Okay, I’ve now read seven of the Anita Blake novels back-to-back (yes this is number nine, but I read 1-6, then 9 and still have remaining on the nightstand 10,13. I got confused in the bookstore buying, okay).

This one develops the Edward character much more fully, and very vividly. The dramatic tension is much better now, and and the internal dialogue inside Anita is better.

And the monotonous repetition of description that was really hurting my enjoyment of the first few novels has finally gone by the wayside. Laurell K Hamilton still repeats herself far too often, but reading all these back to back is actually insightful in that I can see her growing in strength as an author from book to book. A bit like a vampire getting older and and stronger. Heh heh.

I know a bit about native religions in mesoamerica, and it’s an interesting thesis that Hamilton puts forward about who the “gods” really were. One that makes me chuckle (in a good way) all the way thru the book, actually. On the otherhand, Hamilton may have done some research into it, but not much more than Professor Dallas, a character in the novels, whose research seems to consist of watching a vegas-style show at a nightclub of an aztec religious ceremony.