean-Claude has gotten uppity after killing councilor Earthmover (aka "Mr. Oliver" in the last book) -- not realizing that J-C's human servant and girlfriend Anita is the one who pulled the trigger. Moving at the usual breakneck pace, Anita becomes both acting-alpha werewolf and leoparde-lionee' for the St. Louis Wereleopards. Thankfully, Rafael narrowly (by the skin...? er, no.) keeps his throne as King Wererat -- for a while it looked like Anita would win the Triple Crown. I know this sounds silly -- and it is -- but the mixture of silly with serious -- giggles with gore -- is one of Hamilton's signature -- and best -- story-devices. Add the well-researched police- (and, this time, firefighter-) procedural, and the snappy tough-girl dialog: Dolph, her boss on the Regional Preternatural Investigation Team, is admonishing Our Heroine: "Try not to kill anyone this month, Anita. Even in clear self-defense..." "I haven't killed anyone in over six weeks -- hell, nearly seven. I'm cutting down." I suppose by writing up Anita Blake #7 I'm preaching to the choir -- if you're new to the series, this *isn't* the place to start. Go all the way back to #1, Guilty Pleasures; all are in print. Whathehell, I write these things mostly for my own amusement. Good thing, too -- be tough to make a living (or even much spare change) writing book reviews. Anyway, I'll soon be caught up to Hamilton's newest, and be reduced to impatiently waiting for the next new Anita, just like all the rest of you guys. Another opinion (eg. yet another reason why this review is superfluous): http://www.epiphyte.net/SF/burnt-offerings.html -- and try http://www.silcom.com/~manatee/utc.html for a number of other "Anita Blake" reviews (including mine). %T Burnt Offerings %A Laurell K. Hamilton %D May 98 %I Ace %O $7 %P 392 pp. %G ISBN 0-441-00524-1 Read more of my reviews: http://www.silcom.com/~manatee/reviewer.html#tillman From rec.arts.sf.reviews Tue Aug 24 16:03:33 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!newsfeed.sunet.se!news01.sunet.se!news99.sunet.se!logbridge.uoregon.edu!sunqbc.risq.qc.ca!gatech!sipb-server-1.mit.edu!senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!usenet From: mcardle@ozemail.com.au (Edward McArdle) Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Laurell K Hamilton's Anita Blake series. Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Date: 22 Aug 1999 19:13:02 -0400 Organization: none Lines: 66 Sender: wex@tinbergen.media.mit.edu Approved: wex@media.mit.edu Message-ID: NNTP-Posting-Host: tinbergen.media.mit.edu X-Newsreader: Gnus v5.3/Emacs 19.34 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.sf.reviews:2437 The Anita Blake series, by Laurell K Hamilton Review Copyright 1999 Edward McArdle [contains conceptual spoilers for the series. --AW] It may be superfluous to review these books, since everyone I speak to is already reading them. In the Buffy the Vampire Slayer newsgroup, articles compare Buffy and Anita Blake. Buffy kills giant insects, vampires, etc. Anita kills everybody. There are presently eight books in the series, and they do need to be read in order. The others are Bloody Bones, The Killing Dance, Burnt Offerings and Blue Moon. But I haven't read those yet. My sister says the books are basically romances, but I can't see that. They are more like the Indiana Jones movies, where the action starts with the first frame, and every now and then you need to pause to breathe. Easier in a book. You close it for a while. The world is one where vampires, werewolves, zombies, etc., are real. Anita Blake is a person with the ability to raise zombies - an animator. She does this professionally. If your husband died without leaving a will resurrect him briefly and ask questions (with a lawyer present, of course). She also used to kill vampires, but now that vampires have been granted citizenship one can't do that unless the vampire has been convicted of murder. She is, however, the state's official vampire executioner. Anita believes there is no such thing as a non-evil vampire. This becomes complicated by her involvement with one of the master vampires. This is where the romance supposedly comes in. My old-fashioned view is that romance should involve some emotional attachment other than lust, which makes this involvement hard to accept. Vampires are dead. They have no souls. She becomes involved with other men later in the series, and the romance angle takes flight in the fourth book, when she is fought over (in fairly gentlemanly fashion) by a vampire and an alpha werewolf. Personally, I find the romance a little harder to believe than the zombies. Anita has an extremely abrasive personality, and mentions at times that she has never been chased by men. (Well, after she garrotted them, she probably forgot them.) Why would the two Masters of the City be fighting over her? Anita also has a friend who is a psychopathic killer. Apart from the rollicking action, which barely slows, the books are extremely bloodthirsty and gruesome. Book 3 and 4 are not as bad as the previous two, but none of these books is for the squeamish. %T Guilty Pleasures %T The Laughing Corpse %T Circus of the Damned %T The Lunatic Cafe, %A Hamilton, Laurell K . %I Ace books %I Berkeley Publishing Group. %S Oct 1993: %G ISBN: 0-441-30483-4 %O US$6.50 Edward McArdle. http://www.ozemail.com.au/~mcardle -me, my tennis club, golf, verses, novel, a crostic puzzle, random photos... and http://www.geocities.com/TheTropics/Paradise/3479/ where you may learn of my Alaskan Cruise with the Stars (and get a glimpse of Vancouver).