I am really enjoying my rereading of this series. Going back to the beginning of the series has reminded me why I continue to read along even though it has morphed into another beast entirely. These early books were so great because the men and the sex weren’t the focus of the entire freaking plot.Here Anita is still working as an animator and an assistant to preternatural police force. Anita has a full plate, as usual, after a full night of corpse raising, she’s then hounded by members of “the vamp hater Church or somesuch” to give up the resting place of the Master of the City (Jean Claude), then a body turns up drained by what appears to be a rogue pack of vamps which leads her to The Circus of the Damned and into close proximity with vampire Jean Claude, a sexy vampire she’d rather avoid. He’s been trying to make her his human servant but she stubbornly refuses, even when it means putting her own life in jeopardy. There’s a whole lot of that “Ma petite I have marked you, you are mine” “I kill vampires, I don’t serve them” nonsense going on. She must train an apprentice animator, face down an angry lamia, crazed humans, out of control zombies and deal with a dangerous master vampire. It sounds exhausting but I have to hand it to Hamilton because I was never lost. We’re also introduced to Richard when he was still sweet and sexy and not quite so angry and rigid as he appears in the later novels..Once again there is way too much focus on clothing (who cares) and the gun descriptions (snore). Personally, I am still not dying to discover what color Anita’s Nike swishes will be every other page and if the match her t shirt. I already know that she is not a girly-girl because it’s mentioned over and over. We all know Jean Claude has a preference for lacy floofy blouses and his own nipples. Do we need to be constantly reminded of this? It’s a little painful to read this stuff the second time around but the quick pacing and intriguing characters carry the book for me and I enjoyed the many plotlines here, none of which focus on sex I might add.Despite a lame-ass villain and too much arguing from Anita, I enjoyed this as much as the previous two in the series.
I also thought the premise of Anita Blake was pretty cool. She's an Animator, see? She raises zombies for a living. And vampires are legal citizens. Eventually, she's supposed to get involved with both a vampire and a werewolf. I say eventually cause even though I thought this was a central theme of the books, I've read 2 and a half of them and there have been nary a creature-of-the-night and vampire hunter smoochie. I take that back. There was one, but it was one of those contrived "fake kiss so the cops think we're just a couple, but ooo, did you feel the attraction anyway" snogs.And I am over both the Sweet Valley Syndrome* and the Too Cool for School Because I Am NOT GIRLY, Dammit themes. Yeah, yeah, Anita, you had to go buy a dress to sneak into the vampire freak party because you are Not Girly and therefore did not own a black dress. Fine, fine, that pink shirt in your closet must have been a gift because "the thought that I had actually spent money on anything pink was more than I could bear." And the whole making fun of wedding dresses and bridesmaids' dresses? Yes, we know, Anita. Stop rolling your eyes so damned much, we get that you are NOT GIRLY. Over it.* Yes, I read Sweet Valley Twins and Sweet Valley High books once upon a time. And though the books are a series, each one is written so that if it's your first foray into Sweet Valley, you get the paragraph description of how the girls are a perfect size 6 and they have matching gold lavalieres and Jessica is the wild one and Elizabeth is the book worm, yadda, yadda, yadda.
What do You think about Circus Of The Damned (2007)?
I enjoyed the first two books in the series but this one didn't work for me. I'm deducting a full star from my rating because Jean-Claude sucks (you SUCK Jean-Claude). He dresses like a reject from "Purple Rain" and seems to need to attend a few seminars on the nature of consent and yet Anita thinks she might love him a little. Or something. Whatever. Their "relationship" has always been the weakest part of the three books I've read so far (and yes, I know the author switches from UF to erotica a few more books down the line so I guess I'm in for more disappointment.) Richard seems interesting though.
—Rebecca
For all the Anita Blake books - I started this series with my then friend, Meredith - she actually got me hooked that fateful summer of 2000 when I was living on her wooden floor in Brooklyn. We were both unemployed and bored and got hooked into this series. I loved Anita Blake because it was before I discovered the new genre - what I like to call "badass chicks who kick ass!" written in first person - and so she was all empowering and of course there were hot vampires and werewolves in it. Unfortunately, Laurell K Hamilton doesn't have much taste in the way of clothing and mood...and sometimes I think she "tells" too much instead of "shows." I also think that somewhere down the line the editors decided to just give her cart blanche because she most definitely has cut and paste some paragraphs here and there from one book to another. The other thing I find annoying is that Anita likes to pick fights for no reason and seems to have the little dog syndrome - always barking up at the big guns. And for some reason as the series goes on, the more sexual it gets and also the more ridiculous it gets. She has some interesting elements and some interesting characters and definitely isn't afraid to be violent - which I love. But then I got annoyed and moved on to other authors who still work with their editors!!! Needless to say, I stopped reading the series after Incubus Dreams. My fav of the series is Obsidian Butterfly. It has the least "retelling" and show boating.
—Nicole
I count Circus of the Damned among my favorites of the early Anita Blake books. Why? I think it's because it involves both zombie raising and vampire slaying. Plus, we meet such interesting characters! (view spoiler)[Mr. Oliver, the oldest living vampire (he's homo erectus!); Melanie, the supposedly last lamia (Anita thought they were extinct, but "they just must always have been rare," so are there more???); Alejandro, an Aztec vampire; Lawrence "Larry, name's Larry" Kirkland, the newest animator at Animator's, Inc. (hide spoiler)]
—Jen
