Incubus Dreams (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, Book 12)
by Laurell K. Hamilton
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Book Summary Information
Author: Laurell K. HamiltonEdition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2005-09-27
ISBN: 0515139750
Number of pages: 752
Publisher: Jove
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780515139754
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Book Reviews of Incubus Dreams (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, Book 12)
Book Review: Asleep at the wheel. Or just gone.
Summary: 1 Stars
Having finished the book, I had these impressions:
(a) Hamilton wanted to set up future books with certain background development
(b) Hamilton made a list of the points she wanted covered
(c) Hamilton gave this list to her housekeeper with a note about what needed to be thrown out of the fridge if it went bad while she was on vacation, and told her to write the scenes she wanted done, so she could later string them together with scenes that would provide structure to the book
(d) Hamilton never actually wrote the scenes that would reveal plot to the reader, and submitted the background drafts ghosted by her maid without further adornment
There is a theme among many of these posts, and it runs "It was such good noire/vampire/fantasy/what-have-you, then she started writing pornos." This is not the problem. The problem may be that Hamilton is so taken with her characters that she can no longer judge the quality of what she writes about them. Perhaps she's so lost in her romp that editing just isn't important any more. In a few books, the typos and misplaced punctuation had really convinced me this was the case, but someone has returned to make sure the spelling is right and the commas are mostly defensible. Or maybe my standards are falling.
But just to make sure nobody mistakes my concerns:
(1) I don't mind reading sex scenes.
(2) Hamilton eventually demonstrated, after the first yawners with Jean Claude many books ago, that she could write sex when she bothered to try.
This book is not a worthy effort. The main adversaries are not dealt with in a way that enables the reader to see she's won anything, or showing her defeated and needing to re-group. She just misses the boat, the bad guys get away.
What DOES happen in the book? Background. The main character is introduced to the SWAT-equivalent of her town and gains their respect (killing little minions an enemy left as a smoke-screen), while leaving longtime readers dumbfounded that the police would want to close a case that's so obviously not closed (who's the cop in this story? didn't we establish many books ago the cops now trusted hard evidence on supernatural things? didn't Blake provide the hard evidence? why the sudden incompetence?). The main character's vampire allies are buttressed with convincing muscle, some of it famously good (OK: we expect a fight later; could be exciting ... where is it?). We hear about recon against the local werewolf pack (OK, more conflict being set up). Distant and extremely powerful vampires are illustrated for future use (allies and enemies, no doubt, but ... for later ....). The possibility that mundane adversaries will drop in by surprise increases (hmm, where's Edward? Is he no longer necessary now that Obsidian Butterfly proved him mortal? No, he'll show up with intel on the mundane powers ... he's just not showing up here, or he was murdered before the mundanes came to town last time). The ongoing build up over Dolph's son's fiancee is discussed, again, but the dinner where Blake meets the boy's vampire love-interest still goes untold. Supernatural sex compulsions drive Blake to bone numerous new specimens, some now apparently complete strangers, and she does 3-ways while you wait for some plot to arrive, like cavalry, to save the book. One hopes that all this background is setting up volumes that will really rock -- volumes in which Hamilton invests time, thought, and craftsmanship.
Incubus Dreams is not the first dud in this series. However, Micah is also weak (even aggressive typesetting tricks fail to make Micah even appear the same length as a "normal" Hamilton novel). Micah is not bad, but a Hamilton novel has several threads going on (her life is supposed to be confusing, her dangers complex and multi-faceted). Obsidian Butterfly, the other book besides Micah in which Blake leaves town without Jean Claude or Richard, is easily complex and fulfilling in ways neither Incubus Dreams or Micah have bothered.
So while I'm optimistic Hamilton is building a great tale down the road, I'm not willing to bet a book's price on it. I'll not read more of her until I get confirmation (from a trusted reviewer) that Hamilton's actually working to make a good book again.
Unfortunately, as long as Hamilton's sales stay up, she'll have little incentive to do solid work if pride in her craftsmanship has failed. It's great for her to live on a hobby -- I think everyone should do something they love -- but it's rotten to see a good series lost like this. Not to sex -- sex is fine, and the series hasn't been lost to sex (though this book positively drowns in it, and since there's no plot for the sex to advance, it comes off as utterly gratuitous, which isn't what Hamilton is after: she obviously wants the reader to see what increasing power does to her appetites, and how she needs to take care of herself and those who depend on her in order to avoid disaster ... the fact that Hamilton has failed to make the reader feel it, and leaves you to suss it out afterward, simply shows how little care she's taken in her work).
The series is lost, rather, to laziness. It's been lost to lack of pride of craftsmanship.
And it's a shame.
Summary of Incubus Dreams (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, Book 12)
Vampire hunter Anita Blake finds her life is more complicated than ever, caught as she is between her obligations to the living-and the undead.
As Incubus Dreams opens, Anita Blake may be America's most powerful vampire hunter and necromancer. So it's no surprise that the Regional Preternatural Crime Investigation Team seeks her assistance when a St. Louis stripper is murdered and the evidence points to unusual serial killers: a group of seven vampires. It appears a master vampire has gone rogue--and may prove too powerful for Anita Blake, even if she can gain help from not only her vampire consort, Master of the City Jean-Claude, but from the wereleopard king Micah, her other lover, and the alpha werewolf Richard, her bitter ex-lover.
It would be an exaggeration to say that Laurell K. Hamilton's Incubus Dreams is just one sex scene after another. This twelth novel in her bestselling Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series presents a wedding, a murder, and a lot of relationship angst before getting down and dirty on page 89; and the sex scenes pause on page 377 to let the mystery plot resume. The series deftly blends elements of alternate history, horror, romance, erotica, and mystery, but anyone reading Incubus Dreams for the murder plot is going to be frustrated. However, Incubus Dreams is a considerably stronger and more interesting book than its talky predecessor, Cerulean Sins, and fans will enjoy the many new developments in Anita's complicated love life. --Cynthia Ward
Amazon.com Exclusive Content
Interview with the Vampire Writer
With two bestselling series featuring supernatural heroines under her belt, one has to wonder if Laurell K. Hamilton is truly in touch with a world beyond ours. Hamilton spoke with Amazon.com about her work, her characters, and her plans for the future.
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