The Killing Dance (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, Book 6)
by Laurell K. Hamilton
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Book Summary Information
Author: Laurell K. HamiltonEdition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2002-09-24
ISBN: 0515134511
Number of pages: 400
Publisher: Jove
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780515134513
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Book Reviews of The Killing Dance (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, Book 6)
Book Review: Hamilton reaches the pivotal novel in the Anita Blake series
Summary: 5 Stars
When Edward her bounty hunter friend calls up Anita Blake at the start of "The Killing Dance" you know it is not going to be good news and it is not. Someone has offered him big bucks to kill her and he has refused the job, not so much out of friendship as from the fact that he can kill more people guarding her than just bumping her off. Of course, the first assassination attempt takes place before Edward makes it to town and when he does the news is even worse. The offer is now up to $500,000 provided Anita is dead within twenty-four hours. But if there is one thing we know about the woman they call the Executioner by this fifth novel in the Anita Blake series it is that Laurell K. Hamilton's heroine worries about everybody else before she takes time to think about herself and that fact that people she does not know are trying to kill her for reasons she does not understand. Certainly her friends are having problems that are even more complicated than normal.
Anita's love life is finding new levels above boiling and the price on her head is not helping things. While she has chosen to date Richard Zeeman the werewolf, Jean-Claude the master vampire of St. Louis is still the most beautiful corpse she has ever seen. But Richard is being challenged by Marcus, another alpha male in the pack, for the position of Ulfric and he refuses to deal with the challenge out of a position of strength (i.e., with quick and decisive violence), despite Anita's desperate council, which means this is going to be another bad ending for everybody concerned, especially since Marcus does not harbor any such moral illusions. Further complicating the issue is Rania, the sadistic lupa of Marcus, who makes S&M porn movies of shapeshifters with humans. Jean-Claude has his own problems, with the arrival in town of the ancient vampire Sabin, who wants Anita to cure him of the illness that is killing him. Sabine's human servant, Dominic Dumare, is a necromancer so Anita has more enemies to contend with this time around than any of the previous efforts.
From the vantage point of today looking back at this 1997 novel it is clear that this is the pivotal novel in the Anita Blake series. The one constant up to this point had been Anita's refusal to get off the fence and choose between Richard and Jean-Claude and for readers who were waiting for her to choose you could say that this decision has been made for her. But not only does she finally take one of them to bed, she finds a reason for not doing the same with the other. Either one of these would constitute a major development so having both of them in "The Killing Dance" is incredibly significance for all of the characters. Everything changes after this point, and very little of it in a good way.
But "The Killing Dance" also represents a significant change in Hamilton as a writer in that this is the point at which the sexuality in her stories becomes explicit. For many fans this is the point where they lament that the Anita Blake series "jumps the shark," and front this point on the balance between horror and sex really moves from the former to the latter. You are going to have to make up your mind on this score on your own. But reading this novel again I will argue that the big sex scene is far and away the best one Hamilton has written to date. What makes it so hot is not the explicit detail but rather than as far as sex scenes go this one was a long time coming, which underscores the problem Hamilton faces since you only have the first time once. Consequently it is all downhill from here.
However, even if you disagree with the direction in which Hamilton takes Anita Blake in the next half of the series, you should at least make it to this sixth novel, which still has enough horror to make sleeping difficult afterwards. Of course, since Edward extracts a promise from Anita to come help him in the future to repay his help during this crisis, you are at least going to have to keep reading until that debt is paid. That will be a while, so you might as well settle in for the long haul.
Summary of The Killing Dance (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, Book 6)
The Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter backlist-now dangerously beautiful.
In her sixth adventure, Anita becomes a wanted woman-by a vampire, a werewolf, and a creature far more terrifying: a man who puts a price on her head.
In her sixth adventure, Anita becomes a wanted woman-by a vampire, a werewolf, and a creature far more terrifying: a man who puts a price on her head.
Anita Blake, vampire hunter, is now herself a hunted woman. Who put the $500,000 price on her head--a man or a monster? It's not just her own skin she needs to save; the rivalry between her werewolf boyfriend, Richard, and Marcus, the other alpha werewolf in his pack, has come to full boil. And there's always Jean-Claude, the vampire who's been waiting for just the right moment to slip inside Anita's head and heart. Don't assume anything, though--Hamilton's probably got a few more surprises in store.
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