I love her work. I love these characters, I do recommend reading them in order.

So... when I started reading Anita Blake books, they were great. Crime, with a supernatural angle, and just a dash of naughty sex to spice them up.

Now the naughty sex has increased with every book she's out out since then until they've begun to lose the ability to hold a consistent and believable plot. This is really sad as I know that she has such great ability.

Note - there's nothing wrong with pure erotica, but it isn't what I signed up for.

Sure thing - you'll get a lot of buyers for it... but you're losing the dedicated people that have been with you since the beginning, and that's depressing.

Remember when Anita *KILLED* the monsters rather than slept with them?

In this book, we see some of the last gasps of a formerly great series as it cartwheels down the slopes into utter drek. The kick-tail vampire humter we liked in the earlier books has given way to an uber-powerful "mary sue" that is as irritating as she is unlikable. Add to that sex thrown in for sex's sake and it becomes bird cage liner.

The early books were wonderful. Now we no longer have "Anita Blake - Vampire Hunter", but rather Buffy the Vampire Layer (and weres and everything else.....)

At least the Merry Gentry books have enough good plot to tie the sex scenes together........

I have fallen in love with Laurell and her work. All of her books are entertaining, hard to put down and readable over and over. Thank you for giving us Anita Blake and her world.

This book was what made me stop reading Hamilton's work. It features horribly written sex scenes, characters with stupid names, and a plot so devoid of intellect I can't even remember what the book was supposed to be about.
Anita has decided to let her freak flag fly, and while this could have led to some interesting character development, Hamilton lets it slide in favor of tacky clothing descriptions.
What was once a witty series featuring a character who knew her flaws has de-evolved into another masturbatory ego-stroke for Hamilton.

I officially give up on you Anita Blake. Your books used to thrill me, scare me, keep me up all night in anticipation. Now you just pretty much creep me out and somehow manage to annoy me more and more with each new novel.
I'm 3/4 the way through this massive volume of crap and I just can't keep my eyes propped open long enough to finish. I have never been so severely disappointed in a series (or character) in my life.
For now on I will pretend you died a brave death in Obsidian Butterfly and everything I read after that never, ever happened. It may take therapy and a couple of pomegranate martinis to forget but forget I will. R.I.P.

This book doesn't have a plot. It has lots of boring sex and supernatural stuff, though. That said, there's no need for a synopsis!

There is this, though. Just because no one's mentioned it, Cape Cod is not a city. So Samuel cannot be Master of the City.. of Cape Cod. America's little colonial ancestors sailed there to found a little thing called Plymouth Rock. Which is around Provincetown. Which is technically in (but more like connected to) Mass. She went the length to connect the Master of Cape Cod with a water type.. animal thing (go rediculous stuff) but didn't actually even bother to Wiki Cape Cod? Wow.

This book is the last straw. I'm not buying anymore of LKH's books. The sex scenes were boring, and they only occured after excessivly long angst sessions that totally destroyed any mood set. The climax was wrapped up so quickly at the end, it was as if she just got tired of writing and decided to end the book.

Hmmm...I'm giving this 3 stars because the writing skill used in developing this is good. That being said...I have trouble that it's 500 pages and nothing really happens. What I mean by that is it's a sequence of metaphysical, moral, sexual power struggles/crises for Anita, one after the other in quick succession, that don't really move the overall story arc along. It's ok if you read it over time, ie pick up, put down, pick up, put down, pick-up, etc because then it doesn't hit you as hard that its still the same day when you're halfway through the book.

While this book seems to be setting up future story lines and introduces new characters, you don't get to the final conflict that gave its name to the title until the end. Plus we've seen very little of how Anita is functioning in the world outside of vampire politics. It would be nice to know what's up with Edward's engagement, what Animators Inc. really thinks about all this [especially as she's now in the limelight with Jean Claude], how things are with the police force and Dolph, and in general have a book focusing on a case and not all the politics. Hopefully all this set up will get us to that soon.

I'm an Anita junkie, what can I say. I like anything Anita. This one was really dialogue-heavy and I would have liked there to have been more with this ballet and all the Masters, but I still enjoyed the read. I'll need a 12-step program whevenever Anita decided to retire from her escapades.

I disagree with most of the other comments. While the sex was more in this book than in the others, I can't wait to see where this series is going.

Anita Blake is a whiny brat, but the rest of the characters are awesome. Anita is less whiny in this novel, making it easier for me to read. Story is fantastic, really grabs ahold of you.

In a period of 48 hours, Anita Blake, partakes in a string of multi-partner sex sessions with hand-wringing, gripe sessions spaced just long enough in between for everyone to recover.

I got sooooo tired of the sniveling, crying, whining, tirades of ... well almost everyone in the book. Sex - whine - sex - whine -

This is the first book I have read by this author and I have come to understand that this series has taken a turn for what most fans agree to be the worse.

Anita's bizzare sense of morality was annoying too as she kept 6 or 7 lovers and used them in various combinations, but was bothered by her non-human master's male-male relationships.

I don't usually write negative reviews - as I try to only read books I think I'll like - but in this case, I am afraid the shoe fits.

I read all the novels in the Anita Blake series until this one with increasingly ambivalent reactions. As many other reviewers have noted, the books gradually degenerate from fun action/adventure stories into sex books. OK, perhaps there are readers who want them to be books about sex. Reading the first couple of books in the series I loved the idea of a sort of supernatural detective who solved mysteries set in a very unusual context. I thought the various references to sex in the earlier book to be inept and rather lamentable (it is very hard to write well about sex and Hamilton certainly never manages to write about it at anything above the level one envisages by looking at the cover of one of those romance novels featuring panting maidens in the arms of swarthy rogues on the cover). But despite the growing emphasis on sex and the shrinking percentage of each book dedicated to anything resembling action and adventure I stuck with it.

But this one has killed me off permanently as a reader of Laurell K. Hamilton.

I quit just over a hundred pages into the book. There was nothing but unremitting vampire politics (Hamilton also manages to make vampires tediously boring on top of everything else) and then the always grating sex just went over the top. I realized that after some 125 pages I hadn't enjoyed a single page. I realized that I simply no longer cared what happened to Anita and since I had never cared about any of the other characters, that it was time to quit.

I think the Anita Blake novels are one of the great missed opportunities in genre fiction. I loved the idea of an alternative St. Louis in which all the supernatural creatures you've heard of were real. I wanted that world explored and investigated. Instead, we got sex. Endless sex. And moreover sex that degrades Anita and continually makes her subgated to her urges, unable to do anything about them.

Can Anita Blake the Series be saved? Yes. How? Kill off Jean-Claude and all the vampire. Kill off all the werewolves Anita knows. Definitely, absolutely kill off the were leopards. Put Anita in a dark place where all these horrible characters that have dragged down the stories are gone for good and Anita immerses herself in police work in order to survive.

Or better yet! Why doesn't Ms. Hamilton just start over? Start over and just focus on Anita the necromancer and vampire hunter and aide to the police? That is all that most of us who are now fed up with this series wanted in the first place.

The World of Anita Blake grows more complicated and entertaining. I wouldn't recommend this to a first time reader. Start with "Guilty Pleasures". However, I really did enjoy this book, its another Anita Blake hit.

This book is a series killer!!!

The first several books of the Anita Blake Vampire Hunter series were fun little supernatural mysteries. Really enjoyable little books.

But after a downhill slide in the series, this terrible book has literally no plot, though there were a couple of strands of something that might have become a plot if the author had bothered to develop them.

Mostly very boring and badly written sex scenes, very boring and badly written scenes of vampire politics (all revolving around who could enter into sexual service to Anita Blake next), and endless emo angsting about sex. Yuck.

And the how the heck can sex be so boring????

Surely having a NEW Hamilton paperback selling for a mere $3.52 gave you a clue here. I said everything I needed to say about her in my review of MICAH. Notice on the tags -- "bad porn", "bad erotica", "badly written porn", and "porn". This is what Laurell K. Hamilton novels are about now.

People! Pay attention! The great Anita Blake is dead. Hamilton killed her and is attempting to take her place in some kind of wierd goth fantasy. If you want some good Hamilton reading, start at LUNATIC CAFE and work your way up to OBSIDIAN BUTTERFLY (I really miss Edward) then stop. Just stop.

it was everything i had hoped for in the series of Laurell K. Hamilton Anita Blake Vampire Hunter . I have bought the whole series and I'm enjoying myself. Each character brings their own flavor to the plot but Jean-Claude ,Richard , Micah and Nathaniel are to die for.

Who knew sex and the supernatural could be so boring. I had to give up on it.

I love her first books more then her new ones but its still Anita Blake! So I just got to give it a 4.

The book was ok. It's just a different formula from what i've come to expect in this series. I guess Anita's just evolving with all her powers and all the men in her life. Changes were bound to happen. I'll still read any book Laurell writes that has Anita in it. She's just a good character. Not many liked this book but if you're a true fan of the series, you take the good with the not so good.

I'm not a diehard Hamilton fan, but this series is fun, imaginative and often a roller coaster ride. This book is following the darker, more erotic elements of the newer books in the series, and is particularly different in that there are no corpses, no zombies, no police. Thankfully, no extensive gunwear descriptions. Just Anita, her men and the sticky politics of vampires and the Were folk.

New light is shed on the nature of the ardeur as Anita realizes that she is indeed a succubus. She has to grapple with what her body demands, and with the fact that managing the ardeur is a responsibilty that can cost her the lives of those who are metaphysically linked to her through the two triumverates: She, Richard and Jean-Claude, as well as the new triumverate linking her with wereleopard Nathanial and vampire Damian. The new triumverate demonstrates how powerful a healthy link can be; she, Nathanial and Damian are harmonious and interdependent. It also shows how disasterous a weak union can be when she doesn't feed, Damian, and then Nathanial suffer the consequences of her carelessness.

There also appears to be some blending of personalities, Richard is showing signs of Anita's temper, (scary thing!) submissive Nathanial is becoming more confident and assertive...and dominant. The omega leopard successfully faces down the alpha wolf Richard. Jean-Claude comes to the bittersweet realization that while Anita loves him, his human servant is more in love with, and completed by her housemates Micah and Nathanial. He is growing more sentimental.

Yes, its thin on plot, but high on the soapy drama. Anita's pregnancy scare, Nathanial's face-downs with those who demean him, Richard's elation over the pregnancy, (its gotta be his, right? He's so damn manly...) and his realization that he'll never get the white picket fences with Anita, the attempted high-jacking of the ardeur, and the ballet itself. The high drama ends with some truly high-risk sex and an understanding between Anita and Asher.

I can see why die hard fans are unhappy with the direction of the series, its a far cry from the tight, bleak horror/mystery that it began with. Characters are evolving, plot-lines are being introduced and new characters are emerging. Some are just waiting in the wings for their moment in the spotlight. I look forward to finding out more about London, Wicked and Truth, Claudia, Damian, Jessica Arnett and her unrequited crush on Nathanial.

Anita's changing and evolving as well, she's dropped a lot of her standards, some for the good, some for bad. Frankly, her job as a Marshal and dealing with humans seems to be making her more a monster than rubbing shoulders (and other body parts) with the fangs and the furries.

I can't believe I actually took the time to read this book. Of course, I've read them all up until now and apparently I don't know when to quit. This book had no plot, other than Anita sleeping with or talking about sleeping with anyone that she came in contact with. Bad porn doesn't even begin to describe the sex scenes. What happened to the adventure and the mystery of this series? If something doesn't improve soon, I'm going to start cheering for the enemies.

I have enjoyed the Anita Blake series immensely since I grabbed the first book a couple of years ago. That is till about book 10. Cue the sex fest. I realise the author is trying to make some sort of statement but really its getting out of hand. Its not the sexual orgies that disgust me, its the lack of anything remotely concerning a plot of interest.

I got half-way through this book and realised that only the following had happened:
1. Biggum bad vampires in town screwing with things again, but its all talk and showdowns;
2. Jean Claude is being all mysterious (um, isn't that from the 1st book?)
3. Richard is all pissy and can't handle things (um, isn't that from about the 3rd book?)
4. Sex, sex, and you guessed it, more sex. Lets up the ante and have three guys do Anita at once, oh and finally introduce (the obvious) guy-on-guy action.

I forced myself to continue to about the three quarter mark and then did something I haven't done in years. I STOPPED READING.

There's nothing in this series for me anymore. Its a real shame, the earlier books were engrossing, entertaining, and a very interesting ride, literally grabbing the reader into continuing to come to grips with the necromancy, vampire society, werewolf politics, and all the myraid complications of the vampire marks and triumvirate.

It's like the Matrix series of movies. First one..brilliant. Second one...ok lets see where this is going. Third one....I wished I'd never seen it as its ruined the earlier ones.

I bid a sorrowful fareful to Anita (and her next orgyfest).

LKH you've lost my interest.

I just can't bear to give up on this series or Laurell. But this book literally had no plot...chapters were made up of sex. Heck, I like sex as much as the next person, even graphic and unconventional sex. There is just too much of it in this series now. The sex takes up chapter after chapter. I want to like Nathaniel, Micah, Asher, Jason, but I can't ever seem to because I have no respect for them. Paranormal and fantasy stories are my favorites, but I need some bits of reality to make them hit home with me. And the male characters are just jokes, they in now way feel real to me. They all want Anita, at the risk of excluding other women from even being a possibility. They all (8 or 10, however many there are now)are willing to share with each other. Jason and Nathaniel, in one scene, joke about how close they are that they are willing to share Anita's body. But it doesn't ring true, I mean they were willing to share her with other men they can't even stand. I agree with the poster who said they just sit around an over-analyze everything. Not just that, but its the same topics again and again. Danse Macabre just feels tired, stale.

I did give this two stars though because Laurell's writing (to me) is very beautiful. Asher's feelings of being excluded from the mix, and no ones 'true' love was beautiful. But when it turned into more sex to make him feel better, it was ruined. Anita only wanting to be with him for ten minutes, made all his hurts go away. Again, just rings untrue. Let's get rid of the arduer and find some new plot lines. I would love to get Anita out raising zombies again, even if its not the main plot, but just to remind us readers that she is still Anita Blake,vampire hunter. She needs to stop boofing the vampires long enough to go slay some.

This is a great book. It amazes me how much this charcter can take and keep ticking. This is a must read for those who have read the series. For anyone who hasn't the first couple books of the series are good but slow. Just stick them out it is worth it in the end.

Stop right now, If you have been disapointed with how the series was going, don't even bother. It doesn't get any better. These books where awsome, now they are just Sex stories with thin plot thats only perpose seems to be an excuse to have sex in the book or filler between sex scenes. I wont be reading anymore ofthis series and you can bet I didn't pay to read this one.

I'm standing my ground against the sea of negative reviews. After having read The Harlequin, and watching the ardeur turn gentle, I will miss it and the way it forced Anita out of her stubborn ways. I enjoyed Danse Macabre (a lot) and, as always, was sorry when it came to an end. I was only waiting for the paperback to add it to my collection.

The book is just sex. There was little conflict in the book. I loved her earlier books and I'm saddened that she had to turn the series this way. I always stood by her books before this saying that the sex in the books made it better because she had such issues with sex itself, but it went to far. There has to be a plot for a book to be any good. Still, I didn't hate the book. It was nicely written and it had it's moments. Granted, there weren't many moments, but there were some. I did finish it, and I still continue to read the series because I have hope that it'll get better. It's not aweful. It just wasn't something that I would have bought in hardcover. I could have waited for the paperback to come out on this one.

I didn't immediately get upset with the turn this series had taken in NIC. I actually liked NIC and CS and I even tolerated ID and Micah. But this? Reading this book makes it hard to remember why I even liked this series in the first place. It doesn't even pretend to have a plot it's just sex, rinse, repeat. I can't read this drivel anymore, it's an insult to my intelligence and to who these characters once were. I'm done.

I have been an Anita Blake fan since the first book, buying them as soon as they came out. When they started publishing hard-cover books, I bought the same titles again to add to my permanent library.
BUT in the past few books, I have been repeatedly disappointed with lack of plot. This book was the worse so far. Laurell, honey, jumping from dick to dick is not a plot! (a fantasy of yours perhaps, certainly a porno movie, but not really a STORY.)

Couple of suggestions - cull the men. Kill off a dozen or so, its too cluttered. Less is more.
Next get Anita back to her JOB. Remember that piece of business? Interacting with the police now and then? Making money, fighting the Bad Things (I refrain from adding "not screwing them".) You have backed yourself into a corner where there are no bad things anymore.

I would love to see this series get back to where it was, when I couldn't wait for the next book.
Best wishes LKH, I will keep my fingers crossed.

This, Danse Macabre, is the first book in the series that I have read. I have never previously read any of Laurell K. Hamilton's work, so I came at it with a fresh viewpoint. Some of the reviews I read on the book here at Amazon have truly sickened me because they have gone beyond judging the actual book to trashing the author. If you don't like the book, fine, but trashing the author of the book shows a crass limitation on a truly wonderful concept, that of having class.

That being said, I will say that I thought the book was great. Good enough to go out and buy the first ten of the series, which I haven't read yet. My favorite part of the book was the 'talk' that others seemed to despise. I learned more about the characters themselves, who they were and how they thought, than I would have trying to read between lines. It wasn't an edge of the seat book but it was a relaxing, sinking into a warm bath kind of book. I relaxed and enjoyed myself, learning about other people (characters). Few authors can create characters so complex that you feel you know them and appreciate them. All of the characters need to be in this book for it to work. If there wasn't Richard fighting his inner demons, I'd assume everyone was happy about what they were and weren't. If there wasn't Asher with his scarred face and need for not just love from Jean-Claude but Anita herself, I'd never have discovered Asher was so complex. If there wasn't Jean-Claude's protectiveness toward Anita, I'd never understand how deep his love for her went.

The characters in this book came alive for me and even though it wasn't technically an 'action book', I found that I loved it for what it was. A glimpse into a world I can never share, but read about and fall in love with. Read the book with an open mind if you've never tried her books before, maybe the other readers were disappointed because it wasn't like the author's previous works, but I could name many authors whose older books have changed and grown. I used to love Elizabeth Lowell, now I can't stand to read one of her books. Has my taste changed or has the author? Who knows. Whatever the difference, every book I read I try to approach with an open mind. This is not the book I read two days ago, or a week ago. It is a new book with new motivations, new plot, new everything. It is fresh, not old.

I would recommend this book to anyone. I have been reading for fifteen years, reading every romance novel I could get my hands on and I have to say, Danse Macabre has made it to my Keeper shelf as my new favorite book. I loved it, loved reading it, and I give it five solid stars.

I have to start out with saying what many other reviewers have said. I love the Anita Blake novels. I have devoted a great part of my life into reading and re-reading the series. That being said the latest books have been a disappointment. The sex involved in them doesn't really bother me; it's more the lack of story. Unfortunately I am a bit behind on the series because I have been waiting to buy the latest Anita Blake books until I can get them in paperback...used. That's how valuable these latest books have been to me; that being said there were some positives to this book. I just can't seem to give up the series yet. So I will try to create a quick list of negatives and positives.

Negatives
- What does Anita do for a living? There is no police work and no animating in this book.
- How many more strange relationships can we handle? The number of weird relationships that Anita is involved in is getting so ridiculously complicated that I am going to have to start keeping a character map to keep it all straight.
- Do we care about the sex scenes between her and all the men? Okay the men are tasty sounding and it's nice that they are having fun; but the sex scenes are all the same. If you are going to have that many lengthy sex scenes they should be more imaginative.
- Are we ever going to span more than a few days in these books? The plot (what there is of it) is moving incredibly SSSLLLOOOWWWW.
- Is anyone else sick of Richard? I know I am.

Positives
- I really did enjoy some of the character development for Nathaniel. He has always been one of my favorite characters and I love that he had more of a main role in this book.
- I also enjoyed some of the character development between Anita, Jean-Claude, and Asher. Some of this was really interesting; albeit a bit drawn out.
- I do find Anita's growing powers interesting.
- I liked the inclusion of some additional supernatural races; the mermaids and were-lions.

All that being said. Will I read the next book? Of course I will; I am 14 books into the series it will take more than 3 bad books for me to let go. I have high hopes for Harlequin as I have heard there is *finally* more action in that book.

The Book was intoxicating. I could not put it down. It is one of Laurell K Hamilton's best

I'm a hardcore Anita Blake fan, but this book in the series is just really bad, It will let you down, somethings are answered but it's almost not worth the read. Too much sex and not even intertwined well with the overall of the story, it seems that she uses sex as a way to get passed some overall problem that Anita has at the moment in the story.

Even though I read the hole thing, it was still a disappointment.

I have read the series since the start. I loved the old books, ones where there is a plot, and Anita actually has a life and job. I also preferred the old character of Anita. She was tough, and difficult, whiny and in denial, but she was also fun, and caring, and not so self-centered and self-absorbed. The older books had almost no sex, whereas the recent ones are just badly written mechanical sex.

I was not expecting much from this book since the last one was so bad, and the reviews for DM were terrible. In fact I felt I had finally reached the end of my Anita addiction.

Since they have gone into HC I tend to get the HC, read it, and then get the PB when it comes out (the first 8 were in PB only). For DM I skipped the HC and only got the PB, and then didn't read it for a year. I heard so many bad reviews.

Well I finally read it last weekend, and actually sort of loved it. Its not the Anita of old, and it does have problems but it is so much better than the previous 2-3 books.

I have not really liked them since Blue Moon, and feel LKH did things in that book that replaced the real main characters with POD people. Because of the Podding they stopped talking to her, and she has been doing Anita as 'Merry with a Gun' to fill in. Now it seems that some of the real characters are coming back. Of course they have to carry on with the dreck that has built up since they have been AWOL.

What I liked:

There was less pointless sex overall. The sex scenes that were there, were not so mechanical and soul-less. The whole 'tight, wet, thrusting' theme is just tiring when you read it 20 times a book.

There were fewer new characters added than has been the case in the last books.

Some of the older characters got more stage time, and more development: Asher in particular. JC wasn't filed away from the action when the sun came up. Richard had some development rather than just angry lines. I like Claudia and her development. We also spent some time with Micah (still hate him) and Nathaniel (still hate him, but he is becoming an actual person). We didn't waste a lot of time with Damian (hate him too), the Were Dr. Lillian was there again.

Some of the new/newer characters got development: Remus, Requiem, London, Auggie, Meng Die, Samuel, Sampson, Thea

There was something of a plot, and a continuous thread moving through the book, though it was very light and not something that you can say afterwards that it made a great impression. But it did follow from A to Z while you were reading it.

LKH tried to make a story to cover the developments in the book: why Micah and Nathaniel have become so close to Anita so fast. Why everyone (men) seems drawn to her. Why she gets so many new powers, and why she has so many types of Lycanthropy (with hints of more to come). I actually liked using OB's stuff at the end. None of those development were good things, but now at least there is a part of the story to cover it. And I think this may be the first book in a while that AB hasn't gained a new power.

I actually enjoy a lot of dialog, and characters talking about thoughts and feelings, so I really enjoyed that.

I loved that JC finally got a man, and Anita was there for it, and it turned her on.

I liked the Richard developments and the implication that Joseph and the Lions are the self-destructive and dysfunctional result of trying to live as humans and not Weres (what Richard wants to do). I think it will be used in the future to show Richard the fatal folly of trying to be human. He actually seems to be learning and understanding in small bits.

There was also an attempt at humor, and while it wasn't the same as the old books, it was at least an attempt.

What I didn't like:

The whole start of the book, with Ronnie being trashed and turned into a jealous, shrewish, crazy, slut. It also exposed how hard, cold, nasty and selfish Anita has become. I hate that it now happens to any character who doesn't agree/worship Anita, especially the other women characters.

I can't say how loudly it comes across that LKH hates women and obviously herself in what she writes in the books. The whole concept of Anita as Prince Charming is just sad and sick.

The pregnancy scare was very contrived. LKH used it as a way to say some things, but it was too drawn out and too melodramatic.

The anemic plot. First we had Pregnancy Scare, Shopping for a Pomme de Sangre, then it became lets Test Anita around Masters (some from Belles's line, some not, some who had been with the ardeur, some not), then it was Make a Deal with Auggie, then it was Power Plays with Auggie, then the Ballet, and their Bad Behavior.

But the ballet part didn't start until the end, and it was over very quickly and easily, and it never made any sense as to what they hoped to gain (given the vampires rules about territories and allowable behaviors and all).

The whole thread about Mers got pushed into some future book, the Ballet got almost no stage time.

I didn't like a lot of stage time for Micah, Nathaniel, Damien - just kill them all. I hate the 2nd Tri.

I didn't like so many characters, and too much time for the new/newish ones. I can't keep track of them (who they are, where they came from, what they are, and what their motivations/issues are), and while some got development, I would rather we had older characters.

The ending was a fizzle.

Still with all the problems I read the book in about a day and a half, and it is probably one of the few recent ones (since Blue Moon) that I might actually read again.

Now of course I am wavering about The Harlequin. I really didn't want to buy it in HC, and now I am not sure if I can wait for the PB. I am not happy with the whole Negative Fan rant, as well as the path the series has taken and feel that I don't want to financially support LKH, so I am trying not to buy the HC. But who knows if I can wait.

I don't get why so many people dislike Hamilton's later works in the Blake series. I think they are getting better and better, and are way deeper than the audience realizes. The conflicts Anita faces, her struggles with letting herself love the men in her life, are very moving. I have always described these books to my friends as disgusting, hysterically funny, and highly erotic. It seems that as the stories have become less disgusting and more erotic, the audience has become increasingly critical. I for one think she is moving in a much better direction.

Okay, this book is a little bit of a departure from what most Anita Blake readers are used to, that is to say detective work. It is actually more along the lines of the Meridith Gentry Series.A Lick of Frost (Meredith Gentry, Book 6) But I really liked it and I would love to have more. Please. This leads Anita down a new and in my opionon interesting path. We all knew her life had to change somehow at some time. As far as the sex goes I think that Ms. Hamilton is one of the most imaginative and interesting writers of this genre. I have seen that a lot of readers are not liking it and are looking for more plot to which I say-read another book. I enjoy it, it is original and just right by me.

The early Anita Blake novels were much more entertaining. She had a life, there was an interesting plot.

But the last few books are downright boring. I like a few sex scenes all right, but this book seems to be nothing but, and I get SO TIRED of reading about "the ardeur". You need a scorecard to keep track of her lovers and I get confused about all "the feeding" and why and how and off whom.

Bring back the necromancy practice and limit the constant jumping into bed. I don't think I can stand to read anymore otherwise.

I am as much of an Anita Blake fan as the rest of the readers here and I do see how the bashing can occur. It's obvious Laurell's style has changed but it is up to us to say if we will take it or not. So in other words if your that diappointed then why did you buy it in the first place. It's really no different then the last three books have been.

As for the book itself I wish it had more actual storyline. If the sex was cut out the book would be 20 pages long and that saddens me more then anything. I want to know the characters again we are loosing all their personality by being trapped under the weight of a rather repetive sex scene. This isn't a step up from porn. At least it shouldn't be.

But as for me I will continue to buy her books from all her book series because I like her and I fell in the love with the characters at the beginning I continue to re-read her work for that very reason.

I really haven't enjoyed a LKH book since Obsidian Butterfly and all the books before that title.

If I wanted to read porn, I'd just buy Penthouse. About 3 pages worth of plot and the rest I skipped. Too bad LKH, your vanity has really messed up a great series that was full of fun, good plots and interesting char. and it looks like lots of people agree with me, so I'm guessing that your sales are going to begin going down as people realize that like a tiger, you are not going to change your stripes. When you tell your readers to like it or don't buy it - well with an attitude like that I wouldn't.

While not my favorite book of the series, I still consider Danse Macabre to be a decent read. Yes, there were numerous sex scenes and I'd say a few disturbed me (with vamps Auggie and Byron for instance..I skipped those parts), but overall I still enjoyed this book. I love reading about Anita and her gang of vamps and shifters. The politics and intrigues and her evolving powers, her internal struggles with trying to overcome her new powers as an incubus and a master of her own triumverate.

I look forward to the next installment of Anita's adventures!

I deliberately skipped over every porn sequence so I could get more into the story line. I read fast, but it took me less than 8 total hours to get through the entire book. That means approximately one-third of the written work is pure porn.

Another third of it seems to be a pity party every chapter for a different character who feels cheated of love and starved for attention. I can understand there's a complex weaving of character interactions that will cause problems for characters, but it all reads like romance novel drivel between characters, not story-rich relationships.

The final third of this book BARELY covers the story line about many Masters of the Cities and a vampire dance troupe that opened up a number of mysteries that were completely glossed over and never followed up, not even in the slightest.

I've really enjoyed the series up until the last couple of books, and I keep reading them hoping the author will pull herself out of the muck. But if I have to read even ONE more passage in the next book that describes how 'big' Micah is, how lonely Asher is, how misunderstood Jean-Claude is or how much everyone else wants to have sex with Anita Blake, I'm giving up on the the author altogether. She's proven better than this, much better, and I won't embarrass her any further with reviews of the damage she's doing to her reputation and her skill.

Ms. Hamilton, take a hint. Whoever has you contracted for writing porn isn't worth keeping the contract with. If you're doing this on your own, think about what this kind of damage will do to any future projects. And if you're getting angry with your fans for reviews like this one, you might want to emulate your own character Anita - put a cork in the anger, listen carefully to what we're trying to tell you and understand WHY we're telling you this.

Laurell K. Hamilton is a wonderful writer. She knows how to tell a story and has created worlds that are worthy of praise and reader immersion. Her Anita Blake series is truly no exception to this truth.

The trouble with the series is that, put simply, Hamilton has hit a brick wall. She has written Anita into a corner that she can't be lured out of... yet.

Danse Macabre is by far the least enjoyable in the series. Where once her novels were full of mystery and plots based around pseudo-realistic crimes, the series' heart has fallen into an oblivion. The paranormal and suspenseful plots have been lost in a sea of poorly sculpted erotica. One might even hesitate to call it erotic, leaning more towards tasteless pornography. It isn't that Hamilton does not try, she has written pleasant, sensual interludes in previous parts of the series. But the past four installments have been a deeply inclined slope.

[..]

It has never been the way she writes, aside from her clinical way of describing sexual situations, that hurts the series. It is the lack of non-sex-related plot. I miss the mystery, I miss characters who were more than sexual partners and "food" for Anita. I know I am not alone in this from what I read and have been told by other dissapointed fans.

I think one of the strong points of the series is that there was always something about Anita we modern women can relate to and empathize with. What has hurt it is that suddenly we find this woman with, almost literally, a harem of shapeshifting and vampiric men who all (with few expections) find her attractive. With a personality like Anita I dare say it is unrealistic that so many gorgeous men with oversized genitals would submit, tolerate and worship a woman like her. Don't we all wish? LOL Sure the series is fantasy but there comes a point where the fantasy becomes too unreal to be taken seriously.

Specifically, this installment was nauseating. I did not actually sit down and count the number of straight chapters that all took place in Jean-Claude's bedroom but I was tempted. Nor did I count the number of new male characters introduced who were given cursory physical and personality descriptions... who were only in it to have sex with Anita. It was frustrating enough to make a grown woman cry.

If you're going to read this book pick it up from a garage sale, thrift shop or borrow it from a friend or library. If I could get my money back for this book I would. If you're another dissapointed fan looking for something to enjoy instead I suggest visiting your local comic shop and picking up Marvel/Dabel Brothers Guilty Pleasures series a comic book adaptation of the first Anita Blake novel, they are delicious!

And still I hold out hope that five years from now someone will mention the latest in the series and how great it is. I know Hamilton has it in her to be great and to lure her fans into a vibrant world of paranormal adventure. We just need her to get back on track. Send Anita to a monestary! Cure her ardeur problem, kill off the two dozen worthless men she has to have unsexy sex with constantly, cut her down to less than five boyfriends (honestly who needs that many men to deal with!?!) and give her a crime to solve! Bring back Anita the bad-arse vampire Executioner, zombie-animating vixen and penguin lover supreme! And Edward!

Laurell, if you yourself happen to see this review please know that while you have dissapointed some fans the past few books some of us hold out hope you'll find your way back to great plots and better reviews! We still love your world... we just miss the old Anita.

these books are getting racier and racier. I am not easily shocked but even I had to put the book down from embarassment at times. Great author- can still shock you while reading the 14th installment of a series!

After Micah, I had hoped Ms Hamilton, was finished with her foray into erotica and was going back to wha the stories that made her worth reading.

Instead she's left erotica and degenerated into writing stage directions for porn flicks. And bad ones at that.

A previous reviewer suggest she take 5 years off from writing about Anita. Personaly I will take 5 years off from reading anything my Ms. Hamiliton

Very disappointed in this one. Weak story line outside of her relationship issues. Graphic sex and relationship issues seemed to account for about 80% of the book - not the reasons I read the other 13 books.

I really enjoyed the first few Anita Blake books. Danse Macabre is nothing like them. It seems to be just about sex, as far as I have read. I am not even sure that I will finish the book. The book does not have the excitement of the Anita Blake books that I have read in the past.

The only reason I continue to check out the books from the library is to see if each successive book manages to be worse than the one before.

Yes: Danse Macabre is the worst one yet.

As an once avid Anita Blake fan, having read every book in the series as well as gifting them to friends and family members, I'm forever hopeful Laurel K Hamilton goes back to writing great stories with wonderful characters and originality. The revolving door of very boring, somewhat mechanical and repetitive sex scenes -- Jacqueline Carey does erotic so much better and with way more originality -- and monologues where Anita over explains or rationalizes the same thing over and over and over again (snooze) definitely has killed my love of the series. Fortunately I have found other books that are more of the calibre of her early Anita Blake books. I am hoping Laurel gets over the 'in your face' rote sex and the filler monologues, so I can again be first in line at the bookstore to get a copy -- rather than MAYBE checking it out at the library.

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Kushiel's Dart '+4 more' by Jacqueline Carey