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| Blood Noir (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, Book 16) | 
 enlarge | Author: Laurell K. Hamilton
Publisher: Berkley Hardcover
Category: Book
List Price: $25.95
Buy New: $11.97
You Save: $13.98 (54%)
New (50) Used (34) Collectible (2) from $10.50
Avg. Customer Rating:  295 reviews
Sales Rank: 1818
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 352
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 9.5 x 6.6 x 1.3
ISBN: 0425222195
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780425222195
ASIN: 0425222195
Publication Date: May 27, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 She does it again.... May 28, 2008
66 out of 79 found this review helpful
**NOTE** THIS CONTAINS SPOILERS
First things first.....
To anyone who bashes those who feel that Laurell K Hamilton ahs sold out from writing a strong, femmale lead and turned the stories into B level porn, grow up. If you continue to be a fan of the series, good for you, but save the drama for your mam or better yet save it for Ms. LKH because her books are sadly lacking it and have been since Obsidian Butterfly.
I will say I still read the series and will likely continue to because its like a train wreck or better yet, like reality TV; you want to look away because its just horrific, but you can't seem to roll down your eyelids and scream ENOUGH!
I started this series years ago and loved each and every one up untill Obsidian Butterfly and then...all heck broke loose.
As a fellow writer I understand the selling out-hey, her new "writing style" attracted a following that helped make her big enough to gain a riduclously long book deal with the AB series and then another spinoff with the graphic novel series for AB. Money talks and I GET THAT. No issues there, but what irritates the kool-aid out of me is when she and her cronies claim "its for the growth of the character." BS. Yes Anita B has done soem growing but the strong , ruthless woman she was gets lots in the sex and LKH I fel, has been turning her into a pseudo super hero as of late with ehr gaining powers like a Master Vamp and making it so eventually, nothing she comes up against will be bigger r badder than she is. One of the early Anita's charms was that she knew all too well she was human and the limitations that imposed so she worked at being tough. Now its just natural and a bit false.
But thats my rant. lets get onto the book shall we?
It was bad. Plain and simple. After her last book "The Harlequin," i had hopes for this one but unfortunately it fell flat. I loved that Jason had a starring role because I have always liked him, but too much just seemed a stretch in this book, like LKH was running out of ideas. That might be why the book was so much charter than Incubus Dreams and some of her mroe recent books.
The whole "mistaken identity" aspect seemed a bit trite even when it was explained in a "DOH so THATS IT!" moment at the end. Extremely contrived and just a way to se up the events that needed a basis to fly off of.
Werewolf stripper Jason drops by Anita's house to whine that his estranged dad is dying, and he's broken up with his girlfriend because she wanted monogamy. Instead of a well written scene comforting while clothes, this opens the book with a three-way. Now yes I know that LKH LOVES to sex it up lately so that didnt bug me but it did in the sense that it seemed a little forced and Nathaniel suddenly being dominant..just seemed off base especially since in the last books he still wasn't a top. But cest la vie.
Anita comforts jason andagrees to pose as his girlfriend so he can prove to his dad that he isn't gay. But when they arrive, Anita finds that Jason is one of several look-alike men in his hometown (cue the contrived mistaken identity thing again), and one of them is his wealthy engaged cousin whom he "always got mistaken for" and who he is mistaken for again, landing hima nd Anita in the middle of a Vamp turf war because said cousin is banging the Master Vamp's wife.
It also causes a few mini crises, as Anita finds out that weird tabloid rumors in St. Louis are jeopardizing Jean-Claude's position. (hence making her and Jason realize they must be "punished" to secure Jean Claude's standing. Eventually its agreed upon they all 'come out of the closet" so Jean Claude just looks like a bisexual Machevellian to the "Council" rather than a straight chump who cannot control his. Apparently if he shares Anita's men, then she is not really running around on him.... Cue ground work for MORE sex and three ways in the next book. At least we will see more of Asher and he is always a delicious hot mess.) Meanwhile local vampires are gunning for Jason because he looks just like his cousin.
Marmee Noir also makes a reappearence, dragging the weretigers into the mix which i did find an interesting twist and I HOPE that LKH takes that opportunity to build a STORY rather than just another partner in AB's bed.
Maybe LKH just needs a break. She's so close to making this a 20 book series and most never make it that long for a reaso; you start over-complicating simple plots and oversimplifying plausibly complicatesd ones.
Richard shows up to be the whiney boy we have all come to love to hate and lo and behold, HE gains a new power, cries about it and then leaves muttering as the violins play, about what a monster he is.
Jean Clause played a cameo. He seemed to be growing back the backbone AB ripped out and I hope he becoems the devilish Machevillian manipulator once more. He was thw ultimate bad boy and this new monk status of his is just a no go, especially when you see how ruthless the other Masters they've coem into contact with lately, are.
Anita didn't do it for me in this till the end when she showed more of the old Anita in how efficiently she handled a mess and saved the day. But the "I'm so torn-because-I-don't-know-if-I-just-want-to-bone-him-or-fall-in-love-with-him" dialogue is OLD. I udnerstood it for Jean Claude, then Micah then Nathaniel but now Jason too?
Essentially the whole book was summed up with: "Jason and I would never be one another's one and oonly but we might always be each other's once in awhile."
It took 336 pages for AB to come up with the same conclusion Jason voiced early on in the book "they're friends with benefits." Subsequently, he is the only character I liked in the book because he remained true to himself-he grew up a little but remained Jason in essence.
At this point it seems LKH ismaking it up as she goes along, throwing in plot twists and contrived crises whenever the book lags (and it DOES lag)but most of those twists don't get handled. They just fade aay like the Master of the Vampire crisis with Jason's cousin Keith. He just "mysteriously died."
I WILL admit there isn't much sex in this book-just that first opening scene, then AB and Jason and later an orgy none of them remember so its not described to us in 4chapters (THANK GOD!) BUT with that said...Breakups, personal crises, metaphysical problems and threats are all handled by Anita having sex with somebody-when of course her sex life isn't nationally covered.
All in all the title was great, but the book sux. As said earlier, I will continue to read her books, either by getting them through the library or buying them and then RETURNING them for the ultimate fakeout. Call it my silent rebellion.
All I can say is
Anita Blake...where ARE YOU?!!!!
"
 Blah Blah Blah May 28, 2008
59 out of 67 found this review helpful
Well I loved these books, even when the sex started getting steamier. They are ok now, biggest complaint is lack of mystery. This one takes the cake in that department. There were so many chances to make this an interesting book, from the mystery surrounding the Summerlands, to the resolution at the end with the mysterious vampire and wife duo. But practically none of it was on screen. It was all "Oh well- that was taken care of" in vague terms, leaving just one 'action' (non sex type) scene in the entire book. I finished with the Meh? feeling that I really dislike from a book. The feeling that says, where was the character development? Where was the plot advancement? What was the mystery? Was there a mystery? What powers did she use/acquire?
Basically, the answer is meh.
Don't waste your time May 29, 2008
49 out of 57 found this review helpful
I generally loved Hamilton's first 6 books or so in the Anita Blake series. Obsidian Butterfly is one of my all time favorite books, period. But don't waste your time on this one (Blood Noir) if you're looking for a serious book. The first 280 pages are all fluff and filler and long, drawn out angst. The actual story only happens in the last 20 pages or so. Buy it as a used paperback in a year if you really want to read this one.
Bloody bored to death June 4, 2008
47 out of 55 found this review helpful
I haven't bought one of her books since Obsidian Butterfly but I keep checking them out from the library hoping........
Forget it. LKH just can't write a decent Anita Blake book anymore. Makes me wonder if she really wrote the first ones. How can a person's writing change this much? How can the person who wrote the first ten books write the drek that is Blood Noir? She breaks the cardinal rule of writing: Show, don't tell. There is no showing, there is just talk and talk and talk and then guess what? More talk. I couldn't even get worked up about the uninteresting sex, I was too bored to care. I didin't care about Jason's look-a-like cousin or any part of that plot. When finally something interesting happened and The Big Bad takes them over the scene quickly fades to black and LHK TELLS us what happened. She was supposed to SHOW us what happened, instead everyone wakes up two days later and Richard comes riding in to explain what happened. Yak, yak, yak, I was bored to tears by the whole book.
And the absolute worst thing is? I used to go back and reread the early novels with great enjoyment. Now I am so disgusted by LKH, her overexposed personal life, and her horrible writing that it has ruined my enjoyment of the early books I used to love. I can't stop thinking about the real Laurell and all the stupid things that come out of her mouth. I've learned a valuable lesson. When an author has a mid-life crises and marries a boychild, thereby thinking she is the first person to discover sex, you can be given way too much information. The bizarro personality of Laurell herself has eclipsed Anita Blake. Her career path is truly the weirdest thing I have ever seen.
I keep wondering when she will ruin the Merry series. Soon, I imagine. This is worse than when Anne Rice completely lost touch with her early talent. LKH keeps churning them out, each one worse than the last. I can't believe they get printed. If she had started with these books she never would have gotten published. How long can she ride the coattails of that first dozen or so books?
Wish there was a negative star...... May 31, 2008
45 out of 50 found this review helpful
I am done with this author and the Anita Blake series. I'm not sure if LKH just doesn't care anymore, churning out the books for the money, or if she has just lost the ability to write. If it's the former, she should be ashamed, the latter she should kill off the series.
If you want to read a series that is wonderfully written, go buy Jim Butcher's Harry Dresden books, or any of the Charlaine Harris series.
I will never waste another penny on anything LKH puts to paper.
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