Customer Reviews
Obsidian Butterfly / The Edward Book
As Laurell Hamilton said in the opening acknowledgements, this book is for the Edward fans out there. (Edward is the sociopathic bounty hunter we know from the earlier Blake books.) People who haven't read the rest of the Anita Blake series won't get much out of this one; unlike its predecessors, it doesn't bother explaining past events and relationships, and new readers may be completely lost. However, assuming you've read the first eight books of the series, there's a lot to be enjoyed in Obsidian Butterfly. The author does a wonderful job with the characters in this book, especially Edward, and watching them develop and interact in new situations is a treat. Though only Anita and Edward are familiar from the previous books, a new supporting cast of surprisingly deep characters makes its appearance. It's enough to make most readers overlook the shallow, muddled plot and the irritatingly repetetive self-analysis by the hero, who narrates the book. Despite the excellent character development, witty dialogue, top-notch action sequences, and morbidly fascinating gore, this is not one of Laurell Hamilton's best books. Add the fact that this book is unsuitable for readers new to the series, and it becomes a poor choice for Laurell Hamilton's hardback debut.
Best book so far!
I've read all the previous Anita Blake books, and I have to say this book gave me a pleasant surprise after the crap that was "Blue Moon". Blue Moon was the previous book and had so much sex and porn inclinations in it, that I was skipping whole sections at one go. Now I'm just a regular guy who loves the occasional porn, but Blue Moon really went overboard. In Obsidian, the story was interesting, and there was surprisingly little sex. It felt like Laurell finally woke up and concentrate on writing a good story instead of trash. Well done!
Ok, Just ok
When I first started reading this series I enjoyed it. But up to this book I started to find Anita very annoying and this book seems to cultivate all her annoying characteristics into one rollercoaster ride. Basically Anita has turned into an overly aggressive teenager with a mine is bigger attitude. Which makes you hope one of the monsters would just eat her and get it over with. The story line is still predictable and the dialog is weak. I'm not sure what happened to the series but I hope the next book is better.
