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 Customer Reviews
More magic battles and intrigue, 24 Nov 2008
I totally disagree with the first two reviewers. Yes the rape doesn't traumatize her as much as it would a normal person, but she is supposed to be a magical person descended from a love goddess who has unborn twins genetically derived from 6 of her lovers trying to stay alive long enough to rule the fey! - surely you cant quibble about reality at this point in the series...
If you like a fun fantasy with a sassy heroine, trying to deal with court intrigues, old feuds and the various lands of the sidhe all battling each other then this is a great series, and a good book. However you rea;;y do need to read them in order to keep track of who is who.
Non stop action, 14 Nov 2008
So many things happen in such a short space of time that there is no chance to be bored with this book. Everyone is still trying to assassinate Merry and her men, there are lots of cliff hanger moments and plenty of blood, but very little sex in this one.
I agree with some other reviewers that the rape is glossed over, but I think this is more to do with so much happening and Merry has not yet remembered it than being ignored by Hamilton.
The book left me itching to know what will happen in Los Angeles, will she ever be queen, how will the men who have spent little or no time outside faerie adapt to the human world, how will magic spread to the humans... I could go on and on with questions. All good books leave you with wanting more, and this one certainly left me waiting impatiently for the next Merry book.
poorly written., 09 Nov 2008
Laurell K Hamilton's books have been getting steadily worse for a long long time. I'm still reading in the hopes that she'll start to show some of what used to make her so enjoyable again. The early Anita Blake books were quite entertaining and when the Merry Gentry series started I really enjoyed the first few books too. Sadly things started to slide when the books lost all plot and descended into almost constant sex scenes that spanned the whole entire book. I enjoy sex in books but not to the exclusion of plot. This book can't be tarred with that reason for being bad however as the sex is kept to a minimum - well as minimum as LKH seems to be able to keep it these days anyway and there is a storyline of sorts.
To summarise the plot, the book starts directly after the events of A Lick of Frost (Meredith Gentry 6) with Merry in hospital after being raped by her Uncle Tarranis (Merry shows almost no signs of any trauma - very strange) then a plot to kill Merry's guards begins to unfurl and Merry calls up te wild hunt in revenge to go chassing after the plotters. And that's about it as far as plot goes, Merry reacting to all that the seelie and unseelie and the sluagh and the goblins can throw at her while gaining magical power ups from the Goddess. There is a plot, even if it's mostly the tying up of old threads and dealing with random people that get in her way.
The real problem I found was her repetitive and silly descriptions that read as if they had been lifted directly from one book to the next. On more than one occasion I laughed out loud they were so bad - it sort of spoils the mood of the story when the terrible prose distracts you from the plot. Everything is all sparkly and moonlight lit with detailed pointless descriptions of hair and clothes and rose petals raining from the sky.
I enjoyed the early Merry Gentry novels and I suppose that this book could have seen an end of the series as many of the loose ends from previous books have been tied off. Her father's killer has been unmasked and her enemies defeated for the most part. Unfortunately I don't think that this will be the case and more stories will be spun out with Merry doing more sparkly, magical, and wonderful things with new powers given conveniently by the Goddess just in time and with conversations that start in the middle of the action and just drag on and on to showcase Merry's wonderfullness. I think LKH need to take a break from writing for a while not churn out a Merry and an Anita book every year. She needs to go back and re-read all her books and rediscover her characters for herself and maybe things might improve. I'm still reading in hopes they do but i'm not sure how much longer I will be.
Swallowing tedium, 05 Nov 2008
For her last few books, Laurell K. Hamilton has been toning down the sexual content in favor of what can be loosely termed "plot."
Well, turns out there are far worse things than endless sparkly-magical sex scenes. After the shattering cliffhanger ending of the previous book, the seventh Merry Gentry book "Swallowing Darkness" promptly goes on a road tour of Faerie instead of sticking to an actual central plot. It feels like Hamilton has gone as far as she can, and is flailing around instead of getting out of the water.
In the aftermath of being raped by her uncle, Merry is recovering in the hospital... and despite all the moping about how doctors "can't undo the damage," she gets over the rape by cuddling her favorite boytoy.
After ordering her various fey boytoys not to attack Taranis, she receives a visit from her feisty brownie grandma. Unfortunately there's a malign influence warping Gran's thoughts -- with disastrous and fatal results for three people close to Merry. Enraged, she and Sholto summon the Wild Hunt and set out to destroy the conspirators.
But it turns out that the conspiracy goes far further than Merry expected -- and that certain Golden Court sidhe are trying to weed out the stronger boytoys. And of course, divine magical favors just rain down on Merry whenever she sneezes. To keep her entire harem (half of whom I've forgotten) safe, Merry decides to take drastic steps in the human world... but only finds a new conflict with her cousin Cel.
Having knocked up her heroine -- which is supposedly the series' goal -- Laurell K. Hamilton seems to be at a loss for what to do to keep the series going ahead. So we end up with a bunch of vaguely connected crises, punctuated by interludes of Sparkly Magic From Goddess-Merry, magic horsies and lots of sparkly magic roses. It's a little like being alternately choked with flowers and clubbed with a rock.
"Swallowing Darkness" does manage an impressive amount of plot, including the resolution of couple half-forgotten subplots -- and a surprising twist during Merry's stay in the sluagh. Unfortunately most of the plot is just Hamilton slapping in new random problems whenever things get too peaceful. Whoops, somebody's suddenly dying! Eek, a traitor! Yikes, a royal challenge from out of nowhere!
Nor does Hamilton's writing help, since she seems to be bored with her own story when she isn't trying to channel Patricia McKillip's lush prose. Her incredibly stilted, rambling dialogue ("We ride." "To save your Storm Lord." "To save the future of faerie"), repetition (everybody seems to have "moonlight skin") and awkward descriptions ("Gold like the metal of a piece of jewelry") hamper the story even further.
And as with all Hamilton's fairy novels, we get hot pale supernatural men who all worship the heroine, dumb blinkered mortals, lightweight Wiccan theology, Christian-bashing, oral sex worship, and lots of nasty and/or crazy women who simply can't measure up to the heroine. Yes, even a sweet li'l old grandma, who is reviled for daring to hold a grudge against her mother's murderer.
But the book's biggest weakness is Merry Gentry herself. She floats through the book in a cloud of Convenient Magical Powers and occasionally pauses to cold-bloodedly kill people. Everybody is awed by her even if she kills them -- and she declares herself to be a goddess as well. It gets rather nauseating to have a heroine who is such a blatant self-insert.
"Swallowing Darkness" has some shreds of good plot in there, but they're surrounded by jack-in-the-box disasters and a main storyline that is being stretched way too far. And it's not over yet....
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Customer Reviews
More magic battles and intrigue, 24 Nov 2008
I totally disagree with the first two reviewers. Yes the rape doesn't traumatize her as much as it would a normal person, but she is supposed to be a magical person descended from a love goddess who has unborn twins genetically derived from 6 of her lovers trying to stay alive long enough to rule the fey! - surely you cant quibble about reality at this point in the series...
If you like a fun fantasy with a sassy heroine, trying to deal with court intrigues, old feuds and the various lands of the sidhe all battling each other then this is a great series, and a good book. However you rea;;y do need to read them in order to keep track of who is who.
Non stop action, 14 Nov 2008
So many things happen in such a short space of time that there is no chance to be bored with this book. Everyone is still trying to assassinate Merry and her men, there are lots of cliff hanger moments and plenty of blood, but very little sex in this one.
I agree with some other reviewers that the rape is glossed over, but I think this is more to do with so much happening and Merry has not yet remembered it than being ignored by Hamilton.
The book left me itching to know what will happen in Los Angeles, will she ever be queen, how will the men who have spent little or no time outside faerie adapt to the human world, how will magic spread to the humans... I could go on and on with questions. All good books leave you with wanting more, and this one certainly left me waiting impatiently for the next Merry book.
poorly written., 09 Nov 2008
Laurell K Hamilton's books have been getting steadily worse for a long long time. I'm still reading in the hopes that she'll start to show some of what used to make her so enjoyable again. The early Anita Blake books were quite entertaining and when the Merry Gentry series started I really enjoyed the first few books too. Sadly things started to slide when the books lost all plot and descended into almost constant sex scenes that spanned the whole entire book. I enjoy sex in books but not to the exclusion of plot. This book can't be tarred with that reason for being bad however as the sex is kept to a minimum - well as minimum as LKH seems to be able to keep it these days anyway and there is a storyline of sorts.
To summarise the plot, the book starts directly after the events of A Lick of Frost (Meredith Gentry 6) with Merry in hospital after being raped by her Uncle Tarranis (Merry shows almost no signs of any trauma - very strange) then a plot to kill Merry's guards begins to unfurl and Merry calls up te wild hunt in revenge to go chassing after the plotters. And that's about it as far as plot goes, Merry reacting to all that the seelie and unseelie and the sluagh and the goblins can throw at her while gaining magical power ups from the Goddess. There is a plot, even if it's mostly the tying up of old threads and dealing with random people that get in her way.
The real problem I found was her repetitive and silly descriptions that read as if they had been lifted directly from one book to the next. On more than one occasion I laughed out loud they were so bad - it sort of spoils the mood of the story when the terrible prose distracts you from the plot. Everything is all sparkly and moonlight lit with detailed pointless descriptions of hair and clothes and rose petals raining from the sky.
I enjoyed the early Merry Gentry novels and I suppose that this book could have seen an end of the series as many of the loose ends from previous books have been tied off. Her father's killer has been unmasked and her enemies defeated for the most part. Unfortunately I don't think that this will be the case and more stories will be spun out with Merry doing more sparkly, magical, and wonderful things with new powers given conveniently by the Goddess just in time and with conversations that start in the middle of the action and just drag on and on to showcase Merry's wonderfullness. I think LKH need to take a break from writing for a while not churn out a Merry and an Anita book every year. She needs to go back and re-read all her books and rediscover her characters for herself and maybe things might improve. I'm still reading in hopes they do but i'm not sure how much longer I will be.
Swallowing tedium, 05 Nov 2008
For her last few books, Laurell K. Hamilton has been toning down the sexual content in favor of what can be loosely termed "plot."
Well, turns out there are far worse things than endless sparkly-magical sex scenes. After the shattering cliffhanger ending of the previous book, the seventh Merry Gentry book "Swallowing Darkness" promptly goes on a road tour of Faerie instead of sticking to an actual central plot. It feels like Hamilton has gone as far as she can, and is flailing around instead of getting out of the water.
In the aftermath of being raped by her uncle, Merry is recovering in the hospital... and despite all the moping about how doctors "can't undo the damage," she gets over the rape by cuddling her favorite boytoy.
After ordering her various fey boytoys not to attack Taranis, she receives a visit from her feisty brownie grandma. Unfortunately there's a malign influence warping Gran's thoughts -- with disastrous and fatal results for three people close to Merry. Enraged, she and Sholto summon the Wild Hunt and set out to destroy the conspirators.
But it turns out that the conspiracy goes far further than Merry expected -- and that certain Golden Court sidhe are trying to weed out the stronger boytoys. And of course, divine magical favors just rain down on Merry whenever she sneezes. To keep her entire harem (half of whom I've forgotten) safe, Merry decides to take drastic steps in the human world... but only finds a new conflict with her cousin Cel.
Having knocked up her heroine -- which is supposedly the series' goal -- Laurell K. Hamilton seems to be at a loss for what to do to keep the series going ahead. So we end up with a bunch of vaguely connected crises, punctuated by interludes of Sparkly Magic From Goddess-Merry, magic horsies and lots of sparkly magic roses. It's a little like being alternately choked with flowers and clubbed with a rock.
"Swallowing Darkness" does manage an impressive amount of plot, including the resolution of couple half-forgotten subplots -- and a surprising twist during Merry's stay in the sluagh. Unfortunately most of the plot is just Hamilton slapping in new random problems whenever things get too peaceful. Whoops, somebody's suddenly dying! Eek, a traitor! Yikes, a royal challenge from out of nowhere!
Nor does Hamilton's writing help, since she seems to be bored with her own story when she isn't trying to channel Patricia McKillip's lush prose. Her incredibly stilted, rambling dialogue ("We ride." "To save your Storm Lord." "To save the future of faerie"), repetition (everybody seems to have "moonlight skin") and awkward descriptions ("Gold like the metal of a piece of jewelry") hamper the story even further.
And as with all Hamilton's fairy novels, we get hot pale supernatural men who all worship the heroine, dumb blinkered mortals, lightweight Wiccan theology, Christian-bashing, oral sex worship, and lots of nasty and/or crazy women who simply can't measure up to the heroine. Yes, even a sweet li'l old grandma, who is reviled for daring to hold a grudge against her mother's murderer.
But the book's biggest weakness is Merry Gentry herself. She floats through the book in a cloud of Convenient Magical Powers and occasionally pauses to cold-bloodedly kill people. Everybody is awed by her even if she kills them -- and she declares herself to be a goddess as well. It gets rather nauseating to have a heroine who is such a blatant self-insert.
"Swallowing Darkness" has some shreds of good plot in there, but they're surrounded by jack-in-the-box disasters and a main storyline that is being stretched way too far. And it's not over yet....
Back on Form, Yay, 15 Aug 2008
The first Merry Gentry book was a breath of fresh air, more recent ones have got bogged down in endlessly creative sex scenes (emphasis more on the endless). This is the author back on form, much plot and characterisation, the story moves forward for the first time in ages and its a zinger - waiting impatiently for the next installment now.
Wow!, 31 May 2008
I used to be a huge fan of Laurell K. Hamilton's books. That was, until the plot got railroaded in favour of sex.
I didn't mind if the sex scenes had a reason behind them, as they tend to in the Merry Gentry books, but I admit that I put off reading this book, until I had a holiday coming up.
Now I wish I hadn't waited! I'm glad I took two books with me, even though I'm not a fast reader, because I finished this in a single day! It usually takes a few weeks for me to read a book about this size, but once I started it, I couldn't put it down! That says a lot about this book.
The story starts slow, but as it grows you find yourself sympathising with Merry... when the moment that this book was written for comes, you feel the same emotions that Merry does (trying not to spoil it for you), I even shed a tear at this point, and I'm not afraid to admit it!
It is a good book, easy to read and a welcome return to form for LKH!
The plot thickens!!!, 08 May 2008
This is an excellent addition to the Merry Gentry series, whilst it continues the theme of sex, more sex, and yet more sex, it continues to move the story on.
You find yourself empathising with Merry as she tries to look forward to what happens if she does get pregnant and has to stick to one man, and worries about who it will be, and what will happen to the rest.
The continuing peeks into the minds of the supporting characters really helps to draw you into the world.
Once again another page turner - keep you up all night till you've finished it - book from LKH.
A good fantasy, 04 Feb 2008
The story goes something like this: Prince Cel is freed from his imprisonment so Princess Merry Gentry and her retinue (bodyguards and lovers) travel to Los Angeles to escape her insane cousin's assassination attempts. Cel wants Merry dead to insure she never gets pregnant because if she does she becomes the heir to the throne of the Unseelie Court currently ruled by the sadistic Queen Andais. At present Merry is at her lawyer's office dealing with the authorities who consider pressing charges against three of her guards for rape against a member of the Seelie Court. Merry's Uncle Taranis, King of Light and Illusion of the Seelie Court, made the accusation that his niece believes are false instead she thinks there is a method to his madness that she just ahs not figured out yet. When things do not go according to his plan, Taranis becomes irate and tries a more direct approach on Merry. Meanwhile members of the Seelie Court offer her his throne. With Cel, Andais, and Taranis aiming at her, Merry finds Los Angeles as unsafe as the Unseelie Court!! I'd also recommend, if you missed Tino Georgiou's novel--The Fates, getting a copy--absolutely fab..
Well finally..., 29 Jan 2008
A book in which something other then sex actually happens - I love the characters and am fascinated by the story but the endless, mindless, pointless sex in the series was really beginning to wear me down. So thank God that we got some plot in this one... Keep it up Laurell - I'm dying to see what happens!
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Customer Reviews
More magic battles and intrigue, 24 Nov 2008
I totally disagree with the first two reviewers. Yes the rape doesn't traumatize her as much as it would a normal person, but she is supposed to be a magical person descended from a love goddess who has unborn twins genetically derived from 6 of her lovers trying to stay alive long enough to rule the fey! - surely you cant quibble about reality at this point in the series...
If you like a fun fantasy with a sassy heroine, trying to deal with court intrigues, old feuds and the various lands of the sidhe all battling each other then this is a great series, and a good book. However you rea;;y do need to read them in order to keep track of who is who.
Non stop action, 14 Nov 2008
So many things happen in such a short space of time that there is no chance to be bored with this book. Everyone is still trying to assassinate Merry and her men, there are lots of cliff hanger moments and plenty of blood, but very little sex in this one.
I agree with some other reviewers that the rape is glossed over, but I think this is more to do with so much happening and Merry has not yet remembered it than being ignored by Hamilton.
The book left me itching to know what will happen in Los Angeles, will she ever be queen, how will the men who have spent little or no time outside faerie adapt to the human world, how will magic spread to the humans... I could go on and on with questions. All good books leave you with wanting more, and this one certainly left me waiting impatiently for the next Merry book.
poorly written., 09 Nov 2008
Laurell K Hamilton's books have been getting steadily worse for a long long time. I'm still reading in the hopes that she'll start to show some of what used to make her so enjoyable again. The early Anita Blake books were quite entertaining and when the Merry Gentry series started I really enjoyed the first few books too. Sadly things started to slide when the books lost all plot and descended into almost constant sex scenes that spanned the whole entire book. I enjoy sex in books but not to the exclusion of plot. This book can't be tarred with that reason for being bad however as the sex is kept to a minimum - well as minimum as LKH seems to be able to keep it these days anyway and there is a storyline of sorts.
To summarise the plot, the book starts directly after the events of A Lick of Frost (Meredith Gentry 6) with Merry in hospital after being raped by her Uncle Tarranis (Merry shows almost no signs of any trauma - very strange) then a plot to kill Merry's guards begins to unfurl and Merry calls up te wild hunt in revenge to go chassing after the plotters. And that's about it as far as plot goes, Merry reacting to all that the seelie and unseelie and the sluagh and the goblins can throw at her while gaining magical power ups from the Goddess. There is a plot, even if it's mostly the tying up of old threads and dealing with random people that get in her way.
The real problem I found was her repetitive and silly descriptions that read as if they had been lifted directly from one book to the next. On more than one occasion I laughed out loud they were so bad - it sort of spoils the mood of the story when the terrible prose distracts you from the plot. Everything is all sparkly and moonlight lit with detailed pointless descriptions of hair and clothes and rose petals raining from the sky.
I enjoyed the early Merry Gentry novels and I suppose that this book could have seen an end of the series as many of the loose ends from previous books have been tied off. Her father's killer has been unmasked and her enemies defeated for the most part. Unfortunately I don't think that this will be the case and more stories will be spun out with Merry doing more sparkly, magical, and wonderful things with new powers given conveniently by the Goddess just in time and with conversations that start in the middle of the action and just drag on and on to showcase Merry's wonderfullness. I think LKH need to take a break from writing for a while not churn out a Merry and an Anita book every year. She needs to go back and re-read all her books and rediscover her characters for herself and maybe things might improve. I'm still reading in hopes they do but i'm not sure how much longer I will be.
Swallowing tedium, 05 Nov 2008
For her last few books, Laurell K. Hamilton has been toning down the sexual content in favor of what can be loosely termed "plot."
Well, turns out there are far worse things than endless sparkly-magical sex scenes. After the shattering cliffhanger ending of the previous book, the seventh Merry Gentry book "Swallowing Darkness" promptly goes on a road tour of Faerie instead of sticking to an actual central plot. It feels like Hamilton has gone as far as she can, and is flailing around instead of getting out of the water.
In the aftermath of being raped by her uncle, Merry is recovering in the hospital... and despite all the moping about how doctors "can't undo the damage," she gets over the rape by cuddling her favorite boytoy.
After ordering her various fey boytoys not to attack Taranis, she receives a visit from her feisty brownie grandma. Unfortunately there's a malign influence warping Gran's thoughts -- with disastrous and fatal results for three people close to Merry. Enraged, she and Sholto summon the Wild Hunt and set out to destroy the conspirators.
But it turns out that the conspiracy goes far further than Merry expected -- and that certain Golden Court sidhe are trying to weed out the stronger boytoys. And of course, divine magical favors just rain down on Merry whenever she sneezes. To keep her entire harem (half of whom I've forgotten) safe, Merry decides to take drastic steps in the human world... but only finds a new conflict with her cousin Cel.
Having knocked up her heroine -- which is supposedly the series' goal -- Laurell K. Hamilton seems to be at a loss for what to do to keep the series going ahead. So we end up with a bunch of vaguely connected crises, punctuated by interludes of Sparkly Magic From Goddess-Merry, magic horsies and lots of sparkly magic roses. It's a little like being alternately choked with flowers and clubbed with a rock.
"Swallowing Darkness" does manage an impressive amount of plot, including the resolution of couple half-forgotten subplots -- and a surprising twist during Merry's stay in the sluagh. Unfortunately most of the plot is just Hamilton slapping in new random problems whenever things get too peaceful. Whoops, somebody's suddenly dying! Eek, a traitor! Yikes, a royal challenge from out of nowhere!
Nor does Hamilton's writing help, since she seems to be bored with her own story when she isn't trying to channel Patricia McKillip's lush prose. Her incredibly stilted, rambling dialogue ("We ride." "To save your Storm Lord." "To save the future of faerie"), repetition (everybody seems to have "moonlight skin") and awkward descriptions ("Gold like the metal of a piece of jewelry") hamper the story even further.
And as with all Hamilton's fairy novels, we get hot pale supernatural men who all worship the heroine, dumb blinkered mortals, lightweight Wiccan theology, Christian-bashing, oral sex worship, and lots of nasty and/or crazy women who simply can't measure up to the heroine. Yes, even a sweet li'l old grandma, who is reviled for daring to hold a grudge against her mother's murderer.
But the book's biggest weakness is Merry Gentry herself. She floats through the book in a cloud of Convenient Magical Powers and occasionally pauses to cold-bloodedly kill people. Everybody is awed by her even if she kills them -- and she declares herself to be a goddess as well. It gets rather nauseating to have a heroine who is such a blatant self-insert.
"Swallowing Darkness" has some shreds of good plot in there, but they're surrounded by jack-in-the-box disasters and a main storyline that is being stretched way too far. And it's not over yet....
Back on Form, Yay, 15 Aug 2008
The first Merry Gentry book was a breath of fresh air, more recent ones have got bogged down in endlessly creative sex scenes (emphasis more on the endless). This is the author back on form, much plot and characterisation, the story moves forward for the first time in ages and its a zinger - waiting impatiently for the next installment now.
Wow!, 31 May 2008
I used to be a huge fan of Laurell K. Hamilton's books. That was, until the plot got railroaded in favour of sex.
I didn't mind if the sex scenes had a reason behind them, as they tend to in the Merry Gentry books, but I admit that I put off reading this book, until I had a holiday coming up.
Now I wish I hadn't waited! I'm glad I took two books with me, even though I'm not a fast reader, because I finished this in a single day! It usually takes a few weeks for me to read a book about this size, but once I started it, I couldn't put it down! That says a lot about this book.
The story starts slow, but as it grows you find yourself sympathising with Merry... when the moment that this book was written for comes, you feel the same emotions that Merry does (trying not to spoil it for you), I even shed a tear at this point, and I'm not afraid to admit it!
It is a good book, easy to read and a welcome return to form for LKH!
The plot thickens!!!, 08 May 2008
This is an excellent addition to the Merry Gentry series, whilst it continues the theme of sex, more sex, and yet more sex, it continues to move the story on.
You find yourself empathising with Merry as she tries to look forward to what happens if she does get pregnant and has to stick to one man, and worries about who it will be, and what will happen to the rest.
The continuing peeks into the minds of the supporting characters really helps to draw you into the world.
Once again another page turner - keep you up all night till you've finished it - book from LKH.
A good fantasy, 04 Feb 2008
The story goes something like this: Prince Cel is freed from his imprisonment so Princess Merry Gentry and her retinue (bodyguards and lovers) travel to Los Angeles to escape her insane cousin's assassination attempts. Cel wants Merry dead to insure she never gets pregnant because if she does she becomes the heir to the throne of the Unseelie Court currently ruled by the sadistic Queen Andais. At present Merry is at her lawyer's office dealing with the authorities who consider pressing charges against three of her guards for rape against a member of the Seelie Court. Merry's Uncle Taranis, King of Light and Illusion of the Seelie Court, made the accusation that his niece believes are false instead she thinks there is a method to his madness that she just ahs not figured out yet. When things do not go according to his plan, Taranis becomes irate and tries a more direct approach on Merry. Meanwhile members of the Seelie Court offer her his throne. With Cel, Andais, and Taranis aiming at her, Merry finds Los Angeles as unsafe as the Unseelie Court!! I'd also recommend, if you missed Tino Georgiou's novel--The Fates, getting a copy--absolutely fab..
Well finally..., 29 Jan 2008
A book in which something other then sex actually happens - I love the characters and am fascinated by the story but the endless, mindless, pointless sex in the series was really beginning to wear me down. So thank God that we got some plot in this one... Keep it up Laurell - I'm dying to see what happens!
Be afraid . . . of disappointment, 21 Nov 2008
Spoiler alerts - Anita is selfish in this novel - Jason pleads her to accompany him to support him in visiting his dad. Like in previous novels, sex plays a large but irrelevant part. Now Anita is becoming even more tied into the chimera angle with the tiger fighting the wolf fighting the panther. This series has become ridiculous, no wonder Richard has walked away from it all! Is this Laurell's subconscious speaking? Anita is one of the monsters - Anita needs to go somewhere and ponder her role in the monster and human world. For me, Anita always loved Richard and she still wants to love him and be loved by him - as much as she wants JC, I feel that it is Richard. Surely Laurell is going to bring the series back to what it once was, involve Edward for a little bit of an angle and get Anita fighting, get her closer to marmee noir.
This book was short, the dialogue weak, the story predictable, Jason ever so needy in parts and Anita selfish - as a friend and demanding as a lover.
In saying all this, I do await the next chapter in the series - I do not want to give up after so many books!
sigh...., 13 Sep 2008
These books used to be fun, snappy, full of genuine character concerns for the lead, Anita, which did not boil down to simply, sex. They used to have actual plot. God knows I've kept trying, but this could be the one that means I just can't be bothered with Anita Blake anymore. Danse Marcabe was the worst of the recent bunch but this one is just plain dull. Anita used to have a job, there used to be the interest of a mystery to solve. Now it's just wheel on the next sexual partner and LKH simply arranges the rest of the story around it like so much limp set dressing. It saddens me to feel that these books are now just one big Mary-Sue exercise. Perhaps they always were, but at least we got some story for our pains. Blood Noir is just a low rent soap opera with endless sex thrown in. Up to 'Blue Moon', it's worth reading the series. Of the recent ones, only 'Obsidian Buterfly' is worth your time. And these UK book covers are totally and utterly dreadful.
Blood Noir, 06 Sep 2008
A huge fan of the 'Anita Blake' series,Hamilton did a fab job as usual.My only comment that keeps this from 5star rating was that Anita was not as gutsy,leaning toward timid for her.But I am sure she will be back with renewed oomph.Can't see why people who have a problem with sex scenes would read an Anita Blake book this far into the series,the ardeur aint going way.I love the sex scenes,have no issue if the author is acting out her fantasies-good for her.If you are uptight about sex in books don't read the later books,but I enjoy the way Hamilton writes about sex,no silly words(velvet sheath etc)like the romance novels,just good fantasy fun.I love the series and long may Anita carry on!Keep them coming Laurell!
Better than recent offerings but still..., 06 Jul 2008
I very nearly didn't read this book. Although the last offering was a slight improvement to recent books, it was still awful compared to the first nine books. So I got it out from my local library and I'm glad I read it. It's the best one she's written since Obsidian Butterfly, for starters it had a recognisable plot. But it's still no where near as good as Laurell K hamilton used to be.
It feels as though you're reading a draft of the book a lot of the time. I kept having the urge to write 'this paragraph needs more detail', or 'feels unfinished'. It was a welcome change from recent works where she went into unnecessary detail about every little thing you didn't care about. Though there is still odd moments like that, as usual it's the pondering moments about her many relationships. It's not needed. Whenever yet another character starts agonising about sex with Anita and it's meanings or sulking because they don't feel special as she's openly having sex with 13 other people regularly. It's dull. It's reads like a therapy session. If your going to insist on making sex such a dominant part of the series, at least let the characters do it with a song in their heart. Then at least it would be enjoyable erotica. But everyone whines too much. Especially Anita.
Everyone else has already expanded about how sex over dominates the series now and how there are just too many relationships ongoing for it to be taken seriously, so I'm not going to go into that in massive detail. However, I am going to say that the ardeur has more than had it's day. It's getting the way of what was a good character and it is certainly getting in the way of any decent plot. In this book it almost felt like Anita kept having to get the sex out of the way so they could get on with other things.
I know some people have put these flaws down to it being a long running series, but there are plently of authors still managing to maintain the quality and the fun, Jim Butcher being my favourite.
Ultimately Anita either needs to learn to stay out of bed, or Laurell K Hamilton needs to just put this series to bed.
LKH back to form if not top yet!, 18 Jun 2008
Having read the entire series, I will admit that some (namely last 3) have been full of sex and more sex, with not much plot line
However when I saw this one I picked it up eagerly, and read it in one sitting.
LKH is back to much better form with this one. The plot moves on with Marmee Noir, and we see insights into Anita's and other's characters. It is good to see Anita continuing to grow up as the series progresses, and whilst somethings are explained, new twists continue to appear.
If you have lost heart over the last couple of books, regain much of it with this one.
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Customer Reviews
More magic battles and intrigue, 24 Nov 2008
I totally disagree with the first two reviewers. Yes the rape doesn't traumatize her as much as it would a normal person, but she is supposed to be a magical person descended from a love goddess who has unborn twins genetically derived from 6 of her lovers trying to stay alive long enough to rule the fey! - surely you cant quibble about reality at this point in the series...
If you like a fun fantasy with a sassy heroine, trying to deal with court intrigues, old feuds and the various lands of the sidhe all battling each other then this is a great series, and a good book. However you rea;;y do need to read them in order to keep track of who is who.
Non stop action, 14 Nov 2008
So many things happen in such a short space of time that there is no chance to be bored with this book. Everyone is still trying to assassinate Merry and her men, there are lots of cliff hanger moments and plenty of blood, but very little sex in this one.
I agree with some other reviewers that the rape is glossed over, but I think this is more to do with so much happening and Merry has not yet remembered it than being ignored by Hamilton.
The book left me itching to know what will happen in Los Angeles, will she ever be queen, how will the men who have spent little or no time outside faerie adapt to the human world, how will magic spread to the humans... I could go on and on with questions. All good books leave you with wanting more, and this one certainly left me waiting impatiently for the next Merry book.
poorly written., 09 Nov 2008
Laurell K Hamilton's books have been getting steadily worse for a long long time. I'm still reading in the hopes that she'll start to show some of what used to make her so enjoyable again. The early Anita Blake books were quite entertaining and when the Merry Gentry series started I really enjoyed the first few books too. Sadly things started to slide when the books lost all plot and descended into almost constant sex scenes that spanned the whole entire book. I enjoy sex in books but not to the exclusion of plot. This book can't be tarred with that reason for being bad however as the sex is kept to a minimum - well as minimum as LKH seems to be able to keep it these days anyway and there is a storyline of sorts.
To summarise the plot, the book starts directly after the events of A Lick of Frost (Meredith Gentry 6) with Merry in hospital after being raped by her Uncle Tarranis (Merry shows almost no signs of any trauma - very strange) then a plot to kill Merry's guards begins to unfurl and Merry calls up te wild hunt in revenge to go chassing after the plotters. And that's about it as far as plot goes, Merry reacting to all that the seelie and unseelie and the sluagh and the goblins can throw at her while gaining magical power ups from the Goddess. There is a plot, even if it's mostly the tying up of old threads and dealing with random people that get in her way.
The real problem I found was her repetitive and silly descriptions that read as if they had been lifted directly from one book to the next. On more than one occasion I laughed out loud they were so bad - it sort of spoils the mood of the story when the terrible prose distracts you from the plot. Everything is all sparkly and moonlight lit with detailed pointless descriptions of hair and clothes and rose petals raining from the sky.
I enjoyed the early Merry Gentry novels and I suppose that this book could have seen an end of the series as many of the loose ends from previous books have been tied off. Her father's killer has been unmasked and her enemies defeated for the most part. Unfortunately I don't think that this will be the case and more stories will be spun out with Merry doing more sparkly, magical, and wonderful things with new powers given conveniently by the Goddess just in time and with conversations that start in the middle of the action and just drag on and on to showcase Merry's wonderfullness. I think LKH need to take a break from writing for a while not churn out a Merry and an Anita book every year. She needs to go back and re-read all her books and rediscover her characters for herself and maybe things might improve. I'm still reading in hopes they do but i'm not sure how much longer I will be.
Swallowing tedium, 05 Nov 2008
For her last few books, Laurell K. Hamilton has been toning down the sexual content in favor of what can be loosely termed "plot."
Well, turns out there are far worse things than endless sparkly-magical sex scenes. After the shattering cliffhanger ending of the previous book, the seventh Merry Gentry book "Swallowing Darkness" promptly goes on a road tour of Faerie instead of sticking to an actual central plot. It feels like Hamilton has gone as far as she can, and is flailing around instead of getting out of the water.
In the aftermath of being raped by her uncle, Merry is recovering in the hospital... and despite all the moping about how doctors "can't undo the damage," she gets over the rape by cuddling her favorite boytoy.
After ordering her various fey boytoys not to attack Taranis, she receives a visit from her feisty brownie grandma. Unfortunately there's a malign influence warping Gran's thoughts -- with disastrous and fatal results for three people close to Merry. Enraged, she and Sholto summon the Wild Hunt and set out to destroy the conspirators.
But it turns out that the conspiracy goes far further than Merry expected -- and that certain Golden Court sidhe are trying to weed out the stronger boytoys. And of course, divine magical favors just rain down on Merry whenever she sneezes. To keep her entire harem (half of whom I've forgotten) safe, Merry decides to take drastic steps in the human world... but only finds a new conflict with her cousin Cel.
Having knocked up her heroine -- which is supposedly the series' goal -- Laurell K. Hamilton seems to be at a loss for what to do to keep the series going ahead. So we end up with a bunch of vaguely connected crises, punctuated by interludes of Sparkly Magic From Goddess-Merry, magic horsies and lots of sparkly magic roses. It's a little like being alternately choked with flowers and clubbed with a rock.
"Swallowing Darkness" does manage an impressive amount of plot, including the resolution of couple half-forgotten subplots -- and a surprising twist during Merry's stay in the sluagh. Unfortunately most of the plot is just Hamilton slapping in new random problems whenever things get too peaceful. Whoops, somebody's suddenly dying! Eek, a traitor! Yikes, a royal challenge from out of nowhere!
Nor does Hamilton's writing help, since she seems to be bored with her own story when she isn't trying to channel Patricia McKillip's lush prose. Her incredibly stilted, rambling dialogue ("We ride." "To save your Storm Lord." "To save the future of faerie"), repetition (everybody seems to have "moonlight skin") and awkward descriptions ("Gold like the metal of a piece of jewelry") hamper the story even further.
And as with all Hamilton's fairy novels, we get hot pale supernatural men who all worship the heroine, dumb blinkered mortals, lightweight Wiccan theology, Christian-bashing, oral sex worship, and lots of nasty and/or crazy women who simply can't measure up to the heroine. Yes, even a sweet li'l old grandma, who is reviled for daring to hold a grudge against her mother's murderer.
But the book's biggest weakness is Merry Gentry herself. She floats through the book in a cloud of Convenient Magical Powers and occasionally pauses to cold-bloodedly kill people. Everybody is awed by her even if she kills them -- and she declares herself to be a goddess as well. It gets rather nauseating to have a heroine who is such a blatant self-insert.
"Swallowing Darkness" has some shreds of good plot in there, but they're surrounded by jack-in-the-box disasters and a main storyline that is being stretched way too far. And it's not over yet....
Back on Form, Yay, 15 Aug 2008
The first Merry Gentry book was a breath of fresh air, more recent ones have got bogged down in endlessly creative sex scenes (emphasis more on the endless). This is the author back on form, much plot and characterisation, the story moves forward for the first time in ages and its a zinger - waiting impatiently for the next installment now.
Wow!, 31 May 2008
I used to be a huge fan of Laurell K. Hamilton's books. That was, until the plot got railroaded in favour of sex.
I didn't mind if the sex scenes had a reason behind them, as they tend to in the Merry Gentry books, but I admit that I put off reading this book, until I had a holiday coming up.
Now I wish I hadn't waited! I'm glad I took two books with me, even though I'm not a fast reader, because I finished this in a single day! It usually takes a few weeks for me to read a book about this size, but once I started it, I couldn't put it down! That says a lot about this book.
The story starts slow, but as it grows you find yourself sympathising with Merry... when the moment that this book was written for comes, you feel the same emotions that Merry does (trying not to spoil it for you), I even shed a tear at this point, and I'm not afraid to admit it!
It is a good book, easy to read and a welcome return to form for LKH!
The plot thickens!!!, 08 May 2008
This is an excellent addition to the Merry Gentry series, whilst it continues the theme of sex, more sex, and yet more sex, it continues to move the story on.
You find yourself empathising with Merry as she tries to look forward to what happens if she does get pregnant and has to stick to one man, and worries about who it will be, and what will happen to the rest.
The continuing peeks into the minds of the supporting characters really helps to draw you into the world.
Once again another page turner - keep you up all night till you've finished it - book from LKH.
A good fantasy, 04 Feb 2008
The story goes something like this: Prince Cel is freed from his imprisonment so Princess Merry Gentry and her retinue (bodyguards and lovers) travel to Los Angeles to escape her insane cousin's assassination attempts. Cel wants Merry dead to insure she never gets pregnant because if she does she becomes the heir to the throne of the Unseelie Court currently ruled by the sadistic Queen Andais. At present Merry is at her lawyer's office dealing with the authorities who consider pressing charges against three of her guards for rape against a member of the Seelie Court. Merry's Uncle Taranis, King of Light and Illusion of the Seelie Court, made the accusation that his niece believes are false instead she thinks there is a method to his madness that she just ahs not figured out yet. When things do not go according to his plan, Taranis becomes irate and tries a more direct approach on Merry. Meanwhile members of the Seelie Court offer her his throne. With Cel, Andais, and Taranis aiming at her, Merry finds Los Angeles as unsafe as the Unseelie Court!! I'd also recommend, if you missed Tino Georgiou's novel--The Fates, getting a copy--absolutely fab..
Well finally..., 29 Jan 2008
A book in which something other then sex actually happens - I love the characters and am fascinated by the story but the endless, mindless, pointless sex in the series was really beginning to wear me down. So thank God that we got some plot in this one... Keep it up Laurell - I'm dying to see what happens!
Be afraid . . . of disappointment, 21 Nov 2008
Spoiler alerts - Anita is selfish in this novel - Jason pleads her to accompany him to support him in visiting his dad. Like in previous novels, sex plays a large but irrelevant part. Now Anita is becoming even more tied into the chimera angle with the tiger fighting the wolf fighting the panther. This series has become ridiculous, no wonder Richard has walked away from it all! Is this Laurell's subconscious speaking? Anita is one of the monsters - Anita needs to go somewhere and ponder her role in the monster and human world. For me, Anita always loved Richard and she still wants to love him and be loved by him - as much as she wants JC, I feel that it is Richard. Surely Laurell is going to bring the series back to what it once was, involve Edward for a little bit of an angle and get Anita fighting, get her closer to marmee noir.
This book was short, the dialogue weak, the story predictable, Jason ever so needy in parts and Anita selfish - as a friend and demanding as a lover.
In saying all this, I do await the next chapter in the series - I do not want to give up after so many books!
sigh...., 13 Sep 2008
These books used to be fun, snappy, full of genuine character concerns for the lead, Anita, which did not boil down to simply, sex. They used to have actual plot. God knows I've kept trying, but this could be the one that means I just can't be bothered with Anita Blake anymore. Danse Marcabe was the worst of the recent bunch but this one is just plain dull. Anita used to have a job, there used to be the interest of a mystery to solve. Now it's just wheel on the next sexual partner and LKH simply arranges the rest of the story around it like so much limp set dressing. It saddens me to feel that these books are now just one big Mary-Sue exercise. Perhaps they always were, but at least we got some story for our pains. Blood Noir is just a low rent soap opera with endless sex thrown in. Up to 'Blue Moon', it's worth reading the series. Of the recent ones, only 'Obsidian Buterfly' is worth your time. And these UK book covers are totally and utterly dreadful.
Blood Noir, 06 Sep 2008
A huge fan of the 'Anita Blake' series,Hamilton did a fab job as usual.My only comment that keeps this from 5star rating was that Anita was not as gutsy,leaning toward timid for her.But I am sure she will be back with renewed oomph.Can't see why people who have a problem with sex scenes would read an Anita Blake book this far into the series,the ardeur aint going way.I love the sex scenes,have no issue if the author is acting out her fantasies-good for her.If you are uptight about sex in books don't read the later books,but I enjoy the way Hamilton writes about sex,no silly words(velvet sheath etc)like the romance novels,just good fantasy fun.I love the series and long may Anita carry on!Keep them coming Laurell!
Better than recent offerings but still..., 06 Jul 2008
I very nearly didn't read this book. Although the last offering was a slight improvement to recent books, it was still awful compared to the first nine books. So I got it out from my local library and I'm glad I read it. It's the best one she's written since Obsidian Butterfly, for starters it had a recognisable plot. But it's still no where near as good as Laurell K hamilton used to be.
It feels as though you're reading a draft of the book a lot of the time. I kept having the urge to write 'this paragraph needs more detail', or 'feels unfinished'. It was a welcome change from recent works where she went into unnecessary detail about every little thing you didn't care about. Though there is still odd moments like that, as usual it's the pondering moments about her many relationships. It's not needed. Whenever yet another character starts agonising about sex with Anita and it's meanings or sulking because they don't feel special as she's openly having sex with 13 other people regularly. It's dull. It's reads like a therapy session. If your going to insist on making sex such a dominant part of the series, at least let the characters do it with a song in their heart. Then at least it would be enjoyable erotica. But everyone whines too much. Especially Anita.
Everyone else has already expanded about how sex over dominates the series now and how there are just too many relationships ongoing for it to be taken seriously, so I'm not going to go into that in massive detail. However, I am going to say that the ardeur has more than had it's day. It's getting the way of what was a good character and it is certainly getting in the way of any decent plot. In this book it almost felt like Anita kept having to get the sex out of the way so they could get on with other things.
I know some people have put these flaws down to it being a long running series, but there are plently of authors still managing to maintain the quality and the fun, Jim Butcher being my favourite.
Ultimately Anita either needs to learn to stay out of bed, or Laurell K Hamilton needs to just put this series to bed.
LKH back to form if not top yet!, 18 Jun 2008
Having read the entire series, I will admit that some (namely last 3) have been full of sex and more sex, with not much plot line
However when I saw this one I picked it up eagerly, and read it in one sitting.
LKH is back to much better form with this one. The plot moves on with Marmee Noir, and we see insights into Anita's and other's characters. It is good to see Anita continuing to grow up as the series progresses, and whilst somethings are explained, new twists continue to appear.
If you have lost heart over the last couple of books, regain much of it with this one.
Not as bad as everyone else says...!, 17 Jul 2008
Okay so maybe I'm missing the point here. Yes, in MISTRAL'S KISS, Merry does indeed get down and dirty...again and again...but then what's new?? Why is this such a big deal to people? If you didn't like the sex, then you wouldn't read the books. Okay, so a book isn't all about sex, and there was a lot in MK i'll admit, but it was all explained and a lot of the time I felt like Merry didn't really have a choice. So it's not like she's opening her legs for anyone who comes by!
Some reviewers also said that there was no battle scenes and very little action that wasn't sex. I would have to disagree strongly; not only is there a battle scene towards the end of the book where the reader fears for Doyle and Mistral, but at the same time Frost lays dying from a previous attack in the middle of the book.
We also actually see Merry's alliance with the Goblins finally put to good use! (I never was comfortable with the way she was so willing to sell her body and blood for the Goblins help, when they seemed to do nothing but squable about which piece of her they were going to chow down on next)
Yes, there is a lot of sex, and yes, the plot line doesn't move that far forward, but how is that different from the past 2-3 books in this series?? Maybe that's why I still enjoyed this book whereas others havn't. It contains the same flaws of its predesessors, so I found nothing new to disappoint me here.
In fact, I found that most of the sex she was having was because of promises and plot lines that were started in the last two books, and I was pleased that some of them were resolved before new problems arose for Merry. I can see why some readers might think that this made the book boring and a bit of an 'inbetweener', but I enjoyed this so called filler for what it was: it explained previous happenings in more detail, closed some of the (many) open plot lines hanging over the series (ie she finally shagged some of the many, many people that she is lined up to shag) and leads smoothly onto what is going to happen in A Lick of Frost.
Perhaps it is only 3 and a half stars, but I gave it 4**** because I think other reviewers who have given it 1 or 2 are being a wee bit too harsh. Mistral's Kiss treads no new and exciting ground, but it is still an enjoyable read, and if you enjoyed her other books then you will enjoy this too.
It's a great story..., 29 Jan 2008
This series has a fascinating story line and is a really enjoyable read. I love Merry and all the other characters and can not wait to find out what happens them. Sadly, however, based on this book, I may actually have died of old age by the time they get out of bed.
Without the endless pages of sex I'd guess the last 5 books have to makings of maybe 2 really excellent ones. Hopefully, this explains why I'm only giving this one 3 stars despite thinking this is one of the best stories I've read in years.
Please Laurell let something other than sex happen soon! Clever plot device to make Meredith's survival depend on her getting pregnant but having been through every position in the Kama Sutra at least twice now with what sometimes feels like 3 million different partners I'm really, really, really ready for the story to move on - even just a little bit.
Poison kiss, 12 Dec 2007
Laurell K. Hamilton's books are distinguished by her unique style -- lots of sex, very little plot. Don't expect it to change.
And "Mistral's Kiss" continues the stagnant sexathon that her other books started, with the continuing erotic adventures of Merry Gentry (or as I like to call it, "Merry Does Faerie"). Though there is some plot in this one besides sex, nothing much really advances except a tacked-in plot twist.
In previous books, as we're told here, Merry Gentry has to have a baby before her cousin Cel, or she's dead. She does this via detailed group sex with her guards, and found that having sex with her guards (which she does ALL the time) reawakened their dormant magics. Now Faerie gardens are starting to bloom again. Yay for her.
In the meantime, Merry has more work for the Goddess and artifacts to deal with, as well as a new hunky guard on loan to her, Mistral. Queen Andais is not so happy with everything that is going on, but is powerless to stop it -- especially when Merry gets involved with Sholto of the Sluagh, and Sholto wakens the legendary Wild Hunt...
If you were to remove the hundred-plus pages of nonstop sex, then "Mistral's Kiss" would probably be a very bracing short story. Unfortunately, Hamilton packs the entire story with sex -- which would be just fine, if all other aspects of Hamilton's writing weren't halfhearted at best.
In fact, it feels like a few stray chapters of another book. Plot points are rehashed, threads are dropped as others are raised, and the finale is an anticlimactic sputter, although it promises that something important might happen in the next book... or the one after that. As it is, the plot is simply glacial -- Hamilton moves it forward a little, but not very much.
Why? Sadly the plot has gotten stuck in the stagnating "sex revitalizes the kingdom" storyline. The concept is intriguing and could have been interesting if Hamilton had actually gotten into it. But in here it's just another excuse for lots and lots of overly-detailed, mechanical sex, and a new power-a-day for Merry to acquire. Even Hamilton's writing has lost its bite -- it feels like she's on autopilot.
Merry herself is getting duller with each successive book -- in this book, she seems more like a walking blow-up doll than an ex-detective/faerie princess. Doyle and the newcomer Mistral are actually fairly interesting, but she now has so many paramours that it's hard to tell one feminine, long-haired anime-style fae from another.
"Mistral's Kiss" struggles to spread its thin plot over the relatively short length, but only occasionally moves the plot forward. Not for those who like a little (or a lot) plot with their porn.
Princess Meredith, Broodmare Extraordinaire!, 28 Aug 2007
"I am Princess Meredith, heir to a throne of faerie. Once upon a time I had a day job. And a personality. Even some self-respect. But, Pfft... Who needs these things in the larger run of life! :D"
I felt like crying. I adore this series- or did so. Yet there comes a point (which as also been reached with the Anita Blake Series) where a reader should just through up their hands, and walk away. Cut your losses, and run. There is no plot-development, just a plot-twist, where it is obvious Laurell has lost interest in the original idea, sent Meredith into Sholto's land 'by accident' and left her there with instructions to shag, and try and escape. Then the story ends. It gave her something to write about for two hundred pages. All the characters we love are slipping into pale shadows, far cries of the strong, individually-unique sidhe they once were. There are so many two-dimensional 'new' men to please Merry, that there was little text devoted to Frost, Doyle or any actual cannons.
As it is, Laurell is milking her readers for the sake of stretching out the plot, so it appears thin and vaguely established, tacked together in between sex scenes that have grown so repetitive and dull, you feel like crying for the loss of such high potential. Its sad truth that however poor her books become they will still be bought- in most readers' hope that they return to their former standard of wit, characterization, GOOD erotica and actual plot. This is not so, and "Mistral's Kiss" is the hard, cold evidence of this. The series started brilliantly... packed with vivid imagination, humor and paced action, all of which has been bastardized and lost. It brings me great displeasure to write such a negative comment, but you'll feel cheated if you read this. Skip it, as it hopefully set up something somewhat decent for the next installation, if our 'author' can carry it through. Yet it in itself is not a novel. Not close. You'll reach the end with the feeling you've skim read maybe one, or two chapters. It's incomplete. It is bad quality, both in its grammar (Laurell has hired a Goldfish for an editing staff) and its plot (which has been ingested by some member of the Slaugh).
Merry's still not pregnant and it doesn't look like she's going to be any time soon. If the baby is ever born, all you'll need to do if match it up against a Dulex strip, and see which colour closely resembled which crayon-style father. There are so many new ones you'll be hard pressed to find such a subtle match between shades.
Rent it from a Library, or just read a summary of the 'plot.' You won't miss anything; I can guarantee you on that! Don't ruin for yourself what was originally an enchanting, steamy fairytale by reading this- just pray that 'A Lick of Frost' lives up to the real standard that should be set by any so-called Bestselling author, and skip to that next one.
Not Ever Shipped, 16 Aug 2007
I waited over a month for this book to be shipped and for some reason Amazon couldn't get hold of it. Still don't know whether to try to order it again in case it again, after a month of waiting, tells me that the order will be cancelled and not charged out to me.
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A Caress of Twilight
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Customer Reviews
More magic battles and intrigue, 24 Nov 2008
I totally disagree with the first two reviewers. Yes the rape doesn't traumatize her as much as it would a normal person, but she is supposed to be a magical person descended from a love goddess who has unborn twins genetically derived from 6 of her lovers trying to stay alive long enough to rule the fey! - surely you cant quibble about reality at this point in the series...
If you like a fun fantasy with a sassy heroine, trying to deal with court intrigues, old feuds and the various lands of the sidhe all battling each other then this is a great series, and a good book. However you rea;;y do need to read them in order to keep track of who is who. Non stop action, 14 Nov 2008
So many things happen in such a short space of time that there is no chance to be bored with this book. Everyone is still trying to assassinate Merry and her men, there are lots of cliff hanger moments and plenty of blood, but very little sex in this one.
I agree with some other reviewers that the rape is glossed over, but I think this is more to do with so much happening and Merry has not yet remembered it than being ignored by Hamilton.
The book left me itching to know what will happen in Los Angeles, will she ever be queen, how will the men who have spent little or no time outside faerie adapt to the human world, how will magic spread to the humans... I could go on and on with questions. All good books leave you with wanting more, and this one certainly left me waiting impatiently for the next Merry book.
poorly written., 09 Nov 2008
Laurell K Hamilton's books have been getting steadily worse for a long long time. I'm still reading in the hopes that she'll start to show some of what used to make her so enjoyable again. The early Anita Blake books were quite entertaining and when the Merry Gentry series started I really enjoyed the first few books too. Sadly things started to slide when the books lost all plot and descended into almost constant sex scenes that spanned the whole entire book. I enjoy sex in books but not to the exclusion of plot. This book can't be tarred with that reason for being bad however as the sex is kept to a minimum - well as minimum as LKH seems to be able to keep it these days anyway and there is a storyline of sorts.
To summarise the plot, the book starts directly after the events of A Lick of Frost (Meredith Gentry 6) with Merry in hospital after being raped by her Uncle Tarranis (Merry shows almost no signs of any trauma - very strange) then a plot to kill Merry's guards begins to unfurl and Merry calls up te wild hunt in revenge to go chassing after the plotters. And that's about it as far as plot goes, Merry reacting to all that the seelie and unseelie and the sluagh and the goblins can throw at her while gaining magical power ups from the Goddess. There is a plot, even if it's mostly the tying up of old threads and dealing with random people that get in her way.
The real problem I found was her repetitive and silly descriptions that read as if they had been lifted directly from one book to the next. On more than one occasion I laughed out loud they were so bad - it sort of spoils the mood of the story when the terrible prose distracts you from the plot. Everything is all sparkly and moonlight lit with detailed pointless descriptions of hair and clothes and rose petals raining from the sky.
I enjoyed the early Merry Gentry novels and I suppose that this book could have seen an end of the series as many of the loose ends from previous books have been tied off. Her father's killer has been unmasked and her enemies defeated for the most part. Unfortunately I don't think that this will be the case and more stories will be spun out with Merry doing more sparkly, magical, and wonderful things with new powers given conveniently by the Goddess just in time and with conversations that start in the middle of the action and just drag on and on to showcase Merry's wonderfullness. I think LKH need to take a break from writing for a while not churn out a Merry and an Anita book every year. She needs to go back and re-read all her books and rediscover her characters for herself and maybe things might improve. I'm still reading in hopes they do but i'm not sure how much longer I will be. Swallowing tedium, 05 Nov 2008
For her last few books, Laurell K. Hamilton has been toning down the sexual content in favor of what can be loosely termed "plot."
Well, turns out there are far worse things than endless sparkly-magical sex scenes. After the shattering cliffhanger ending of the previous book, the seventh Merry Gentry book "Swallowing Darkness" promptly goes on a road tour of Faerie instead of sticking to an actual central plot. It feels like Hamilton has gone as far as she can, and is flailing around instead of getting out of the water.
In the aftermath of being raped by her uncle, Merry is recovering in the hospital... and despite all the moping about how doctors "can't undo the damage," she gets over the rape by cuddling her favorite boytoy.
After ordering her various fey boytoys not to attack Taranis, she receives a visit from her feisty brownie grandma. Unfortunately there's a malign influence warping Gran's thoughts -- with disastrous and fatal results for three people close to Merry. Enraged, she and Sholto summon the Wild Hunt and set out to destroy the conspirators.
But it turns out that the conspiracy goes far further than Merry expected -- and that certain Golden Court sidhe are trying to weed out the stronger boytoys. And of course, divine magical favors just rain down on Merry whenever she sneezes. To keep her entire harem (half of whom I've forgotten) safe, Merry decides to take drastic steps in the human world... but only finds a new conflict with her cousin Cel.
Having knocked up her heroine -- which is supposedly the series' goal -- Laurell K. Hamilton seems to be at a loss for what to do to keep the series going ahead. So we end up with a bunch of vaguely connected crises, punctuated by interludes of Sparkly Magic From Goddess-Merry, magic horsies and lots of sparkly magic roses. It's a little like being alternately choked with flowers and clubbed with a rock.
"Swallowing Darkness" does manage an impressive amount of plot, including the resolution of couple half-forgotten subplots -- and a surprising twist during Merry's stay in the sluagh. Unfortunately most of the plot is just Hamilton slapping in new random problems whenever things get too peaceful. Whoops, somebody's suddenly dying! Eek, a traitor! Yikes, a royal challenge from out of nowhere!
Nor does Hamilton's writing help, since she seems to be bored with her own story when she isn't trying to channel Patricia McKillip's lush prose. Her incredibly stilted, rambling dialogue ("We ride." "To save your Storm Lord." "To save the future of faerie"), repetition (everybody seems to have "moonlight skin") and awkward descriptions ("Gold like the metal of a piece of jewelry") hamper the story even further.
And as with all Hamilton's fairy novels, we get hot pale supernatural men who all worship the heroine, dumb blinkered mortals, lightweight Wiccan theology, Christian-bashing, oral sex worship, and lots of nasty and/or crazy women who simply can't measure up to the heroine. Yes, even a sweet li'l old grandma, who is reviled for daring to hold a grudge against her mother's murderer.
But the book's biggest weakness is Merry Gentry herself. She floats through the book in a cloud of Convenient Magical Powers and occasionally pauses to cold-bloodedly kill people. Everybody is awed by her even if she kills them -- and she declares herself to be a goddess as well. It gets rather nauseating to have a heroine who is such a blatant self-insert.
"Swallowing Darkness" has some shreds of good plot in there, but they're surrounded by jack-in-the-box disasters and a main storyline that is being stretched way too far. And it's not over yet.... Back on Form, Yay, 15 Aug 2008
The first Merry Gentry book was a breath of fresh air, more recent ones have got bogged down in endlessly creative sex scenes (emphasis more on the endless). This is the author back on form, much plot and characterisation, the story moves forward for the first time in ages and its a zinger - waiting impatiently for the next installment now. Wow!, 31 May 2008
I used to be a huge fan of Laurell K. Hamilton's books. That was, until the plot got railroaded in favour of sex.
I didn't mind if the sex scenes had a reason behind them, as they tend to in the Merry Gentry books, but I admit that I put off reading this book, until I had a holiday coming up.
Now I wish I hadn't waited! I'm glad I took two books with me, even though I'm not a fast reader, because I finished this in a single day! It usually takes a few weeks for me to read a book about this size, but once I started it, I couldn't put it down! That says a lot about this book.
The story starts slow, but as it grows you find yourself sympathising with Merry... when the moment that this book was written for comes, you feel the same emotions that Merry does (trying not to spoil it for you), I even shed a tear at this point, and I'm not afraid to admit it!
It is a good book, easy to read and a welcome return to form for LKH! The plot thickens!!!, 08 May 2008
This is an excellent addition to the Merry Gentry series, whilst it continues the theme of sex, more sex, and yet more sex, it continues to move the story on.
You find yourself empathising with Merry as she tries to look forward to what happens if she does get pregnant and has to stick to one man, and worries about who it will be, and what will happen to the rest.
The continuing peeks into the minds of the supporting characters really helps to draw you into the world.
Once again another page turner - keep you up all night till you've finished it - book from LKH. A good fantasy, 04 Feb 2008
The story goes something like this: Prince Cel is freed from his imprisonment so Princess Merry Gentry and her retinue (bodyguards and lovers) travel to Los Angeles to escape her insane cousin's assassination attempts. Cel wants Merry dead to insure she never gets pregnant because if she does she becomes the heir to the throne of the Unseelie Court currently ruled by the sadistic Queen Andais. At present Merry is at her lawyer's office dealing with the authorities who consider pressing charges against three of her guards for rape against a member of the Seelie Court. Merry's Uncle Taranis, King of Light and Illusion of the Seelie Court, made the accusation that his niece believes are false instead she thinks there is a method to his madness that she just ahs not figured out yet. When things do not go according to his plan, Taranis becomes irate and tries a more direct approach on Merry. Meanwhile members of the Seelie Court offer her his throne. With Cel, Andais, and Taranis aiming at her, Merry finds Los Angeles as unsafe as the Unseelie Court!! I'd also recommend, if you missed Tino Georgiou's novel--The Fates, getting a copy--absolutely fab.. Well finally..., 29 Jan 2008
A book in which something other then sex actually happens - I love the characters and am fascinated by the story but the endless, mindless, pointless sex in the series was really beginning to wear me down. So thank God that we got some plot in this one... Keep it up Laurell - I'm dying to see what happens! Be afraid . . . of disappointment, 21 Nov 2008
Spoiler alerts - Anita is selfish in this novel - Jason pleads her to accompany him to support him in visiting his dad. Like in previous novels, sex plays a large but irrelevant part. Now Anita is becoming even more tied into the chimera angle with the tiger fighting the wolf fighting the panther. This series has become ridiculous, no wonder Richard has walked away from it all! Is this Laurell's subconscious speaking? Anita is one of the monsters - Anita needs to go somewhere and ponder her role in the monster and human world. For me, Anita always loved Richard and she still wants to love him and be loved by him - as much as she wants JC, I feel that it is Richard. Surely Laurell is going to bring the series back to what it once was, involve Edward for a little bit of an angle and get Anita fighting, get her closer to marmee noir.
This book was short, the dialogue weak, the story predictable, Jason ever so needy in parts and Anita selfish - as a friend and demanding as a lover.
In saying all this, I do await the next chapter in the series - I do not want to give up after so many books! sigh...., 13 Sep 2008
These books used to be fun, snappy, full of genuine character concerns for the lead, Anita, which did not boil down to simply, sex. They used to have actual plot. God knows I've kept trying, but this could be the one that means I just can't be bothered with Anita Blake anymore. Danse Marcabe was the worst of the recent bunch but this one is just plain dull. Anita used to have a job, there used to be the interest of a mystery to solve. Now it's just wheel on the next sexual partner and LKH simply arranges the rest of the story around it like so much limp set dressing. It saddens me to feel that these books are now just one big Mary-Sue exercise. Perhaps they always were, but at least we got some story for our pains. Blood Noir is just a low rent soap opera with endless sex thrown in. Up to 'Blue Moon', it's worth reading the series. Of the recent ones, only 'Obsidian Buterfly' is worth your time. And these UK book covers are totally and utterly dreadful. Blood Noir, 06 Sep 2008
A huge fan of the 'Anita Blake' series,Hamilton did a fab job as usual.My only comment that keeps this from 5star rating was that Anita was not as gutsy,leaning toward timid for her.But I am sure she will be back with renewed oomph.Can't see why people who have a problem with sex scenes would read an Anita Blake book this far into the series,the ardeur aint going way.I love the sex scenes,have no issue if the author is acting out her fantasies-good for her.If you are uptight about sex in books don't read the later books,but I enjoy the way Hamilton writes about sex,no silly words(velvet sheath etc)like the romance novels,just good fantasy fun.I love the series and long may Anita carry on!Keep them coming Laurell! Better than recent offerings but still..., 06 Jul 2008
I very nearly didn't read this book. Although the last offering was a slight improvement to recent books, it was still awful compared to the first nine books. So I got it out from my local library and I'm glad I read it. It's the best one she's written since Obsidian Butterfly, for starters it had a recognisable plot. But it's still no where near as good as Laurell K hamilton used to be.
It feels as though you're reading a draft of the book a lot of the time. I kept having the urge to write 'this paragraph needs more detail', or 'feels unfinished'. It was a welcome change from recent works where she went into unnecessary detail about every little thing you didn't care about. Though there is still odd moments like that, as usual it's the pondering moments about her many relationships. It's not needed. Whenever yet another character starts agonising about sex with Anita and it's meanings or sulking because they don't feel special as she's openly having sex with 13 other people regularly. It's dull. It's reads like a therapy session. If your going to insist on making sex such a dominant part of the series, at least let the characters do it with a song in their heart. Then at least it would be enjoyable erotica. But everyone whines too much. Especially Anita.
Everyone else has already expanded about how sex over dominates the series now and how there are just too many relationships ongoing for it to be taken seriously, so I'm not going to go into that in massive detail. However, I am going to say that the ardeur has more than had it's day. It's getting the way of what was a good character and it is certainly getting in the way of any decent plot. In this book it almost felt like Anita kept having to get the sex out of the way so they could get on with other things.
I know some people have put these flaws down to it being a long running series, but there are plently of authors still managing to maintain the quality and the fun, Jim Butcher being my favourite.
Ultimately Anita either needs to learn to stay out of bed, or Laurell K Hamilton needs to just put this series to bed. LKH back to form if not top yet!, 18 Jun 2008
Having read the entire series, I will admit that some (namely last 3) have been full of sex and more sex, with not much plot line
However when I saw this one I picked it up eagerly, and read it in one sitting.
LKH is back to much better form with this one. The plot moves on with Marmee Noir, and we see insights into Anita's and other's characters. It is good to see Anita continuing to grow up as the series progresses, and whilst somethings are explained, new twists continue to appear.
If you have lost heart over the last couple of books, regain much of it with this one. Not as bad as everyone else says...!, 17 Jul 2008
Okay so maybe I'm missing the point here. Yes, in MISTRAL'S KISS, Merry does indeed get down and dirty...again and again...but then what's new?? Why is this such a big deal to people? If you didn't like the sex, then you wouldn't read the books. Okay, so a book isn't all about sex, and there was a lot in MK i'll admit, but it was all explained and a lot of the time I felt like Merry didn't really have a choice. So it's not like she's opening her legs for anyone who comes by!
Some reviewers also said that there was no battle scenes and very little action that wasn't sex. I would have to disagree strongly; not only is there a battle scene towards the end of the book where the reader fears for Doyle and Mistral, but at the same time Frost lays dying from a previous attack in the middle of the book.
We also actually see Merry's alliance with the Goblins finally put to good use! (I never was comfortable with the way she was so willing to sell her body and blood for the Goblins help, when they seemed to do nothing but squable about which piece of her they were going to chow down on next)
Yes, there is a lot of sex, and yes, the plot line doesn't move that far forward, but how is that different from the past 2-3 books in this series?? Maybe that's why I still enjoyed this book whereas others havn't. It contains the same flaws of its predesessors, so I found nothing new to disappoint me here.
In fact, I found that most of the sex she was having was because of promises and plot lines that were started in the last two books, and I was pleased that some of them were resolved before new problems arose for Merry. I can see why some readers might think that this made the book boring and a bit of an 'inbetweener', but I enjoyed this so called filler for what it was: it explained previous happenings in more detail, closed some of the (many) open plot lines hanging over the series (ie she finally shagged some of the many, many people that she is lined up to shag) and leads smoothly onto what is going to happen in A Lick of Frost.
Perhaps it is only 3 and a half stars, but I gave it 4**** because I think other reviewers who have given it 1 or 2 are being a wee bit too harsh. Mistral's Kiss treads no new and exciting ground, but it is still an enjoyable read, and if you enjoyed her other books then you will enjoy this too. It's a great story..., 29 Jan 2008
This series has a fascinating story line and is a really enjoyable read. I love Merry and all the other characters and can not wait to find out what happens them. Sadly, however, based on this book, I may actually have died of old age by the time they get out of bed.
Without the endless pages of sex I'd guess the last 5 books have to makings of maybe 2 really excellent ones. Hopefully, this explains why I'm only giving this one 3 stars despite thinking this is one of the best stories I've read in years.
Please Laurell let something other than sex happen soon! Clever plot device to make Meredith's survival depend on her getting pregnant but having been through every position in the Kama Sutra at least twice now with what sometimes feels like 3 million different partners I'm really, really, really ready for the story to move on - even just a little bit.
Poison kiss, 12 Dec 2007
Laurell K. Hamilton's books are distinguished by her unique style -- lots of sex, very little plot. Don't expect it to change.
And "Mistral's Kiss" continues the stagnant sexathon that her other books started, with the continuing erotic adventures of Merry Gentry (or as I like to call it, "Merry Does Faerie"). Though there is some plot in this one besides sex, nothing much really advances except a tacked-in plot twist.
In previous books, as we're told here, Merry Gentry has to have a baby before her cousin Cel, or she's dead. She does this via detailed group sex with her guards, and found that having sex with her guards (which she does ALL the time) reawakened their dormant magics. Now Faerie gardens are starting to bloom again. Yay for her.
In the meantime, Merry has more work for the Goddess and artifacts to deal with, as well as a new hunky guard on loan to her, Mistral. Queen Andais is not so happy with everything that is going on, but is powerless to stop it -- especially when Merry gets involved with Sholto of the Sluagh, and Sholto wakens the legendary Wild Hunt...
If you were to remove the hundred-plus pages of nonstop sex, then "Mistral's Kiss" would probably be a very bracing short story. Unfortunately, Hamilton packs the entire story with sex -- which would be just fine, if all other aspects of Hamilton's writing weren't halfhearted at best.
In fact, it feels like a few stray chapters of another book. Plot points are rehashed, threads are dropped as others are raised, and the finale is an anticlimactic sputter, although it promises that something important might happen in the next book... or the one after that. As it is, the plot is simply glacial -- Hamilton moves it forward a little, but not very much.
Why? Sadly the plot has gotten stuck in the stagnating "sex revitalizes the kingdom" storyline. The concept is intriguing and could have been interesting if Hamilton had actually gotten into it. But in here it's just another excuse for lots and lots of overly-detailed, mechanical sex, and a new power-a-day for Merry to acquire. Even Hamilton's writing has lost its bite -- it feels like she's on autopilot.
Merry herself is getting duller with each successive book -- in this book, she seems more like a walking blow-up doll than an ex-detective/faerie princess. Doyle and the newcomer Mistral are actually fairly interesting, but she now has so many paramours that it's hard to tell one feminine, long-haired anime-style fae from another.
"Mistral's Kiss" struggles to spread its thin plot over the relatively short length, but only occasionally moves the plot forward. Not for those who like a little (or a lot) plot with their porn. Princess Meredith, Broodmare Extraordinaire!, 28 Aug 2007
"I am Princess Meredith, heir to a throne of faerie. Once upon a time I had a day job. And a personality. Even some self-respect. But, Pfft... Who needs these things in the larger run of life! :D"
I felt like crying. I adore this series- or did so. Yet there comes a point (which as also been reached with the Anita Blake Series) where a reader should just through up their hands, and walk away. Cut your losses, and run. There is no plot-development, just a plot-twist, where it is obvious Laurell has lost interest in the original idea, sent Meredith into Sholto's land 'by accident' and left her there with instructions to shag, and try and escape. Then the story ends. It gave her something to write about for two hundred pages. All the characters we love are slipping into pale shadows, far cries of the strong, individually-unique sidhe they once were. There are so many two-dimensional 'new' men to please Merry, that there was little text devoted to Frost, Doyle or any actual cannons.
As it is, Laurell is milking her readers for the sake of stretching out the plot, so it appears thin and vaguely established, tacked together in between sex scenes that have grown so repetitive and dull, you feel like crying for the loss of such high potential. Its sad truth that however poor her books become they will still be bought- in most readers' hope that they return to their former standard of wit, characterization, GOOD erotica and actual plot. This is not so, and "Mistral's Kiss" is the hard, cold evidence of this. The series started brilliantly... packed with vivid imagination, humor and paced action, all of which has been bastardized and lost. It brings me great displeasure to write such a negative comment, but you'll feel cheated if you read this. Skip it, as it hopefully set up something somewhat decent for the next installation, if our 'author' can carry it through. Yet it in itself is not a novel. Not close. You'll reach the end with the feeling you've skim read maybe one, or two chapters. It's incomplete. It is bad quality, both in its grammar (Laurell has hired a Goldfish for an editing staff) and its plot (which has been ingested by some member of the Slaugh).
Merry's still not pregnant and it doesn't look like she's going to be any time soon. If the baby is ever born, all you'll need to do if match it up against a Dulex strip, and see which colour closely resembled which crayon-style father. There are so many new ones you'll be hard pressed to find such a subtle match between shades.
Rent it from a Library, or just read a summary of the 'plot.' You won't miss anything; I can guarantee you on that! Don't ruin for yourself what was originally an enchanting, steamy fairytale by reading this- just pray that 'A Lick of Frost' lives up to the real standard that should be set by any so-called Bestselling author, and skip to that next one.
Not Ever Shipped, 16 Aug 2007
I waited over a month for this book to be shipped and for some reason Amazon couldn't get hold of it. Still don't know whether to try to order it again in case it again, after a month of waiting, tells me that the order will be cancelled and not charged out to me.
Cold "caress", 07 Mar 2006
Somewhere during the Anita Blake series, Laurell K. Hamilton decided to change the focus from horror/fantasy to sex, all the time and everyplace. With the newer Merry Gentry series, she cuts right to the chase. "A Caress of Twilight" doesn't bother to follow up on its predecessor's sex-choked promise -- okay, we've got scheming and magic and urban fairies. But the second book only brings up a few interesting plot points, before tossing them away in favour of Merry's latest quickie. In the previous book, faerie princess Merry Gentry is given a challenge by her aunt, the Queen: If she doesn't produce a kid before evil cousin Cel does, then Cel gets the throne. Outside the bedroom, however, things are getting messy: A mysterious force has left hundreds in California dead, and Merry has to find out why and who. Coincidentally, an L.A. actress/fay-in-exile is seeking Merry's help for something that might be dangerous for them both, even as Merry learns that a bizarre, ancient power has been unleashed for murder. And what's more, Merry's very presence is beginning to awaken the godlike powers that the sidhe thought they had lost. There's no point in beating about the bush -- this isn't a sex fantasy for the readers, but for the author. At least 90% of it is about sex in one way or another, and it's all centered on the beautiful, sexy, superpowerful, divinely-chosen Merry. Yes, it's really that bad. Hamilton does reveal some interesting facets in this book, with a few new twists on the urban fantasy genre. The idea of the Starving Ones is simply astonishing. But none of those ideas are done justice here, because of the lackluster plotting and terrible writing. She repeats her own phrasing endlessly ("Hey, that sounds cool! I should use it again"), especially in the oddly dull sex scenes. They're explicit, yes, but also clinical and weirdly passionless. And sometimes simply weird. Another example: her sexy male characters look alike -- flowing rainbow hair, odd colouring, poetry-laden powers. This would be okay, if they had individual personalities. Which they don't -- in fact, as her harem grows, the guys blend together even further. For that matter, they don't really do much except service Merry every so many pages. Merry, of course, is the worst of all. She's an obvious fantasy alter ego for Hamilton. She's also chosen by the goddess, gauns superpowers casually, has every man panting with lust, and is (as Mary Poppins says) "practically perfect in every way." For a better writer than Hamilton, such a character might be appealing -- but Merry's arrogance is just nauseating. "Caress of Twilight" is a cold caress. With lackluster writing and a heroine you can't help but loathe, the second book of the Merry Gentry series doesn't bode well for the future books.
Terrific Entertainment!!, 19 Apr 2005
Princess Meredith Nic-Essus is a member of the High Court of Faerie. When she lives in Los Angles, however, as she has for the past three years, Meredith assumes the name and identity of Merry Gentry. Merry works as a P.I. for Jeremy Grey, owner of the Grey Detective Agency, which specializes in "Supernatural Problems, Magical Solutions." She left the faerie world, the mounds at Cahokia, in Illinois, to go into hiding in California when her cousin Cel, the evil heir to the throne, attempted to have her assassinated once too often. Meredith's Aunt Andais is Queen of Air and Darkness, and has ruled over the Unseelies, (those not of pure fey blood), for over one thousand years. Those who have pure faerie blood are the Seelies, and her uncle Taranis, King of Light and Illusion, reigns over them. Meredith is mortal, half Seelie Court and half Unseelie, (part of her heritage is Brownie). The Queen sent Doyle, the Captain of her Raven Guard, to the West Coast to bring her niece back to the High Court. Meredith was forced to return because Andais finally realized, what was obvious to many, that her only son and heir did not possess the necessary attributes and character to become King. So the Queen placed Prince Cel and Princess Meredith on equal footing. She stipulated that whoever became a parent first would be her successor. Meredith must bear a child before Cel can father one if she wants to wear the crown. The bit about having a child is paramount, although Andais could have handled the situation more delicately. The sidhe have fertility problems. Thus, childbearing is of the utmost importance if the royal line is to continue. Meredith is finally allowed to escape the political machinations of court life and return to LA. Accompanying her are some of the Queen's hunkiest Ravens, who are instructed to guard her bodily, and to enjoy it. They are to assist her to become pregnant. Wow!! The lucky father-to-be gets to become King. Excellent motivator! Plus Merry is gorgeous, ruby-red hair, and smart to boot. Oh, a goblin is included in the merry mix of immortal men, due to a pact negotiated with Kurag, Goblin King. Back in Los Angels, Meredith and her firm are contracted, in utmost secrecy, to assist the glamorous, golden goddess of Hollywood, actress Maeve Reed, who turns out to be a Seelie in exile. Ms. Reed once said "No," to King Taranis - thus the exile. She carries a terrible secret, and the King would kill her immediately if the information became known - which is why she is constantly surrounded by bodyguards. To complicate matters, now that Merry and her men have visited the Reed compound, the King might decide they know too much and order a mass assassination. Just as things begin to get dangerous, in between bedroom interludes with Merry and the Ravens, "The Nameless" are loosed on humanity. They are the most evil elements of Seelie and Unseelie combined, and much has been sacrificed to keep these beings buried and suppressed forever. So, if anyone says that "A Caress of Twilight" is just about S-E-X, they're only partially correct! The characters, the settings, the Ravens checking-out 21st century America and LA for the first time, Hamilton's take on Celtic mythology, are just a blast - pure entertainment! Of course, I am a major Laurell Hamilton fan and truly enjoyed her entire Anita Blake Vampire Hunter series. Merry is certainly not Anita, but she is fun. As always, Laurell Hamilton writes dark fantasy like no other. Her descriptions really bring one's imagination to life. I'm hooked and looking forward to reading the next novel in the series.
JANA
Brilliantly written, 13 Jun 2004
I really loved the Anita Blake series and decided to try out the Merry Gentry one. I'm already salivating for the next book! I really loved the descriptions of the court, The Queen and even her evil cousin Cel. It's witty, original and one of the best pieces of fiction on fairies I've ever read. The other being Artemis Fowl. Merry is a princess trying to pass for human until circumstances deliver her back to her Aunt's Court. Their her aunt makes a shocking revelation that leaves Merry reeling and in a desperate race to compete with her cousin Cel to produce a child or die.
enjoyable - but what happened to the plot?, 04 May 2004
As series go you carnt realy beat Merry and her motly crew - but this book was sorly laking in the action and ergency of the first. The monser had a big build up and was then kill realy quickly, emotions ran high but never TOO high, and merry is slowly losing her control over her men and her heart.
We need a tough and strong princess - but she seems all too interested in doyle and way to in love with frost to think straight!And if she dousent get pregnent soon, theres not going to be any more books - shes been trying hard enough for godness sakes!!!!
A disappointing sequel, 04 May 2003
I had high hopes of this, because I really enjoyed the first in this series, but found it a let down. We have the standard LKH plotline of monsters, supernatural crime and erotically charged liaisons, but this one is definitely flatter than usual. I think the author is struggling a bit with a heroine who outranks her companions, yet (at the moment) does not pack as much punch. This was reflected in a recurring theme of people not respecting her authority, something that never happens with ole' Anita. They may fight her, but they never ignore her. A great deal of the action happened sprawled in her double bed back at her apartment with a harem of males scattered about like cushions. There were long conversations with Sidhe kings and queens, all trying to bully each other, one trip to a Sidhe filmstar's house, a scene in the office, and one crime scene. And that was it. In fact, there was hardly any action at all (except in the bedroom). The final action sequence did not have enough build up - the big bad baddy had not previously been seen, although it had been talked about - and the whole section definitely seemed hurried. I got the impression that Ms Hamilton had been late for her publisher's deadline, and just filled the last 5 pages with annotations describing how to resolve loose ends. So, if you want to find out what happens next in the Merry Gentry story, then read it. But if you want a long satisfying read with a glass of wine, a bar of choccy and a rainy afternoon, then go back and reread the first in the series.
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