This post contains spoilers for the Laurell K. Hamilton novels Smolder and Slay.

A few months back, I reviewed Smolder by Laurell K. Hamilton. Recently the thirtieth Anita Blake book, Slay, was released, and while I read it and enjoyed some of it, it still suffers from the same problems as Smolder. Too many characters, too much talking, too much introspection. One place it’s better, though, is that there’s a few big action set-pieces and Hamilton proves she can still write action.

The book starts out with us finally meeting Anita’s family, who’ve been alluded to for the past thirty books. Then there’s a conversation in the airport that’s so long that it literally made me want to throw my phone across the room. I’m sorry, but people do not have these types of conversations in airports, in the area between the end of security and the baggage claim area. Add to that the fact that we have to get to know (once again) every fucking character and it’s almost ten percent of the book gone by the time we get to the first main action — Jean-Claude meeting the family. Oh, but before that, there has to be at least another chapter or so of bodyguard shuffle — ever since Smolder, there’ve been new threats against the St. Louis vampires and their ilk.

Finally, finally, we get a little payoff when we learn that Anita’s stepmother isn’t as wicked as we thought, and we once again rehash the abuse Anita’s paternal grandmother heaped upon her, along with a healthy side of therapy-speak. It takes at least 25 percent of the book before something actually happens, and then there’s a shitload more talking and a scene where — I shit you not — the main character and her bodyguards drive around a hospital parking lot, looking for a spot. I’m sure the reason for the scene made sense to the author, but to a reader it’s a waste of pages.

After the hospital, I honestly don’t remember what happened before Anita got kidnapped. Richard shows up, a formerly-dead wereleopard shows up, Anita is psychologically tortured, and throughout all of this she’s trying to figure out why her powers have been diminished and what that means for her. That part was interesting, and if you can get past the clunky parts, it’s not bad. Finally there’s a big action sequence, which kept my interest all the way through to the end of the book.

One problem with the action sequence, though: while Anita does get some catharsis, she doesn’t take down the big bad. I once wrote a novel (under another name) where I had the main character’s girlfriend come in at the last minute to save him from the big bad, and a well-known science fiction author read the draft and told me it takes away all the main character’s agency. So I rewrote that part, and he said it was better. I took those lessons to heart when I wrote my next novel (under the same name). Clearly Hamilton didn’t — she puts her first-person protagonist more or less on the sidelines, making her an observer while other characters do the actual work to slay the… well, I’m not going to spoil it for you, but slaying occurs.

Another problem I had with this book is that we don’t spend a lot of time with established characters — Micah, Nathaniel, and Damian are barely there, in favor of Nicky, Ethan, and some of the Harlequin who were introduced in a recent volume. I’m not here to read about Anita’s bodyguards; I’m here to read about the characters who’ve kept my interest through the whole series, ever since their introduction.

At least there wasn’t gratuitous sex, although at the end the author includes a “spicy” deleted scene that suffers from the same pitfalls as the rest of her writing: too much talking, not enough action. I didn’t know it was possible to make a BDSM rough sex breathplay scene read in such a way that I just wanted it to end, especially when the author was trying to titillate the reader, but she pulled it off. I know why she wrote it the way she did, and it’s the same reason she writes polyamory the way she does: she wants to portray healthy, loving polyamorous and kink relationships. I appreciate that. But it just never seems to work. I just didn’t care that Anita and Nicky talked about how to make their scene safer; they’ve already negotiated this kind of play, and they wouldn’t stop in the middle to talk about safewords. Nicky would already know them, and Anita would trust him to respect them. It just… it baffles me how someone who’s written some fairly hot sex scenes in the past made something that I should have enjoyed so… so blah.

As with Smolder, fans of the series should read this book. Eventually it’ll lead up to Anita and Jean-Claude getting married, which I’m sure will drive me nuts to read, what with all her poly partners, but I’m curious how many more books there’ll be before we get there. However, if you’re not already a fan of the Anita Blake series, Slay probably isn’t for you.