Incubus Dreams (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, Book 12) Mass Market Paperback – September 27, 2005

Incubus Dreams reads more like three books smashed together into one, which may be why it's getting such poor reviews from a lot of people. It's length (a boggling 658 pages and 82 chapters) is unwieldy; combined with the pace, it makes me wonder if the author has seen an end to the series coming and is pushing the reader there in a hurry.This book isn't nearly as bad as I expected from the reviews. It's true that there's a glut of rough sex, group sex and public sex, but if you can get past the descriptions and see it metaphorically, it's not as graphic as you'd think. I found the book divides up into three main areas that would have worked pretty well on their own as standalone books: Anita recognizing her own monster and accepting it enough to drop most of her defenses and create actual relationships, the consummation of the original triumverate and creation of a second with unexpected powers manifesting themselves and a setup for a final showdown wrapped up in a stripper serial-killer case that's left hanging at the end. All of this takes place in about three or four days; there's very little sleep taking place in this book. Yes, there are major, major characters and plotlines from past books that are unresolved here - but this book covers such a short length of time and already involves so much and so many people, to add them in would have been unmanageable. Asher, Belle Morte, Damien and Jason are all there and I'm sure will factor heavily in the next book based on the setup here.The typos, missing words and one rather disgusting conversation Anita has with Richard all detract from the quality of the storytelling and I'm hoping, the direction the author is pushing her readers. I got the sense that this was a bridge book, one meant not to advance the storyline so much as to set us up for the final couple of stories left to be told. Either Ms. Hamilton has abandoned Anita for her Merry Gentry series and this will all just fizzle out or she's brilliantly building up her characters for a monumental climax. If you read the book carefully, you'll see that the stage is being set for a confrontation with Mother: the addition of warrior vamps, the increase in the triumverate/s and their power, Anita's new ability to raise the dead and the tease of the serial-killing head vamp on the loose with ties to Belle Morte. I thought the sex had begun to get a lot out of hand, but it served to put all of the characters here in line to finish things up in a way that should satisfy loyal readers of the series as a whole.All in all, I don't think this deserves a five star rating, but it's better than a three. In spite of the shoddy editing, Ms. Hamilton has a gift for graphic storytelling, action and dialogue (with the exception of Anita yelling at everyone to *f* her during sex). Without coming out and spelling it specifically, you get the impression that all the characters are headed for a crossroad of their own: Anita is melancholy and a little bitter, Jean-Claude is unsure of himself and Richard is buried under his own (and Anita's) anger and self-loathing. As if that weren't enough, Nathaniel discovers a dominant side, Damien becomes needier than expected, Jason turns out to be more mature than you'd think and Micah is deeper and more tormented than even Anita guesses. There's a lot of emotional upheaval in this book and while I missed the longer hardcore police investigations from earlier books, it would have just been too much to add to this already busy story.Because of its length and dependency on the element of shock, it would be a hard book to read repeatedly, but it does feel like a necessary step to the conclusion that I desperately hope Ms. Hamilton delivers. I wouldn't recommend anyone not familiar with the series start with this book; the best way to enjoy all of Ms. Hamilton's books is to start from the beginning and read through in order. For fans of the series who want to find out how it all ends, as long and tedious as it can be, I still think this is a book you'll need to read in order to follow the characters to the conclusion.

The morning of Sept. 28 I practically ran into my local book store and snatched this book from the waiting clerks hands. (I never buy books there anymore I always order them through amazon.com. But not one of these, I can't wait that long for snail mail to get to me.) The clerk was bewildered. Apparently I wasn't the first to have this reaction today; what was all the fuss about? I told her that this was the twelfth book in the series, we've been waiting a year for it, and not too damn patiently either.The clerk was curious. Perhaps she should see what all the fuss was about and read this book herself. I said no, not this one. I said if you want to know what this series is about then read another in the series, Obsidian Butterfly would be a good one. It stands mostly on it's own without that great a dependance on the others. I said if she liked that then read all the books and get to this one last because this particular book is a part of the whole series, a step along the way.Sadly, it's two days later now and, despite having my work to delay me, the book is over for another year. The waiting another whole year is always the hardest part. This book was worth the wait; this series is worth the wait.This book is a part of a serial. This particuar one is a part of every other one that has come before it. For those of us who have read them all it brought back wonderful memories, it took us further on our journey through this story and it was just great. It sets the stage for what will come next. For anyone who hasn't read them they will not appreciate just how wonderful this small part is. For anyone reading this and wondering should if they would like this series: please don't start with this one then come in here and bitch about the fact you just don't get it. Do you watch fifteen minutes of the middle of a movie, turn it off and say, I just don't get it, what's all the fuss about? Who were all those characters and what do they have to do with this story?It was great to be able to see so many different parts of the series brought together and the threads of the story continuing. I'm sure that all of us who feel as if we know these characters personally now feel glad to see them all grow a little, learn a little, gain a little. We'll wait again, and damned impatiently, for the next part of the story to unfold from Ms. Hamilton's extremely talented imagination. Then we'll run down to the bookstore and snatch the next book from the waiting clerk and it will all begin again.

Honestly, I thought the Anita Blake series was the best series I'd found in a while, and right up until Narcissus in Chains it was, then suddenly it took a hard nose dive. What happened? Well, from a readers perspective, the plot lines got thinner, the number of sex scenes and partners rocketed and there was a lot of fluff and filler in between, but no real story to it. Narcissus in Chains at least tried to have a real plot line to it, even though it was overly involved and seems disorganised. But Incubus Dreams just dragged the series down another few notches for me.I don't regret buying it, I did enjoy reading it, but its like a drop in what was previously a lake - the stories were involved, interesting, made you think and kept your attention, the personal side of Anita Blake, her relationships in particular lightened the dark themes, gave them spice. This book tipped the scale, no longer is there a heavy plot line involving mysteries, crime and Anita's struggle to remain human and good, nope, now its all about sex and power.Ok, not a bad thing if you're looking for erotic romance and little else in a story, and as a fan of erotic romance I can sort of get along with that, but when you're expecting more, because the previous books had so much more, finding a minor plot line amidst the ton of sexual encounters and emotional overspill just isn't satisfying.I will continue reading the books, because I want to know where its all going, how its going to end if you will. I'm a curious soul and want to know, and sadly I will pay to find out even if it disappoints. That said, I am skipping the next 'book' Micah. Firstly, because its a short story more than a full length book and from the synopsis' and reviews it seems to have no real importance other than to pad out Micah a bit (because lets face it, since his introduction he's been eye candy and little else. I want to like Micah, I really really do, but he just seems to have little place in the story as a whole other than to add to the sex). Secondly because the UK kindle version is part of a collection and I'm not willing to pay £5 for a book when I only want to read the first hundred pages or so to cover the Micah story.This book just sort of threw out my hopes of a real plot... I might actually start ranting if I don't stop typing soon, but truly, the introduction of the Ardeur has helped kill a lot of readers interest in the books and respect for Anita. I'm sure at the time of introduction it was a great idea that would challenge Anita's morals and help cause drama, but now it's being used as an excuse to extend her and the trimuvate's powers as well as give an excuse for multiple and mostly pointless sex scenes. It almost feels like reading porn... theres a basic plot line, one girl and a ton of guys and some variation of sex every couple of chapters.

These books used to be amazing; the preternatural investigation unit, human serial killers, voodoo serial killers, the science behind lycanthropes and vampires. These books were inspired, the constant repetition where she thought something and then said it out loud was tedious but I overlooked it because the characters and plots were so brilliant. Then it started getting weird with all of the sex stuff; pages and pages of descriptions of what she does to them in and out of the bedroom.40% descriptions of weird sex stuff; Nathaniel changes into half panther half human form and she has sex with him anyway while he has fangs and teeth and claws. I was disturbed. 40% her moralizing and debating with her conscience about all the sex. At some point you have to ask why all these men want to be with her? She has her harem of men who must be celibate apart from her and she gets angry and annoyed when any other men or women show interest in her "sweeties". Her "sweeties" are not allowed to get jealous of her other "sweeties". She feels guilty and moralizes about everything else except this greediness.10% police work but mostly her trying to explain away her love life and her short skirts to her colleagues. The murders aren't even solved and the zombie story isn't consistent with a previous story about zombies she raises with her own blood being accepting of their death and not confused about their temporary reanimated state. Inconsistent10% Nathaniel's lavender eyes (who cares?)

This used to be a great series but how times have changed. I bought this book yonks ago but didn't read it as I didn't like the direction the books had gone is. I thought I would give it a whirl after a break from the series. I wish hadn't bothered and I won't be buying anymore. Lots of unnecessary sex and then whinging about it and very little vampire killing. A once good series gone horribly wrong.

I loved these books when I first started reading them as I enjoyed the balance between adult themes and violence but as the series went on it just got more and more about Anita's obsession with sex than her job hunting and taking down bad vamps and supes! Shame really as they started out so well.....Not everyone wants to read a book about a vampire/supe hunter that does more vamps than she kills!If I had wanted to read porn I would have bought accordingly!

It is rare that I feel strongly enough about a book to put pen to paper.This one I feel sufficiently incensed about to do so!It weighs in at over 1/2 kg (more than 800 pages) and most of this is uninspiring rote sex.A new ideas guy is needed to help LKH on her way otherwise her "followers" will desert her in droves. If the book had been recast at one third of its length, with the gratuitous sex curtailed, it would have been a better product; with quite a few trees saved in the process!