Incubus Dreams by Laurell K. Hamilton...

…is a steaming pile of crap. So far, anyway, and I’ve read 200 pages. It’s a monster too – over 600 pages and it’s looking like it’s going to be 600 pages of suck.

I really loved this series – right up through Obsidian Butterfly. The last two books had problems – serious problems – but were still more fun than not. But this! In the 200 pages I’ve read so far, there has been one – one! – short passage about the murders the damned book is supposed to be about and one – one! – new development that I will spoiler box Anita forms a second Triumvirate with Nathaniel and Damian, intersecting her original Triumvirate with Jean Claude and Richard. and that I saw coming in the last book anyway. The whole rest has been tedious, tiresome, damn-near-unreadable drone about Anita’s messy personal life intercut with tedious, tiresome, damn-near-unreadable kinky sex.

I’ve still got 400+ pages to slog through – maybe it’ll pick up. Maybe that’s why this one is so much longer – maybe Hamilton decided to cram all the personal angst and kinky sex she’s been poisoning the series with into one self-indulgent mass at the beginning of this book and then get back to business as was usual in the first 9 books. Hey, I’m an optimist.

I’m just glad I didn’t pay full price – I got a 30% store discount, plus 10% with my Barnes and Noble discount card, plus an extra 15% off with a coupon). So I paid around 13 bucks plus tax for the ‘privilege’ of gazing into Ms. Hamilton’s navel.

I am far from being a prude but I have found myself skipping through the sex scenes to get back to the plot in the last few books. The sex scenes are too often and too repetative. I got drawn into the series because of the characters and the plot. I wish she would get back to that. Leave some of the sex in but if I want porn thats what I’ll go get.

I have this on hold at the library - I’m sad to see that it sounds like more of the same as Narcissus in Chains.

For me, she lost it with NiC - Obsidian Butterfly was not a favorite, but it was interesting. NiC was full-scale sex with a hint of plot. Sad to see.

Susan

You know, I really liked her original premise: supernatural PI/exorcist. But the books rapidly truned into nothing but monster orgies and S&M and got really boring. I haven’t read a book by her since Obsidian Butterfly and, from the reviews at Amazon, I don’t thin I’ve missed much.

I find I can’t help reading these… but I don’t buy them, I’m waiting for Incubus at the library instead.

The early ones were really good, but I really think Laurell needs to start getting sex again and get the books on track instead of living her fantasies through Anita. (That’s what I consider fantasy writing anyway, but this is getting a little much!)