Rating: 
Summary: A good book, but passes one of my "limits" as far as horror
Review: I'm not a big Laurell K. Hamilton reader, though she is an author who's books I will "check out" much like Glenn Cook when I'm suffering from a lack of anything else to read. To date I've read three of her books, Narcissus in Chains, Obsidian Butterfly, and one other that I cannot recall the name of (my wife checked it out from the library). It has been my limited experience that Laurell K. Hamilton's books are about sex, sex, violence, vampires, werecreatures, sex, and gore. Obsidian Butterfly was a break from that mold. It was about gore, violence, gore, gore, torture, and surprisingly no sex. Not the for the lack of trying on the part of Anita Blake, but much like Tom Cruise in Eyes Wide Shut her offers, plans, and predictions sex just never come to pass. Being the prude that I am, three quarters through the book I was enjoying it thoroughly. Don't ask me why, sex in books offends me more than graphic gore and violence. Right up until a point. I have very little use for books that contain graphic descriptions of the slaughter and/or torture of infants and small children. Three quarters of the way through the book, a zombie went rampaging through a nursery in a hospital, in all its graphic and gory detail. A few chapters later, as the book approaches one of its major climaxes, the fingers of a six year old girl are broken one by one. I'll grant that I liked this book. It was well written, and read surprisingly fast for its length. But it will be a long time I think before I'll be able to read anything else by her.
Rating: 
Summary: Not quite the same
Review: This book was a little different than the rest in her series. The book does allow you to get to know Edward a lot better but it completely changes how you view him. I'm not sure I liked that. It was nice to have a bit of a wild card in the series to throw things off balance a little. The book it self, though, was another wonderfully discriptive work by this fabulous author. Another page turner even if it did seem a little outside the box (in comparison with the other books in the series).
Rating: 
Summary: My first time and I'll try it again
Review: Obsidian Butterfly is my first Laurel K. Hamilton and my first exposure to Anita Blake. Honestly, I didn't expect much. I am not a particular fan of the whole vampire/ghoul writing genre and tough female protagonists are becoming as common as right handed Americans. I also didn't know the whole back story to Edward, Anita's mentor/male imago or her whole menage a trois with a vampire and a werewolf so all of these pieces were interesting.
The novel starts out with Anita arriving to assist Edward on a case of mass mutilations and murder. Edward, some sort of Black Ops Spook, gone private bounty hunter who is hiding out under an alias has also insinuated himself into a fatherless family that is so sickeningly saccharine they have dogs, Peeka and Boo. The great part of these books was how disgusted Anita was by this whole guise Edward has put on and her genuine concern as to how she'll separate a psycho from an All-American family. Then Edward has back up for them in the form of Bernardo, who spends so much time being sexy that he has little time for anything else and Olaf/Otto who is a serial killer.
What set this book apart for me was that there are werewolves, vampires, killers, vampire executioners, cops, witches, wiccans, shamans, necromancers and so on running amok in Hamilton's world, all seamlessly accepted as existing. The question is not who or what is "bad" but to what degree and she spends a considerable amount of time delving into Anita's psyche as she asks some hard questions about being such a hardcase vampire executioner and necromancer. That was really refreshing, Anita doesn't shrug off the knowledge that she's as cold and tough as Edward, who has a fixation on her as his soulmate that would only be weirder if they were a sexual component. By the end, Anita is "soulmate" to Olaf/Otto who has witnessed her killing an Aztec "God". This is all laced together with Anita's blunt sexual cravings for several of the men around her and her denial because eof her link to her werewolf and vampire back home. That was really well-handling, her sexuality, her sexual interests and cravings and why she acts and doesn't act on them. There's a good balance to Hamilton's exposure of her character to other characters in the novel so that I felt she came across to everyone but Edward, who knows her better than anyone, as exactly the veneer she reports in her brisk, observant first person style throughout the novel.
A nice dodge in the whole thing was the twisted/minimal sexual tension between Edward and Anita, he truly views her as an equal and stands up to anyone and everything to remind them of that. A sexless, genderless equality.
The mass mutilations, they almost occur in the background as these intense character studies go on and by the time it's cleared up the connection between a wolfpack, the wolfpack's resident warlock/necromancer and a Vegas style Aztec show run by vampires and human/animal beings all lead by the decidedly underused Obsidian Butterfly, it feels forced. Obsidian Butterfly is a blind dodge, a deus sex machina set-up for another story, another time, fascinating but related on culturally to the real monster that's mutilating people by literally ripping off their flesh, including genitalia but all of the other physical and mental monsters in this novel are so impressively layered and textured that the real bogeyman comes off a little forced by the end. I personally thought that the handsome cop Hernando would turn out to be the bad guy, that would have had a nice gut wrench as Anita was getting close to him but he wasn't, so there wasn't.
Was it a worthwhile read? A nice introduction to the series (I think there are like 8 other books and I will read them, I chose this one because it was the thickest on the shelf) and I would recommend it as a seemingly strong introduction mid-stream to a complex world. However as a thriller stand alone it doesn't hold all of it's water. Four stars for its' connectivity, three stars for the main plot let down and another four to character development and presentation. Call it three and a half, buy it paperback and pick up a couple more around it to make it work as a series. It would make an interesting film series if all of these wild elements could be balanced.
Rating:
Summary: Edward? A person?
Review: Obsidian Butterfly. This was a novel which has redeeming qualities for the Anita Blake series. Edward, which has previously been a favorite and amusing character, is metamorphosized into a real live person. This in itself drew me into the novel with a force lacking from the previous novels, from the lunatic cafe up through blue moon. The previous novels were okay, but their focus was on Richard and Jean-Claude way too much. Edward was always the focus on the action and blood, and while he is here in full force, Edward is also coming into a depth unbeknownst before. The only problem I had with the novel was the main bad guy at the end. He was confusing, and although he was a vampire?, I am still left wondering as to how he became so powerful and unlike other vamps... The foreshadowing at the end about Otto and the guy who trained Edward, though leaves me in deep anticipation for the future Anita novels. This is a very good buy and novel in the Anita Blake series.
Rating: 
Summary: Hamilton delivers once again-BUY BUY BUY!
Review: "Obsidian Butterfly" manages to include all the winning elements of the Anita Blake novels whilst evolving the tone of the series. Scary monsters- check, more secondary characters added to the cast- check, gory crime scenes- check and then some! (...) This novel for me rejuvenated the entire series I must confess that although I love all of Hamilton's well drawn characters I have grown weary of the love triangle between animator, vampire, and werewolf taking over every plot. "Obsidian Butterfly" breaks this mould by allowing Anita time away from the master vampire and Ulfric in her life, as Edward (everyones favourite assassin) calls in a favour and invites Anita to go monster hunting in New Mexico. This is the longest book in the series but the pages fly by as we discover more about the mystery that is Edward, as we delve into Death's past and gasp homelife! This plus uncovering a multitude of villains in a werewolf pack, a sadistic Aztec vampiress who thinks she's a goddess, not to mention the big nasty which skins its victims. There is plenty of action as the villains' motives and plot threads tie together nicely. I warn readers that the plot is much.much gorier than usual with lovingly detailed descriptions of flaying and skinning forming a chunk of the narrative. (...) We are given a new more tender insight into their relationship as we uncover Anita's deepest fear that she is becoming more like Edward a cold blooded sociopath, while in turn Edward is most worried about beginning to care again about people. Regular readers may mourn the fact that Jean Claude and Richard are reduced to "cough and spit" mentions but it makes for a tautly plotted book as we remember and are updated on the Anita who proudly declared she didn't date monsters ahe killed them. In fact my only quibbles about this book are that it does seem very disconnected from the rest of the series. Continuity mentions aside it could quite easily pass as an earlier novel, and while it's nice to get away from the romance angle to the plot the reader is left nashing their teeth trying to figure out how will the triumvitae work out. Having said that I would strongly recommend this book as vintage Anita Blake, it's a must buy!
Rating:
Summary: Boring
Review: I've been a fan of the series. It's nothing highbrow by any means, but usually an enjoyable adventure. This episode is just too filled with our heroine worrying about whether she's more of a monster than Edward. She's also way too full of bluster and bravado. And by the way to the author -- no one in their right mind would carry the Browning High Power these days. Anita should carry something with more capacity and less bulk.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent.
Review: Although I would have liked to have seen more of Jean Claude & Richard I'd still say this is one of the best of the Anita Blake books.
Rating:
Summary: Need better editing
Review: LKH needs a graveyard full of editors...in earlier books Anita has her car totalled then after being dropped of at home by a co-worker, she receives a call from Dolph, and she drives to the crime scene, excuse me... what did she drive? Also, in Obsidian Butterfly, ever notice how Dolph became Dolf? These books are good, but I think the series could be much better if things were to flow smoothly, which would mean...without errors or time frame mishaps. Overall, wonderful books, must read in order, Anita has not only aged with the series but her gifts have grown as well.
Rating:
Summary: A refreshing change for the Anita Blake Series!
Review: Obsidian Butterfly is definitely a refreshing addition to the series. The books in my opinion were just getting weaker and this book felt like the author was going back to basics. Just ignore the triumvirate and all the romance and get into the action. Edward has always been my favorite character because he was the most ruthless and mysterious. He was like an extreme version of Anita, but now she isnt too far off anymore. So I highly recommend reading all 10 books from start to finish.
Rating:
Summary: Anita and Edward...together again...monsters beware :)
Review: You've got to love this one..especially if you love it when Edward shows up :) This gives some great insight on who Edward is OR rather can be when he's not toting a complete arsenal around backing up Anita :) It was also refreshing to see Anita stand on her own without her 2 beaus to back her up..although I did miss not seeing Richard or Jean-Claude. I don't want to say too much about the plot..in case you haven't read it yet. But I highly recommend that you do especially if you're an Anita Blake fan like myself. However, if you haven't read any of the others, I'd suggest that you start with the first one Guilty Pleasures and work your way down to the list. There's always references to something that happened along the way everytime a new book comes out. Again..this one is great!! Long live the Executioner! :)
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