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someryn 's review for:
Affliction
by Laurell K. Hamilton
First, let's get this out of the way: I am going to read every Anita Blake book that comes out until it's just gibberish on the page, because when I commit to characters/long-running book series (I'm looking at you, Wheel of Time), I *commit*.
That being said, all I could think when I read this book was how much better it could have been. It had a plot that was at least kind of interesting. It had a new setting. Micah is not my favorite character, but it had the potential to show us something interesting about his family.
Instead, we get a complete, redundant review of everything we already know about every major character in the book - and to make matters worse, the characterizations are emphasized multiple times even WITHIN this book. Anita is feisty and tough and short (you would have gotten drunk playing a drinking game for every time she mentions her height), Nathaniel has long hair, Micah is her size, etc., etc.
Then we get unfriendly interactions with basically every new character she's introduced to, which gets really old, really fast. They are all 100% intolerant and rude and every conversation is a set-up for Anita to either school them with her comebacks and/or demonstrate how hard it is being her and sleeping with beautiful men who love her.
Third, I get tired of everyone constantly telling Anita how awesome she is, how beautiful, how badass, how perfect her aim, how powerful her necromancy, on and on and on. It makes me doubly uncomfortable because there's at least a little author surrogate in Anita, so it feels like LKH is congratulating herself over and over.
Fourth, when I review books I pretty much never notice editing, or lack thereof. I either think it's a good book or I think it's bad, but I never stop to differentiate between what is writing skill and what is editing skill. However, this book needed an editor, badly. Conversations go on way past the point where they are accomplishing anything that propels the plot forward, scenes that are supposed to read "fast" are bogged down with extensive and unnecessary self-reflection, and one scene that really stuck with me stopped to explain that tears are hot when they form in your eyes and then cool as they are exposed to the air and roll down your cheeks. Thanks for that, the book wouldn't have made sense without it.
On the good side, this book did have a plot (never a sure thing, since the farce that was Flirt), though sometimes it forgot about it and at the end everything concluded quite abruptly. No follow-up with Micah's dad or with the other law enforcement people she'd met over the course of the book, just a final brief summary of the statuses of all the main character at book end.
The sex scenes, of which there were maybe four or five total, felt fairly natural and didn't take up too much of the book, though the newfound inclusion of breathplay in one of the scenes made me a little panicky just reading it. To each his own, though.
It also had some of the big characters that keep me reading these books - Jean-Claude makes an appearance toward the end, and Edward is always fun to hang out with. Asher is another of my favorites, but he's been pretty sulky lately, so I can understand why he wasn't around.
I would really like to hang out with the vamps in the next book, especially Jean-Claude/Asher, and it would also be nice to see something actually come of the Anita/Nathaniel/Damian triumvirate. I have an odd love for Damian, but he's been tragically neglected in the books for a long time.
Overall, Affliction was readable, if you skip the stupid, endless pissing contests, the repetitive details, and the Conversations to Nowhere.
I will read the next one regardless, but I live in eternal hope that the next one will actually be edited (it won't be). I get so mad sometimes, because these books have good bones! If LKH would actually use an editor, they could be REALLY good - scary, compelling plots, interesting characters and hot sex scenes. If only...
That being said, all I could think when I read this book was how much better it could have been. It had a plot that was at least kind of interesting. It had a new setting. Micah is not my favorite character, but it had the potential to show us something interesting about his family.
Instead, we get a complete, redundant review of everything we already know about every major character in the book - and to make matters worse, the characterizations are emphasized multiple times even WITHIN this book. Anita is feisty and tough and short (you would have gotten drunk playing a drinking game for every time she mentions her height), Nathaniel has long hair, Micah is her size, etc., etc.
Then we get unfriendly interactions with basically every new character she's introduced to, which gets really old, really fast. They are all 100% intolerant and rude and every conversation is a set-up for Anita to either school them with her comebacks and/or demonstrate how hard it is being her and sleeping with beautiful men who love her.
Third, I get tired of everyone constantly telling Anita how awesome she is, how beautiful, how badass, how perfect her aim, how powerful her necromancy, on and on and on. It makes me doubly uncomfortable because there's at least a little author surrogate in Anita, so it feels like LKH is congratulating herself over and over.
Fourth, when I review books I pretty much never notice editing, or lack thereof. I either think it's a good book or I think it's bad, but I never stop to differentiate between what is writing skill and what is editing skill. However, this book needed an editor, badly. Conversations go on way past the point where they are accomplishing anything that propels the plot forward, scenes that are supposed to read "fast" are bogged down with extensive and unnecessary self-reflection, and one scene that really stuck with me stopped to explain that tears are hot when they form in your eyes and then cool as they are exposed to the air and roll down your cheeks. Thanks for that, the book wouldn't have made sense without it.
On the good side, this book did have a plot (never a sure thing, since the farce that was Flirt), though sometimes it forgot about it and at the end everything concluded quite abruptly. No follow-up with Micah's dad or with the other law enforcement people she'd met over the course of the book, just a final brief summary of the statuses of all the main character at book end.
The sex scenes, of which there were maybe four or five total, felt fairly natural and didn't take up too much of the book, though the newfound inclusion of breathplay in one of the scenes made me a little panicky just reading it. To each his own, though.
It also had some of the big characters that keep me reading these books - Jean-Claude makes an appearance toward the end, and Edward is always fun to hang out with. Asher is another of my favorites, but he's been pretty sulky lately, so I can understand why he wasn't around.
I would really like to hang out with the vamps in the next book, especially Jean-Claude/Asher, and it would also be nice to see something actually come of the Anita/Nathaniel/Damian triumvirate. I have an odd love for Damian, but he's been tragically neglected in the books for a long time.
Overall, Affliction was readable, if you skip the stupid, endless pissing contests, the repetitive details, and the Conversations to Nowhere.
I will read the next one regardless, but I live in eternal hope that the next one will actually be edited (it won't be). I get so mad sometimes, because these books have good bones! If LKH would actually use an editor, they could be REALLY good - scary, compelling plots, interesting characters and hot sex scenes. If only...