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I have been reading the Anita Blake series since 1996 I think when one fateful day at my local library I randomly picked up Burnt Offerings. I immediately fell in love with the series and was finishing the books in a week or less and moving on to the next one. Last year I finally got around to reading the first half of the series and now I'm caught up except for The Harlequin (I'm waiting for paperback release because I don't like hardback. Not portable.). After reading the first half of the series, I noticed a marked difference in the content and I was disappointed. All the books before the ardeur shows up are so different from the others and, in my opinion, BETTER.

Yes, there's a little inuendo and even a couple full on sex scenes in the pre-ardeur books, but they feel appropriate. The flow is organic and the sex and inuendo makes sense. The books themselves had substance and there was a structure to them. In every book, there was a case to be solved and just about everything that went on during the course of the book lead to the solving of the case. The pre-ardeur books were simply more dynamic and exciting.

Now, with the ardeur having basically replaced Anita as the lead character, the books are predictable, gratuitous, and the plots are thin if not nonexsistent. Some of the post-ardeur books don't even move along the general plot of the series, like Danse Macabre for example. That book pissed me off to no end, and because it was so full of gratuitous sex with Anita screwing/almost screwing one guy after another, it took me forever to read because I was so disgusted. Though we do gain a bit more insight into the great enigma that is Marmee Noir, it just felt tacked on as if Laurell knew that Danse was lacking and used this to validate it.

While in the context of the ardeur, all the sex and some other elements do make sense, I feel that Laurell overdoes it. Why she chose to even introduce the ardeur, I do not know, but I just wish she hadn't turned Anita into a whore in the process of trying to spice up the series, which didn't really need spicing up. Anita's moral fiber has been disintegrating at an alarming rate since the appearance of the ardeur. I liked the conflict of her job/lifestyle/etc -vs- her morals and beliefs at first. But now when this particular conflict is addressed, I just want to roll my eyes and close the book. She's just beating a dead horse now.

Don't get me wrong, I love the series in general and I will continue to read it until the end, but I hope things get better. If not, I'll still read it, but I'll really only be doing so just to see it end. That's what happened with me and Charmed...but that's a rant for another time. I really want to hear other's opinions on this. Am I wrong for thinking this way? Does anyone agree? Please share your thoughts.

I'm not saying it doesn't make sense, I'm just saying that I think she overdoes it. As I pointed out with Danse Macabre, a lot of the ardeur books are filled with more sex than actual plot. I guess I could see how some of the sex was necessary, but take the whole siren thing for example? That didn't seem necessary at all. She has sex with most of the guys for love, food, or as a mate for her beasts. The little merfolk side story doesn't really have a direct benefit to Anita, and if she actually does it, I think it will only serve to degrade that last tiny thread of moral fiber she has left. Forgive me, but I have a serious problem with Anita spending more of her time these days having sex/fighting the urge to have sex than solving all the still unsolved mysteries. The list of mysteries in the series seems to grow in direct proportion to the list of men she has to regularly bone for whatever reason. I hate to be mean, but Laurell needs to get Anita off her back and back on the case.

Sometimes I think maybe she's doing this on purpose. She's prolonging the end of the series with all the sex. Basically, after Marmee Noir is fully revealed and defeated, Anita gains full control over the ardeur, and we find out what her mystery beast is, the series will be over. But those things, especially Marmee Noir's defeat (or whatever has to happen) is going to take a while to plan and execute, so I don't think there's a real need for filler. Just continue the story and things should run smoothly.

I'm on obsidian butterfly, so i'm savoring every page before Anita's "Transformation." I've heard what happens, so yeah, i like how the series is now, with just Richard and Jean-claude and the occasional other person wanting some but not getting any. I think its a shame that Hamilton changed the series. I mean, i could understand the whole Adure (sp) thing, but she could have gone about it in a different way to make it less... slutty.

Good point! I could do a whole separate rant on Richard alone. He annoys me so much. And just when you think he's gonna come around, he flips out again due to his homophobia or his complete inability to be just a little submissive. And let's not forget about his Anita-specific hang-ups. She is a badass supernatural being that just so happens to more badass than him. You can't expect someone like Anita to be the little housewife. As long as he refuses to accept that he is a monster and the fact that she is just as much a monster as everyone else (maybe more so), the triumverate will never work, and they will never defeat the Council. The other triumverate she has going certainly won't be able to do the job, that's for sure.