New Spring by Robert Jordan

Full disclosure: Prior to picking up New Spring, I did watch The Wheel of Time Amazon show. I also am well aware that New Spring was not intended to be read prior to its order in the Publication Order… and yet here I am, starting with it first. I look forward to finding out what exactly I was supposed to have had spoiled by reading New Spring first.

That said, I did have fun with New Spring. I liked learning more about Moraine, Lan, and Siuan than I knew previously. It’s always fun for me finding out how characters met and formed their bonds, especially characters like Moraine, Lan, and Siuan. Moraine’s treatment of Lan during their journey together made me smile.

It was also a lot of fun getting to know how The White Tower works from the inside. That wasn’t super clear in the Amazon show.

I don’t really have a whole lot of thoughts, other than that. I did think Malkeri culture seemed interesting… though we clearly won’t be getting much more, if any more of that… though of course I say that with full knowledge of a whole series ahead. Anyway.

New Spring definitely felt like the prequel it is. Nothing delved into super deep. It was entertaining enough. On to the main Wheel of Time series now, I guess. 

The Lunatic Cafe by Laurell K. Hamilton

Beware of spoilers if you have not read the book. Otherwise, read on.

So, I spent a lot of this time reading The Lunatic Cafe this time focused on Anita and Richard and their relationship. I said in my review of Circus of the Damned that I'm really not a fan of Richard and that definitely still holds true. I feel he's all wrong for Anita and know he's not super secure in himself at this point, so them getting engaged in this book was just... blech. I'll definitely be getting more into that later in this review. The B-Plot with the shapeshifters and lycanthropes isn't my favorite of the police-centric stories, but it's definitely not bad. I'm honestly surprised the sort of thing it turns out to be doesn't end up being more prevalent in the series... but then, that would probably be too repetitious... and the antagonists do all die in the end so... yeah.

It's always interesting to get more preternatural world-building. I don’t think we hear much, if anything else about gargoyles and trolls through the rest of the series. Interesting to know they exist, though. We also get our first big encounter with witches, so that's fun. I really do feel like the way Hamilton does her world-building makes the Anita Blake universe feel very lived in. We get trickles of information from what Anita encounters when she encounters it, but never in large info-dumps. I appreciate it a lot.

Sheriff Titus and Officer Aikensen, first in a long line of cops Anita has to convince she knows wtf she’s doing. Being assholes basically just to be assholes. These guys never fail to piss me off. I find myself skimming those parts lately, more often than not. This time they had the added bonus of pissing me off more toward the end of the book... I can just hear Titus' slimy "good ol' boy" voice in my head as I read his dialogue. I fully believe Aikensen deserves his fate.

We also get another impatient antagonist in Marcus. Like, dude, allow for scheduling meetings for the next day, ESPECIALLY if it’s frigging 2am. This intimidation tactic really reads as annoying af. I also find it extremely annoying when the sub-cultures introduce and enforce rules on the humans (it’s generally humans) who have zero clue what’s even going on. Especially when those people used to be completely human themselves and/or have to exist in human society. Like, wtf are you even doing expecting someone who has no clue what’s going on to know this shit or agree to it? Like, yes, okay, explain it to them, but don’t expect the newbies to follow immediately. Express an expectation that the newbie will be held to the “laws” or whatever the next time ya’ll interact. Ugh. Frankly, this whole thing with Marcus, at least the beginning of it, really did not need to be or turn into what it did. He could/should have set up a meeting with Anita alone. But hey, gotta set him -- and Raina -- up for later installments.

Alright, now for the relationship discussion. I have THOUGHTS.

The following two paragraphs are verbatim notes I took as I was reading:

I feel like the conversation about “happily ever afters” at the end of Anita and Richard’s date really highlights why the pair of them just won’t work. This doesn’t exactly come out until later, but Richard’s insistence on that white picket fence mentality despite knowing all along that what Anita does isn’t conducive to that… big red flag. I would have liked to see where that conversation would have gone if Jean-Claude hadn’t derailed it.

How the fuck was Anita supposed to “take care of yourself” when she a) doesn’t know what’s going on and b) doesn’t know the dang rules, Richard? Wtf, man. Keeping her out of it clearly did her no good. Also, Jean-Claude using her against Nikolaos was totally different than the whole Marcus thing. Jean-Claude and Anita weren’t even close to dating at the time. You tell people you’re dating about your big life things, especially when it’ll probably get you killed.

Oooooh the absolute hilarity of Anita waiting for marriage… Also… Richard’s very quick “well let’s get married then”… oooof. Ya’ll haven’t been dating that long… not that people haven’t been a roaring success with a short dating period but… ya’ll also have some serious differing life opinions you need to sort out first. Ooof.

End notes.

Okay, so… Anita and Richard basically have a good chunk of issues. Mainly because Richard doesn’t believe Anita’s really as tough-as-nails and Anita had zero clue what she was getting herself into with Richard and his Beast. This does not go away and, from what I remember about the rest of the series, only really gets worse. Hamilton pretty much states this herself in the Afterword. Richard also clearly has issues with the Beast side of himself, so… yeah. That contributes a lot. Anyway, them getting engaged this early was honestly really stupid, in my opinion, for all the reasons I’ve stated here.

I also really hate Jean-Claude’s whole “I would like to date you for the same amount of time he did and I won’t kill him” thing. Coercion is not a green flag. While ultimately, I think Jean-Claude is the better partner for Anita (just between him and Richard), the beginning of their relationship is gross. First the vampire marks against her will, then the coercive dating... I was reading the bit where Jean-Claude shows up at Anita's apartment after her dip in the icy river and ranting aloud to my boyfriend about how it's all really stupid and everyone is being an asshole... The whole thing is super problematic and I hate it. There are reasons Romance is not my genre.

Anyway... The Lunatic Cafe is a solid fourth entry in the Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series. It really does focus a lot on the issues Anita and Richard have, I didn't just pull all those notes and stuff out of thin air. I'm mostly satisfied with where and how this ended. And oh yeah, Jason's first appearance! 

Favorite Lines

"There are more roads to monsterdom than most people realize." - Anita Blake

"If you do not help and protect those who are less able than you, weaker than you, what good are you? No damn good at all." - Laurell K. Hamilton

An Illustrative Couple of Paragraphs

Please, for the love of all that is Holy, discuss this stuff with your SO well BEFORE you decide to tie the knot. I feel like these paragraphs say a lot about why Richard and Anita shouldn't have gotten engaged in this book... clearly not all, but A LOT.

Circus of the Damned by Laurell K. Hamilton

So, rereading this one was interesting. There’s a lot of setup here for future stuff. More with the vampire marks, Richard and Larry’s introductions, the creation of Humans First, and the solidification of Jean-Claude as Master of St. Louis. It’s a lot and yet somehow manages to work fairly well.

Talking about characters, as this is a reread, is a bit tricky. My opinions are very colored by the future actions of them… well… Richard. I’m mainly kind of conflicted about Richard. Larry’s fine. I like Larry. I had forgotten he was introduced to early, but other than that, he’s fine. No notes. Richard, on the other hand… I think I remember liking Richard to begin with. He comes across as earnest, good-ol’-boy kind of, hampered by the reveal Hamilton wanted to do with him. But otherwise, he seems fine. Future events do color this and I just found myself rolling my eyes some at him. But I won’t get into that otherwise due to spoilers.

I enjoyed Edward and Anita’s continuing relationship. Edward’s always fun. I’ve always enjoyed him, even if he shows up initially to threaten to torture Anita twice in as many books. Their dynamic is one of my favorites going forward.

I think Oliver was… uh… he was there. He was really mostly threatening in the background. Again, this is colored by the reread. I knew how this ended. I did get Alejandro mixed up with a different Alejandro from a different series… of course I can’t remember which one off the top of my head. Alejandro seems to be a popular name among the Aztec vampires… so he sprouted a backstory that wasn’t actually his. 🤪

I did find the actual events of the book went by rather quickly. I did notice Anita got more sleep this time around, though not by much. Starting off the trend of her not quite taking care of herself as she should. I had also completely forgotten that Humans First was started in-series as opposed to Humans Against Vampires. That was kinda neat. I also very much enjoyed the Anita/Zerbowski relationship. They’re quite fun together as well… though definitely not in a romantic sense.

So yeah, Circus of the Damned was pretty solid. Got in some good world and character building.

Favorite Lines

"There are also a lot of very jerky men in the twenty-one-to-thirty age group." - Anita Blake

"Please, I always use fresh sarcasm, never canned." - Anita Blake

"When all else fails, hide. It works for rabbits." - Anita Blake

"How can you possibly torture someone without bamboo slivers?" - Anita Blake

The Laughing Corpse by Laurell K. Hamilton

2025 Reread Review - Mostly spoiler free

I really like The Laughing Corpse. It establishes Anita as a Power in her own right, not just going to be adjacent to Jean-Claude. It also establishes the differences between what Anita does and stuff like witchcraft and voodoo, mostly voodoo. I think getting that out of the way early in the series was a good call. Zombies are, after all, a fixture of what a lot of people think about when they think about voodoo. I also like that the antagonists are human, if powered humans... well, Dominga is anyway. I could really have done without Harold Gaynor and his bodyguards... but the exist so... *much shrugging.*

What is it with men looking at women wielding guns or other weaponry (usually guns, though) and suddenly being all “you’re not so tough without the weapon”? Like, maybe, but also… odds are, the man is bigger than the woman. Odds are, in a straight fight, the man is going to best the woman. We know this, that’s why we have a weapon in the first place. It's why you have a weapon in the first place. You also think you’re as intimidating without a weapon? No. Posturing does not make you inherently better. Bruno, Tommy, Enzo, and Antonio all bug the shit out of me with this macho nonsense. I guess it's a good characteristic of a ruthless bodyguard but... blech.

It is just too funny reading the chapter at Dead Dave’s, especially the end. Anita just has no clue about Jean-Claude’s powers and, of course, neither does Irving. Irving definitely wouldn’t be much help at all against Jean-Claude. Part of why I love rereading this stuff is the unintentional hilarity of certain parts given what happens later in the series. It's quite well done.

I like how Anita’s backstory is dropped here, along with how her powers tend to work. The animator stuff tends to get overpowered by other things in later books. The Laughing Corpse establishes Anita's necromantic abilities quite well. It's fun to see her flex those muscles in slightly more controlled environments than she does down the line.

I had honestly forgotten how big of a role Wanda plays in this book. I know Laurell K. Hamilton has said something recently-ish about her coming back into the series, but I hadn't remembered the extent to which she was even in this. I like her. Can't wait to see her again.

So yeah, I had a lot of fun rereading The Laughing Corpse. My very last thought about the book is this: I do not remember the business of the same name ever coming back in the series... which doesn't really surprise me. Anita was a not a fan so I don't know why she'd ever go back there. 

Favorite Lines/Conversations

"Rule number three hundred sixty-nine when dealing with unfamiliar magic: when in doubt, leave it alone." - Anita Blake

"Suspicion is healthy. It'll keep you alive." - Anita Blake

     "I have no personal stake in these people, Jean-Claude, but they are people. Good, bad, or indifferent, they are alive, and no one has the right to just arbitrarily snuff them out."

     "So it is the sanctity of life you cling to?"

     I nodded. "That and the fact that every human being is special. Every death is a loss of something precious and irreplaceable." I looked at him as I finished the last.

     "You have killed before, Anita. You have destroyed that which is irreplaceable." 

     "I'm irreplaceable, too," I said. "No one has the right to kill me, either." - Anita Blake & Jean-Claude

"She doesn't have a superior," Zerbowski said, "but we'll tell her boss." 

The Magickers Overview

 The Magickers by Emily Drake

This post will contain spoilers for all 5 books contained in The Magickers series. You have been warned.

It has been a hot minute since I did a Series Overview, but I have THOUGHTS about The Magickers. First and foremost: "The Magickers is America's answer to the Harry Potter series" says the blurb from BookBrowser on the back of two of these novels. Harry Potter this is definitely not. The Magickers probably wishes it were Harry Potter... well... without Rowling, of course. Fuck her. The point is: The Magickers is nowhere near as well written or thought-out as the Harry Potter series is. I'm not going to be comparing them one-to-one, or at all really, but I feel this needed to be said. Is The Magickers a good substitute for Harry Potter, if you're looking to not introduce your kids to it? I would say no. Pick up something by Tamora Pierce or Diane Duane's Young Wizards instead. Or maybe just The Magickers and leave the rest of the series alone.

So, why do I say all this? Well... The Magickers starts out with a very good concept of bringing magical/potentially magical kids to a camp and teaching them the ways of the Magickers. Great concept, ultimately poor execution. In my reviews, I'm pretty sure I blamed this on Gavan, but Gavan is really a stand-in for Ms. Drake herself in that regard. Like, yes, magic schools are a good idea, but it really only works if you can actually get one up and running, which ultimately does not come to pass throughout this series. A grand total of 3 teachers and 7 students does not a functioning school make, even if there's a completed building in an alternate reality.

The antagonists also aren't very antagonistic, really. First, Brennard and his "Dark Hand" are just kind of around, sometimes sucking the magic out of other Magickers because apparently magic is a finite resource? Brennard's position is very clear, but his methods to try and lure Jason in particular over to his side make zero sense. His son, Jonnard, is more threatening, but also just kind of sitting off in the background. Once he manages to actually get enough "Power" to become a threat, he's not so much the threat as the stuff coming out of the proverbial "Gate of Bones" that he manages to open. Isabella isn't much of a threat at all, or at least, not an active one. Sure, she has the Leucators, but those are also just kind of meh. They sound threatening, but in action... they're locked-up zombies who are no real threat to anyone they're not either biting or draining magic from. And then there's Mr. Nothing-Burger Eyomani. Yawn. Honestly, the wolfjackals in the first two books are far more threatening than anything else and even they turn out to be less antagonistic than at first glance. Oh, speaking of wolfjackals, Statler Finch in The Curse of Arkady was more menacing than pretty much all the rest of the antagonists combined. Fuck that pseudo-psychology "the victim is really to blame for the bullying" shit all the way off.

There's also this big, over-arching threat of the government finding out that Magickers exist. Except... there's a lot of lip service paid to this and zero action. There's a blip of a moment when Henry is confronted by a school official from the school he attended pre-Gate Opening, but that's it. Just a lot of "we can't go back home because we'll be dissected by government scientists" followed by nothing.

Oh, and the whole "Auntie Freyah is hiding Gregory's sleeping body but he can't be awoken yet" thing that turns into nothing, too. I just... I was hoping The Prince of Nowhere would resolve this, but there is nary a mention of it. I'm kind of annoyed about that whole thing, if I'm honest. However, at this point, I also don't care enough to continue even if there were more of a continuation. 

I do give The Magickers a couple of points for diversity. There's Anita Patel and Tomaz Crowfeather representing Indian and Native Americans respectively. Ting and her grandmother represent Chinese American immigrants. Aaaand Bailey and Trent both come from single-parents homes while Gatekeeper Jason is the specialist of all with two dead parents and two step-parents. Everyone who's not white feels very stereotypical of their particular POC-ness, though. I guess that's not necessarily a bad thing, but it's there and I noticed so... yeah. That is all I'm going to say about it, though, because I am a white woman and I feel like I'm going to say the wrong thing (if I haven't already) so... yup. Shutting up about that now. 

All this really makes it sound like I didn't like The Magickers, huh? Well, I enjoyed it enough. I am, admittedly, well out of the age range this series is aimed at, but... well... other Young Adult series have held up much better than this one did. I am just really frustrated with the series as a whole. It started out great. The Magickers is really good. Everything after that... not as much. The series as a whole feels aimless, even though there's a clear goal presented. After all, Jason gets the Gates to Haven open and they get the school built, but then... nothing really happens. And again, a school isn't really a school if there are only 3 teachers (2, at the very end because Tomaz is going off again) and 7 students. There are also really nice concepts here. I like the crystals. I like the dragons. I like the "everyone has an individual talent on top of just being a Magicker" thing. I like Haven. But taking all the concepts and shaking them around doesn't make them mesh together super well. The magic system ultimately leaves a lot to be desired.

I will also say that I really like the characters. I kind of wish there had been a POV book for each of them, kind of like how The Magickers was for Jason. The meshing of the ensemble cast gave us a glimpse of each person's personality and home-life, but really left me wanting more. It also made some of the books feel choppier due to a lack of cohesion of person and place, if that makes sense.

I think I'm out of talking-points now. If you're interested in my thoughts on the other books, there are links to the reviews on the "Review List" page. There's even a list on one of them about why I'm annoyed at Gavan specifically. I definitely recommend giving The Magickers, specifically, a read. It's definitely my favorite of the five.

The Prince of Nowhere by Emily Drake

Honestly, this was not what I was expecting. I was not expecting the two year time-jump, not that it made any difference whatsoever. I was expecting something having to do with Gregory, which this did not at all. It was honestly okay most of the way through, which seems to be par for the course with The Magickers series. The ending, as usual, was super rushed, though also took forever getting there.

So, the nothing burger of a time-jump. I honestly feel like it was there to have given Ting/Pearl time to become a larger dragon and explain how she’s now used to this. Trent and Jason seem to have figured out how to use Trent’s abilities in a much different manner than Trent was using them in The Gate of Bones. That was so different I was confused as to what anyone was talking about in regard to Trent’s abilities. But otherwise… everything is pretty much the same as it was at the end of The Gate of Bones.

I enjoyed meeting and getting to know Leah. She’s a fun new character. I’m honestly glad, though, that we only got this short amount of time with her, as I feel like she would have just faded into the ensemble if the series were continuing. Along with Leah, we got more of a glimpse into Haven’s other inhabitants and how another piece of their society works.

Eyomani was honestly a nothing burger of an antagonist. His motivation, explained at the very end, was honestly stupid. I would have rather not had him at all and just focused on finding Rich’s cure. That, and dealing with Leah and her tracker-companion would have been just fine.

So, yeah… The Prince of Nowhere was largely just alright. The very ending felt like a rushed mess that had to basically tie up everything

 

In Other News

I finished another OviPets Project. This one is an approximation of the Digimon: Sakumon. Sakumon has a blade on its head and OviPets doesn't have that option so the unicorn horn had to do.

Sakumon took me approximately 3 months to complete and is a "Village of Beginnings" project.

Guilty Pleasures by Laurell K. Hamilton

2025 Reread Review - 99% spoiler free

The hilarity of those last two lines, though...

Anyway... I've read Guilty Pleasures at least 4 times, probably more. It's one of those fun vampire hunter books that focuses pretty solidly on the vampire hunting. There's little to no actual romance, which was something that really drew me to the Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series in the first place... if only I knew. Heh. Anyway, in this, the 31st year of publication, I'm revisiting the entire series again. I will try very hard not to include spoilers past the book I'm currently reading, though spoilers for previous books are fair game.

When I originally read Guilty Pleasures I was absolutely terrified of Nikolaos. Little girl vampires are just creepy and Nikolaos takes it to another level. However, I think reading the graphic novel adaptation has cured me of my terror... though it might also just be that I'm much older now and have experienced more terrifying things than a little girl vampire. I will admit, though, Nikolaos is very much of that "I'm going to be stupidly impatient with the person I hire to do a job" kind of villain. I know there's technically plot reasons behind this, but she calls Anita back for some kind of update not even 24hrs after first "hiring" her and that bugs me. It also bugs me that we've gotta play terror games to get Anita to do what Nikolaos wants her to do, but I guess if Anita's able to just refuse her, there's no story.

It's also quite fun for me to see "Baby Anita" and "Baby Edward" before they know all the things. It's kind of like watching the beginning of Buffy or Supernatural and being like "Oh, my sweet, sweet children. You know so little..." followed by delighted maniacal laughter on my part. Even Anita and Edward's relationship at this point is cute, given how it goes in later books. Apparently Jean-Claude in this book is not the fully-formed Jean-Claude in my brain. His "voice" refused to show up as I was reading... if that makes sense to anyone besides me.

I did enjoy the progression of the story. Having been so long since my last reread, I'd forgotten who done it, so that was a nice rediscovery. I also like the gradual world-building and creature-building. A slow progression of info drops about how vampires, Animators, and then lycanthropes work. Nice, also, that the main lycanthropes are rats instead of wolves.

Anyway, I highly recommend Guilty Pleasures and the Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series in general. They're fun and I'm looking forward to revisiting them.

 

Favorite Lines

"I remembered when eighteen was grown-up. I had thought I knew everything. I was about twenty-one when I figured out I knew dip-wad. I still knew nothing, but I tried real hard. Sometimes, that is the best you can do. Maybe the best anyone can do." - Anita Blake

"You could probably have eaten off the carpeting if you had wanted to, but you would have gotten fuzzies in your mouth. No amount of Lysol would get rid of carpet fuzzies." - Anita Blake

"Great, we're going to be eaten alive because neither one of us smokes." - Edward