Bullet (Anita Blake Vampire Hunter 19) [Kindle Edition]

I was really looking forward to this book. After the last novel where we saw a lot less gratuitous sex and much more of the old fashioned hard boiled Anita I was really hopeful about this one. But I was pretty disappointed when I finally read it the first 150 pages or so where slow and while I'm pretty sure there were a few little gems of real character development in there you really had to dig to get to them, All in just a bit pointless.

Then after that it was probably the low point of the whole series, a rather long winded discussion about sex and the emotional problems of several characters that was felt both slow, unnecessary and was a little uncomfortable to read. It was all just a very poor start to the book. I think that by this point in time we understand that the author wants to challenge traditional sexuality but I think she has made her point pretty clear by now and I really wish if she wanted to write erotica she could have done it in another series and left the well loved hardboiled Vampire hunter with a little dignity. It's not that developing the sexual side of the main character is a bad thing because its not its the fact that its just WAY overdone. To the point where our favorite vampire hunting US Marshall now apparently works from home via teleconference.

In contrast the last half of the book seemed to have most of the return of the plot which was actually not all that bad if again you cut out some of the extra sex scenes. And I actually felt the last half of the book had all the best bits of the story crammed in between all the gratuitous sex scenes. We saw some good plot building here and some nice non-sex related character development and done in a more understandable setting than the superfluous dance recital in the beginning. One of the nice bits of development I liked is how the main character finally embraces the fact that she is pretty much a vampire now and it was a nice change in the normal whiny self denying character.

At the end I was fairly disappointed with the epilogue summary. It felt like the author ran out of steam for writing anything other than sex scenes so decide to summaries every aspect of the plot that didn't involve sex into one chapter of plot points that probably would have filled out a large novel in its own right. And that novel would have been better than this one because apparently hunting vampires is too much work for the vampire hunter and can't have any of the political intrigue between vampire groups with the potential for violence that doesn't involve sex. Basically she cheated at the end of the book and it was incredibly annoying.

So to sum it up very disappointed in this one I thought after the last one I would get more of Anita Blake original and what we got was Anita Blake ultra lite now with added rohipnol. It needs to cut out about 70% of the emotional BS talking points 40% of the sex and add in about 2 or 3 times more violence and plot and not cheat at the end. And yes I know the author may actually read this and she has said in the past she is apparently too good for feedback from her loyal fans but I'm writing it anyway because I really enjoyed the first 10 books in this series and I just really want more of them that are that good. To be honest it kind of feels like the author is punishing all the people that are fans of the first half of the series that complained about recent books by answering some of the complaints about the previous novel but piling on extra emphasis of the bits not liked about the last few books in general. It's not that having sexual development of your characters is a bad thing its not especially considering the lead character was basically a 24 year old nun at the start of the series. But it doesn't have to dominate the series like it does now glossing over all the things that drew people into the series in the first place punishing us for daring to enjoy a dark urban fantasy with a strong main character with a hardboiled PI influence. To be honest I'm not sure why I keep reading these books as this one especially had bits that I really didn't enjoy at all it was really hard to gloss over all the overdone sex scenes in this one like in previous. This may be the last of these books I read and I might still read the first few books again but unless when the next one comes out someone tell me its safe to read I'm not going to bother.

Sigh. I have purchased my books from Amazon for many years and this is the first time I have felt compelled to write a review.

This book was dire. Everything I loved about the series has gone - I miss Anita Blake the animator and vampire hunter but I accept now that she is gone for good. I found it tough going to actually finish the book because it could not hold my attention. Even now, I couldn't tell you what the plot was. Or if there was one. I'm pretty convinced that by now LKH is the only one who knows what is going on with all of the metaphysical references because, honestly, she lost me a couple of books ago.

Although not my cup of tea, I can deal with long-haired, pretty, effeminate men; questionable fashion sense (copius amounts of leather and over the knee boots, anyone???)and Anita being the Queen of everything, ever and the best at everything, ever. I love reading and what I can't deal with is my supposedly pleasurable pastime being turned into something boring and tedious.

After 19 books, I won't be buying any more in this series. That's it - I'm done.

Ruthless murders, treachery and a potential civil war among the vampires. Can it be... plot returning to the Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series?

In a word... no. Laurell K. Hamilton's infamous Anita Blake Vampire Hunter series is obviously running on fumes in its nineteenth book, "Bullet" -- she just strings along one messy subplot after another, and tacks on some magical orgies and bickering about feelings to beef it up. It's like being shoved headfirst into a steaming pot of rancid bodily-fluids.

After a dance recital that has nothing to do with ANYTHING, Asher throws a fit over the fact that everybody is getting some man-loving except him. Can't say I blame him.

The obvious solution is to talk about people's feelings, then have an S&M foursome with Richard, Anita and Jean-Claude -- which is interrupted by a pair of far more powerful vampires who are trying to destroy Anita. It seems the supervampire Marmee Noir is not quite dead, and has apparently possessed the entire Vampire Council and is preparing to attack Anita and Co.

But instead of dealing with that, Anita makes some phone calls and then starts an all-out battle with the local werelion Rex, who has annoyed her in some vague way. To make matters worse, somebody has put a contract out on Anita and her vast harem, and there's a rotting Master of the City who's causing trouble.

In theory, "Bullet" has a plot. But once you actually sit down and read it, you'll find that the "plot" is just a string of sloppy subplots that have nothing to do with each other. It's just a big, messy, incoherent stew of S&M sex, wangst, whining, sexist snipes and Anita generating new powers like a gumball dispenser.

And honestly... it's BORING. Anita and her harem just sit around playing Metaphysical Tug-o-War and occasionally chatting on the phone. Occasionally there's actual fighting, but it's very brief and usually smothered in "metaphysical" stuff. And since there's no solid central plot, Hamilton crams in lots of stuff that has nothing to do with anything else -- dance recitals, Haven's meltdown, and a very unsexy mass orgy.

Hamilton's writing is grotesquely clumsy (Anita admiring the "creamy goodness" of her "mounded" breasts), and it gets worse when she tries to be poetic ("She offered her power to us like a dark wind" -- huh?). And endless pages are devoted to Anita's boytoys' clothes, hair, and hot bodies -- but I honestly don't care what color eyes Generic Vampire #7 has or how tall WereThug #39 is.

As usual, Anita is crude, self-important, crusty and demanding -- when she isn't sitting around having effeminate bishies wait on her, she's amassing new superpowers and setting herself up to become queen of yet another werespecies. Hamilton also fumbles some of the other characters -- Asher is suddenly a whiny, vindictive jerk; Richard has become a brainwashed buttkisser, and Haven (reportedly based on Hamilton's ex-bodyguard) has become a possessive maniac.

"Bullet" is a sagging, dribbling stew of sex and supernatural powers, and Laurell K. Hamilton devotes the few flickers of plot to... whatever will happen in the next book. I can hardly wait.