Today, after what seems like an incredibly long time, I am able to get around to posting a new review, of a book I read for relaxation no less. I managed to sink my teeth into book 2 of the Anita Blake series, and here’s what I thought of it.
The Laughing Corpse
Laurell K Hamilton
‘The older the zombie, the bigger the death needed to raise it.’
After a few centuries, the only death ‘big enough’ is a human sacrifice.
I know because I’m an animator. My name is Anita Blake. Working for Animators, Inc. is just a job – like selling insurance. But all the money in the world wasn’t enough for me to take on the particular job Harold Gaynor was offering. Somebody else did, though – a rogue animator.
Now he’s not just raising the dead… he’s raising Hell. And it’s up to me to stop it.
The plot of this book is different from the first, but there isn’t much else that is. Anita Blake continues to get into a number of scrapes fighting paranormal creatures and helping the police, all of which she survives through a combination of luck, her growing powers/experience in dealing with the monsters, and help from friends; occasionally it gets a little too much and you can’t help thinking that she should be dead many times over.
Laurell K Hamilton overcomes that by ensuring that her heroine gets injured and is affected by those injuries, leaving her with an ever increasing collection of scars, and a changing attitude about what is and isn’t a monster.
I like these books, but only because I like Anita Blade and Jean-Claude. If it wasn’t for the dynamic between the two of them I don’t think I would enjoy the books half as much.
On the up side, the writing is decent and the mythology/creature lore is well-researched, that counts for a lot because I’m a big fan of vampires/zombies and all manner of mythological creatures.
ARC Books 
I enjoyed the first 8-ish of these books, but then I thought they quickly got too much for me. I had to give up. I was always much more of a Richard fan than a Jean-Claude fan.
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I’ve only read up to book 5 I think it is, after book 8 I’ve heard they became a different sort of novel, and the change wasn’t a good one.
I found Richard a bit bland and too much of a boy-scout at times, Jean-Claude complemented Anita better.
Just about my favourite thing, though, was Anita’s penguin collection, I thought it was great that a kick-ass character like her loved all things penguin, it really humanised her.
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Hi there! This post couldn’t be written any better!
Looking through this article reminds me of my previous roommate!
He continually kept talking about this. I am going to forward this article to him.
Pretty sure he’ll have a great read. Many thanks for sharing!
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Thank you for your comment, and for forwarding this article. I apologise for the late response, your comment was routed to the spam folder and I’ve only just discovered it (I sometimes wonder how systems like this decide what is spam and what isn’t.)
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