Oh Dear -Same Old Same Old

		Affliction (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter) by Laurell K. Hamilton Edition: Hardcover Price: $18.11
What's Left?, July 3, 2013 This review is from: Affliction (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter) (Hardcover) " Some zombies are raised. Others must be put down. Just ask Anita Blake. Before now, she would have considered them merely off-putting, never dangerous. Before now, she had never heard of any of them causing human beings to perish in agony. But that’s all changed. Micah’s estranged father lies dying, rotting away inside from some strange ailment that has his doctors whispering about “zombie disease.” Anita makes her living off of zombies—but these aren’t the kind she knows so well. These creatures hunt in daylight, and are as fast and strong as vampires. If they bite you, you become just like them. And round and round it goes… Where will it stop? Even Anita Blake doesn’t know." Oh Dear More of a rant than a review I'm afraid. Am I the only one who notices that this series is turning into the Merry Gentry series? Perhaps Laurell should have continued with that series if she wanted to write badly written, non-erotic, erotica? Am I the only one that notices that Anita is also turning into a looks obsessed girly girl? What happened to the black jeans and Nikes? Why do we have to know that she is wearing a thigh holster under her short little skirt and pretty colored jacket? Because, let's admit it - It is just so darn easy to kick zombie, shape-shifter and vampire butt when wearing a mini skirt, jacket and high heels now don't we? Why do we put up with these sorts of details? Was it more important to be thinking about hair length than to think about how to tell Micah horrible news about his family? When the heck did Anita get triple-E cup breasts? And, how did she never once fall over from the weight of them on her tiny little slim figure? This book started off with a bang - with a new disease that started out on the East Coast making its way westward and lodging itself firmly in Anita's world. I've read all of the books (both series) and the last few have left such a little impression on me. I used to re-read these books religiously, but for about the last 4 or 5 I just haven't felt the urge. In addition, with that lack of gripping story lines and fascinating character interactions, comes the fact that I just do not care to revisit them as I used to. The story itself finally gets a little interesting once we get to Colorado to Micah's family, although we had to beat the horse dead while explaining (over and over and OVER) the ménage that Anita brought with her. Of course, we find some of the characters to be religious zealots so we shall beat yet another dead horse. Politics seem to dominate the first half of this book - whether it is furry and fangy politics or the politics of Anita taking over an investigation (again what is new?) I think that is my main issue with the last books, is there is truly no new territory to explore. Ms Hamilton simply tells the same story in as many ways as we will put up with. However, my last straw is the blending of Merry and Anita. I loved it when they were two separate and very distinct series. I do NOT like this ambiguous heroine that blends the best (or worst) of two different heroines. The constant harping on Anita's love life, with pages and pages of explanations is getting old too. Ms Hamilton, if she knew what she was writing was good and was what the readers wanted to hear, wouldn't need to keep justifying it. This sort of over-explanation of an out of the norm relationship, would be something I would expect in chick lit or romance - not in a book of this genre. This series has finally turned the final corner into a romance series with mystery, action and horror being in a distant second and third place. Very distant I do not like the new-ish (I know it has really been going on for many books now) Mary Sue character of Anita, one who gets new powers, as she needs them, as if the author cannot come up with anything better. It is as if Ms Hamilton says "Oh I wrote myself into a corner, so let's give Anita new powers with no true explanation or reason other than to get me out of this corner without me using my writing and plotting skills" About the only thing left for Anita to do that I don't think she has been done yet is to `double berth' like Merry did. However, I am afraid that that day is nearer than we think. There are some things that make this a worthy read for the fans of the later books - but for fans from the start, the people who have read and re-read the books from when Anita still wore the Nikes with the "swoosh" I'm afraid you will be disenchanted and disheartened. It really saddens me that Anita's love life makes more of us cringe (and not in a good way) than the blood and guts, the fighting and action and the mystery and suspense used to. And by the way, am I the only one not in a ménage?