Crimson Death by Laurel K. Hamilton - 2026

At the end of my 2017 review, I said "Crimson Death does not lack for pacing." I honestly don't know what I was on when I wrote that... this time around, I felt like Crimson Death was one of the slowest, worst paced things I've read in a while. Every time there was a sense of urgency, that sense died a slow, painful death of discussion, over and over. It's just so long and so drawn out and characters are expositing at each other things they already know and, as readers of this 25th book in the series, we should already know. It's also not like Hamilton doesn't know how to get from point A to point B without zigzagging through the rest of the alphabet, either. The ending batch of chapters was a perfect example of that. But no, we have to discuss everything to death and side-quest like crazy before we get there. It really wasn't fun this time around.

Honestly, Crimson Death mostly feels like a very long, slice-of-life fanfiction. The kind you read or write when you feel the need to flesh out some stuff that otherwise tends to get left on the cutting room floor due to considerations like pacing. It's not bad, exactly, but... yeah... that's what it feels like.

I still like that Anita's second Triumverate got some spotlight. It's about time. I also like getting to learn about the Fey a little more... a very little more, I might add. I also liked the glimpses we got of other power-scaling happening with Jean-Claude and Sin. I also liked the Harlequin stuff, which I would have sworn before I started this reread happened earlier. It's neat to hear how their power-scaling has been affected by the change in leadership.

Oh, and I had a long paragraph in my notes about how I wanted to throw the book at the wall pretty early on due to Detective Logan. He's extremely abrasive right off the bat and is the person the Anita vs. the Police stuff is passed through this time around, which makes me crazy. He hasn't even met her in person at this point and that doesn't get better when he does. So... yeah, thought that was worth a mention.

It really does feel like the ending of the book is rushed. I've honestly been feeling this way about a lot of the Anita Blake endings lately. They're largely unconnected from the rest of the book and just kind of need to happen to end the story. Again, not exactly bad, but given how the rest of the book was... you can feel the rushing... or maybe that's just because the pacing finally picked back up to where it needed to be, not sure. I am definitely not saying we needed more of Moroven posturing, but... yeah. Eh. I'm just not nearly as positive about Crimson Death as I used to be.

Favorite Lines

"Ah, I think much more happens in the back of people's heads than in the front." - Echo

"You can't talk to Bruce Wayne about Batman if you know they're the same person." - Nathaniel Graison

"Just because people are younger than you are doesn't make them children, just young." - Anita Blake

"If you're going to loot the bodies, take the extra ammo." - Anita Blake 

Slay by Laurell K. Hamilton

A Spoiler Free Review

I am overall much happier with Slay than I was with Smoulder. I feel like stuff actually happened and was resolved in a satisfying manner that didn't leave me wishing for a second half of the book. I am kind of over the massive amount of characters we have to keep track of at any given moment... I really just can't keep focused on more than whoever's "on stage" and even then it's like "Wait, who's that again?" or just rolling with it. The same goes for the bad guys. At this point, I think I'm having a hard time feeling any kind of actual threat from them. Deimos was scary to Anita, but not really to me. I didn't really feel any of the threat with Anita because, well, it's 30 books in and it's just not feasible for her to really lose or be permanently separated from her loved ones. I definitely felt the threat from her Grandmother at the end... but I won't say anything more than that about that because spoilers so... yeah.

I did think Deimos had an interesting power set. That he could essentially throw an entire city into chaos by feeding the fears of hate groups and everyone, apparently, was neat. Ultimately disastrous, but you kind of know that if you know people so... yeah. Fear makes us do some fucked up shit, that's for sure. For example... human history. But that's a rant for another time. Also Deimos' dragon form was interesting. I don't know about anyone else, but I definitely clocked that we'd be getting a dragon as soon as crime scene photos started appearing "on stage." Like, yep, only thing that could have bitten a dude in half in one bite and left reptilian footprints was gonna be a dragon. Well... maybe a dinosaur, but my brain dismissed that one pretty quickly... though I guess Deimos could have been a dinosaur instead of a dragon but... nah. Earliest vampire at this point was Mommy Dearest and she was a sabre toothed cat so... yeah. No more dinos at that point in time.

I don't really have much feeling toward Anita's family. They're definitely the epitome of "we're not close at all except for perfunctory things like weddings, but we still think we have some say in your life because we're your family." Or at least, Fredrick and Grandma Blake are. Judith and Andria are clearly more supportive and accepting. Josh is just kind of there in the background, not being "on stage" this time except for a few moments. Fredrick really pissed me off. I sincerely hate his insistence that Anita conform to his ideas about respecting your parents because they're your parents and treating his adult child like she's not an adult in the same breath. Just no. My grandfather tried to pull that crap on me once and I literally screamed in his face and walked away. Probably not the best way to handle it, but it's funny in hindsight. Grandma Blake... really should have just been kept away, like Anita wanted. Anita was definitely the bigger person by not calling off the entire thing immediately when Grandma Blake appeared.

I feel like the entire thing with the Wicked Truth at the hospital really slowed down the pacing. I mean, I guess it was a nice break from the action-action-action happening, but I dunno. It did serve to show how weird it was for Anita to be without the metaphysical stuff for once in a very long time. Definitely wouldn't want that to be the norm. Also that part of the book kind of drove home how really weird and awkward it is to have security also be either lovers or former lovers. Like, I don't know why I didn't really think about it until now, but yeah... awkward stuff with Echo.

So yeah, I was much happier with Slay and it was definitely a lot of fun. Happy 30th birthday to the Anita Blake series. Only 5 years younger than me.

Favorite Lines

"     Judith said, 'Language.'

     I stared at her as I said, 'Motherfucking son of a bitch, what's wrong with my language, Judith?'" - Judith and Anita Blake

"The only difference from the Church's perspective was that vampires were dead, so they couldn't repent, but the bloodiest serial killer could still be saved if they were truly repentant. I'd met serial killers both undead and alive, and they weren't savable. What they had done to their victims put them outside of God's Grace or the salvation of Jesus Christ." - Anita Blake

"It's just rude to leave bodily fluids in public." - Anita Blake

"Part of true love is telling each other the truth even when we don't want to hear it and reminding us again when we forget what we've already told each other." - Anita Blake

Crimson Death by Laurell K. Hamilton

Originally Posted to GoodReads: September 24, 2017

Soo... I understand that apparently every book in the series is supposed to explain how things work at the beginning in order to catch new readers up to speed but... this is the 25th book in the series and those of us who've read the entire series don't need it and it's annoying. If a new reader is truly interested, they'll go back and read the rest to bring themselves up to speed... or else google things.

That said, I enjoyed a good portion of Crimson Death... after getting past the half of the book that was re-treads and continuing drama. The actual new content was pretty awesome. I like that the second Triumverate is getting some spot-light.

The second half of the book, the part that I was most interested in, felt rather rushed. I enjoyed the Irish mythos stuff and the mystery-solving, but... the climax of the book was so rushed I didn't realize things had happened or that they'd happened for real. Also, not sure the official reason of Anita and her team actually being in Ireland was addressed after the climax. That part's honestly confusing as hell.

Overall, I enjoyed Crimson Death enough to get through it in less than a week. Crimson Death does not lack for pacing.

Dead Ice by Laurell K. Hamilton

Originally Posted to GoodReads: September 16, 2017

Re-read review. Most likely spoilers.

I don't remember my original thoughts on Dead Ice but my current biggest thought is that the professional parts of Anita's life are getting more shoved to the side in favor of the interpersonal parts. While that's not necessarily a bad thing, the balance between the two is hard to strike well. Affliction was the best one as far as balancing these things out goes, in my opinion. Dead Ice isn't bad at it, either. There's definitely a lot going on here and the mystery aspect set up at the beginning is put on the back burner for what seems like a large chunk of the book and then resolved rather quickly and almost too abruptly at the end.

Anita's power-ups are really the main focus of Dead Ice. Technically not just hers, either, but I think Micah and Dev's power-ups come through her so... it's mostly Anita. The main power-up is dealt with very well and I almost wish the whole FBI thing wasn't even included because the life-like/flesh-eating zombie thing was a lot more interesting.

Of course, the interpersonal stuff between the ever more complicated poly-group is once again going through some changes/rough patches. Asher's once again on the shit list for being dumb and the tigers seem to be thinking more politically than romantically, which bugged me the first time and still bugs me. You guys are anticipating living long enough to have more than one commitment ceremony if you feel like it, prophecy of ridiculous be damned. Let those who are sure get on with it and butt out. Oh, and Richard's being less of a dick than usual, so I guess that's nice. I haven't liked him for a long time and that opinion hasn't changed.

Other random notes:
- Dev and Nicky are my favorite comic-relief duo.
- I love Echo and Fortune.
- Kane can go die in a ditch for all I care.
- Random metaphysical show-downs are kind of fun.
- Can one of the wererats just bite Anita already or something?
- Narcissus' manipulations hinge on exactly one thing and I thought it was weird he kept bringing up that one thing over and over.

So anyway, I enjoyed Dead Ice and think it probably could have been two books just based on Anita's power-up thing and the mystery, but it's not too cluttered for all there is in it.

Smoulder by Laurell K. Hamilton

I am a long time Anita Blake fan. I’ve read all the books to date — most of them at least twice — and even a couple of the graphic novels just for funsies. I devoured Smoulder in three days. Would have been two, but I had to work. Honestly, Smoulder feels super unfinished. I want to say there are two major plot lines introduced in Smoulder that just don’t come to any sort of conclusion and the third, continuing plot line that kind of does. It’s felt very odd when Smoulder just sort of petered off when it did. The book wasn’t bad, but the ending was definitely a… uh… I don’t know how to describe it in a single word. I felt like I had whip-lash from the ending, because I was expecting more.

So, the first story line that I felt should have had an ending was the Sunshine Murder thing. Usually, Anita gets called in to help with a case and that’s the over-arching plot of the book. But not so here. Anita gets called in to consult and then… nothing. Dolph sidelines her from the case and apparently McKinnon’s magic do-hickey means nothing in the long-run of Smoulder. Okay… but fine.

Second story line: the while Deimos thing. Anita and the gang are attacked and barely get out with the power they currently have. We spend much of the rest of the book theorizing on how to take out Deimos. And then… nothing. No second attack, no actually going after Deimos, just prep work. Uh… what? This one feels like it got stopped right in the middle. It’s the story line I’m really annoyed pretty much goes nowhere.

The continuing story line of Anita’s love life keeps getting on. We get Richard back in the mix and Asher’s nonsense continues. Another part of this kind of concludes because of the Deimos story line, but, as usual, there are more issue to work out. I’m happier with this bit, but… ugh. Just… everyone talks like they’ve got a partial psychology degree and they explain things to the point of smacking the reader over the head with them. Also, all this talking really killed the pacing for me. Aaand everyone goes to sleep all of a sudden with no food? That was kind of a large part of the focus that go forgotten, I guess.

I’m not sure exactly what I was expecting from Smoulder but this wasn’t it. I definitely expected more story and it just cut off. Adding a Sneak Peak at Slay didn’t endear the abrupt ending to me either. I didn’t read it, to be totally honest. I really expect more out of the Anita Blake novels.

Favorite Line

"Yeah, existential dread and the search for identity is a bummer." - Anita Blake

Character Spotlight: Rodina

There are spoilers in this section. You've been warned.

I really feel like I should talk some about Rodina because she's a big part of this book. So first, I will probably never get it through my thick skull that she's a wereleopard. With a name like "Rodina" my brain will always think "rat." But that's whatever. Rodina is fairly new to the Anita Blake universe, at least as far as readers are concerned. She's also understandably having an existential crisis during Smoulder on top of grieving for her brother Rodrigo -- she has been ripped from her previous life and it is their birthday. Although I've complained a little about how everyone in this series talks like a therapy ad, I really hope Rodina actually ends up working on herself through the therapy she's agreed to go to with her other brother, Ru. I feel like she'd be a really fun character once her spitefulness is worked out.