Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

Unavailable
Obsidian Butterfly: An Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter Novel
Unavailable
Obsidian Butterfly: An Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter Novel
Unavailable
Obsidian Butterfly: An Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter Novel
Audiobook (abridged)8 hours

Obsidian Butterfly: An Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter Novel

Written by Laurell K. Hamilton

Narrated by Kimberly Alexis

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

()

Currently unavailable

Currently unavailable

About this audiobook

#1 New York Times bestselling author Laurell K. Hamilton offers a sexy, suspenseful novel of human-and inhuman-passions, as vampire hunter Anita Blake must repay a favor to a man almost as dangerous as the ancient evil she's about to face...

Edward is a hit man, specializing in monsters, vampires, shapeshifters, anything and everything. There are people like Anita who do it legal, but Edward doesn't sweat the legalities, or, hell, the ethics. He's an equal opportunity killer.

Anita may be one of the few friends that Edward has, but it's like being friends with a tame leopard. It may curl up on the foot of your bed and let you pet its head, but it can still eat your throat out...

LanguageEnglish
Release dateMar 18, 2010
ISBN9781101154755
Unavailable
Obsidian Butterfly: An Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter Novel
Author

Laurell K. Hamilton

Laurell K. Hamilton is the author of the New York Times bestselling Anita Blake series and Merry Gentry series. She lives with her family in St. Louis, Missouri.

Related to Obsidian Butterfly

Related audiobooks

Fantasy For You

View More

Related articles

Reviews for Obsidian Butterfly

Rating: 3.815087604210526 out of 5 stars
4/5

1,425 ratings57 reviews

What did you think?

Tap to rate

Review must be at least 10 words

  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This is not one of my favorite Anita Blake books as it is very disturbing and brutal. Had I read this first, I can't say I'd have picked up any of the others.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Anita Blake, Vampire Executioner and Animator, travels to New Mexico at the behest of super-assassin Edward (or Death as we're continually reminded) to investigate a series of brutal (what else) and inexplicable murders. it's an enjoyable book. It sheds light on Edward (someone we've all wanted to know more about) and manages to extricate Anita from the tangled morass of her personal life in St. Louis. As always the story is fast-moving, evocatively written, and makes us care deeply about the fate of the protagonists.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The glimpses into history and the personalization of the characters make this story great.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This is my favorite Anita Blake novel, but this version of the audio book is very abridged. The full novel is 19 hours, not just 8 hours like this. They have cut out so much detail with this version. Makes it not as fun or detailed! Please find an unabridged version if you can!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I missed Jean Claude, and Richard. there was a lot of Edward in this book. I found his story very interesting.( makes me wonder where it will lead) I did not care for the whole Aztec story line. But, the Edward story made it a worth while read. I really do like Edward after reading this.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This books was interesting to read. The main focus was on Edward for once and we get a look into his life. It was nice to read Anita doing what she does best and all the twist and turns.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I really enjoyed this book. It is the book where you really get a glimpse into Edward's real life. We also meet Bernardo and Olaf. Bernardo drives me crazy. His ego is enormous and it get tiresome. Olaf also has an ego, but it isn't tiresome. I think it is because Olaf gets pissed and Bernardo whines. This series has several male whiners and I get really sick of it.

    We also meet Peter. I won't go into detail about who Peter is and what he experiences in this book. I really like Peter. Donna and Becca are not as big of characters to me. They are just victims that Edward and Anita have to save or console.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    this was my first Anita Blake - found it intriguing and entertaining, and started to read the previous ones in the series...
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    I loved reading more Edward, but this was a really terrible book, not least because Anita has become wholly unlikable by now.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This book in the series was a little over the top for me. Also, the resolution of the villain fell a little flat after she built up how big and bad he was. I thought it should have been a little harder to get rid of him.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    I finally had to quite reading this series, out of sheer disgust with the author and the main character, Anita Blake. Anita's character has become increasingly paranoid and sex-crazed, to the point that she is making decisions that clearly she would not have made earlier in the series. I feel like the author is twisting this character too far in an effort to include sex and action and plot twists. I hate to see such a feisty, independent, true-blue character get so twisted out of shape over the course of a series.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The only Anita Blake that I enjoyed. Clever in places,and focused on characters. It examines what a monster is and the heroine's own struggles with the things she has done.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I read this series a long time ago. I was hooked on book one. Captivated by book two, still interested in book 4 and then it turned in to "romance" novel status. Yes, I continued to read the rest of the series, I'll admit it. But the urban part was gone and it really was just fantasy. Hamilton took a great character with a ton of potential and turned her into a sex goddess with so many lovers, who could keep track. What happened to the short, crazy haired, black nike wearing Anita. In it's place a nymphomaniac arose and I just can't find the interest to check out the most recent novel.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Hitman/preternatural bounty hunter Ted Forrester, who we know better as Edward, calls in his marker and needs Anita’s help. Anita travels to New Mexico to identify and kill off what appears to be a new type of threat. In this tale, with the usual characters left behind, Anita gets to know Ted’s surprising personal life. We also get a little on the Mayan culture and face more than one type of “monster.”Plenty of gore, action, confrontations and situations new to Anita, and for the first time we see that the things she’s witnessed working with the police is getting to her. We do meet other characters that play a role in future books as they’re part of Edward’s/Ted’s life. One is a particular threat to Anita. I’m hoping that another one shows up in a future book, but has not yet as of this writing.Once again the world and character building are fantastic and I’ve re-read this book a number of times over the years. There is one scene that some will find particularly disturbing.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5

    When one dives into an Anita Blake novel, they have to prepare themselves for lots of soul-searching, angst-ridden love and ridiculous reactions by the protagonist, Anita Blake.

    Warning: Obsidian Butterfly was the hardest to read, graphic violence against men, women and especially children, torture at the hands of people who wield power, and a gun may not be your best weapon. If you can stomach the gore and mutilations and child abuse, then you might like this book.

    Surprisingly, Obsidian Butterfly went against the grain of its earlier novels. I liked the earlier ones such as Guilty Pleasures, Sgt. Dolph and Bert, Anita’s boss at Animator’s, Inc. Later novels introduced Larry as the newbie vampire hunter and zombie raiser, but Laurell Hamilton dropped him in favor of ménage a toa between Anita, a werewolf and a vampire. But I am getting ahead of myself.

    This book is very Edward-centric. Edward, as we learned in earlier books, has no morals and kills without conscience or compunction. In fact, in the book he proves to Anita that she is not that far off from that “ideal”. He fakes her out and she immediately pulls out her Beretta calculating a decent shot. Edward says that he was just testing her. That her first thought was not “I’m going to shoot my friend, Edward.” No, it was kill or be killed. The reader thought this was quite provocative. Anita just was irritated.

    The plot, as complex as it is, has a thread through it (as others in the Anita Blake series). There’s been a series of grisly murders that are so gruesome that even Anita gets sick and vomits at the sight of the victims; what is skinning people alive and leaving them that way, ripped off eyelids and body parts (and of course sexual body parts – this is an Anita Blake novel after all).

    The author introduces a possible love interest in Detective Rodriguez but drops the guy towards the end of the book. We never hear or see him again after the book’s climax, which I consider quite a plot hole. We’re also introduced to Olaf, a psychotic killer that Edward has hired as back-up. Anita, true to her “new” character, purposely yanks his chain and it’s so stupid and adds little to the plot. Yeah, we know he’s a psycho and she’s an idiot – so?

    The book is not a complete waste of time. We meet the Obsidian Butterfly which is a place (all the Anita Blake novels’ titles are the names of fictional places) and the name of a vampire that is 1000 years old and still wants vengeance for the Spanish atrocities against the Aztec civilization. Talk about holding a grudge.

    As usual, the reader must put up with the ritual of meeting supernatural beings. The vampires always have something going on. Were-jaguars are the favored lycanthropic animal of choice in the New Mexico desert. Anita has to watch some gruesome things – torture, some gay sex and slicing and dicing of some male body parts that make the reading tough for the male reader! And the child abuse by the bad guys, though necessary, scars the mind of one of the kids and is very difficult to read. You are so glad the bad guys get what’s coming to them.

    The final confrontation between the dark forces and Anita and her gang is the best part of the book. She meets up with killers as professional and uncaring as she is. Will she and Edward survive?

    The silly sexual situations and Anita being embarrassed at the sight of a man’s genitals is particularly nuts and adds nothing – yes, nothing – to the plot whatsoever. Character development? Well, the werewolves and this Nicky Baco character were interesting, but the author only played them up for about ten or so pages. Nicky is a necromancer as Anita is, but we never see what he can do – except in a few scenes which would spoil the story if revealed.

    So, several interesting characters not fully developed, Anita finally doing some gun action, a bit of detective work (nothing like Guilty Pleasures) and using her wits more than her supernatural powers – probably the last Anita Blake novel I’m reading. Read the earlier ones of the series, much more entertaining.

  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    “The Obsidian Butterfly” is my favorite Anita Blake book thus far in the series. When Edward (aka Ted Forrester) calls in his favor, Anita is on a plane bound for Albuquerque to help him solve a series of mutilation murders. This novel takes place approximately 6-7 months after “Blue Moon” and finds Anita taking a break from not only Richard but also Jean-Claude. Without the boys, she is able to focus on her monster hunting, well as much as Anita can ever not focus on her “monster boyfriends”.

    This novel focuses more on Anita, her faith, her career as police/FBI expert, and her ability to hunt monsters. Readers will see how much Anita has grown and developed from the first in the series. It is a refreshing novel, partly due to the change in locale and also for the supporting role of Edward/Ted. This is the first novel in the series that allows readers into his life and to learn about him, his career and his relationship with Anita. The relationship between Edward and Anita is one of the main parts of this novel that makes it such a quick read – you just want to see what other secrets they can get out of each other.

    Overall, it is a great example of Hamilton’s ability to bring characters and a world filled with monsters to life. With every page there is an element of danger, mystery and gruesome that keeps you coming back for more until you can put all the pieces together.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This book is exciting and filled with mystery. Edward (AKA Death) has called in a favor with Anita upon a series of murders going on in his neck of the woods. In this book we learn a whole lot more about Edward and what makes him tick. Edward, as Ted the bounty hunter is on a case were people are being mutilated and no one has any idea as to what is going on. Edward also has a little secret that he hasn't shared with Anita and when she finds out her anger is unleashed. Never involve children with assassins sometimes violent nature. Nothing innocent. And considering that Edward has done something unthinkable I am glad that it all works out. While the bad guys are swarming Anita, Edward, as well as Bernardo (who wants in Anita's pants and is good with knives), and Olaf (who wishes to do unsavory things to women of Anita's type, and happens to be good at what he does) work together to solve the mystery, albeit with a lot of fighting thrown into the mix. While the monster works from the shadows, Itzpapalotl, the master of the city tries to uncover the secrets of the triumvirate, and Edward's secret worms its way into Anita's heart it's an all out rush to the fantastic finish.

    Also, just to add, Olaf is particularly frightening and yet entirely too perfect for the book. A man's man woman hater kind of perfect.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    I read this the summer after college. Sooo bad. This was my introduction to Laurell K. Hamilton, and I never picked up a book by her again.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Among those who have followed the Anita Blake books, Obsidian Butterfly stands along the great divide. This is the last book where Anita really is a Vampire Hunter, and uses her brains (and guns) rather than... another part of her anatomy to solve her problems. For me the series doesn't just drop in quality, it falls into an abyss after this book and it becomes a completely different series, with an entirely different focus in characters and themes. So for me this is the last good book. For some it's their favorite.In this book Anita works with Edward her fellow US Marshal--a sociopath--to investigate a series of supernatural attacks. Especially in this book, Edward reminds me of Dexter. Here he shows another side as a family man, as someone who does have a side that wants something normal. Ordinarily though he's one scary son-of-a-bitch. The thing is though, there's a lot of Edward in Anita. This book examines that, and I think that's why some name this as their favorite book. When we first meet Anita in Guilty Pleasures she was a woman who drew several moral bright lines, despite some impulsiveness and often disregard for rules. Vampires and weres were monsters to her she put down without remorse, now she's in love with--well, one of each. So up to this book, the theme of the books were, who's the monster? And the thing is in this book, the ordinary humans like Edward and Olaf (a creepy sociopath that makes Edward seem warm and normal) are definitely the scariest.Maybe. Because of all the Anita Blake books, and I read until book 18, Flirt, until giving up on them, this is the one with the big bad I remembered the best. So I have to give props to that. That said, not even fans of Anita Blake universally laud this book. For a friend of mine, this was the last Anita Blake book she could stand. There's a pretty graphic scene in this book involving the molestation of a child. For my friend that finally crossed the line. "That woman is sick." And she meant Hamilton, not the baddie. That disturbed me. Goodness knows this book doesn't represent too bright a line from what was to come. Too many times in the earlier books--and here--Anita is threatened with rape, and characters around her victimized. There have always been some icky, at times gruesome aspects to this series. But this was the last one that really had a story and where Anita was at all recognizable. The book could have ended, après moi, le déluge.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    One of the better books of the series. Things actually happen, and Anita stays true to her kickass potential.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    There was actual plot, which was nice, and the rapery was limited. (And I don't think there was a single ma petite or any other mangled French in the entire book, which was lovely.) The flaws in the world-building could have been resolved if the author had done more (or better) research on the real-life mythological underpinnings she used. I'm not sure how I feel about Edward suddenly developing emotional ties to other humans, though.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This book would have been 4 stars if not for the repeated cultural and geographic mistakes. It was definitely a horror and gore filled book, not for the light hearted -- includes child abuse and murder. Seeing Edward and getting to know more about him made this book for me. He is now a favorite.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Oh, I thought for a little while that this book would rate five stars. Even though it had way too many editing blunders, I thought it was a really strong story.My love for it waned, though, when I began to realize that once again the series was going to have a book with too much action. This time seemed it seemed like there were at least 3 distinct plots, not sub-plots because of their extensive nature. A lot of new characters were introduced, possibly too many since this story is taking place outside of St. Louis. Many of the characters seemed like they would be unimportant to the future of the series, so it didn't make sense why so much attention was given to them. Another issue I had was that this book featured yet another round of "will she or won't she" be raped. I think there were 2 times when it seemed like it was going to happen, but it didn't. Instead, the book featured something even more disturbing--a vivid description of a child being molested and a description of another child being tortured. These two acts would have been enough to make me drop from 5 stars to 2. I also was not a big fan of the ongoing tension of Anita being around a serial rapist/murderer who enjoyed torturing people who happened to fit Anita's physical characteristics. At this point in the series, I have noticed that these books are extremely formulaic. There is the repeated information from previous books (including parts lifted verbatim from past novels), Anita thinking that she's being underestimated because she's different (a woman, a freak, a zombie queen, a civilian, a supposed witch, a short person, etc.), a scene involving some sort of mental or physical torture by someone, Anita's repeated statements of being a Christian or having some moral high ground compared to others around the time that she commits or describes some horrifying act of violence, a bigot (usually from the police force) chastising Anita with Anita being immature in response, the rape of a minor character or several threats of rape to Anita, and then the revelation of the villain of the piece, who is usually a character that has been introduced fairly early and seems to be (at first) a benign character. This repeated template for the books reminds me a lot of the old episodes of Matlock, where 52 minutes into the episode, the murderer would be on the stand. It also reminds me of how on Law & Order, you meet the perpetrator at around the 15 minute mark, but the detectives don't get a clue that that's the person until 28-30 minutes in. This nature makes the books more boring than they should be.There was a true excess of violence in these books. As violent as the novels typically are, there was an extremely grotesque nature that encompassed this book. Many descriptions were so disturbing that they made me cringe or even get nauseous. I'm not opposed to gory details when it is necessary, but the constant use of them in this book was just too much.The major strength that the book carried was the exploration of Edward's real life, though some of the humanization that took place dampens his great mystique. It also makes Anita look like more of a monster than he is, as he seems to have a thread in him that allows him to love and care for people. I worry a little bit that Anita finding out about Edward's life might eventually ruin their odd friendship.I am glad that it appears that Anita is realizing that she is truly bound to Richard and Jean-Claude. She seemed to want it to just be there in case of emergencies instead of coming to terms with the fact that is now a part of who she is and who they are.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    After reading the first 8 books in this series, I must say I was a little disappointed by this one. There is a reoccurring character, Edward, that you have been dying to know a little bit more about that takes center stage only to fall a little flat. I found the dialogue to be boring and the story a little passionless. Here you are arriving at Edwards home and all he does is play a normal guy. The nice house with the soon to be wife and kids. Really? He is constantly challenging Anita over a simple gaze gone wrong and now he's totally confessing undying friendship. It felt totally out of character. I prefer my Edward as a supporting actor and with less of a staring role.Then there's Edward other guy he called in Olaf. Through out the entire book Anita is poking a stick as the bear the with her comments with the same regurgitated comments coming out of their mouths.When I take a step back for the big picture I will tell you that I loved this books predecessor Blue Moon. So I may have been a little disappointed because the previous was thrilling and fun. While this one was a little slower paced. Blue Moon was so good I can completely forget about Obsidian Butterfly.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I'm still really enjoying this series. This author really knows how to keep the tension high. However I am beginning to get really tired of the phrase(s) "...and thicker/darker things" and would appreciate some more variation in her descriptions in the future.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Anita gets to learn about Edward's past and present, while meeting some of the bounty hunters he works with and even learn about the ultra secret US government group that does wetwork with supernaturals around the world. The FBI, local cops, a vampire who believes she is a goddess, werewolf biker groups, a necromancer who is a brouha, people skinned alive who aren't, grave robbers and much more make this book exciting all by itself.Then Anita gets new powers that she can use to stop a godling from his terrible powers that will destroy the humans in New Mexico. Anita finally realizes that she cannot run anymore away from Jean Claude and Richard as the protections she thought she had built up between the other two are ripped away. And Anita helps save that day for everyone with her getting hurt again and again.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    After Blue Moon, Anita continues the adventure with book 9 of the Anita Blake series titled Obsidian Butterfly.As I have said im my previous review of Blue Moon, I think the series is on a plateau level in a way that it is not as exciting as the previous books that I have read in the series. This novel is centered with the life of Edward, assassin and a friend of Anita, and his life outside the killing industry. We will se a softer side of Edward that we don't see much often.Hamilton has introduce more character in the story line though forgot to build the character further or maybe the characters will be talked about in the next books. It's sad to say but I can see the book going through repetitive stages, what I mean by that is that it's the same all story with different characters and ending. Anita's character need to be rethinked on what to do further or is it better for the series to retire.As I said in the last review, a great series that I have been following faithfully but I am afraid that it's going in a downward spiral.With 608 pages, this book can be a drag. It almost became a DNF for me. If you are intending on reading the series like me, pick up the earlier books and maybe rethink from Blue Moon onwards. :)
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    By far my favorite of the Anita Blake series and, unfortunately, the last one worth reading. This book is a fun, dark, urban fantasy action mystery, as were the books before it. After this book, the series devolves into bad erotica. As far as I'm concerned, the Anita Blake series ends here.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    An Edward book was definately refreshing in this series. A side step from some of Anita's normal drama and one of the few in the series that i was super excited to read! Don't get me wrong- I love Anita Blake but some of it drags out... hello Micah, or the Jason focused book- seriously? =) A good series, one of the best of the books.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    My favorite Anita Blake novel yet. It really let us in to who Anita is, not what her job is or who she is dating.