ISBN: 0-441-00684-1 Order from: Amazon.com Barnes & Noble.com
A fast, exciting fantasy featuring a tough but appealing heroine, dark magic, a plethora of confrontations and fights; somewhat superficial but highly entertaining.
Reviewed by David on January 06, 2000
Genre: Fantasy (Mystery, Vampires, Werewolves, Shapeshifting, Alternate Reality)
Synopsis: In an alternate America where magic works and the legendary creatures exist, the Supreme Court has made it illegal to kill vampires without a court order. One of a handful of licensed vampire executioners, Anita Blake is a powerful animator and an occasional police expert on supernatural crimes.
When Edward, one of her most dangerous colleagues, asks her help, Anita is faced with one of her toughest monsters. Something is killing people around Albuquerque, something so strange it has both the police and Edward spooked.
Full Review: This is a sequel to Blue Moon, and continues the exciting series features Anita Blake, animator, preternatural crime investigator, and vampire executioner. While not very rigorously throught out, this alternate reality is very accessible. Much of the charm of this and the earlier books came from the main character, Anita, the fiercely independent and occasionally abrasive young woman, who frequently resorted to sarcasm and black humor when faced with overwhelming enemies. A continuing theme—the conflict between Anita's increasing skill and ease at killing, and her conscience—is further developed here. One of the most menacing and ambiguously interesting characters, Edward, is explored deeply in this book.
The pace is fast, and Anita's romantic involvements and temptations, while still annoyingly present, do not overshadow the main plotline—a magical mystery. Anita's abrasiveness, or the nature of the plot, forces nearly every dialogue into a confrontation. While increasing tension, and allowing the heroine to exhibit her character, the confrontations are becoming repetetive after 9 books.
However, for the fans of the series, the excitement and danger of this novel will overcome its minor flaws in continuity and style, and provide the pleasure of the eatlier, man vs. monster plots. For others, this may still be a very entertaining book, although starting from earlier novels in the series would improve the experience significantly.
Overall: 7; Plot: 6.5; Characters: 6.5; Style: 6; World-building: 5.5; Originality: 6.5;
Copyright date 2000, Berkley Publishing Group (Ace), January 2000, Cloth, 386 pages
ISBN: 0-441-00684-1 Order from: Amazon.com Barnes & Noble.com