Danse Macabre (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, Book 14) [Audiobook, CD, Unabridged] [Audio CD]

Laurell K. Hamilton (Author), Cynthia Holloway (Reader)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 27, 2006

It was the middle of November. I was supposed to be out jogging, but instead I was sitting at my breakfast table talking about men, sex, werewolves, vampires, and that thing that most unmarried but sexually active women fear most... Anita Blake needs to be concentrating on a dangerous situation: The ardeur, the sexual power that flows between Anita and Jean-Claude, Master Vampire of the City, and Richard, the volatile werewolf who loves her passionately, is reaching new levels, perhaps evolving into something altogether new. The ardeur seems to be choosing new lovers for Anita, acting with a will of its own. As Jean-Claude says, the ardeur is hunting powerful prey. The unexpected effect of this is that Jean-Claude’s own power as a master vampire has grown to new levels - and Richard, never predictable, is changing, too. But as the days pass, Anita’s less interested in vampire politics than in an ancient, ordinary dread she shares with women down the ages: She may be pregnant. And, if she is, whether the father is a vampire, a werewolf, or someone else entirely, she knows perfectly well that being a Federal Marshal known for raising the dead and executing vampires is no way to bring up a baby…

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The uniquely complicated life of Anita Blake, the St. Louis–based necromancer, gets even more complicated when Anita discovers she may be pregnant in the 14th novel in bestseller Hamilton's vampire hunter series (Micah, etc.). Her sexual magic powers require multiple lovers, so there are six potential fathers. One possible dad, werewolf Richard, has trouble understanding that, baby or not, Anita's still a federal marshal who raises the dead and executes vampires. In addition, terrifying, life-threatening obstetrical challenges are involved, since the maybe-mommy has to deal with vampirism and several strains of lycanthropy coursing through her veins. That Anita has no detecting to do may disappoint some fans, but playing hostess to a gathering of North American vampire Masters of the City, ostensibly in town for a performance by a vampiric ballet troupe, keeps her plenty busy. When the vampire ballet takes the stage toward the end, several new plot elements emerge. The very lack of a finale suggests that there's no end in sight for this fabulously imagined series. (July)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Last seen in Incubus Dreams (2004) and the novella Micah (2006), Anita Blake is back and more embroiled in supernatural politics than ever. She is in the market for a new pomme de sang to feed the otherworldly passion known as the ardeur that she and her lovers are subject to, but she has a more pressing problem on her hands when she discovers she might be pregnant. Anita can't imagine how a baby would fit in with her vampiric lifestyle, nor does she know which of her lovers is the father, though she suspects either possessive werewolf Richard or sensual wereleopard Nathaniel. To make matters worse, vampire masters are converging on the city for a massive meeting, and Anita is wary of her role in the gathering. This time Hamilton relies a little too heavily on complex vampire politics, though sex and intrigue abound, and Anita's pregnancy dilemma makes particularly compelling reading. Longtime series fans will enjoy the yarn while probably hoping there will be more action for Anita next time. Kristine Huntley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Audio CD
• Publisher: Brilliance Audio on CD Unabridged; Unabridged edition (June 27, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1596008687
• ISBN-13: 978-1596008687
• Product Dimensions: 6.1 x 5.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (649 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #612,271 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #85 in Books > Books on CD > Horror

More About the Author

Laurell K. Hamilton is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of two series that mix mystery, fantasy, magic, horror and romance. Her Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter novels from Berkley Books began with GUILTY PLEASURES (now a hugely successful graphic novel from Marvel - the first sexy paranormal comic ever!) and continues with the SKIN TRADE, number seventeen in the series, in which Anita's complex personal and professional relationships with a master vampire and an alpha werewolf continue to evolve. There are now more than 6 million copies of Anita in print worldwide, in 16 languages. Hamilton's Ballantine series features Fey princess and private investigator, Merry Gentry and there are now six novels exceeding one million copies in print. Divine Misdemeanors, the eighth in the series will debut Octobe 29, 2009. She lives in St. Louis County Missouri with her husband Jonathon Green, daughter, one pug dog and one boxer/pug dog.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

343 of 357 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars One more hammer blow to the stake in the heart of a series I loved, October 24, 2006

By 

M. Flegal (CT) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Danse Macabre (Hardcover)

I remember when this series was great. Not just good, not just very good, but simply great. Sure the first two books were a little rough in character and writing style. However, the characters were interesting, the setup was clever, and the A-line police work plots made an excellent framework for the B-line character development. By book three, the series had hit its stride and was simply a great fantasy series. Then, it stumbled. The sex became a larger part of the books and the characters became less and less interesting. I don't mind the sex but, as a previous reviewer has said, it's poorly done sex. There's no erotica, no sensuality, just a detailed step by step list in prose form of the steps Anita takes to screw one of her many lovers. It's a sexual flowchart and bores me to tears.

Beyond that, the non-sex parts are beginning to feel tacked on to the rest of the story. The ballet here was occasionally mentioned but didn't happen until the end and frankly is a pretty thin A-line plot. Where are the detective stories that made the series interesting?

I used to like the personal relationships but that time has passed. Anita is so screwed up right now she's just boring and one gets the impression that if Ms. Hamilton could find a way to get rid of Richard without screwing up the trinity, she would. I would enthusiastically recommend that she do so and let Richard eat a bullet and stop bothering the reader (and Anita) with his constant whining.

What really has ruined the series for me is Anita, which is quite unfortunate as she is the main character! Where before she was a somewhat screwed up woman, always up against superior enemies but surviving because of her strength she is now an uber-powerful monster with a new major power appearing in every book. She has also become a completely selfish, rigid, and unattractive sociopath, which kind of hurts her appeal. What amuses me greatly is how all of these men fall in love with her on sight because she is (so we're constantly told) a wonderful woman who always cares about her lovers's happiness who also happens to be hot with a large chest. The physical attributes might be true, the mental ones certainly aren't. She will only accept a relationship with a man if he does exactly as he is told, never steps out of bounds, and serves whatever role Anita demands. In return, he gets great sex. That's it. The only thing that she offers is fantastic sex, which makes her into a parody of the stereotype where an attractive woman who "puts out" when needed can be completely self-involved and have men want her. She doesn't offer compassion (unless it involves some form of sex), understanding (unless it involves some form of sex), support (unless it involves some form of sex), compromise (unless on a rare occasion it involves some form of sex), or anything that raises love beyond the purely physical. In short, she better pray that the ardeur stays with her because if she ever loses the ability to bring men lots of pleasure, she'll be living in an apartment with 30 cats.

165 of 169 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars My, how the mighty have fallen!, September 2, 2006

By 

CoffeeGurl - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Danse Macabre (Hardcover)

Having read and been disappointed with Laurell K. Hamilton's latest work, I swore I'd never buy any more of her books. Well, I checked this one out of the library, so I spent none of my money, but even so I feel as though I've been robbed from time I could have spent reading something better. Danse Macabre is a dismal excuse for a novel. You get the impression that the author has either given up on the series or is too lazy to conjure up a decent and cohesive plot. And why should she make the effort when people continue to buy her books? I often devote the first paragraph of my reviews to summarizing the plot, so here goes. Anita Blake, the so-called vampire executioner and animator, might be pregnant and has no idea who the father could be. There's also something about a dance ball involving some powerful vampire Masters of the City. Oh, and more fighting between Anita and Richard. There is a new powerful vampire in town and we meet some mermaids. And there's sex. Lots of (extremely boring) sex. The end.

All of that stuff is thrown into this book without any real sense of a story or pretty much a point to anything. There is no plot in this book. There is, however, variations of the same ol' same ol' sex scenes that make trashy, low-budget porn movies seem like works of art in comparison. Sometimes I think the author opens up a file containing a previously written sex scene and all she does is change the setting and its characters and voila! A book has been written! I had hoped to read about vampire politics and the Mother of all Darkness to see if Hamilton had developed what she'd started in Cerulean Sins, but all I read was graphic, acrobatic sex scenes involving a variety of different positions, as if Hamilton wants to impress her readers with her knowledge of the Kama Sutra. (Not impressed.) I don't just skim those endless sex-filled pages, I skip them altogether. I have no problems with sex in fiction. I am quite the avid erotica reader. I read the most wonderful and explicit novel not so long ago: All U Can Eat by Emma Holly. Holly wrote quite a delectable novel that had palatable sex scenes mixed in with a compelling plot -- something LKH has failed to do. But that's beside the point. I began to read this series because of its fantasy element, not for the erotica. There is also a lot of conversations in this novel. Everyone analyzes everything. The men discuss Anita's many complexities (please!). The talking and analyzing were so long, tedious and repetitive that I wanted to scream. Anyway, as for the other aspects of the novel, Hamilton had some interesting bits and pieces that could have made remarkable plot points, but I'm afraid that none of it was developed in a plausible way. The vampire ballet thing, though it reminded me of Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire, seemed interesting and promising, but I was sorely disappointed with the results. The mermaids also seemed like a fascinating new breed in this series, but again, they were underdeveloped. As for the characters, they are hardly worth mentioning. Hamilton has made some serious character assassinations that began with Narcissus in Chains. Jean-Claude, my once favorite vampire, is now a big bore, just another one in Anita's long string of effeminate, clingy and whiny lovers. Richard's inability to accept Anita's lifestyle and his own demons have been brought up again and again ad nauseam and I just don't care anymore. Nathaniel has become brazen in this book, telling Ronnie off when she makes a nasty remark. I had to wonder when he had suddenly grown a couple of you-know-whats because this behavior seemed very unlike the Nathaniel I'd read about in the other books. And it's just as well that Edward has been MIA since Obsidian Butterfly. Anita will probably screw him and turn him into another one of her devoted men in any event. Whatever. I can't muster the energy to care about this series anymore. Then why am I writing a review of it, you ask? Because I feel the need to snark to my heart's content after wasting time reading this train wreck. I will definitely check out the costumer reviews before I ever attempt to pick up another Anita Blake, Vampire Humper novel. I'll just reread her earlier stuff from now on.

98 of 101 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars It's time to put these characters out of their misery..., July 24, 2006

By 

C. Hays "bibliophile" (Portland, OR) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Danse Macabre (Hardcover)

Let me just start by saying, the first few books of this series were so good that Laurell K Hamilton became one of my favorite and most recommended authors. I quickly read through the entire Anita Blake series (and even began the Meredith Gentry series) but with each book I have grown more and more disappointed. With each of the last couple books, I vowed NOT to read the next one. Well, this is truly the end boys and girls.

Danse Macabre was so bad that I had to skim through the last 1/4 of the thing because I couldn't bare to read it all. I was closer than I've ever been to just tossing it, because even bad TV would be less excruciating.

There is no plot. No real sense of beginning, middle, or end. The entire book is a string of tedious, ususally inexplicable, and always overwrought discussions between the characters as they over-analyze their relationships with one another. (And as a drama queen myself, I'm not kidding when I say it's over the top). Every scene goes something like this: Anita is confused/angry/out of control while everyone around her seems to secretly know why she is confused or what's going on but they don't want to tell her. Then Anita goes on and on through her mental hamster wheel and teeth-pulling to get everyone to explain things to her, and when they finally do, it is something so simple and unimportant that you can't believe you had to read through all of that for nothing.

Since there is no plot, there is no real ending. Apparently, once Ms. Hamilton reached a certain number of pages she got tired and ended with a couple pages of Anita's narration as if she were wrapping up an entry in her diary... you know the kind: bland, totally unsatisfying and totally not resolving a darn thing. Ms. Hamilton broke the cardinal rule of writing: don't promise your readers something at the beginning of the book if you're not going to deliver on it. And if you're ambitious enough to write a series, have the imagination and follow-through for each book to stand on it's own.

Unfortunately, a lot of writers' work suffers with fame. The Publisher knows we'll buy the book whether it's good or not, so I doubt this book received much by way of any real editing. So, it's probably no wonder it's such a mess.

The bottom line is this book was bad enough that it made me angry, angry enough to write this review, which means I think the problems go far beyond a mere personal opinion. My advice: Bail out of this series now while you still have some small bit of goodwill toward the characters (& the author). Here's a brief synopsis of what happens in case you're worried you'll miss something: NOTHING.