Guilty Pleasures – Laurell K. Hamilton

Ace, Copyright 1993, 265 pages

ISBN:  0-441-30483-4

Read February 2013, at age 34

First time read.

This is the first book in the “Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter” series of books.  It’s a long series, and I’ve heard that the early books are better.

From the back cover:

“I don’t date vampires.  I kill them.”

My name is Anita Blake.  Vampires call me The Executioner.  What I call them isn’t repeatable.

Ever since the Supreme Court granted the undead equal rights, most people think vampires are just ordinary folks with fangs.  I know better.  I’ve seen their victims.  I carry the scars…

But now a serial killer is murdering vampires - and the most powerful bloodsucker in town wants me to find the killer…

Hmm.  Too many ellipses.  I guess it's a decent summary, though.

Reactions (and potential spoilers) after the break.

Overall:

The book was entertaining.  It was fast, and it was fun, but it didn’t seem overly well-thought out. 

Comparing it to some similar-styled books I’ve read, Sunshine had a much, much better setting.  Kate Daniels had better snark, and the character was more realistic about being able to tangle with the tough guys.  The setting there was more creative and better-thought-out, too.  This book just felt crude.  Clumsy. 

Rating: 3

Characters:

It’s a first-person story, so we get to hear from Anita Blake, and that’s about it.  She was all right.  I got a bit of a banty-rooster feeling from her – not as tough as she acts.  But she wins anyway, which gets a bit old.  That’s the feeling that I kept coming back to.  The book was almost good, but not quite.

Setting:

Go back before cellphones (which makes things a bit easier for the author) and insert Anne Rice’s vampires (complete with the baby-doll vamp. from Interview with the Vampire), declare them citizens and make them the fastest growing religion in the US, but don’t change much else.  Hint at a whole pantheon of monsters that came with, but don’t worry much about how everything came about.  It just didn’t feel fully thought out.

Premise:

The Executioner gets hired by a vampire to find a vampire slayer.  But then nobody trusts anybody, and things get stupid.  Ok on the surface, but I didn’t buy it, digging deeper.

Readability:

Very readable.  Good pacing.  Effective writing.

Other opinions:

There are a lot of reviews.  I didn't find any that I particularly enjoyed, but they basically fell into two camps:  "This was the best book ever!  The setting was so good!" or "The book was superficial and poorly imagined".  It seems to depend a lot on reading history - the people coming from Twilight and the like thought it was great, while those coming from a little heavier fare weren't quite so impressed.