What do You think about Narcissus In Chains (2002)?
Ok, this is a first for I think. I've never done a review of an Anita Blake book before. The author Laurell K. Hamilton should be proud of me...maybe! I really love this series and Anita Blake is such an awesome strong female lead character. I usually find these books very complex with so much going on it's hard to do a review that gives it justice, so I'll do my best here.While reading this book in particular, I found when Anita wasn't fighting for her life, she was giving some very good messages and life lessons. If one reads between the lines so to speak, you really learn a lot from this woman. You learn how important loyalty and friendship is. This is shown in the scene when Dolph talks to Anita about his son and his new girlfriend. Then the part where Anita is talking to the Swan King Donavan. She wants to build a coalition of sorts to include all the were-animal groups to help each other and share information. You also learn to not abandon your friends and responsibilities. Anita avoided all the "monsters" for six months and "upset the apple cart" so to speak, causing an avalanche of problems for Jean-Claude and Richard. She accepted she was wrong for doing so and took her lumps like a big girl. I'm sure all Laurell's books have similar important messages, but I just never noticed.In this book Anita's powers grow by leaps and bounds. Richard is an ass part of the time and a good boy for part. Some new characters are introduced. Micah, a were leopard and Anita's Nimir-Raj, is now my favorite character, after Anita of course. I felt so bad for Anita in this book because the poor woman was supposed to be on vacation and was instead being pursued by more bad guys at every turn. As usual there was a happy ending, well as happy an ending as an Anita Blake book can have...Anita survived to fight another day!
—Vettech
After the joy that was Obsidian Butterfly, it's back to reality. The very title of the book had me fearing what was in store. So lets do a summary of the main plot details. Nathaniel is in trouble and needs rescued(shock!), Micah arrives to become leopard leader with Anita, Richard is trying to kill one of Anita's leopards and Anita stops fighting uniting with Jean Claude and Richard and it turns her into a sex mad succubus. This was the arrival of the ardeur.So at this point in the series I have several questions going on in my mind.1)Does Anita actually work for a living? I'm finding it tough to see how she can even fit in going to the bog between her sex and makeout sessions and all her fights with Richard, never mind having a job.2)Why has Richard, such a great adorable character in the beginning, turning into the biggest asshat on the planet? If he loves Anita why does he treat her like crud and bully everyone she cares about? Stop being such a dick all the time. Don't you think that if you treated her better and stopped yelling for ten seconds that you'd have a better chance with her. Yes I know you are the tough pack leader but you don't have to try and kill everyone you meet. I'm really starting to hate him. Every time he enters a room I think, oh here we go AGAIN. I could say the same thing about Dolph as I really hate his attitude-and Ronnie's.3)Can we have a main male who doesn't fancy Anita? Just one? I don't count Edward in this as he isn't always around. And what exactly is the point of Micah? He is so bland and boring and I'm not getting even a whiff of chemistry or personality from him.4)Where is our feisty but vulnerable Anita? She's become a whiny brat! She has to out-bitch everyone, be a complete cow to everyone who cares about her and is whining all the time. Can someone explain to me why all these men love her? It certainly is not for her winning personality!For me, this book had a very weak plot and this rescue of the leopards was just a way of introducing the next set of lovers that Anita is going to have. All we get from the book is Richard becoming a bigger asshat, Anita becoming more of a bitch, and potential love interests being lined up. And a lot more sex of course, which brings me to the bloody ardeur. I hate the damn thing. I'd rather have seen Anita decide to sleep around because she wanted to or because of animal attraction or something, not the ardeur turning her into a whore against her will. This was the book that really broke me in terms of enjoying the series. Part of you wants to know what happens because you care about the characters but the other part wonders how much of each book you'll have to skip to avoid the ardeur and Richard's tantrums. I'm only continuing because I'd already bought other books in the series and I'll quit when I get to the end of them.
—chucklesthescot
This is still one of my favorite books in the Anita Blake series. Part of that is that it was the last book I read when I first discovered the series and read them in one great rush. (In other words, "Cerulean Sins" was the first book I had to wait for.) But a lot of it is the fact that I like the possibilities this book opened up.This book represented a turning point in the series, one that many readers disliked, but I was quite fond of. There is an underlying theme in these books. Anita goes from a very black and white closed off individual in "Guilty Pleasures", to an individual who sees the world in shades of grey. She stops seeing the "monsters" as other and starts judging individuals on their own merit. She also slowly releases all her self-imposed restrictions on who and how she can find love. (Minor spoilers, although not enough to tag the whole review.)After the Tri married the marks in the first few chapters of the book, I would have been satisfied with things moving forward as a threesome, but I'll admit in retrospect I like this twist much better. I love Jean-Claude's lover's list and the fact that it was realized in future books. I love the fact that, even with the ardeur, Anita still makes the men in her life earn a place at her side. She's not a woman of casual lusts, no matter how things look from the outside.I also love that this book managed to visit with most of the characters we've come to love. Except for Animator's Inc., I think everyone (in St. Louis) was on stage. Of the vamps, we saw plenty of Jean-Claude, Asher, Damian, and even Gretchen, plus we were introduced to Meng Die and Faust. Additionally, this was the first real introduction of Belle (from a distance). With the wolves, we saw plenty of Richard, Jason, Stephen, Sylvie, Jamill, Shang-Da, and even a hint of Irving. Oh, and Raina, can't forget her. With the leopards we saw plenty of Nathaniel, Gregory, Cherry, Zane, Elizabeth, and Vivian and we were introduced to Micah and his pard. With the wererats, we saw Raphael, Dr. Lillian, and a hint of Louie, plus we were introduced to Claudia and Bobby Lee. We saw Ronnie and Zerbrowski and Dolph. I'm very very impressed that everyone was on stage like that. We also had both vamp and furry politics going on, as well as a (very connected) RPIT case.Overall, I love this book and all the possibilities it brought out for the later books in the series, especially the next two - "Cerulean Sins" and "Incubus Dreams". Can't recommend enough.(Review date: 03/25/2009)
—mlady_rebecca
