Customer Reviews

Obsidian Butterfly

5 star:		(109)
4 star:		(72)
3 star:		(37)
2 star:		(17)
1 star:		(18)

 

 

When I first picked up the book, I thought my god it's huge! The book is much longer than the others in the Anita Blake series, not that this deterred me in the least I devoured this book as I do all by Laurell Hamilton, I am now a devoted fan.

Even though the book is very long, it is still not long enough and through parts of the book I flicked back to see if I missed pages as some parts let you assume things happened that Laurell would normally let you experience. That is the only gripe I have about this book :)

Many Laurell Hamilton fans are dismayed by the overt sexuality and amount of sex in the novels. I am not one of these fans, I think the sexuality is fabulous and along with the violence and gore makes all her novels oage turners and keeos the pace on the extreme dial. In this book however there is no gratuous sex scenes so many fans will be gratified with that.

This book takes a look in to Edward, who Anita always hopes she will never become. He is the scariest "person" she knows which is saying a lot espeically with her group of BDSM friends :)

Edward, Anita and recruits are hunting down the most gruesome monster I have ever met on my reading travels. The Murders are disgustingly gruesome and I said "Ewwww!" a lot out loud while reading this novel, but I loved it! I would not recommend it for anyone with a weak constitution.

Not my favourite Anita Blake book, though probably the one that affected me the most. I really missed Richard and Jean Claude in this novel though and will be happy to get back to them in my next reading :)

My least favorite book in the series. Why? because there are none of the main characters in the story. Yeah, well Edward is there...but he is definetly not my favorite character. Yeah, he is cool (so I am not stoned), but he is not my cup 'o tea. Did anyone else notice that Olaf and Kaspar (dereanged wereswan from previous books) have the same last name: Gundersson? Just wondering. N-E-way, good book, still deserves 5 stars for the plot, but it was in no way my fav.

I started reading Hamilton with "Narcissus in Chains," the book that comes after this one in the series. While there was something that bothered me about the book, I couldn't put it down, and decided to start at the beginning. Well, I've now read them all, and while I think Hamilton has a fantastic imagination (and I had as much difficulty putting any of the others down), there are some things that need fixing. Superficially, the editing. I've never read a series of books with so many errors left in.
As far as the stories themselves, Hamilton is overly repetitious in so many ways, and frankly, Anita Blake simply isn't likable. Oh, at first I thought "Gee, isn't it nifty that there's a strong female character" but her attitude grows old real quick. The other characters grow equally tiresome, as half of them are complete bad-... with no redeeming qualities (why is it that 95% of the police introduced in the books are such jerks?), the remaining characters are either (for the most part) sex-obsessed, overly submissive, or otherwise unlikable?
With that said, though, I've noticed a definite improvement in Hamilton's writing style as the series progresses, and this particular book is significantly better than the previous ones... Narcissus is even better. So while I certainly recommend the series, I also recommend to Ms. Hamilton that she get a better editor and take a hard look at her characters.

I've read all of Ms. Hamilton's books, and I particularly enjoy her Anita Blake series. This book is the best to date. Edward the bounty hunter/assasin has called in the favor Anita owes him, and Anita travels to New Mexico to assist Edward in this action-packed, on-the-move, mystical thrill ride. Anita is as sharp-tongued and quick witted as ever, and she uses necromancy, knives, machine guns and even martial arts to bring down the bad guys. Best of all, the novel moves away from what I consider to be Ms. Hamilton's greatest flaw as an author - using too much sex to disguise a weak plot line. No problems this time around! Shame she didn't keep up the good work in Narcissus in Chains.

Anita's assasin buddy Edward is owed a favor. She killed his backup, Harley, before he could kill her. Edward asks her to come to his home in New Mexico to solve a particularly gruesome case. People are being torn apart, the lucky ones are skinned alive and live, or do they. Edward's alter ego, Ted Forrester, also has a few other surprises for Anita, he has a fiancee with two children. She never knew Death had a life!

This novel was very exciting. It was nice to take a break from her problems with Richard and Jean Claude for a brief time only. The characters are very vivid and just as scary as previous novels. I think Edward's human friends are even scarier. Olaf could give Hannibal Lecter a run for his money.

I've read some of the other books and loved them but in this one her long-winded (VERRRRRY long-winded) style really works against her. She is investigating a series of horrifying murders/tortures and instead of any investigation of who the victims are she devotes all this tume to discussing how the characters dress. TEDIOUS!!! Better luck next time...

Obsidian Butterfly is truly a departure from the usual Anita Blake novel. The first thing that jumps out at any reader is the fact that Anita is the narrator, but not really the main character. Anita travels to New Mexico to help out her mercenary friend Edward, and that's where things get weird. On one hand it was nice to read an installment where the plot didn't revolve around Anita's love life (Richard and Jean-Claude were conspicuously absent), it was also nice to see Anita get involved with some straight forward paranormal criminal investigation. There was even a tiny spark of romance with one of the New Mexico cops, but it never developed (we all know by now Anita needs a lot of monster in her man).
The book goes beyond the typical vampire story and sends a message about defacing ancient relics and artifacts when some Aztec vampires go on the rampage and start skinning humans alive. The title 'Obsidian Butterfly' refers to a female master vampire, a character so well-written and powerful that I personally would love to see her in another installment.
I wouldn't recommend 'Obsidian Butterfly' as the best novel in the series, but in combination with the previous installments it is excellent and well worth the reading.

I have no idea how anyone could read this all the way through. It's nothing more than a cheap romance novel with a vampire hunter as the main character. The supernatural setting, which is supposed to set this series apart, isn't even highlighted or detailed well! It's just background noise to the silly soap-opera-esque romance plot! This is worse than Anne Rice's Interview With A Vampire! Run away! Run away!

This was another excellent installment in the Anita Blake series. It would be very helpful to have read the other books in the series before trying this one, however.

This story centers around Anita's involvement with Edward and some very gruesome murders. Not for the squeamish, but very creative for those who are used to fantasy violence.

Defintitely a worth while read.

Thank God for Edward. Otherwise, this book would have most likely been yet another of LKH's more recent books to be only supported by their erotic appeal. In this book, Anita returns her favor to Edward, the one she owed him when she killed his sidekick Harley. The favor involves her flying out to New Mexico to meet Edward, aka Death, aka the Undertaker, aka one of the few people in Anita's world that kill without a second thought--only to meet his fiance, Donna, at the airport. As if things weren't crazy enough, with vampire/goddesses and a necromancer, now Edward has a FAMILY.

That major plot twist is enough to keep you riveted for the entire book, through both Anita and Edward's moral issues with life, love, and, as Edward puts it, "the monsters". Anita comes to terms with herself in this book, and although no familiar characters other than Anita and Edward show up, the book kept me interested. LKH proves that she can write a book with an actual plot, not just one supported with sex.

Buy this one, skip the rest.