The "think positive!" challenge

[pith]

Let's consider the "counteract fangirlism" challenge on hold. If you come up with a lovely scathing post, by all means, don't deprive us of it. But for now, a change of pace.

What do/did you like about the books? Be as positive as possible in your response. I'm saying you have to gush and say "OMG Laurell is so kewl!!!!11!". But by the same token, don't constantly draw the negativity/errors into your post either. For example, if your thought is something like "I really liked how she managed the sexual tension between Anita and JC", don't end the sentence with "until she turned Anita into Super Whore 3000." It kinda kills the point of the exercise, which is prove that there are/were things we still like. After all, if we flat-out hated LKH's work, would we waste our time on it in an LJ community? (Rhetorical question, that.)



It's been a while since I've read any LKH, so my answers will be vague.

I appreciate that she had a reason for why there weren't a lot of black vampires. Off the top of my head, I can't remember what it was; something to do with their blood and resistance to certain diseases or something. Whatever the explanation was, it wasn't one I particularly found creative, but I appreciated that she took the time to give an explanation. To me, it's those little details that round out a world.

On a somewhat related note, the attempts to bring in vampires of/from other cultures is good too. Yes, some are very stereotypical, but at least she made the effort, which most authors don't. Most authors are all too content to either have an all-white cast or have "token" ethnic people. At least LKH built up some backstory around hers.

I appreciate that she made Sylvie the second-in-command of the Pack, at least temporarily. (Can't recall what her status is now, and I haven't read Incubus Dreams either.) Yes, I know it was convenient for Richard for many reasons to have Sylvie there, the least of which being the fact that she's a lesbian. But without getting all feminazi, it's nice to see a woman in a place of physical and political power, even if it's not necessarily for the "right reasons".

And... let's see... I'll go for four happies. This is more of a scene than anything. It was earlyish in the series, but I can't remember which book. Jason was talking with Anita in the Circus and she made some comment to the effect of "What are you doing here? You went to college". To which he more or less replied "So did you, and here you are." Basically saying that education and status aren't everything. As a single, unemployed "professional student" who lives in her parents' basement, I appreciate the sentiment.

Comments

[oohasparklie.livejournal.com]

I loved her description of Nathaniel. I fell in love with him from the second he appeared. I also love that he was such a submissive, yet when Anita finally had sex with him, he was SO agressive. That was hot.

I never found were-anythings sexy until the Anita Blake books. I was always all about the vampires. Not anymore!

[http://users.livejournal.com/_shadowstalker_/]

I loved the one scene where she's on a date with Jean-Claude and he keeps encouraging her to eat just so he can taste it all. To me, the entire conversation just sung. It's things like that that make me keep reading. Reading, and hoping.

[sister-ananke.livejournal.com]

My all time favourite scene is in the early books where the zombies come after Blake in her bedroom, in her house, while she's asleep. The whole scene is rife with the anger and violation and then the end where Blake cries because there are bits of zombie all over her penguins and can't admit she is crying. I love the whole scene.

[d3athw1sh.livejournal.com]

I started reading the series for the vampires. The defiancy that they held was wonderful.

My favorite scene has to be in Obsidian Butterfly, when Edward is picking Anita up from the airport and we see how easily he changes his personality to suite a situation. Though, if I had to choose a scene that actually involves Anita, I'd have to say that I love the scene from Bloody Bones where Anita is talking to Jean-Claude while he is taking a bath and they are discussing the scars on his back.

[gweneth-syeira.livejournal.com]

I started reading Anita Blake my Freshmen year of HS as a Christmas pressie from one of my friends. I was still vaugely into BtVS alot and she thought I'd like a book related to that. And when I started to read it, I thought it was awesome that they took a FEMALE detective sort-type of thing and put her in a world where vampires aren't all big a hush-hush. It kinda seemed like those types of 80s/90s novels or even some movies, but it was usually a guy in Anita's position and the girl being seduced by the vamp.

I really thought it amusing how she always used to deny JC and I was always--in my readings--yelling at her to stop being so stupid and just get with him. i.e., the roses, always throwing them away or writing some amusing msg back on the card.

[sugarmaplelife.livejournal.com]

I loved her scars. The signs that she wasn't infallible--just lucky and hard-headed and difficult to kill.

I loved her protective nature, how despite being a hardass, she was willing to go out on a limb to protect the people she could. She usually showed up a bit too late, but she time and again risked her life to help others--which showed that underneath the tough exterior, she was a softie.

[dwg.livejournal.com]

Jean-Claude. I have an absolute weakness for undead bastardly types. I had such a crush on Lestat before the movies came out (though, I won't knock Stuart Townsend for the eyecandy. Bless his little hipbones, he can't really act, but he sure is pretty), I loved Zillah in Lost Souls, and Damon from the LJS Vampire Diaries books. And then there was Evil-Leather-Pants Angel and Just Plain Evil Spike in BtVs. Undead + bastard (Evil is optional) = le swoon to me. So, Jean-Claude with his le Francais pretty talk and Machiavellian machinations, I just have to love the guy. I like how he keeps at the heroine and switches tactics when she shoots him down. I like how he does something unexpected every now and then to surprise Anita and she winds up thinking more of him because of it.

I really liked that scene in Bloody Bones where he was in the tub and explaining how he was a whipping boy.

I love Edward for just being a sociopath that thought killing people was "too easy" so that's why he switched to preternatural creatures. I like that he's called Death, and that he can bring a flame-thrower to a party. I love a character that will have the resolve to torture one of his so-called friends. Really, that earns major brownie points in my book. I mean, anyone can torture a stranger. It takes some real guts to sit down and pull the fingernails off of someone you know and like. I like the fact that he's honest enough for his motives when teaming up with Anita. Something like, "I figure, I get to kill more people if I help you."

Screw money, this is a guy that genuinely likes his job.

I love the villains. They try to have motives other than, "WHEE! LOOK AT ME! I'M SO DAMNED EVIL! What? Hero? Okay - minions, go kill it." My favourite was Seraphina - simply because she made Anita actually want to turn to the Dark Side. I love a reasonably sympathetic villian, someone that can be so reasonable that the hero won't see the situation as mere black and white, something that will muddy their ethics and screw with their head. I love Seraphina for that.

I am a chamption of the Corruptors. Ever since they turned up, they're just plain awesome in my book. They're those vampires that can rot and reform, the ones that terrorised Jason. I just love the idea of something that could decay on will and turn what could be a standard sadistic batard into a disgustingly aweful and truly terrifying sadistic bastard. On the RPG scene, I'm usually the first one to volunteer bad guys of this kind, and if there's a chance, I'll even write for Morte d'Amour - the soudre de sang of the Corruptors. He's a footnote in the books, so I can pretty much play with him whatever way I like, and I like to think that I've come up with something genuinely creepy and evil.

I also support the Corruptors because they're very anti-All Things Belle Morte. Because it's just not enough to fuck with the heroes because they're the heroes. You have to fuck with them in every way possible.

Man, I'm such a fangirl at heart.

[pith]

OMGdamonlove!

Ahem. Sorry about that. *g* My fangirl roots are showing.

So I'm not being completely superfluous... yes, I'm down with this JC.

[dwg.livejournal.com]

OMGIKNOW! I love that part in...I think it's book 2 where Elena's all "HA!" because he can't get into her room, but then he shrugs and goes, "Fine, I keel your family!" and terrorises her into his arms. *wibbles*

[pith]

I know *g* It's so Darth Vader: "Ah yes. Sister. You have a sister. If you won't turn to the Vamp Side, then perhaps she will."

(So... offtopic... what's your view on Damon/Bonnie?)

[dwg.livejournal.com]

Wasn't the fondest of Bonnie in the end, but I can see him being terribly amused by her earlier romantic view on vampires etc. and totally taking advantage of that.

[holyschist.livejournal.com]

I loved the humor in the first several books (about up to the one before Obsidian Butterfly). Humor is about the only thing that can get me to read bloody horror.

I also love Asher's character prior to Narcissus in Chains. And the Asher/JC/Julianna menage à trois.

(I hope that wasn't too much qualification.)

[tooimpurenangel.livejournal.com]

ummmm...a vampire killer badass who collects stuffed penguins. that's what hooked me.
Anita and Bert's sometimes adverserial relationship.
The way LKH mixes up various mythologies....

[mneiai.livejournal.com]

Newbie-lurker here and this one caught my attention....

I can still remember the first day I noticed the books in my fav. bookstore's sci-fi/fantasy/anything goes in the 90's section. And...well...I loved them, Anita was a strong character, I thought it was an interesting spin on the vampire/werewolf/etc mythos (for the time, obviously), and, yeah, I was a huge Edward fan. Absolutely obsessed.

Plus, I loved how Anita just _interacted_ with the characters. She wasn't swooning into JC's arms (no matter how much some of us may have wanted that) and she was doubly interesting, I thought, because she was pretty much working two very interesting jobs.

Plus, Laurell was a nice person. I met her in person once, talked to her, even got introduced to her daughter. The fandom was...amazing, right up until around the time OB was released, I'd say. Everyone was personable and interesting and there wasn't really any HUGE flame wars.

I still look back on those days with nostalgia o.o

[harpergrey.livejournal.com]

Aside from enthusiastically bouncing up and down in agreement with dwg on the subject of the Corrupters... *g*

I have to say that Edward was always one of my favourite characters in the series -- and probably in the running for one of my favourite characters of all time. It gives me a happy that in a world with all kinds of bad-ass supernatural critters, it's a normal human who's earned the nickname "Death." *big thumbs up*

[klmorgan.livejournal.com]

*running*

AMILATETOTHEPARTYOHCRAP!

*pant pant*

Fuck it.

I remember the first book I picked up was Lunatic Cafe, and there was so much about it that hooked me. The interesting love triangle -- remember why you understood Anita's choices? ... a little, at least? -- and the scene in the cafe where these genteel bussiness people become scary monsters at the drop of a hat. The utter nonchalance, back when Anita took everything in stride and did a beautiful job of coping as a human in an inhuman world. And the rising conflict of interest between how she cared for her human friends, and her attempts to keep them out of the nightmare she lived, as opposed to how she cared for her non-human friends and her attempts to keep herself out of their world.

In other words: Hamilton used to do internal conflict really, really well, and she used to know how to mix surreal terror with everyday settings, all the while with an eye on defining what may or may not count as "(in)human behavior."

And it breaks my heart that now she gives us tepid, overwrought porn.

[pyrephox.livejournal.com]

I liked the world-building. The idea that, in the first books, she actually stopped to /consider/ how the modern world would be affected if these things existed, and we gave some of them rights. The Church of Eternal Life just rang true for me in the beginning. It /worked/. Animators-for-hire raising zombies to get confirmations on wills /worked/. It was brilliant.

I liked the struggle that Anita felt, between knowing that the only way she could compete against creatures vastly more powerful than herself was by giving up her morality in favor of cold practicality, but still trying to do the Right Thing, and lose as little of herself in the process.

[safrialailo.livejournal.com]

Edward. I loved his initial description. I Loved how being his friend didn't make you any safer from him. I loved that one of the protagonists was that scary. I loved his creepy obsession with "whose better" and yet how he could be so very helpful, I loved that whilst she was called "The executioner" but he was "Death."


I loved that there was a vampire strip club and the whole concept of vampires as legal citizens and lycanthropy as a disease.

I loved Lunatic café from start to finish just because I ADORE werewolves and Laurrell's were so damn interesting.