Customer Reviews

The Harlequin (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, Book 15)

5 star:		(75)
4 star:		(67)
3 star:		(44)
2 star:		(44)
1 star:		(51)

 

 

I'm going to make this quick. While this book is a little bit better than the last two or three, it's still almost complete drivel. The series has degenerated into a formula. Sex, argue, fight, sex, fight, argue, degrade Richard, sex, argue, argue, argue. And, the spelling errors, lack of continuity, and lack of attention to prior detail negated any possibility of salvation of the characters.

This series is doomed. Save your money. Anita died around the mid part of Book Eight. Todays Anita is not the heroine we loved and respected. And, if I wanted to read good porn, I would buy it. Titillation is one thing. Pointless porn is another. And this is BAD pointless porn being read by a Tijuana hooker. The whole fiasco makes my hair hurt.

I began reading The Harlequin with much trepidation. I am one of the original fans of the series who, I admit, has not been pleased with the latest offerings.
The first hundred pages or so were not that bad and had me thinking that maybe there was some hope for our heroine and the author. Alas, it just wasn't meant to be. The action in the book was limited to a few scenes, only a couple of which Anita actually participated in and frankly they weren't that exciting.
The sex scenes themselves were written better than they have been in the previous books, but they were pointless to the storyline and often had me thinking "what the heck was THAT all about?". And once the characters let the genie out of the bottle by having sex that was all the book rotated around; not necesarrily actually having sex, but talking about sex, thinking about sex, arguing about sex, having sex again... you get the picture.

The Harlequin (as the bad guys) could have been scary and just weren't, especially at this weird moment at the end when everyone stood around talking about their "feelings" while the bad guys just stood around and twiddled their thumbs. Of course, Anita used her metaphysical mojo and miraculously vanquished them just in the nick of time.

I also found myself suffering from deja vu. Every chapter had at least one character repeating some cliched phrase from previous books over again. There were some conversations that I swear were lifted straight from the other novels. Maybe this is so new readers can learn the characters but it was pretty annoying.

Probably the worst thing for me though is that I just don't like the characters anymore. I used to be able to immerse myself in an Anita Blake book to the exclusion of everything else around me because I liked the characters and the world they lived in. The charcters were original, they had thier own personalities, and the stories were exciting.
Anita has become a self-righteous bully, Richard is a whiny bas**rd, and apparently Anita carries the male bits of all the other male charaters around in her pockets because they are all wusses and defer to her in everything. Dolph is a mean spirited bigot. Edward is OK, but he's not the same now that he's in LUUUUVVVVV. About the only charcter that was remotely likeable was Zebrowski and he was there for about 2 pages. There is no conflict among the characters, Anita says jump and the men say "how high". The plot was at least recognizable in this book but there was no tension and no mystery.

I used to wait eagerly for the next Anita Blake book to come out, would buy it on the release date and have read it at least twice within the first two weeks of owning it. I got The Harlequin from the library and am very pleased that I didn't spend any money on it. This will be my last Anita Blake book. I've tried to wait around for LKH to get her act together but it doesn't look like that is going to happen so I'll be spending my time and money elsewhere on more deserving books and authors.

The Anita Blake series started off well, continued for awhile, then took a sharp plunge down into the literary abyss of bad porn.

Well, "The Harlequin" scrabbles PARTLY back out of that abyss, but Laurell K. Hamilton's fifteenth Blake book still suffers from a surfeit of squickly sex, constant sexual ramblings, and a promising plot that gets swamped by the sex-with-Anitacentric politics of vampires and weres.

First a vamp cleric tells her of a threat so terrible that he can't name it, then a movie night with Nathaniel leads to a strange warning -- a white mask. Jean-Claude reveals that it's the warning of the Harlequin, a cruel vampire police who can warp their victims' minds. And apparently Anita and her string of adoring lovers (plus the still-upset Richard) have upset them.

And the politics of the situation are getting quite nasty, with alliances between weres and vamps getting nasty as they try to all have sex with Anita for power and influence, and Anita repeatedly getting hit by her various "beasts." And if they don't manage to kill the Harlequin soon, then Marmee Noir will reawaken -- and the Harlequin will be working for her.

"The Harlequin" sounds promising at first -- it's almost a hundred and fifty pages before Anita has sex with anyone. It's been several books since Hamilton could boast a length like that, and at first glance it seems to be promising a return to prior form.

Unfortunately, the sexless parts are duller than actual sex: talking/remembering/agonizing about sex. There's two long chapters devoted to Nathaniel wanting Anita to tie him up and hurt him during sex, and Anita getting squeamish about it. And halfway through, she starts having public ardeur sex, bloody sex, lesbian vampire dream sex, feathery sex, and Hamilton seems to be paving the way for sex with Edward's sixteen-year-old stepson.

None of this would matter quite so much if the plot were good -- and some parts of it are excellent. Edward's family vs. job struggle, the were politics and their tenuous relationship with the vampires, the fight between Richard and Jean-Claude, and the whole threat of the Harlequin itself is pretty thrilling, and pared down, it could have been a truly excellent book.

Unfortunately, these promising plots are bogged down in -- you guessed it -- sex. Everyone wants sex with Anita, and chapters of arguing about who gets to is just stupefyingly dull. As if that weren't bad enough, Hamilton takes another jab at her former fans, by announcing disdainfully that, "God hasn't forsaken me; it's just that all the right-wing fundamentalist Christians want to believe he has." Nice that now Anita is God's mouthpiece.

And though Anita doesn't come across near the levels of arrogance in books past, she still comes off as annoying, hypocritical (she likes rough bloody sex, but squeaks at the idea of tying a guy up?) and ridiculously superpowerful. While expecting us to like her, Hamilton has Anita trying to bully a werelion into having sex with her, and having him bumped off when he stays faithful to his wife.

As if that weren't enough, turns out that she's also powering anyone she has sex with. The long-haired, anime-style femmemen worship and fight over Anita, and the few who don't are either banished again (Richard) or are pale shadows of their former selves (Edward).

"The Harlequin" takes some baby steps back toward quality, but the obsession with sex and long-winded arguments drown the promising plot points. Better keep the mask on this one.

At this point in the series any improvement is a relief. Much less sex in this book, but with people I would have rather respected. No sex with the people I disrespected. What a surprise. Anita is on her way back, thank God. She is screwing less, dealing with vampire politics, is rapidly losing (not loosing) any qualms about being a vamp servant, and seems about over Richard and his hand wringing. The scenes all seem to be written fast, not well, but still I see more effort and content than has been offered in a good while. The best news is given almost offhandedly as one of the characters drops the information that the ardeur can be changed to platonic love, or friendship as well as sex, or desire for food. YAY! We may hope at last to see that crap put to bed somewhat.(No pun intended) It would be nice to return to a series where sex had feeling, and meaning, and emotional content, instead of being fast-food. I realize we will never see Anita as she once was, focused, hard, and chaste, but focused, hard, and respectable with a love life would be a nice outcome. It is interesting to note that more and more of the preturnatural and mundane community bring up words like whoring, slut, and other disrespectful appellations when talking with, about or to Anita. Sounds like the books characters on both sides of the metaphysical blanket are beginning to echo Anita's fans.

The Harlequin relies very heavily on dialogue between the characters, which is typical of Hamilton's work but in this case it comes off as clunky and tiresome. Harlequin is riddled with pages of conversation between Anita and a minor character that not only does nothing to advance the plot but does not advance the character development.

Speaking of characters, Harlequin has too many of them. The core cast of characters, long thought by myself and others to be one of the strengths of the series, is bogged down with a ridiculous amount of minor characters who are given way too much stage time. There are several characters whose appearance does absolutely nothing to advance any plot or subplot(s). It almost seems like they were thrown in so you wouldn't forget that they existed within the world (and sometimes they are minor enough where you really have forgotten who they are), but with all of them making an appearance it is difficult to follow the storyline. Subsequently the characters of Anita, Jean-Claude, Richard, Edward, Nathaniel, and even the long obsessed about Micah suffer from neglect. There needs to be a very large battle or war or something to trim the character list (and Anita's six or seven long-list of lovers) back down again.

The one who suffers the most is Anita, who has lost whatever sense of realism that she once had. Yes, she lived in a world of vampires and zombies and had a quirky day job, but she was still realistic. You could relate to her and feel like if you lived in a world of vampires and zombies you could kick butt too. What happened to her zombie job? Not a mention of it, even though the opening scene takes place at work. I think that was the only time she went to work. What about her hobbies? They have seemingly fallen away to be replaced by managing her sex life - and with six/seven lovers, it really is a full time job (and an unrealistic one at that. Few can manage to date one person, some can manage two, no one could handle six). Her conflict with her faith and her mortal friends? It has been reduced to a bit scene with Dolph - portrayed as a one dimensional racist - raging on about her love life. When was the last time she went on a crime scene? Raised a zombie? Had coffee with a friend? Dealt directly with her necromancy for some reason other than because it created problems for the ardeur?

I did like how Edward was reintroduced. Even though there were only a handful of strong scenes with him, they were the stronger ones in the book. I also like the development of Nathanial as a character but I didn't like his new prominent role in the book. I'd like his role better if it seemed like Hamilton could make up her mind regarding him - it seems like she doesn't know if he's important or not. The same goes for Micah. Now that you've written a whole novella about him, you're going to regulate him to the backseat? Decide who is going to be the main cast and who isn't and stick to it.

In short, this work is inconsistent with sloppy writing and an unwieldy cast. You are not missing much if you wait until the library's copy frees up to read the book - or better yet, don't read it at all. You're looking for Anita and the Anita that we all know and love died sometime between Obsidian Butterfly and Narcissus in Chains - the one in the current series is supremely shallow and undeveloped.

What is desperately needed - aside from an end to the series - is an editor with a spine. She needs an editor that will tell her "We can't print that, it's a cumbersome, incoherent mess. Cut out X, Y, Z and go back and tighten up your characters, your dialogue, and the flow of your storyline."

Understand, Laurell K. Hamilton has been shuffled onto my list of "2 hour" writers along with R.A. Salvatore. This means that they were both writers that I once loved, but whose books have become so tragically dull that I no longer buy them. Instead, I go into a bookstore with a coffee shop, and I give them two hours to convince me that they have kickstarted themselves, and no longer write dull books. I've just given up on Salvatore. But I still keep hoping for Hamilton. I love the characters in her Anita Blake novels.

I must give Hamilton credit. I stopped buying her books after Obsidian Butterfly. Well, okay. I admit I bought Micah because I saw a used paperback. But I won't talk about that.

This book fooled me. The first 50 pages sounded like the old books. Nobody even had sex! Yay! So I plunked down the cash, and bought a paperback.

What followed was a long string of conversations about sex. Then, about 150 pages in, Anita starts having sex. And once she gets going, there is no stopping her. She beds Richard. She beds the Swan King. She beds the Rat King. She has lesbian dream sex. And then she talks about it. And talks about it.

The Harlequin, who are supposed to drive the action in this book, and give it a title, aren't so much present in the foreground. They are more like explosions in the background during a sex-driven 2-dimensional romance novel set against the backdrop of a war. You don't even see them until the last 50 pages of the book.

You'd think that her calling in Edward - one of my favorite characters in the Hamilton mythology - might salvage things, but the first time he runs off to fight something major, Blake falls unconscious and we only hear about it later. Retold in the third person.

I give this book two stars because it carries a few small moments of pleasure. The characters develop a little bit. Edward develops his relationship with his son, and Nathaniel grows as a character. But, like a good conversation in a loud dance club, most of this is lost against the thumpa-thumpa of the overwrought, neverending sex scenes. Hamilton is one of the few writers who makes me start flipping pages when clothes start coming off.

This book starts off with a great deal of promise. There's a meeting between Malcolm, head of the vampire church, and Anita. And it even takes place in her office where she works as raiser of the dead. It seems Malcolm is concerned about two of his parishioners. They've been accused of murder, but Malcolm thinks they've been framed. And he's sure he knows who really did it. It is someone whose name he cannot speak. Go to Jean-Claude, ask him, Malcolm advises. She does. Pretty soon Anita is thinking of bringing her friend Edward in to help out.

I really didn't intend to buy another Anita Blake novel, that's how disappointed I've been in Hamilton's last few novels. But honestly, I can't seem to stay away. And frankly, I'm glad I read this one. THE HARLEQUIN actually had a plot, not just a beginning mystery, a lot of sex and talking about sex, then a resolution to the mystery. Oh don't get me wrong, there's still a lot of talk. It's almost as though Hamilton sits at her computer and just writes whatever comes into her mind, without editing a thing out of it. But she does seem to be trying to curtail the speakers tendency to go off down side paths this time. There's still a lot of dialog, but, she actually has one character or another saying things like lets get back to the subject. And Anita's inner thoughts still ramble along about things that have nothing to do with the plot. But this book was much better than the last three or four. Anita will never go back to being the woman we all fell in love with, but maybe there is some hope for an entertaining read somewhere down the road. I look forward to that time.

The other reviewers have covered most of the flaws with the book so I will avoid the weak plot line and gratuitous sex. I was an early obsessive fan who would read the entire series again before each new book came out. That activity stopped promptly after Obsidian Butterfly. Now, I find myself struggling to get through each new book in the hopes that the old Anita will return. But, alas, it is not meant to be.

As a result, I have no idea who most of the minor characters are in the book and I don't think LKH does either considering the mistakes. The Anita Blake universe has become so vast that a cohesive plot is almost impossible. With the last two books, she has tacked on a pathetic ending that was not in the least bit suspenseful and left plot lines hanging like the mermaid family. I guess she didn't feel like picking that story line up again because she sent the kid back home to mommy dearest in a footnote.

What was most upsetting about this book is she brought back Edward and treated him like a piece of furniture. He showed up but he didn't get to do anything. Why should I care about characters that I can't even remember and the ones that I do only get a couple of pages? Even Jean-Claude was a footnote to the Anita Sexcapades. My recommendation for LKH is to have a massive war and kill off 50 or so characters - saving Anita's tragic death for the end.

I have been a long time reader of Anita Blake books. I honestly had given up on the series and had stopped reading them completely until I read the reviews on this website. So I checked it out of the library and here is my review..

1) Laurell K. Hamilton did manage to tone down the sex, although her blatantly obvious "scolding" scenes where she's obviously referencing fans that are upset with where the sex has gone, having Anita "justify" her sex life for "right-wing conservatives" (aka "the mean fans"). I happen to be a liberal myself, and I enjoy some steamy sex scenes in my books. It's when the sex becomes more than the plot that I have an issue with it. That is when she should stop labeling it at fantasy, and start labeling it as erotica. Having said that, she did a good job of toning it down in this book, but the fact that she slaps the fans on the wrist several times within the content that almost negates my good feelings toward her for doing it.

2) The book was filled with the same old arguments that have been repeated and repeated and repeated in the past five or six books, and it's getting old. I don't want to hear Richard whine anymore. I don't want to hear Anita whine about Richard anymore. I don't want to read the same argument that Anita and Richard seem to have every five pages. Pick a way that these two are heading and STICK WITH IT. I don't expect the relationship to be perfect, to have no arguing at all, but PLEASE stop fighting about the same thing over and over! Fight over something new, or HEY! Don't fight at all for an entire book. NOT fighting also happens in relationships too.

3) There are too many men. I'm not talking about Anita and her sex life here, she can have as many lovers as she wants. But Ms. Hamilton should realize that after awhile, this becomes confusing. Ratio-wise, she just gains more men and not less every book. I can't remember them all or who they are or where they came from or what part they play in the book. Ms. Hamilton just spends time re-explaining every bit player and it just takes up more useless space where some real plot should be going.

I honestly feel like this series should have ended five or six books back. It makes me sad when authors continue to chug out books simply because it's making money for them and not for the integrity of the story. It seems like Ms. Hamilton has good ideas for plot, but not as many as she used to and now she's filling in between the spaces of the sparse concepts she does have. She has made comments before on her blog about how fans should just stop reading her books if we don't like them. How about she just stops publishing them publicly and writes them for herself then? Because she makes money off of them, but feels that she shouldn't have to listen to fans that pay her bills. Well, that's also the case with the story. It's been drawn out too long, and it's diluting what should have been intensely and purposefully ended a few books ago, with the strong ending it deserves.

The Harlequin did improve over the past 2-3 Anita Blake novels. There was less sex, more fighting/action, and a plot. Unfortunately none of these things save The Harlequin from being poorly written.

The book starts out well enough: Anita is actually working her original job. A promising storyline develops around The Harlequin, the Vampire Council's secret police. There is no sex. Edward is even called in to help.

Unfortunately, things quickly fall apart. The plot is lost throughout the middle of the book to mostly irrelevant distractions (sex, talking about sex, Anita's animals coming out, and the Mother of All Darkness showing up). When the novel comes back around to the Harlequin plot I was left with the feeling that LKH just wanted to wrap the book up rather than having a story planned out and properly paced. In The Harlequin, Edward acts more like Ronnie (when she and Anita were BFF) than the man so scary the vampire's named him Death. He doesn't even kill anything for crying out loud!

I did a quick chapter count of matters that didn't forward the plot. Out of 47 chapters:

3 chapters were devoted to irrelevant emergencies (Anita's animals trying yet again to come out unsuccessfully and another Marmee Noir attack)

3 1/2 chapters were devoted to sex, none of which forwarded the plot. Though I will admit this was a vast improvement over the last few LKH novels.

9 1/2 chapters were devoted to talking about sex: who wanted to have sex with Anita and why, what they wanted Anita to do in bed with them, why they have a problems with sex, ex cetera.

That adds up to a little over 1/3 of the book (approx. 144 pages) completely wasted on irrelevancies which (especially with the same old sex talk) become increasingly boring.

Unless you are a devout LKH fan, I would not recommend this book to you. If you are dead set on owning The Harlequin, wait for paperback. There is nothing in this book that makes it worth the hardcover price.