Mishalak Reviews: Incubus Dreams

[mishalak]

Okay the last time I read a Laurell K. Hamilton novel I swore I wouldn't read another. But I heard from a friend it was better than the last couple and so here I am half way into Incubus Dreams which should be subtitled "Anita Blake does St. Louis". It works as unintentional comedy. If you're into polyamorous porn with supernatural elements as the excuse for the polyandry it will also work for you on that level, but there is no longer almost any hint whatsoever of the supernatural CSI the series seemed to be when it started out. Which is disappointing to me since that's what I want unless there's going to be more guys doing it in the book.

Now this may sound like damming with faint praise, but that's as good as it gets and this book deserves whatever gets heaped upon it. There are endless info dumps while Anita Blake is conflicted for page after page about having sex or whatever yet again. And I use info dump in the most pejorative sense of dead prose of the sort that a 4th grader uses to write about his summer vacation rather than in interesting (but endless) descriptions of a place, technology, or whatever. If it was just the boring pistons happening sex scenes (with excuses for it that would not be out of place in the silliest hentai) I could deal with that and just skip to the next bit. But it now seems that her novels have abandoned any pretense of having any plot or story to hold them together.

I also felt, once again, like when Hamilton sits down to write a new novel she asks, "What new power can we give to Anita Blake so she can take down yet another supernatural baddie?" She's like a power gamer without the restraint of having rules for her alter ego. Along with the 658 page length I'm calling this one of the worst novels allegedly by a professional yet published.

Yes it was so bad that I couldn't stand not being able to shout from my internet rooftop about how very bad it is.

What: Incubus Dreams by Laurell K. Hamilton
US$23.95 from Berkley Publishing Group
Who's it for: People into polyandrous erotica with supernatural creatures. Teenage boys.
Who won't like it: Everyone else. Good for freaking out parents.
Personally: Thumbs way down.

Comments

[scottscidmore.livejournal.com]

Well, at least your review is entertaining. ANy chance that "Laurell K. Hamilton" is actually an actress fronting for a group of teenage boys who write the stuff?

[mishalak.livejournal.com]

That would be far more amusing than the truth. Which I think is that Laurell K. Hamilton is into polyandry and is writing out all her wildest fantasies using Anita Blake as her Mary Sue. Anita Blake needs to be rescued from her!

[scottscidmore.livejournal.com]

I would say "Time to call out the Mary Sue Rescue Brigade to save her", but that brings forth images of a brigade of Mary Sue types ...

[threeringedmoon.livejournal.com]

As long as I can get them from the library, I will probably continually to check them out. I skimmed through the last one, looking for a plot.

[mishalak.livejournal.com]

I think there was some plot in the last 100 pages. Not much, but some.

[elisem.livejournal.com]

If you've ever played with a Viewmaster, you probably know how sometimes a reel does not travel all the way when you click the view changer, but gets stuck between frames. You look through, and all you see is white paper, because the slide pictures are not opposite the holes.

I think the biggest problem with this book is that the story is not opposite the holes. (If there is a story, that is. All I saw was white paper. And various acrobatics and angst, of course.)

[mishalak.livejournal.com]

Wow. What a perfect metaphor that almost no one younger that me is going to get. I loved viewmaster as a kid!

I think there was a story hiding in there somewhere. Buried under 40 chapters of sex and angst about sex. Rather than reading I think I'll spend tonight working on the sort of story I would want to read, two parts alternate earth, two parts supernatural CSI, one part cool fights, and one part impossible love.