The Harlequin (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter)
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: 2008-04-29
ISBN: 0515144614
Number of pages: 448
Publisher: Jove
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780515144611
- 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 The Harlequin (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter)
Book Review: One of the series' best
Summary: 5 Stars
The Harlequin starts off like Burnt Offerings, with a harbinger of vampiric doom; this time it isn't the Council itself coming to visit, but rather the long arm of vampire law: the Harlequin. These are the silent assassins of vampiredom -- the Justicars, for those who know White Wolf, and that was immediately how I thought of them -- who enforce the Council's law, observing and eliminating vampires who break the rules. I read another book not long ago that used Harlequins as a name for a group; in that book, the use of the name was, well, lame, but in this book, the use of "Harlequin" worked, mainly because the name itself was not supposed to project their uncompromising deadliness: it was more a reflection of the vampire love for melodrama, and for that, the references to Commedia dell'Arte worked. They use masks to communicate -- if you get a white mask they are observing, a red mask means they're going to hurt you, and a black mask means they're going to bake you brownies. No, not really. -- and they wear costumes and use the names of the original characters of the Commedia, Columbine and Pantaleon and so on. And since these vamps come from the founder of the council, the MOAD, it seems very likely that the ancient Italian characters came from these folk, not the other way around, and that's just cool.
Anyway, the Harlequin come to town (and ruin Anita and Nathaniel's anniversary date night, which is too bad because the date has implications for their future relationship, and also too bad because the thread of Nathaniel and Anita's relationship gets lost in the events that follow, which probably has further implications for their relationship) and then immediately start screwing with Jean-Claude's power base, by going after the weak link in the St. Louis vampire world: Malcolm and all of the un-blood-oathed vampires of the Church. Anita is understandably freaked out by these things, and she calls in the big guns: Edward. Who brings not only Olaf, but also his newest back-up: Peter.
So here's the thing with these books. The characters are so real, and so honestly multi-layered, that they do unpredictable things, and they do things that have serious repercussions, repercussions that may very well keep on echoing again and again. What's more, since the series is as long as it is, there have come to be many, many characters who are like this. Peter and Olaf are prime examples of that. When Edward brings these two, all Hamilton has to do is write down their names, have Anita see them just once; we immediately understand several things about this. We know that Olaf is going to cause real problems for Anita, since he wants to hunt and kill her, and we know that Peter's coming is not only dangerous for Peter, but also for Edward, and for Donna, Peter's mother, and we already have ideas and opinions on all of these things. We also wonder if this means that Edward has gone soft, since he had to have given in to sentiment in bringing his 16-year-old semi-adopted son, and the old Edward didn't have that sentiment; then we have to wonder if his softening will be a strength, as it is for Anita, or a weakness. Then we just have to wonder what will happen when a 16-year-old assassin-in-training is brought into this world. And then, when Edward reveals a few things about how Peter has been affected by his experiences -- mainly his sexual abuse from two years before, in Obsidian Butterfly -- we have to wonder about the implications of those factors, and how they will affect Anita, and Edward, and Peter, and Donna, and so on, so on.
The complexities just keep multiplying until it's almost dizzying. It was getting hard for me to remember all of the characters I was supposed to remember -- there's a moment at the end of this book when something is revealed about one of the bodyguards, and when it was revealed, I couldn't remember any details about that bodyguard's character in the first place, so I was confused -- but that's been taken care of: two of the bodyguards have died, and one other person, Sampson, the would-be siren, has gone back where he came from. The issue with Malcolm's church has been mostly resolved, and we've seen what deadly warriors Wicked and Truth are -- which was totally sweet -- and Haven, aka Cookie Monster, has returned to take over the lion pride, which will probably be helpful in the long run but will certainly add complications to Anita's life. Along with a new character for us to try to fathom.
And, I was glad to see, Richard may just have broken his last straw. Oh, happy day. But whether this ends the Richard saga or not, there were several threads that got taken care of, either by weaving them solidly into place in the overall story, or just by cutting them off. This book definitely made up for the problems of the last one, which focused a bit too much on the ardeur, to the detriment of the plot; although there are ardeur issues in this one, they offer new insights, not just repetitions, and the final revelation about the ardeur and its uses for Anita and Jean-Claude was truly excellent. Maybe I liked it more than others would because it ends up flipping the bird to Richard, in a way -- but it was cool, no matter what.
Summary of The Harlequin (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter)
Into Anita Blake's world-a world already overflowing with power-come creatures so feared that centuries-old vampires refuse to mention their names.Horror Books
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