Customer Reviews

Incubus Dreams(CD)(Unabr.)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

After a very strong start this series has taken a drastic turn from it's well written and exciting mystery/modern fantasy action beginnings into a embarrassingly disconnected plot nightmare sandwiched in between more and more descriptive and frankly unbelievable sex scenes.

The main character, Anita Blake, has evolved from a near virgin, vampire hating, stickler for the letter of the law to a cold blooded murdering "I'll sleep with anything within a 5 mile radius whore".

Talk about character development.

Initially the series was very intent about making connections between Anita's developing powers and solving the big murder to stop the bad guys. Now it's degraded into endless pages of sex with strangers and/or multiple partners all of the werewolf and/or vampire variety and oh by the way, that murder you started the book with you forgot to get back to for 150 pages in between your latest sexual encounter.

Don't get me wrong, the occasional departure into "romance" can be a worthwhile part of a story line but any book where I can read about getting your cervix bumped mentioned about half a dozen times really shouldn't be listed in any other genre but erotica...

TLDR? Disappointing spiral into the toilet bowl from promising beginnings.

If you are into Anita Blake having really bad sex every couple of hours with a dizzying assortment of vampires, werewolves, and other creatures you might enjoy it. Its nothing but sex - I couldn't even call it erotica - and between the dumb sex scenes there is no story, just long winded paragraphs that go nowhere. The book is way too long. I started scanning after the first 200 pages and never finished it at that.

Many pages. Many sex scenes. Teeny weeny plot.

Laurell K. Hamilton stumbles further into the depths of literary Hades with "Incubus Dreams," a dreary erotic horror-fantasy thriller... or is it, thrilling horror-fantasy erotica? Probably the latter -- the most colorful thing about it is Hamilton's insistently graphic sex scenes. Squeezed between the bouts of sex is a tepid little plot, which seems to be suffocating under pressure.

Anita Blake's life hasn't been the same since she acquired the "ardeur," which basically requires her to have sex constantly. Now she's coming to terms with the fact that she has a male harem, and quite an assortment of new powers. However, her old job still exists -- strippers are being mysteriously drained of blood.

To make things worse, the St. Louis police department is getting suspicious of Anita's increasingly supernatural connections -- she's getting too chummy with the werecreatures and vampires. So (between random sex scenes), Anita calls on help to find whoever has murdered the strippers.

There's a lot of sex in this book. A LOT of sex. So much that the actual plotline can be covered in a mere twenty minutes, if you skip the sex. In fact, Hamilton's strippers-being-sucked-dry plot seems almost like it was hastily tacked between assorted sex scenes. What's worse, the tantalizing plot hints at the end of "Cerulean Sins" are left dangling.

A few flickers of Hamilton's wit do show through, given Jean-Claude's acid comment about Anita having "accidental" sex. The pace is slower, and Hamilton seems to be cluing in a little on some of the things that made her past two books so unsatisfying.

Unfortunately, she hasn't caught on that her graphic, weirdly un-erotic sex scenes add nothing to the book. The consummation of the triumvirate (yes, consummation) is enough to make you cringe, and that's the only sex scene that really stands out.

Anita is obviously having an identity crisis -- it's like Hamilton is trying to meld different personalities together. The result? A very weird lead character who spends most of her time being crabby and whiny. Fans of werewolf Richard may be pleased, since Hamilton seems to have lost her disgust for him, but Jean Claude spends too much time clucking. And Micah? A laughable excuse for a love interest. Who needs a personality when you can have gonads?

Hamilton's latest is an improvement over the ghastly "Cerulean Sins," but it feels as if she wants to have her cake and eat it too -- change the Blake series to erotica, yet retain her old "feel." And certainly this time around, it isn't working.

If you want alot of sex and pornography with little actual story line, then this is the book for you. I got hooked on Laurell Hamilton two summers ago, went out and bought the entire Anita series and had a reading marathon. Each of her pervious books had a nice balance, with a mystery core story line and development of the main characters. However, Incubus Dreams,which happens to be her longest book of the series to date, was extremely disappointing. The majority of the book was dedicated to detailed sexual encounters with multiple partners. The character of Richard should be faded out or assume a minor mention in subsequent books...PLEASE HAVE ANITA FINALLY GET OVER HIM!!! The addition of more lovers for Anita's stud base was too much...question how will they can be incorporated and developed in future books. These additions mean core fundamental quirks of Anita's character and some old interesting characters are no longer mentioned. (her penguin collection, Edward the hitman, the concerned old lady neighbour, Bert etc.)

Overall if interested in reading the book, either borrow from library or friend, or purchase a used copy. Do not waste your money.

I just read Micha, her recent book that was released Feb 2006 and have to say I enjoyed that. It provided history and greater understanding of Micha, developed the relationship between Anita/Micah and Nathaniel. In fact, the sexual piece that ties Anita to Jean Claude and Richard should fased out, and should be business friendship related.

That's my two cents!

I too felt it was misleading of the publishers to describe this book as a having a main plot revolving around a vampire serial killer. That was definitely a subplot in the book. I believe the purpose of this book was to get resolution for some of the key characters in the Anita Blake books. This book does show that Anita is finally coming to accept that sex is a major factor in her powers because she is tied to Jean-Claude. Richard is finally forced to face a few hard truths about himself. Anita if finally forced to recognize that Nathaniel and Damien are integral to her life.

Again although I was disappointed in the weak plot line, I am extremely glad that it seems that LKH has her characters back on line, this in itself made the book a great read for me. I am looking forward to the next book where I believe we will get back to the butt kicking plots that we have all become accustomed to.

I've been a fan of Laurell K. Hamilton since I first picked up Guilty Pleasures over ten years ago. But with her newest novel I have to say she's lost me as a reader. Over the last few books Mrs. Hamilton has focused more on sex and less on plot. Her latest book Incubus Dreams is now 95% sex, and 5% plot. Anita is now sleeping with 6 people on a regular basis, and a couple more on a not so regular basis. I don't mind sex in the books that I read, but if I wanted to read a book that is all sex I'd of picked up a book out of the erotica section. This book is supposed to be about a vampire serial killer. That plot line is barely touched on in this book at all, and it's conclusion is not particularly satisfying. Suffice to say, If I decide to read her next book I'll take it out of the library first.
Save your money.

I've been waiting for this book to come out since I finished Cerulean Sins, and I'm completely addicted to the Anita Blake series.

That having been said, this was not my favourite book in this series.

Strong points: Anita resolving some things with Richard (one of my fave characters), some hot sex scenes, the opening few chapters describing Larry's wedding.

Weak points: this book felt more like the Merry Gentry series, with sex for the sake of sex (or so it seemed) as opposed to it adding intensity to a relationship (even a casual one). The mystery or underlying storyline - outside of Anita's relationships with the many characters - felt almost like an afterthought. There was a lot of editorializing on the development of the triumvirate powers with Richard and Jean-Claude, as well as an examination of Anita's relationship with the many men in her life. As for the [WARNING - SPOILERS!] second triumvirate ... that seemed a little far-fetched.

I stuck with it (raced through it and then went back to re-read parts, in fact) because as I already stated, I am a big fan and addicted to the series. However, if you have never read an Anita Blake novel, I would strongly advise against starting with this one. If the mystery rather than the sexual element of these stories is what you like, I would avoid this book as well ... or at least wait until it comes out in paperback.

The crux of this book seems to be Anita getting more aware of her boundaries - or lack thereof - and of her gaining greater understanding of how she feels about both herself and the many men around her.

Overall, I'd give it somewhere between 3 and 4 stars.

I can never get enough of this series. Hamilton's world filled with a variety of preternatural creatures is mesmerizing. This series is a must read for anyone who enjoys thrilling story-telling with healthy doses of ever constant action-packed scenes and some sexual content (please note that the sexual content in this series increases with every new novel). Enjoy!

This is one sexy book. Frankly, I didn't know WHAT to expect. I'm usually one for some mainstream novel like Angels & Demons or The Bark of the Dogwood, so this was quite a switch for me. Still, for the genre it is, I enjoyed it. Not at all like some novel by Anne Rice, which I was expecting.