14 Writers Dissect the Anita Blake Series

Laurell K. Hamilton created such an incredibly fascinating and complex world in her Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series that 14 authors delved into the Anitaverse and dissected every piece of it. The result is the book titled Ardeur.

“Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series is a literary sensation, thanks to its strong female hero, well-fleshed (both literally and literarily) characters and unabashed attitude toward sex. The world Hamilton has created is powerfully compelling and stunningly complex--and it gets deeper and richer, and more perilous, with every book.

Straddling the series' dominant themes of sex and power, Ardeur gives Anita fans a deeper look into the dynamics, both personal political, that have kept readers fascinated throughout the run of the series. Why is the ardeur the very best thing that could have happened to Anita, personally (aside from all the sex it requires her to have with hot men)? How is Anita's alternate United States a logical legal extension of our own? And as the series continues, what other bargains might Anita have to make with herself and others in order to keep the people she loves safe from harm?”

This new book definitely caused me to raise an eyebrow, and while I am curious to give it a look, I won’t. Personally, I don’t have any desire to read other people's interpretations of one of my favorite series. I feel that every reader takes something different from a novel, not everyone sees and feels the same way about a book. So, taking the Anita Blake series apart and examining it piece by piece seems a bit ridiculous to me, and considering that Laurell K. Hamilton herself wrote in her blog that some of the writer’s essays were incorrect, makes me want to read it even less.

Obviously I won’t be reading Ardeur, instead I’ll continue to curl up in my bed reading the Anita series and enjoying it in my own way.

- Moonlight