I finally finished Guilty Pleasures - Anita Blake book 1, liked it so much that I ran out and got books 2 and 3 (I cant stand to wait if I'm in the middle) ... but, anyway, all that's for later.
Book 1 is very enjoyable, it introduces Ms. Blake, an animator (she raises the dead) and vampire executioner. It also introduces the backstory of the Anita Blake novels, how vampirism is now legal and the rights of the dead and other supernatural beings were-rats/wolves etc (who woulda thunk beyond wolves, Ms. Hamilton does have some crazy imagination). It also introduces us to a huge cast of characters - Jean-Claude a very sexy (think along the lines of the Anne Rice vampires) 250 year old vampire, Edward - fellow executioner, Irving - a werewolf/reporter, Ronnie - detective and Anita's friend, Dolph and co. part of the St. Louis PD, Philip a vampire junkie, Nikolaos a 1000+ year old vampire, zombies, ghouls, animators and all the other supernatural beings of Ms. Hamilton's weird and lurid world. Anita is wise-talking, fast acting and hard as nails and a pleasure to read about - but then I always have liked strong female characters. She also has a weird relationship with Jean-Claude, she doesnt trust him as far as she can spit, but Jean-Claude has given her some vampire marks on the way to making her his human servant ... all explained much better in the book.
Guilty Pleasures by itself is decent pulp fiction, doesnt take long to read and good fun to spend time with. I cant say the same of Book 2 (The Laughing Corpse). I like the characters, I like the world Ms. Hamilton has created, but while reading the second book I must say that the stop-gap here is the writing. It's very bad and going downhill fast. I've been skipping pages in an effort to maintain interest and only because I want to know where the characters are going. Anita has become quite irritating too .... like a spoiled child.
Secondly, I dont like the conceit in naming the books. Guilty Pleasures is a night-club in St. Louis, The Laughing Corpse is a comedy club, the Circus of the Damned is ... a circus or something, I still havnt figured it out, but in each novel there's only one scene even set in these places and it's an afterthought in the 2nd book. They do sound very cute, but I dont like manipulation in any form and to think that an author would be so careless and not even tie in the title of the book to the story irritates me no end.
So, will read this one and the Circus of the Damned (Book 3) but I think that's it for the series for me. Too bad :( On to the next find ..... the Roman series by Colleen McCullough.
