The Anita Blake series, which started in 1994, with GUILTY PLEASURES, now has 12 books in the series. GUILTY PLEASURES, LAUGHING CORPSE, CIRCUS OF THE DAMNED, LUNATIC CAFÉ, BLOODY BONES, KILLING DANCE, BURNT OFFERINGS, BLUE MOON, OBSIDIAN BUTTERFLY, NARCISSUS IN CHAINS, CERULEAN SINS, and INCUBUS DREAMS. The next book in the series, as yet unnamed, is due out November 2005.
Both series are well written and captivating. Different and yet similar. Reviewers, including myself, find ourselves comparing Sookie Stackhouse to Anita Blake. Fans of one will probably enjoy the other. The major difference between the two is the level of erotica. Both series started out reading like a romantic mystery, but in the tradition of Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series, the dynamic sexual tension is high between the heroine and two men. In Anita Blake, it was Richard, the alpha werewolf, and Jean Claude, the vampire master of the city. But over the course of the series that has changed as Anita's romantic entanglements have broaden and become way more complicated. Also the level of writing has taken on more and more the nature of erotica. Her latest book, INCUBUS DREAMS, definitely falls in the classification of erotica. Exceptional well written erotica, but erotica never the less. Not that erotica and vampires don't go together, because ever since Bram Stoker wrote DRACULA, vampire stories have always had a strong element of sensuality.
Stookie Stackhouse is lighter, not as graphic, but still the romantic complications keep unfolding. In her latest book, her first true love is now her ex-boyfriend, although we still hope they may get back together. But in addition to Bill, she is now admired and courted by Eric and several shapeshifters.
It is fun to speculate what would happen if we knew for certain that vampires existed. How would our lives change? Would we give them rights, make them citizens, or use them as lab rats to discover the secret of immortality? Would they become the latest minority to be discriminated against? Would they be as glamourous and romantic as we currently think of them? Would people seek to become vampires themselves, embracing immortality, or hunt them down and kill them out of fear? What would the churches have to say? Could you be a good Christian and still be a vampire? Both Laurell K. Hamilton and Charlaine Harris have given a great deal of thought to how the face of America would change if vampires were real.
If you would like to read my reviews of the individual books, check out
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