93 of 106 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
It's not about the Ardeur, March 28, 2010
This review is from: Ardeur: 14 Writers on the Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter Series (Smart Pop series) (Paperback)
If you are interested in this book because you believe it's about the Ardeur, you will either be vastly disappointed, or incredibly relieved, because it's NOT about the Ardeur.
Fourteen authors have written essays covering fourteen different aspects of Anita and her world. This is by no means a book touting how wonderful the Anita Blake series is. As a matter of fact, you'll find some authors that think the series lost it's value either when Anita finally had sex with Jean-Claude (no more sexual tension or leaving readers wondering who she'll pick) or by doing a 180 with her issues on monogamy in Narcissus in Chains.
What we do have are some interesting and thought provoking theories covering topics such as:
*Anita's relationships with other women
*Romance, and why vampires are such a hot topic
*How cold English words are for different parts of the body and how Laurell has avoided them
*How Anita has to save someone before she can trust them, and why
*How death shaped her
*Edward
*What becoming a monster has done for Anita
*Why the level of violence exhibited by a woman was such a breakthrough in this series
*The law and why it's so unfair to the preternatural community
*And a whole lot more - and yes, there are a couple regarding sex
Each essay is prefaced by a message from Laurell, not pointing out what she believes is right or wrong, but of her own experiences related to the topic and how they affected her writing or Anita's character. This adds a great deal of insight to the hows and whys.
This is a really good book for making you see things in a new light. Of course if you have already stopped reading the series because you don't like the direction it has taken, this book probably isn't going to make you suddenly want to go play catch up with the books you haven't read yet. But I do believe you'd appreciate the insights and theories offered in this book.
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31 of 42 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Book's fine but electronic version is poor., April 6, 2010
I am not that picky about the electronic versions even though they do tend to be full of incorrect words, missing spaces, missing punctuation (question marks seem to be almost completely MIA)and odd order of sections such as the table of contents at the end of the book. Usually I just go with the flow. However, this one is really bad. Apparently, Laurell Hamilton wrote a little blurb before each essay. The Kindle insists on starting the book with the essay so you don't know there is a pre-essay blurb. If you chooce an essay from the table of contents once again it takes you to the essay bypassing the LH comments. I stumbled on the LH comments in between two of the essays otherwise there would be no indication they exist. In addition, there are odd blank pages scattered throughout. There are also many missing spaces with words just running together. Honestly, don't publishers have proofreaders anymore? I volunteer my services for anymore LH books - I will proof them for free! It is just too painful to read when they are this rife with errors.
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28 of 40 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Ardon't, May 29, 2010
This review is from: Ardeur: 14 Writers on the Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter Series (Smart Pop series) (Paperback)
Let's face it: It was the kiss of death for "Ardeur: 14 Writers on the Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter Series" when Laurell K Hamilton suddenly became the editor. In theory, this little book contains fourteen essays on various aspects of Hamilton's popular urban-fantasy series... but with Hamilton hanging over it like a tattered glaring vulture, there's really little here but bootlicking.
Among the essays: why the series is supposedly uproariously funny (and why Hamilton's vampires are too dumb to live); how Anita Blake is the TOUGHEST COOLEST AWESOMEST heroine ever, and how her world is so much cooler than traditional horror; a defense of Anita's sociopathy and revulsion at "normalcy"; an exploration of the skin-deep legal system of the Anita Blake series; vampirism as a metaphor for race; Anita's arsenal of superpowers (especially the "ardeur"); and Anita's "Death" buddies.
Particularly bad are Marella Sands and Heather Swain's essays,both of which are incoherent rambles. One is about how English doesn't have any good sexual words, and how LKH's vampires are SO much sexier than those fusty repressed Victorans like... Dracula. The other spews venom on the classic "Jane Eyre" (apparently Bertha didn't REALLY go insane -- oh no, it was the Evil Sexist Rochester's fault!) while glorifying Anita because... she kills people and has sex. Whoopdeedoo.
There are some good explorations of Hamilton's work -- Nick Namatas explores "Guilty Pleasures" while deftly sidestepping the later novels; Lilith Saintcrow provides an intelligent look at how sexual relationships gutted the complexity and noir atmosphere of the series; Devon Ellington makes some good critical points; and L. Jagi Lamplighter holds the series up to romance tropes (much to Hamilton's dismay).
But for the most part, "Ardeur" is about singing Anita Blake's praises rather than taking an objective look at the series -- the good, the bad and the ugly. The writers dodge the problematic content in Hamilton's series, such as the homophobia, misandry, misogyny, Anita raping others and/or being raped by the sparkly perfect Micah, torture, and even sentencing a man to death for refusing to have sex with her.
Instead, we're told about how Anita is so strong/compassionate/tough/conflicted/manly/powerful, and everything she does is JUST WONDERFUL. Hamilton's massive writing defects (Mother of All Darkness' POSSIBLE death) are sidestepped, and sometimes outright praised (according to Swain, legal murder is "fun!"). There are some critical moments, but they're smothered under an oily veneer of forced praise.
To make matters worse, Hamilton elbows her way into "Ardeur" by cramming a prologue to each essay -- most of which revolve around her Tragic Life, her ex-husband, her evil grandmother, and how very dark and sexual she is. In other words, the sort of stuff she blogs about on a near-daily basis.
"Ardeur" has some good and insightful moments, but they're drowning in a sea of soupy praise and fannish worship. There was an interesting book in there, but Hamilton puts a stake in its heart.
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