Apart from seeing Othello, the other thing I did in Melbourne last weekend was visit Mind Games and Minotaur Books. This was mostly depressing, since I didn’t actually have much money (I got paid yesterday). I had enough for one purchase… that ended up being the new Laurell K. Hamilton book, The Harlequin. And I bought it from Angus & Robertson since they were selling it for $25 instead of the $33 Minotaur wanted.
So, whilst I was waiting for the performance to start (having arrived early), I started reading The Harlequin. I finished reading it the next morning as I waited for my father to come pick me up so we could go home. I read it again last night… yeah, it’s a pretty good book.
The Harlequin is the 14th (or 15th) book in the Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series that brought LKH fame and fortune. Well, notoriety at least! It began primarily as a preternatural crime series, but has moved more to erotica and complex personalissues as the series has gone on. To say Anita has a complicated personal (and love-) life is understating it. A few of LKH’s recent books have focused too much on the problems (and sex) and not enough on the solutions and storytelling.
Although The Harlequin has some of these problems, they are overwhelmed by the purely good storytelling going on. Where Danse Macabre was more a collection of incidents, The Harlequin sets up a threat from the opening chapters and proceeds to develop it for the rest of the books. Although Anita still has to deal with Richard (please, shoot him now!) and the rest of her gang of lovers, the conflicts are much better integrated with the plot and don’t bog the book down.
One of the best things about the Anita Blake series is that it takes place in an evolving world: characters change. Edward “Ted” Forrester returns, but the softening of his character seen in Obsidian Butterfly continues. He gets many of the best scenes in the book, along with his soon-to-be-step-son, Peter, who comes along for the ride.
There’s still a bunch of dangling plot-threads – please, Laurell, clean some of them up! – but at least the book closes some and advances others significantly.
I really enjoyed The Harlequin, one of the strongest Anita Blake books in some time. I look forward to the next installment with some anticipation.
I remember reading the series until Narcissus in Chains or something. I know I have Micah somewhere in my room but just haven’t gotten around to reading it. I like her Merry Gentry novels better as it cuts to the action/plot faster and does in one novel what the Anita series does in two to three books.
Depends a bit on the book; I’ve felt the last couple of the Merry Gentry books have been a bit plot-light.
Micah’s really a novella. 🙂
Cheers,
Merric
It’s probably Incubus Dreams that I stopped (read Cerulean sins, bought Incubus Dreams but haven’t read it).
My main qualm with the Merry Gentry was enough of the harem additions and get to the confrontation with her father. But they’re still better than say, Guilty Pleasures.