Incubus Dreams (Anita Blake Vampire Hunter)

by Laurell K. Hamilton

Hardcover, 2004

Status

Available

Call number

813.54

Collection

Publication

Berkley Hardcover (2004), Edition: First Edition, Hardcover, 658 pages

Description

Vampire hunter Anita Blake finds her life is more complicated than ever, caught as she is between her obligations to the living-and the undead.

User reviews

LibraryThing member noneofthis
I am very unhappy with LibraryThing's policy of one-half star being the lowest possible rating. I want to list negative stars for this book.

This book is also notable for having sex scenes spanning multiple chapters. I think I counted to four chapters before the scene ended? And I can guarantee you
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that I am never, ever going back to this book to confirm that count.
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LibraryThing member Flamika
I liked this book marginally better than the last one. (Part of that may be because I didn't spend money on this book; it was a gift from a friend.) The high points were Anita's philosophical and nice little musings on the men in her life, one conversation about Zane (beloved character of mine),
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and that was just about it. I really do find Anita annoying, and I didn't realize why until I read a review from a reader on Amazon, who said that Anita is selfish in her relationships and unfair at times. There is also a profuse amount of sex scenes in this novel, none of which are sexy. The way Hamilton writes them as a step-by-step process with no emotion evolvement and way too much metaphysics makes them not very interesting to read. The police work in this novel felt very tacked on, and I don't like how Anita's relationships with everyone but the people she's sleeping with are deteriorating. And, of course, she's rarely ever to blame for the loss of previously important friendships. I'll always love what this series used to be, but I can't stand what it has become.
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LibraryThing member TheSolitaryBookworm
Sex and power became boring, just to sum up the review. Anita's character was once the strong female heroine that you would love to read until Blue Moon. The series just revolves around sex, not just casual sex but frequent casual sex making it a priority due to complications which is not likable
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to me.

Another thing that bothers me is the too-many sexual partners that Anita keeps. The somewhat acceptable setup that Anita, Nathaniel and Micah has. It's not normal but it happens. Still, I don't get the idea why Hamilton used this twist over the characters. And speaking of character, Hamilton introduced so many characters that I often lost track of who is who and often re-reads or google'd the character just to remember who they are. Hamilton should have concentrated on the main cast and improved the character rather than introduced another.

The new triumvirate is not necessary if you ask me. Too much power, too much sex, too many men, results to excessive whining. If only Hamilton turned the story around, reformulated the plot and "fixed" the character, the series would have been great again..
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LibraryThing member teharhynn
Again, as with the last, this book didn't have a strong beginning to end plot. It went along with Anita as she learned about her growing powers, but as you're reading, you can forget sometimes that she's in the middle of an investigation.
I love the characters, so I'm not upset that the plotline
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isn't as strong, but the book isn't something that you cannot put down. It's a good read, but it's a bit weak. There's alot of sex, but it could use some more drive.
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LibraryThing member GirlMisanthrope
It is unfortunate when you stick with a series for so long (this is the 12th Anita Blake novel) and the author goes in a direction that is baffling to me. I know sex sells, BUT Anita has 6 separate regular sex partners at this point. AND she takes on strangers too! I kept sifting through the pages
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for STORY and PLOT, but found sex scene after sex scene. Anita used to be an awesome investigator, a strong woman working with (or against) the police force and the FBI. By this point in the series she's a just (inexplicibly) the object of desire for half of dozen men who want no other but her. I think LKH jumped the shark here. I am going to try and read her next few in hopes that Anita stays out of bed once in a while.
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LibraryThing member jshillingford
I agree that this book wasn't on par with the previous Anita books, but it did have some good aspects. First, Richard has finally moved past whining baby and took a role in the story. In addition, Anita comes to terms with her relationship with the "monsters." She was a little too self-righteous
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before (she didn't think vampires were alive, and most deserved to die, but she was in love with Jean-Claude?) Now she seems to see that a white picket fence, married with 2.5 kids doesn't have to be everyone's life, even hers. Plus she became more accepting of her friends' natures. And unlike other reviewers, I was glad Edward didn't resurface--he's a minor character and should stay that way. He is too one-dimensional to be more than that.

That said, the book did have major issues. The typos were definitely a pain. The editor, not the author, should be shot! After Damian took center stage as part of a new triumverate, he did just "disappear" from the plot. I don't mind a lot of sex among the principles (Jean-Claude, Anita, Asher, Micah etc.). However, Anita having sex with people she just met was a stretch! Why did she have sex with Byron when Nathanial was right there? And Requiem!? Come on!

I recommend buying the book if you are a completeist (I have them all in hardcover so...), or a die-hard fan. Otherwise, wait for the paperback. It IS worth reading as a bridge between Cerulean Sins and the next installment.
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LibraryThing member sdtaylor555
Ok, what happened here Ms. Hamilton? Anita is suddenly a slut/whore? I did not really like this book much at all. I was very disappointed. I'm all for sex, but come on!!
*Update* Ok I tried to re-read this to prepare for the next in the series, and I couldn't even get through it..and I have re-read
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every other book in this series 3 or 4 times each!
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LibraryThing member la_librarian
Incubus Dream finally got me to a point where the sex is starting to aggravate me in this series. I think Hamilton can get her point across about the ardeur without having the whole book be nothing but about sex. What I missed most in this book was the good police mystery part. Don't get me wrong,
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there was a mystery but it want barely there as if the sex stuff had been written and she found a way to write in an actual case to work on. It just took away from the other stuff I love so much about Anita. I enjoyed her finally getting it on with Nathaniel because her moral choices just don't make much sense, which the character admits herself, and Anita really does love Nathaniel. It's just frustrating when the story didn't seem to have a point alot of the time except for all of Anita's new powers which revolve around sex. Most people have talked bad about the way the character was going before now but it was really, really evident in this book. I'm going to continue with the series but only because the past eleven titles have been so great.
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LibraryThing member hoosgracie
Anita investigates a series of stripper murders while dealing with the ardeur – meaning LOTS of sex. Not a whole lot of plot but does close out a few story lines. OK.
LibraryThing member wyvernfriend
Between 150 and 200 pages of this are actual plot out of a book that's over 650 pages long, the rest is mostly soft porn. The series has turned into a Anita shagathon, and as it's getting repeditive it isn't even erotic anymore it's just skim-worthy. The justification is also kinda corny. I'm quite
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glad that I only spent 5.99 on it in a sale.
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LibraryThing member TwilightBlue
Wow, how many guys can one girl have sex with. Apparently more than I wanted to know. Anita tries to come to terms with the fact that she'll never have the white picket fence and that monogamy is not her thing. The fact that she's in love (and makes love) to 5-6 different men (read lycanthropes and
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vampires) and none of them have a problem with the other just seems a little too open minded for me. Just once I would like Anita to gain some powers without having to actually screw anybody.
The basic plot of this book was that there was no plot. Most of it is just setting up or answering past questions. It's just clean up from the other books in the series. Imagine 658 pages of clean up. But now that she seems to have a better handle on herself maybe we can get back to the actual "vampire hunter" part of the series.
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LibraryThing member wispywillow
*head-desk*

Oh ffs. Like the one before this, the book actually started out like the previous Anita books. You know, like a plot might be beginning. But it wasn't too far into the book before the first sex scene hit. The first of many. And I swear that LKH introduced characters just to have more
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people that Anita could have sex with.

The ardeur is getting terribly tiresome, as is the constant sex. Not to mention the continued overuse of "it was as if." It was as if… It was as if… It was as if… Try a few metaphors instead of overusing the same friggin' simile!

Now for the "plot." This was perhaps the laziest plot resolution I've ever read. "How will I solve this crime? [insert 50 chapters of sex here] Oh! I can read minds with a touch! [touch] Voila! I have solved the crime! Now, let's get back to the shagging."

I wish LKH had just started a new series with a different set of characters if she wanted to write stuff like this, not destroy a series that I once enjoyed.
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LibraryThing member Uffer
The Anita Blake series is starting to feel rather as though Hamilton has set herself the challenge of getting more sex, in more ways, combinations, places and species combinations, into each book as it comes along. Touch of writer's block? Oh, launch another orgy and graft another sex-related power
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onto the heroine, the resulting couple of pages of gratuitous blow-by-blow detailed kinky sex will give you time to figure out what the plot is doing... I don't have anything against sex in books, but there's just. too. much. in. here. The series started out great, but I'm not inclined to rush out and buy the next one, I'm afraid.
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LibraryThing member bookwormteri
My least favorite of the series thus far. I know that the series delves more into an erotica feel than the beginning, however, this one was excessive. An almost seven hundred page book, of which 500 pages were sex and the rest to the plot. By the time you reach the resolution of the plot line, you
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have almost forgotten what it was because there is so much sex in between.
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LibraryThing member kmv
There's nothing wrong with sex scenes in books, but there is something wrong when the number of pages dedicated to them exceed the number of pages dedicated to the plot (unless it's supposed to be erotic literature, then I guess that ratio of sex/plot would be appropriate). I started reading this
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series because I liked the stories and the character development, but those aspects seem to have lost out in the last book or two of this series.
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LibraryThing member TadAD
I wish I had stuck to my "I'll try one more after Narcissus". I didn't; even though I disliked Cerulean Sins, I thought I'd give it one more go.

To paraphrase a tongue-in-cheek editorial review over on Amazon: It's unfair to say Incubus Dreams is just one sex scene after another. They don't start
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until page 89 and then they pause on page 377 to let a little bit of mystery to show.

Unless a review of a future volume indicates that this series has moved from erotica back to action, I'm done with it.
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LibraryThing member Waianuhea
Even I've reached my "this series has really gotten out of control" threshold. I won't stop reading it though. I like Anita too much.
LibraryThing member susanbevans
Really not as good as the earlier books in the series. The plot is almost unrecognizable and unresolved. But I'm still interested to see where Anita will go.
LibraryThing member gerleliz
So-so. I miss the action
LibraryThing member Ceysa
It all starts off with a Halloween wedding, with Anita being in the groom's party dressed in a tuxedo. And a slow dance leads to all kinds of trouble.
Then a serial vampire kiss hits St. Louis and the surrounding strip clubs across the stateline. Anita has to deal with the Chuch of the Undead once
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again. Malcolm is not happy to have her in his church, and discover that he's hiding serial killers there, either. Two new vampires come to Anita and Jean Claude -- Wicked and Truth.
Jean Claude has called new vampires to join his kiss in St. Louis from Europe.
And most importantly of all, Anita, Nathaniel and Damien form their own trimuvarte of power. Not that this is without consequences for Anita, Jean Claude, Micah, Richard, and Asher.
Ronnie Sim's jealousy begins to rear it's ugly head.
Nathaniel receives something he's been desring for a long time.
And we learn more about she who made Damien.
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LibraryThing member vampyredhead
The 12th in a series about Anita Blake, vampire hunter. Not as good as the others. I can't beleive I'm saying this but, there is too much sex. Actually it's just too much sex with too many different partners. Anita has become a slut. It was even slightly boring. Hard to get through. I love her
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others. Still it was worth it.
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LibraryThing member lotusbiosm
I bought this on spring break when I was looking for something trashy in the drug store to read. It was precisely what I was looking for. The actual mystery/detective part of the story takes maybe 10% of the story, the rest is silly sex. But it's better written than some sex, and isn't as
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repetitive as it could be, so I was more than ok with that. I haven't read any of the others in the series, however.
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LibraryThing member pauliharman
If you've got this far through the Anita Blake series, you can hardly complain or be surprised to discover that 80% of the book is, basically, erotica. The first few chapters start off well, there's an oasis in the middle where Anita is doing her actual job, and the story concludes in the last 10
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chapters. The rest of the book deals with Anita's... other side, shall we say. It's as if in each book she needs to "level up" to deal with the new threat, and (as Jean-Claude points out), Belle Morte's line of vampires only have one way to do that...
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LibraryThing member averitasm
Very good series it just gets better the more you go along
LibraryThing member miyurose
I thought I was done with Ms. Hamilton for a while, then I realized that I got this for Christmas. Same complaint still applies. Somewhere along the way she started to sacrifice plot for a lot of sex. I miss the plot! Please, tone down the sex and give us some story!

Awards

Gaylactic Spectrum Award (Nominee — Novel — 2005)

Language

Original language

English

Original publication date

2004-09-28

Physical description

658 p.; 9 inches

ISBN

0425198243 / 9780425198247
Page: 0.9335 seconds