Obsidian Butterfly by Laurell K. Hamilton
Paperback, 608 Pages
2002, Jove
ISBN: 0515134503
Series: Book 9 of Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter
Synopsis
There are a lot of monsters in Anita Blake's life. And some of them are human. One such individual is the man she calls Edward, a bounty hunter who specializes in the preternatural. He calls her to help him hunt down the greatest evil she has ever encountered. Something that kills and maims and vanishes into the night. Something Anita will have to face alone...
Review
Obsidian Butterfly is different from the other Anita Blake novels. Anita goes out of town without any of the characters from St. Louis. She travels to Santa Fe, Edward's home base, to help him and the local police figure out what's skinning humans and managing to keep them alive. The mystery is a good one, but it takes a while to get to any real action as the first half of the book is mostly talk about Edward's alter ego "Ted."
I like Edward, but perhaps there was just a bit too much focus on him in Obsidian Butterfly. Edward and Anita have always had a precarious friendship that could turn deadly at any moment. We've come to expect them to try to prove who's better at some point in every book they're in together. Unfortunately, it happens repeatedly in Obsidian Butterfly, getting old very quickly.
Equally tiring is Anita's hypocrisy when it comes to Edward's involvement with a widow and her two children. It's one thing to be a little judgmental, but Anita threatens to kill him over it. Any growth Anita had seen in the previous novels seem to fly right out the window in Obsidian Butterfly.
Obsidian Butterfly is laced with Aztec names, history, magic, and rituals. Some of the Aztec information was entertaining. Some was hard to understand. The Master of the City of Santa Fe, Itzpapalotl, believes herself to be an actual Aztec goddess - walking the very fine line between powerful and delusional.
Obsidian Butterfly is one of my least favorite Anita Blake novels, but it does have a few highlights. The gore factor in the book is high. A few highly traumatizing moments will leave you speechless, if you can even handle the abuse and mutilation of babies and children at all. Obsidian Butterfly isn't the best Anita Blake novel, but leads Anita to where she needs to be in the future.
Rating
Links
No comments :
Post a Comment