Category Archives: World of Books

Laurell K. Hamilton: Obsidian Butterfly

World of Books April 19, 2010 Comments: 4

Yes, I was late writing about Blue Moon, so I’m doing both books at the same time.

Since Obsidian Butterfly is still so fresh in my mind (I only finished it yesterday), I have to say I think this one is up to now the most aggresive, gory and horror-like book in Anita series (and that series is among the genre the goriest in my opinion).

This is also the book where we get to know Edward better. And Anita is not communicating with either of her beaus until the end of the book, and then only with Jean-Claude.

This time around, the vampires are of Aztec origin and think of themselves as gods, they also come with some seriously scary monsters and powers.

As you can guess by now, there is never only one situation Anita is involved in, but in the end they always seem to be connected.

And not only is this book extremely violent, Anita gets to be the recipient of quite a lot of that. Good for her she is not your regular human otherwise she wouldn’t be alive anymore.

Anyway, the book ends up with Anita having another guy thinking she is the woman for him (actually soulmate) and hoping she never gets to see him (not gonna happen). 🙂
This is just the beginning of the series of man that are going to get into that same situation. Oh, so much more problems are ahead for our little necromancer (only in stature and nothing else).

Laurell K. Hamilton: Blue Moon

World of Books April 19, 2010 Comments: 4

I’m annoying myself with talking exclusively about Anita Blake books so I’ll keep this short.

As I already mentioned, the series is going to dive into some pornographic details down the road, but here it is still all ok, even though Anita finds herself in the end in a bit of a problem, having slept with both of the important guys in her life. Well, at least she got Richard into her bed, even though not for long.

At some point in the book, I got really impressed (and annoyed) for the amount of tolerance she shows to people (or in this case werewolves) who say lies in the name of love. But, that is mine problem, I just have no excuses for lies that are meant to make someone jealous and someone can get hurt in the process.

In this book, Anita needs to help Richard who ended up in jail for alleged rape (of course he didn’t do it – he’s the ultimate boyscout in Anita’s opinion) but he needs help with the situation even though in his mind, the fact that he is innocent should be enough. In what world does he live?!

Anyway, typically for Anita’s world, she ends up in some personal metaphysical problems but will get help from a really nice witch she meets there, has problems with the Master of the City of the city she visits, is forced to kill quite a lot of vamps, some people and torture some as well. It might sound real bad if you never read Anita Blake but the thing is, she never does anything unprovoked and all the bad things she is forced to do (she calls it letting parts of her soul go to save someone), she does in order to save the life of someone innocent. I cannot find a single thing to judge her for, even though I don’t think we should be judging anyone (except tolerating lies in the name of love – other people’s of course, she doesn’t do it).
The book ends up with Anita deciding to let go of both of her lovers until she learns more about what their triumvirate stands for and what exactly she needs to know to control it.

Laurell K. Hamilton: Burnt Offerings

World of Books April 9, 2010 Leave a comment

I know, I know. You all wish I’d read something else for a change. 🙂 I wish it too. I just can’t seem to stop but I think I will as soon as sex becomes the main story. It still hasn’t.

In this book, Jean Claude and Anita get into a lot of trouble with the vampire council (they are some really nasty vampires and they rule) so there is torture and part of the story are not for the weak of heart. I mean, I remember being quite shocked with stuff Mrs. Hamilton put her characters through and I know I was reading complete fantasy. It’s just nasty. I do wonder what LKH has against her female heroines (I’m including Merry Gentry here as well). I mean, the s..t just keeps piling higher and higher on them – there is no break from it. Ok, there probably is some months in between the stories but it doesn’t feel so to Anita, so it doesn’t feel so to me either.

Now that I’m going through the series a second time, I cannot but help wonder how strong a character Anita Blake is that she feels like a real person and I view her so in my reviews.

Anyway, the book is about the council visit (not all of them, just an envoy) and they come unannounced. Really bad. And it just goes downhill from there. At the same time, police is asking Anita for some advice and we learn what is Inferno for the vampires. Among other things. The triumvirate is needed to save the day and some serious political and diplomatic manouvering. Some nice twists to the plot, and Asher arrives on the scene. 🙂

In the end, you know it has to end as Anita’s side being the winning. Btw, I shouldn’t forget to mention her hospital stay this time around. I will take care and try to find a book where Anita doesn’t get physically hurt – is there one? I don’t know.

Laurell K. Hamilton: Circus of the Damned

World of Books March 30, 2010 Comments: 2

This is worse than first time around. Now I know what great adventures await me with Anita and I cannot stop reading, I am completely hooked. I was reading until 1 a.m. last night even though I had to get to work this morning, but I just had to finish so today I could start another (which I will do as soon as I finish this). 🙂

Btw, I need to warn you there may be some spoilers ahead. When I started reading it, I thought I knew which story this was. Then I got through half of the book and started wondering if I mixed some stuff. It turned out I was right at the start, but it just took longer than I expected. And I actually learned something. It bugged me the first time around when she recognizes a vampire and later figures it is a million years old and a Homo Erectus. So today I went googling and Homo Erectus really was that old. 🙂 Wow! It just proves I wasn’t paying much attention in school. Ok, I forgot.

I already mentioned in previous posts how I’m getting much more this time around when reading and it was proven again. Like when Lamia (if you haven’t read, I’ll let you discover her yourself) said that a woman should always have more than one man. 🙂 Boy, is that going to become true for Anita. I can’t wait for it. 🙂 You know that means less sleep for me (and I do need enough sleep). But it’s just too tense to let go. Especially now I know what to expect.
I just realized I didn’t say much about the story – but it’s the standard Anita, blood, violence, vampires after her, helping the police, a new guy coming into picture…

Pic by: www.laurellkhamilton.com

Anita Blake – The Laughing Corpse

World of Books March 26, 2010 Leave a comment

Since I am participating in the Anita Blake book challenge, I will give a quick post on each of the book as I read them.

You know, those books are addictive, especially the beginning of the series. I am again enjoying them immensely (if you haven’t realized that yet). 😉

I get the feeling that the series started with some very interesting and original cases (although terribly gory and dark) and that as it progressed, it got harder to keep up with such great beginning. But that didn’t stop me from getting all the books. 🙂

Anyway, in this one, Anita is asked by a bad rich guy to raise a 300-year old corpse but in order to do that, one needs a human sacrifice and there is no money in the world for Anita to take the case. At the same time, she is helping the police with some seriously bad murders which are it seems performed by a zombie (a flesh eating, very scary kind). That investigation brings her to a voodoo priestess and from that point on, it just gets worse and worse for Anita. Did I mention that she gets hurt in each book? 🙂 Sometimes seriously bad and sometimes just a few bites and bruises (not necessitating a hospital stay).

When I was first reading AB, I have to admit I was a bit astonished at the violence, blood, guns and all those aggressive parts but they are part of Anita Blake universe and probably one of the reasons the series is/was so popular. I mean, I don’t know how popular it is at the moment, but for me it’s one of the cult series of the genre. Like what Lord of the Rings did for fantasy. Ok, LOTR is a category by itself and nothing can ever be compared to it, but you get my meaning.
Btw, I just realized with this book that Anita is only an animator in book 1, it is by the end of book 2 she realizes she is actually a necromancer. Biiig difference as will be revealed. 🙂

Laurell K. Hamilton: Guilty Pleasures

World of Books March 22, 2010 Leave a comment

With the beginning of this year, I decided to participate in several reading challenges. One of them was Anita Blake. Ah, Ms Blake. 🙂 She feels like a real person to me now. We’ve been hanging together for 5-6 years now. Practically friends. Even though she doesn’t have that many female friends. One or two maybe. Even though we have nothing in common. She is a petite tough as nails vampire hunter. That’s what you get from book one. I am not going to discuss what I already know about what happens with Anita in books to come since I am re-reading the whole series. I’ve been meaning to do that for some time now (it gets hard keeping track what happened at the beginning of the series when series reached book 17 or something similar) and this challenge came at the right moment.

So, I think I already talked about Anita and that she is a necromancer (raises the dead, i.e. zombies) and is also a bounty vampire killer. There is no vampire hunter, once you get to hunt them, the end is going to be someone’s death. Even though she is very young in the book (I am not 100% sure but I think she is either 24 or 26), she already has life experience for a life (and scars as well).

She is a terribly dark personality, by that I don’t mean she is negative but has a seriously dark outlook on life even though she is a firm Catholic. Now, that I think of it, it kind of isn’t that strange. 🙂

This is the first time I am re-reading Anita Blake and while doing it, I realized that every book you read and enjoyed should be read at least one more time. You just can’t get everything from a book from just one reading. I was seeing so much more now that I was reading it again, since I knew what was to come, I could better understand many of the situations. And even though the story is dark (as always), I was genuinely happy to be back in the world of Anita Blake. I could actually feel her feelings towards vampires this time around. In the beginning, they are quite bad. But, there are interesting things to come, and I will let you know what happens.

And just a short recap of what goes on in this book – Anita is asked by the head vampire of St. Louis to look into some vampire murders (she works as a necromancer and is on retainer with the police regarding supernatural crimes) but when she refuses, through some manouvering, she is forced to help them and she should do it fast. And this is the book where we meet Edward. 🙂 But more about him (a.k.a Death) soon when there is more to tell.

Kresley Cole: Pleasure of a Dark Prince

World of Books March 22, 2010 Leave a comment

Finally I get to talk about this book! 🙂

I’ve read it during the weekend and to say I enjoyed it would be an understatement. I don’t know if it’s because I know what to expect from Kresley Cole’s work or she is just getting better and better, but this is one book I will be reading again and again. Ok, all Immortals after Dark are books I re-read and will be doing that for quite some time. and even though I know what to expect from the story, the lovers who are not suited and one (or both) are against the relationship, a terrible problem they have to deal with and cannot for the life of them see it will ever be resolved in a positive manner, a whole lot of sexually charged situations and interesting twists, each book reads better and better. 🙂

This time we have Lucia the Archer and the prince is of the Lykae clan, his brother is missing so he is the heir but the brother re-appears (that’s actually the first real book in the series – a great one as well). Anyway, there are some dark misteries in Lucia’s past (in my mind I’m calling her now the way he calls her in the book) and she just cannot imagine there is a future for her with Garreth. She is of course his mate so he needs to look no further (even if he could, there is only one mate for life).

Honestly, I didn’t see the end coming. Ok, I couldn’t even begin to imagine how was Kresley going to resolve it, so I enjoyed the suspense.

And if all this didn’t get you the idea how much I liked the book – I LOVED it. 🙂 And can’t wait for the next installment.

Ms. Cole can you please hurry with writing the following novels? Please?

Pic by: http://kresleycole.com/

Rick Riordan: Percy Jackson and the Battle of the Labyrinth

World of Books March 17, 2010 Comments: 3

This is the book 4 in the series, there is only one more left which I mistakenly thought that I have bought and was searching frantically at home trying to locate it after finishing this one, only for it to turn out, I didn’t buy it. 🙂 I definitely needed a vacation and everything I did before it is a bit blurred because I was already so tired that my mind kept wandering off and I was forgetting all sorts of things.

All that is no longer important, spring is here, I’m relatively rested and in a good mood and there are all sorts of new spring scents to find and wear. Which has nothing to do with the book. 🙂

So, let me tell you something about the book.

Well, in this one you can tell the whole story is getting to its end and that the bad guy (in this case the Titan Kronos) is on the brink of seizing power. The last book is the one where Percy decided the future of the Olympic gods and I can’t wait to see what happens.
Before this series I thought I had some bacis Greek mythology knowledge but it didn’t take long for me to realize I actually missed quite a lot of minor characters (most of the time monster type). It’s fun to read a book written for fun and then finishing it and realizing you learned something. And in this one you actually get proof that there is something going on between Percy and Annabeth (finally!) but I’m still wondering what will happen in the last sequel with Annabeth and Luke (who turned bad guy in book 1). I definitely didn’t see coming what happened to Luke at the end of this book.
The whole series somehow reminds me of Harry Potter, each book sees the characters slowly grow up and the story gets richer and more complex. I guess that is normal when your characters start young and grow up to deal with more darkness around them. 🙂 Standard hero stuff. 🙂

James Rollins: The Doomsday Key

World of Books February 28, 2010 Leave a comment

I just love his books – ok, this is for now only valid for Sigma series, but I don’t think the rest can be bad. If you’re a good writer then whatever you write is just good. 🙂

One way that I know a writer has really climbed on my list is when his/her hardcover comes out and I don’t even bat an eye at the price but can’t wait to go and spend the money because it means I will be having it in my hands soon. Like with Mr. Rollins.

I cannot but help wonder how much research goes into each of his books. Even more so because he takes real things and facts and combines them with his characters to fit the story. The really scary part comes at the end of his books, what was real in the book and what wasn’t – way too many of those things you wanted to be fiction seem to be fact. Very scary. Especially concerning this one when the facts point to the devastation man has done and keeps doing to this planet we live on. And not only that, but how much of that is actually being hidden and kept away from public. James Rollins always says which books helped him get to know some subject better and I always plan on getting them but still haven’t managed to do it (will though eventually).

In Doomsdsay Key we have some GM foods gone real bad, “interesting” views on how to keep the world population in numbers that can actually live off the amount of food the earth can produce, Gray Pierce on a mission with the 2 women who effect his emotional life, Painter also on a mission, some back-stabbing and some not, Celtic history and some even older, Black Madonnas, strange diseases and their cures and a lot of learning to be done. And how would you not love the book?!

It just hit me yesterday that Gray Pierce is a combination of James Bond and Indiana Jones – he can get you out of any life-threatening situation and is really a genius when it comes to deciphering riddles. Plus, he has no lack of women (even though he is not that interested in quantity but quality). 🙂

And to end this with the best little tidbit – there is going to be at least one more SIgma book (since there is a “war” starting between Sigma and the Guild). I hope it takes a while before it’s over. 😉

Rick Riordan: Percy Jackson and the Olympians, The Lightning Thief

World of Books February 21, 2010 Comments: 5

I think I should have joined a YA book challenge considering the books I’m reading lately. 🙂 The shelf with YA series in my bookstore is getting bigger and bigger, so when I read about this series (and the movie that will be here soon) last week, I went to check if they had it, and of course they did. I only took the first book, just to make sure it was going to be something I will like reading and as you can probably guess from the introduction, I will be heading there as soon as possible for all other installments of Percy Jacskon. 🙂 Who would’ve guessed?! 😉

It seems that the Greek gods have entered contemporary fiction big time. My first contact was through Sherrilyn Kenyon and there was someone else in the mean time between Sherrilyn and now Rick Rordan but I can’t remember who at the moment.

And there is that other movie about to hit the cinemas, also having to do with ancient Greek monsters and stuff. 🙂 I found it – Clash of the Titans.

All these certainly make for an easier learning of the Greek mythology, if nothing else.

On to the young Percy, who is 12 in the book, but looks a bit older in the movie trailer. I wonder what changes will there be in the movie (and there will be, no doubt).

So, he learns he is the son of a god (I’m not going to say which) but his mother has never told him that – he’s about to learn it the hard way. He is also dyslexic, which is normal for demi-gods (there is an explanation in the book, quite interesting). In this first book, Percy learns who he is and who his father is, and since his father is in the middle of a dispute that might lead to war, Percy and his 2 friends set out on a quest to settle the matter. The book is fun and easy to read and really full of interesting mythological facts (I mean, it’s mythology and cannot be factual, but you know, facts as they appear in the Greek mythology).

I’m not going to say anything more except if you like to read, try this as light reading, and I am going to see the movie, I believe it’s going to be a lot of fun.

Pic by: /www.rickriordan.com