vampires

Fans of Ms. Hamilton are very familiar with the world that her character, Anita Blake, dwells in. It's our present day world, the only difference is that monsters, ie...Vampires, werewolves, zombies, are a natural part of everyday life. To say the "Anita" world is highly creative and immensely entertaining is an understatement. I couldn't read the series prior to this book fast enough.

This novel, however, I did not find as fasinating as the prior installments. Dealing more with Edward, one of Anita's human friends, the plot, though well developed, was not the gripping adventure that I'm used to seeing in her books. Also, I must point out that Edward is not one of my favorite characters. He is the least well defined, and also hard for me to learn to like, even though, in this book, he is a little less cold blooded.

I also have to say, being a fan of her prior stories, that I do miss the regular characters that normally bring humor, action and interest to storylines. Even though Anita is the main character, I'm a little more fond of some of the "monsters" than of Anita herself. I also happen to be a Jean-Claude fan, her main Vampire, and his absence in this book was keenly felt.

This book is an interesting read, but it is also quite violent. The other books have also been very violent, which I don't have an adversion to, as it normally fits well within the story. I think I just noticed the darker side in this book was thicker because the characters were less easy to like or understand.

For those who are familiar with the Anita universe, I would recommend reading this book. For those that are not, I would recommend starting with the earlier books to understand Anita and her world a little better.

The most unusual book of the Anita Blake series is a definite hard read...the violence is less fantasy and more reality. We have cold-blooded killers like Olaf walking the streets already. It was not easy to stomach some of the graphic violence, but it was very believable. As for an earlier reviewer, Jay and Lara Russell who commented "I really enjoyed the earlier books in this series. But a depiction of the slaughter of newborns is not entertaining to me." Obviously you didn't pay very much attention because in several books there have been infants killed. In fact, the time Anita won the bet for dinner at Tony's (in reality a very expensive St. Louis restaurant) by being the last to lose her lunch in a gross-out contest with other Spook Squad members was at a home where an infant had been slaughtered. I found OB to be a fascinating journey into Edward/Ted's world. To discover a touch of humanity in Edward is amazing enough, to realize he loves Anita is simply mind blowing. I hope to hear more of the Ted & Donna saga in upcoming novels. I feel certain that we will see Olaf again at some opportune time in Anita's life. Olaf's apparent bonding with Anita as his soulmate will show up again someday when he either bails her out at a most needed moment or, regretfully, Anita kills him. Would I reccomend this book to someone who hasn't read at least one of the other Anita Blake books? Probably not. The other books in the series help to flesh out Edward's character. But for Anita fans, this is a must-read.

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!