I have been reading Laurell's books since I was 15, and have read almost every single book she has ever written/published.
I love her imagination, and her talent for creating/keeping track of hundreds of different characters at a time.
A lot of people have given her some harsh reviews because of the content of her stories. And yes, she can irritate me too sometimes. With how she can fixate on a problem like a dog with a bone, going back to it again, and again, and again.
I tried not to pay attention to what most of them were saying for a long time, but (especially with Anita) it did get tiring after she "over came" the same issues for what felt like the 10th time.
Bullet was the worst.
It's a good sized book, about a inch thick. 360 something pages
After reading it, I felt like I had absorbed 70 pages at most. If that. The rest was mush that I worked my way through.
It nearly put me off reading her books at all truthfully. But you know, despite all that, I do love her story lines. I love her characters, (most of them anyway, a few I want to give a kick up the behind) and you know, there was a reason I had stuck with her until then. The latest few books not included, I really enjoyed being in her different realities.
So I gave her the benefit of the doubt. And I'm glad I did.
As I said in my earlier blog, http://opinionsstoriesbooksnovels.blogspot.com/2012/06/kiss-dead-by-laurell-k-hamilton.html , "Kiss the Dead" was like breathing that first breath of air after being under water for a while.
Laurell's writing style.
Laurell is an author that talks to her reader. She is not as obvious about it as other authors like C. S. Lewis or Terry Pratchett, but her main characters (her narrators) are definitely talking to someone. Not like they expect a response, but almost as if they are laying it out for a diary.
She can also be very factual. Anita and Mary will often be thinking " A is ___ so that means B." All in a very matter-of-fact way, as if there could be no other possibility. "2 is added on to 3 so that means 5".
I'm not saying she's close minded. She's not.
In fact, her main characters are all surprisingly fluid and ready to accept that they were wrong fairly easily(though not always). Often done in the same but-of-course way that they deal with everything else.
Laurell's different books and series.
Anita Blake Vampire Hunter series.
This is the series that I have mostly been talking about throughout the rest of this post.
All I want to add is a request that you not let my earlier harsh words decide you against taking a look at the series. There are currently 21 books in the entire series and my afore said rants only really apply to about 5 of them.
Every author has her bad day's, and, from what I can gather in the past years her publishers have been putting pressure on her to produce books at the rate hamsters have babies. (Ok, not quite, but you get what I mean)
As for what it's about. Close your eyes for a second and ask yourself "What if, what if Zombies, Vampires, Wears, and all other critters that you hear about in legends were real. What if they were an accepted part of our daily lives. What if, when you saw an animated corps walking outside you window, your automatic response wasn't to question your sanity or think leprosy. It would be to call the police to send in a fire squad and deal with the poor thing." There you go.
Anita, in the middle of all that, is a necromancer and legal Vampire Executioner with a messed up social life.
Great stuff. -No sarcasm intended.-
Merry Gentry Series
I have just now realised that I have not done any previous posts on any of Merry's books. I will change that as soon as I can.
Merry and Anita are as different as Strawberry Jam and Marmite.(That's the real, original thing that came before Vegemite)
Not to say that Merry is the epitome of sweetness. Far from it. But she was brought up by a father who expected her to know and understand the different customs of every different culture she might interact with as an adult. (As a Sidhe Princess to the Unseelie court, that's a lot.)
In other words, she was never as shielded as Anita was, and so came into the first book of the series with most potential issues already worked out.
Merry also knows that she isn't human, where as Anita is still in denial.
There hasn't been enough books in the series yet (8 total) for me to know if Laurell is going to get locked into a cycle like she did with Anita. (They may not have the same issues, but Merry's reality is far from perfect.)
Fingers crossed and looking forward to the next book.
Nightseer
This is the first book that Laurell ever published. She didn't make a series out of it, and I'm sort of on the fence about whether or not that is a sad thing.
I wont go into to much detail about that here, as I already posted a blog on this book when I first read it.
Here http://opinionsstoriesbooksnovels.blogspot.com/2012/05/nightseer-by-l-k-hamilton.html
Micah and Strange Candy.
Micah
"Micah" is a sweet little short story that comes into Anita's series just before "Dance Macabre". The two of them (Anita and Micah) are alone together for the first extended period of time.
I read this whole book a while ago now, but I remember that I liked getting to know Micah a bit better.
Strange Candy
"Strange Candy" is a series of Laurell's short stories that she did before getting her first major publication. Some she sent to magazines, some not.
I think there was even one that she did in her early teens. Though I could be wrong about that.
I'll tell you more when I read it again.
Other works.
Laurell has also done a number of other things, including a few compilations with other authors that I refuse to go through one by one.
For the full list, and anything else you want to know about Laurell, you can go to her websight here, http://www.laurellkhamilton.org/
That's it. Please leave a comment to tell me what you think, or find me on me facebook page https://www.facebook.com/SaaskiOFFICIAL
I love her imagination, and her talent for creating/keeping track of hundreds of different characters at a time.
A lot of people have given her some harsh reviews because of the content of her stories. And yes, she can irritate me too sometimes. With how she can fixate on a problem like a dog with a bone, going back to it again, and again, and again.
I tried not to pay attention to what most of them were saying for a long time, but (especially with Anita) it did get tiring after she "over came" the same issues for what felt like the 10th time.
Bullet was the worst.
It's a good sized book, about a inch thick. 360 something pages
After reading it, I felt like I had absorbed 70 pages at most. If that. The rest was mush that I worked my way through.
It nearly put me off reading her books at all truthfully. But you know, despite all that, I do love her story lines. I love her characters, (most of them anyway, a few I want to give a kick up the behind) and you know, there was a reason I had stuck with her until then. The latest few books not included, I really enjoyed being in her different realities.
So I gave her the benefit of the doubt. And I'm glad I did.
As I said in my earlier blog, http://opinionsstoriesbooksnovels.blogspot.com/2012/06/kiss-dead-by-laurell-k-hamilton.html , "Kiss the Dead" was like breathing that first breath of air after being under water for a while.
Laurell's writing style.
Laurell is an author that talks to her reader. She is not as obvious about it as other authors like C. S. Lewis or Terry Pratchett, but her main characters (her narrators) are definitely talking to someone. Not like they expect a response, but almost as if they are laying it out for a diary.
She can also be very factual. Anita and Mary will often be thinking " A is ___ so that means B." All in a very matter-of-fact way, as if there could be no other possibility. "2 is added on to 3 so that means 5".
I'm not saying she's close minded. She's not.
In fact, her main characters are all surprisingly fluid and ready to accept that they were wrong fairly easily(though not always). Often done in the same but-of-course way that they deal with everything else.
Laurell's different books and series.
Anita Blake Vampire Hunter series.
This is the series that I have mostly been talking about throughout the rest of this post.
All I want to add is a request that you not let my earlier harsh words decide you against taking a look at the series. There are currently 21 books in the entire series and my afore said rants only really apply to about 5 of them.
Every author has her bad day's, and, from what I can gather in the past years her publishers have been putting pressure on her to produce books at the rate hamsters have babies. (Ok, not quite, but you get what I mean)
As for what it's about. Close your eyes for a second and ask yourself "What if, what if Zombies, Vampires, Wears, and all other critters that you hear about in legends were real. What if they were an accepted part of our daily lives. What if, when you saw an animated corps walking outside you window, your automatic response wasn't to question your sanity or think leprosy. It would be to call the police to send in a fire squad and deal with the poor thing." There you go.
Anita, in the middle of all that, is a necromancer and legal Vampire Executioner with a messed up social life.
Great stuff. -No sarcasm intended.-
Merry Gentry Series
I have just now realised that I have not done any previous posts on any of Merry's books. I will change that as soon as I can.
Merry and Anita are as different as Strawberry Jam and Marmite.(That's the real, original thing that came before Vegemite)
Not to say that Merry is the epitome of sweetness. Far from it. But she was brought up by a father who expected her to know and understand the different customs of every different culture she might interact with as an adult. (As a Sidhe Princess to the Unseelie court, that's a lot.)
In other words, she was never as shielded as Anita was, and so came into the first book of the series with most potential issues already worked out.
Merry also knows that she isn't human, where as Anita is still in denial.
There hasn't been enough books in the series yet (8 total) for me to know if Laurell is going to get locked into a cycle like she did with Anita. (They may not have the same issues, but Merry's reality is far from perfect.)
Fingers crossed and looking forward to the next book.
Nightseer
This is the first book that Laurell ever published. She didn't make a series out of it, and I'm sort of on the fence about whether or not that is a sad thing.
I wont go into to much detail about that here, as I already posted a blog on this book when I first read it.
Here http://opinionsstoriesbooksnovels.blogspot.com/2012/05/nightseer-by-l-k-hamilton.html
Micah and Strange Candy.
Micah
"Micah" is a sweet little short story that comes into Anita's series just before "Dance Macabre". The two of them (Anita and Micah) are alone together for the first extended period of time.
I read this whole book a while ago now, but I remember that I liked getting to know Micah a bit better.
Strange Candy
"Strange Candy" is a series of Laurell's short stories that she did before getting her first major publication. Some she sent to magazines, some not.
I think there was even one that she did in her early teens. Though I could be wrong about that.
I'll tell you more when I read it again.
Other works.
Laurell has also done a number of other things, including a few compilations with other authors that I refuse to go through one by one.
For the full list, and anything else you want to know about Laurell, you can go to her websight here, http://www.laurellkhamilton.org/
That's it. Please leave a comment to tell me what you think, or find me on me facebook page https://www.facebook.com/SaaskiOFFICIAL
