Obsidian Butterfly (An Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, Book 9) (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter)

Summoning Anita has its downside for Edward, since it means letting her onto his turf. Anita is surprised to find that this normally aggressive man has a personal life, and shocked by his ability to be entirely different from the stone cold killer she's known. She also has problems with the cop in charge in Albuquerque, who believes her powers must be evil, and with the other backups Edward has brought in. Most of all, she has to deal with her own vulnerability--she's tried to shut down her ties to her vampire and werewolf lovers and go it alone, but it turns out to be harder than she thought.

Anita's usual supporting cast is missing, and she's taking time out from her complex love life, but there's plenty of bloody action, vampires, werewolves, and Aztec ritual. Plus a lot more about Edward. Fans will find this installment similar to the earlier books in the series, particularly The Laughing Corpse. --Nona Vero.

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All Customer Reviews
Average Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

great book, 2008-09-15
Laurell Hamilton has an extremely vivid fantasy and is able to create situations full of suspense and mystery. Anita Blake is always an incredible character...not only she's a great heroine, but she's also funny!
The plot of this book is very well created and i couldn't almost put the book down!


0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

First rate psychological thriller, 2008-09-14
All right, so I'm up to Book 9 in the series now, and I still haven't lost any interest. Reading these as quickly as I have been has made them seem like one extremely long novel, rather than a series; I can't decide if it's better or worse this way. But the fact that the characters are still fascinating to me and the stories haven't lost anything over the course of -- what, 3000 pages? Something like that -- shows me that this is a series that is worth pursuing, something that I plan to read and enjoy more than once. Maybe next time I'll read them with a little more space in between.

This one was excellent, though slower than the ones before it. Slower partly because it was longer, jumping 150, 200 pages in length over Blue Moon, and slower partly because it was just slower-paced. There was much less action and much more investigating and talking to different people in this one, which was a little disappointing inasmuch as it was Edward's book, and I expected that to be nothing but slaughter. But after reading it, I wouldn't have wanted it any other way, because it was fascinating to examine the disparate attitudes and morals and desires of the Four Psychos of the Apocalypse, Edward, Bernardo, Olaf, and Anita. These four run the gamut of serial killers, since that's what all of them are, and I loved comparing them over the course of the book.

You have Bernardo, who isn't really in it for the kill, but is simply good at what he does and has found a place where he belongs in his role as killer-for-hire. Since he doesn't love the kill, he does as much bodyguard work as anything, and he chafes the worst under the necessity of waiting for a break in the case. Then you have Olaf, who is a true serial killer -- a sexual sadist. He's in it for the kill, but not this kind of kill, so he has trouble with this case as well, but for a different reason: he has trouble because he has a terrible time resisting his own desire to kill Anita. The case becomes something he just wants to get finished so he can get back to what he loves: murder. Then there are our two heroes, Anita and Edward; throughout all the earlier books, Anita has worried that she is becoming too much like Edward, too willing to kill for too little reason. Not surprising, as she has dropped several hints that Edward had much to do with making her the way she is; most of her guns are either given to her or suggested to her by Edward, and her biggest internal struggle -- the conflict between her connection to her two boys, and Edward's most basic philosophy, "You don't sleep with the monsters, you kill the monsters" -- comes directly from her desire to live up to Edward's example in some way. So she has been worrying that she will become as bad as, if not worse than, Edward. In this book, it turns out, she really has reached Edward's level, but not because she sank that low: rather, Edward came up. The empty, cold-hearted killer, who exists only for the thrill of a challenging hunt and a deadly climax, has found love. He has found a family. And when he comes together with these other three murderers, they actually become friends, as much as these people can. Even Olaf -- though his perception of Anita, particularly, is pretty far from what I'd call friendship. But it fit perfectly with his character.

How many writers can do that? How many can not only write a convincing serial killer, but four convincing serial killers, of disparate types, and also portray their interactions in what seems a realistic way? The only other one I've known is Stephen King, who's done similar things in novels with multiple villains -- like It, with Pennywise and Ace and Beverly's father all playing different villain roles at different points. I think it says quite a lot about Laurell Hamilton that her name goes next to his in my mind with this accomplishment.

The story was okay; I liked Obsidian Butterfly, both her story and her power/character, and I liked the mystery surrounding the deaths. I didn't think much of the "god," though his outfit was the ickiest thing in this oft-icky series since the rotting vampire sex or the zombie scenes in The Laughing Corpse. Good to see the theme of horrifying-multi-person-zombie come back around again, thanks to that twisted little nutjob Nicky Baco. I was a little bummed that even after 600 pages of Edward's story, I still never got to see him cut loose and slaughter people by the score; that was Olaf, Bernardo, and Anita. Which was still cool. And I liked Anita's difficulty in dealing with celibacy and her final decision regarding Richard and Jean-Claude -- and it was nice to have a book without the two of them flexing and ma-petite-ing all over the place. Though now I want them back in it, so we can see what happens next!


0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

the best in the series, 2008-08-23
After reading her other works, this one has the least sex scenes and is the best book in the series.


0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

My new favorite in this series!, 2008-06-10
I really liked this entry in the series. Edward has always been my favorite character (besides Anita of course), and I'd missed him in the recent books, so I was glad to see he had such a huge role in this one. In this book, Edward calls in his favor from Anita and she travels to Arizona to assist him in investigating a series of mutilation murders. We get some insight into Edward's character and a glimpse at his long-buried human side! Jean-Claude only makes one brief appearance in this book, and Richard doesn't appear at all other than in conversation. And quite frankly, I did not miss either one of them! Terrible, I know, since Jean-Claude especially is such a central character, but I've never much cared for him or their relationship. In Arizona, Anita meets another of Edward's occasional back-ups, Olaf, who is a cold-blooded serial murderer who starts out hating Anita but comes to respect her in a creepy way, and I suspect that he will show up later in the series as well. An interesting character.


0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

Last Laurell Hamilton book I'll be reading, 2008-05-18
So, the title says it. I'm done with Laurell Hamilton. Honestly, I did not even finish this book. I stopped with about 100 pages left. I'm sick of the author's fixation on sexual assault. In most of the books she's either had someone get raped, or attempted to be, or put in a porn film against their will. I was well aware that there was some sexually explicit content in these books, but there has been to this point, so little actual consensual sex. So I'm finished.

Other gripes about the book: the werewolf politics yet again. "You came in to my territory without paying me tribute" *snoooooze*

As a medical professional: When Anita was injured in the hospital and hurt, they said her blood pressure was 60/80. Not possible. The numbers can potentially be equal, but the second number cannot be higher than the first. Maybe I'm just nitpicking here, but that's how it goes.

Also irked by one of her lines when Anita was referencing women's weight: "Anything under size 5 isn't a woman, it's a boy with breasts"
Wow. Pretty insulting to your female readers who happen to be petite. Just like,oh your own main character endlessly is described as being so. That's a very catty line and I found it very insulting.

So enough Hamilton for me.I'd rather read an author with either less sex or more HEALTHY sex than this endless victimization of her characters. I'm just glad that this book was borrowed and I've never paid a dime for one of Hamilton's novels.

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