Micah (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, Book 13)
by Laurell K. Hamilton
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Book Reviews of Micah (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, Book 13)
Book Review: God I hope the next one's better than this.
Summary: 2 Stars
I was so disappointed. When I first started reading the Laurell K. Hamilton series I was floored by how different it was. It literally brought a completely new genre into the light, but now her writing has lost all sense of plot development and turned into softcore (sometimes venturing into harder) porn. If all I wanted was sex scenes I'd explore the romance section not the horror.
In all honesty, the only reason I still read her books as they come out is because I'm completely in love with her characters. While Anita lacks a bit in the depth department, almost seeming like she's pretending to be deep so people can't accuse her of being a shallow murderer. (Which it seems she has become.) If it weren't for some of Hamilton's less important characters being too intriguing to just leave it at, "And then he slept with Anita and that was that," I'd have shredded my copies of the entire series and been happier for it.
I guess I was just hoping this book would pull the series back on track and back into the realm of 'interesting reads,' not just 'lonely bedtime reading' as the past few editions have proved to be. Again, I was let down.
'Micah' should have been more about Micah, not Anita getting off. It hinted at his depth behind the oh-so-casual mask and stated that his still waters ran deep, but barely touched on the subject other than stating the obvious. Chapters upon chapters were dedicated to their sex-scapades and the majority of the rest were for Anita to sputter about her own insecurities with the hot man she's been doing for months with a small side jaunt into Micah's past. The rest of the book, a very small percentage, was actually involved in exploring Anita's increasing powers.
At this point in the series I'm ready to give up on all of Hamilton's characters. I just don't really care anymore. Hamilton seems to be giving her alter-ego all this power for a reason but all Anita's been doing with it is having sex. (And if the rumors are correct, getting knocked up.)
Wouldn't it be great if the series went back to being horrifying and exciting? Wouldn't it be great if I were able to respect Anita, and for that matter Hamilton herself as a writer, again? Wouldn't it be great if I didn't feel like a traitor for saying all this?
Sorry, Hamilton. Sorry, Anita. And I'm really sorry to all of those, like myself, who keep hoping for another sexy horror novel (emphasis on the horror) and just aren't getting it from Laurell K. Hamilton.
If you can manage it, forget this novella and hope for better things to come from her next endeavor.
Book Review: It Doesn't Matter What She Does
Summary: 5 Stars
I've always been curious about how Micah became the "monster" he is now and his story certainly satisfied my curiosity. I have personally always liked Micah but never understood his unquestioning desire to be with Anita, but now I do.
Micah loves Anita as she accepts him for what he is, and has virtually from their first meeting, and he understands her, while accepting who/what she is and is fully capable of handling whatever she becomes. Micah supplies Anita with a comfort level, just by his touch, bringing about a certain degree of calm, that most of her "other men" cannot.
In "Micah", Anita substitutes for a friend /colleague who is also an animator but has more pressing matters to attend. Anita travels to Philadelphia to perform a grave raising and brings along Micah to assist in case the "ardeur" flares up. While in Philly Anita gets to spend some alone time with her leopard king, Micah, which has never happened before during their relationship.
Upon her arrival to Philadelphia, Anita once again comes in contact with an old nemesis, FBI Agent Franklin, who apparently hates and fears her as Agent Franklin has some deep, dark secrets of his own that he does not want discovered. Anita appears to be the one person who could bring major changes to Franklin life and thereby, could end his career as an FBI agent.
The grave raising does not go quite as smoothly as it should have since Anita's growing power is picking up on all sorts of vibes in this very old graveyard and the animator job starts to go badly as soon as the corpse is out of the grave.
I can't complain about "Micah" being novella as that is what it was advertised as. As far as the price, well Laurell K. Hamilton is one on a very short list of authors that I will purchase no matter the cost. I love her novels just that much.
Ms. Hamilton, has never disappointed me to date and I doubt she ever will unless she stops writing. Anita has finally grown up and is now facing her fears. I like Anita just as she is but I keep wondering just how powerful she will become.
Yes, "Micah" was definitely short in comparison to what Ms. Hamilton usually delivers but I loved it just the same and am anxiously waiting for whatever Ms. Hamilton offers me next.
As I stated previously, I'll be purchasing whatever Ms. Hamilton writes, no matter the length, content or cost, she's worth every penny it.
Book Review: DON'T !!!
Summary: 1 Stars
DON'T!!!
Don't let the fact that the book is numbered to page #280 fool you! There is less here than meets the eye...
I was really looking forward to the next Anita book to come out.
As I started reading "Micah", something started to bother me...Laurell K. Hamilton has resorted to using the same trick that generations of grade school students use when writing a paper! To lengthen a paper, or to write the minimum, first:
make a page just to list the Chapter number.
make the next page blank.
start writing the chapter halfway down the page.
leave a blank page at the end of many chapters.
Double-space everything!
make the last 35 pages a preview to your next book!
So, for those of you who care, here are the numbers:
280 pages - (35 pages preview to Danse Macabre) = 245 pages.
minus (24 pages blank at the start of every chapter) = 221 pages.
minus (6 pages blank at the end of some chapters) = 215 pages.
minus (6 pages, from 12 half-pages at the start of each chapter) = 211 pages.
minus (105 pages, because the 211 pages were DOUBLE SPACED! so only half the page is text!) = 106 pages.
I checked in my copies of her previous books, and these "techniques", if you will, were never used.
Oh, and on top of it, there is NO story in "Micah". Yes, Anita and Micah do the deed, and there is a non-story of a zombie-raising. Oh, did I spoil it for you? Sorry. But wait, I also just saved you $7.99!!!
And there you have it. How Laurell K Hamilton and Penguin books have stretched 106 pages of nothing into 280 pages of...well, nothing, and have the gall to charge $7.99 for it.
Perhaps Laurell should decide whether she wants to continue writing Anita, or those other (icky, stupid) fairy stories. I would gladly pay money for a continuation of the quality of work she has done prior to "Micah". But, if Laurell has lost her focus or desire, then kill Anita, quickly and mercifully...don't let her story die a slow death such as this.
DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY ON THIS BOOK. SAVE YOUR MONEY!! It is better put into your bank account...we all need to save more anyway!
Go to the library and get the book. Sit down and read it right there...you'll be finished in about an hour. Then you won't even have to sign it out.
Book Review: Extremely short....
Summary: 2 Stars
How short you ask? I finished this entire book in a hour and a half. That's it. I've read stories in Fantasy and Sci Fi magazine that took me longer to get through.
I swore that after Incubus Dreams, I was done with LKH unless I found one of her books on sale dirt cheap. This novel I got through a buy one get one free promo deal. Once again, I am glad I didn't pay full price.
Pros: Less sex, more of a one on one atmosphere, a small plot
Cons: What sex there was is rather gross, the analyzing of the relationship between Michah and Anita is beat to death (like all of her relationships), the characters are flat and uninteresting), what plot there is seems to be an afterthought, just so there is will be a reason to get our characters together.
I did like this one better than the last, simply because of less sex and less obsession about the ardeur. But then again, maybe there was only less sex because the darn story was so short.
Can LKH no longer turn out a decent sized novel without filling the pages with long drawn out sex? I am becoming convinced this is exactly the case.
Edited to add:
I've been thinking about why I hate that the Anita Blake series is all sex, while in the Merry Gentry series, it really doesn't bother me . Well, I think I have figured it out. First, I read the two series for different reasons: Merry for a little erotica with a plot, and Anita for awesome action, mystery, and triumph of good over evil. In the Merry Gentry series, the sex is central to the plot. It actually moves the plot along, while the action and mystery are fringe benefits. Yes, the sex gets absurd occassionally, but you've got to find new ways to get a reaction out of your audience. In Anita Blake, the action was the driving force in the series. Somehow that was lost when the ardeur came up. The sex in those novels are not a central part of the plots (or lack thereof in the last few novels). That is why I feel so cheated when I read an Anita book. They are no longer same caliber of writing as in the beginning. They have deteriorated into sloppy novels where the plot is simply a means to get as many characters together for sex as possible, much like a common porn movies. Merry Gentry however, is decent erotica. Without the sex, there would be no storyline.
Book Review: More of the same...
Summary: 1 Stars
Ostensibly about writing a tight short story about a small sampling of the massive cast of this series, Micah takes Anita out of town to raise the dead to solve a case, out of town alone with Micah, king leopard to her queen. Reality is that Hamilton has finally gotten round to trying to give her least developed character a personality and a history of his own. Micah, introduced for no reason other than to replace Richard in Narcissus and Chains has been largely an uninteresting yes man, with no real depth or meaning for the last three Anita Blake books. Micah gives Hamilton a chance to correct a glaring oversight that should have been dealt with before Micah was ever introduced. And as with most of her latest books, she doesn't manage to do it very effectively. A generic sob story, mixed with a conversation about massive manhood that could have been lifted from the last Anita Blake book leaves one with no more interest in Micah than we had before.
One would have hoped that working with a limited number of pages would have encouraged Hamilton to cut back on most of her worst excesses of the last few books; and to a degree she does. But only at the expense of decent plot, decent characterization, and decent writing. While we aren't forced to endure as much empty, unerotic, pointless sex as the last few books; we are forced to endure a much greater amount of the none stop emotional baggage Anita Blake has become known for. Add to this a collection of clichéd caricature cops, the obligatory comparisons of who's the bigger man, Anita or everyone else around her, and reduce the actual action of the story to a dozen or so pages and you'll get Micah.
The book was produced by the publisher to regain some of the royalty money already wasted on the increasingly lackluster Hamilton. Chances are good this book will join the two week selling spree as die hard fans incapable of accepting any criticism of their "favorite" author buy the book, only to drop rapidly off the sales chart as word of mouth spreads about just how vacant of any real worth Hamilton's writing has become.
For all intents and purposes, Micah is a story that at best should have been a few chapters at the beginning of a full book, and not worth developing into a novel "lite" as Hamilton refers to it.