AdrienneW

Yes I go from one extreme to the other.

ooooh K. Hopefully no one asked about this one in a while. I started in the middle and have been reading her series (Anita Blake) From both ends.

Any thoughts? I think I like her first 4 the best...she got kinda weird on me after that...

I am not normally a fan of first person...but I did like her use of it.

I would love to hear other's opinions...thanks

this_reckless_pace

My feeling is that Laurell Hamilton has hit the same problem many authors hit who write a long series of books about the same characters, or the same universe. Original ideas dry up and the overall quality takes a dive.

Anne Rice - 3 books, then the rot set in.

Anne McCaffrey - 5 books before the rubbish started

Asimov (Foundation) - 3 books and it started getting embarrassing

She lasted a long time though - all the books up to Narcissus in Chains were excellent, at which point Anita turns into a reluctant sex maniac, and plot went straight out the window.

I blame the Merry Gentry novels myself. Once Hamilton started writing the Merry Gentry character, she just had to start introducing Merry characteristics into Anita's behaviour.

Still, we can always read books 1 - 10 again.

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SeattleGhostWriter

You know, if you read some of the classic series (Dashiell Hammett, Mickey Spillane), they were always fresh. While the story lines stayed the same, the characters had depth and reason. If you really are into some good solid in depth character relations and plot twists and turns, check out Ridley Pearson and his Lou Boldt/Daphne Matthews series. They are stand alone books, but they are a series as well, starting with Undercurrents. His lates one (which I didn't find really all that good) was the Body of David Hayes. He of course has authored other types of works, but the Lou Boldt/Daphne Mathews books are very rich in detail, style, dialogue, relationships between the characters etc. You are very anticipated in wanting to know what happens. These books are set in the backdrop of Seattle. Even my favorite work by the author is The Art of Deception where it opens up with a body being thrown off the Aurora Avenue bridge and requires Daphne Matthews (a Forensic Psychologist) to find the killer and it all centers around the Underground of Seattle.

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scott777ab777

The worst book over all in the series is Obsidian Butterfly. That soft Edward stuff just did not do it for me.

Second worst book was Incubus Dreams. Just way to much sex, she needs to get off the sex bend and get back to story.

Other wise the rest are good.

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Beccerella

I'm a big fan of Laurell Hamilton. The first few books involving Anita Blake rather than Merry Gentry enthralled me. That's not to say I don't like the Merry Gentry books, but personally I think she should have tried to keep the characters very separate, or perhaps published the Merry Gentry novels under a psydonym as they were originally a very different class of novel.

I actually enjoyed Obsidian Butterfly as I was getting fed up of the whole Jean Claude, Richard, Anita love triangle and it got away from that. The book I consider to be the worst is Incubus Dreams I just can't remember the plot to that despite only reading it again around a week and a half ago. Yet all the others I remember clearly, with Narcissus in Chains being one of the ones I enjoyed the most.

After Incubus Dreams and Danse Macabre I was thinking I might go off them, but I have to say Laurell Hamilton got back to the entertaining none sexual stuff in The Harlequin, and I once more feel I'll be able to stick reading the Anita Blake novels at least right through to book 22.