Quick review of Swallowing Darkness

[missingvolume.livejournal.com]

http://www.publishersweekly.com/blog/400000640/post/1870033187.html?nid=4381

I have to wonder how many replies she will get over this.

Comments

[rodentfanatic.livejournal.com]

I love how she even looks like Merry XD

[wolfychan.livejournal.com]

Merry (now Princess Meredith) reveals that her twin children have three fathers each. Genetically. Through magic.

This kind of thing is a lot of the problem with LKH's books lately. The heroines have their cake, eat their cake, and are declared the Mystical Cake Queens. She's just unwilling to let the characters make any sacrifices. The idea that some of the manharem would be shit outta luck, and this would have to be dealt with, was apparently unfathomable. The way that Anita and Merry accumulate powers and lovers without ever losing any is making their lives into unwieldy, overpowered, fantasy-fulfillment juggernauts, and the sheer size of their privileges is bogging them down.

It's hard to have a plot when you refuse to make any choices in your fictional world that would lead to a real struggle. Just pack on another wereanimal to Anita's kingdom, slap another longhaired boytoy into Merry's harem, never take any away, and watch as the utter lack of desperation or fear in their lives turns them into spoiled housecats. It'd be a nice way to live, but it's not much to read about.

[mystickiwi.livejournal.com]

The ONE THING I found intriguing about the Merry series (even though I quit reading after 2) was the idea of "who would get to be the consort" and she even had to take that away. You're absolutely right in your cake analogy

[the-willow.insanejournal.com (from livejournal.com)]

"4+"

I read this as '44' and found myself thinking. "Wow, I really missed a lot when I stopped reading." The thing that gets me is that I totally believed this and was going to ask you if you knew all their names, and then realized what you'd really written.

[kessie.livejournal.com]

Plot needs conflict.

Take away the conflict, and you have one seriously boring plot that amounts to nothing.

[librarista.livejournal.com]

I love any reviewer that knows EOI. And that image will make the book bearable. Assuming I can make myself read it. Merry is easier than Anita, though. You expect this kind of thing from fairies.

[kd-lalala.livejournal.com]

Not to mention at least the Merry series was pretty much bad from the get go. It only degenerated from bad to REALLY bad XD

[silent-sybil.livejournal.com]

You expect this kind of thing from fairies.

That's kind of the crux of it-- and I actually didn't read the Merry series seriously at any point. They were my introduction to LKH, though, and I fell in love with Anita Blake because she was not Princess Sex Kitten. I liked the guns, and the zombie-raising, and the horrifying crime scenes (what?). And the (sort of) hard-boiled, self-deprecating, sarcastic heroine who was a total dork and slept with stuffed penguins. She was completely human, which meant that I could sympathize with her through the Mary-Sue-like badassery, and enjoyed the elevation from "animator" to "necromancer." The series has gradually shed every element I've ever enjoyed, whereas at least Merry Gentry still has the same amusing-train-wreck factor she came in with.

(And Sholto.)

(And Psychotic Aunt Andais. So there were a few things, okay? *shifty eyes*)

[silent-sybil.livejournal.com]

This has strayed completely off its intended topic, which was actually "IAWTC." -_-

[slayra.livejournal.com]

Wait, wait, wait... those twins have three fathers each? Oh, the ridiculous! *snorts*
And here I (stupidly) thought each twin had only a different father! I tremble at the genetic characteristics of each child... wasn't there one male in there with tentacles? And another one with ankle length white hair? How will Merry ever give birth to two monstruosities with ankle-length hair and tentacles???? O___O Does Laurell think that is anything other than... weird and creepy?

... she spoiled faeries for me. I loved faeries. O___O

[longtail.livejournal.com]

They're going to come out having rainbow skin and ankle-length tentacle hair!!!

Which on a baby wouldn't be that long, but imagine just trying to feed it or change it's diaper.

"Doyle, will you change your son? He's smelling kind of ripe."

"Last time I tried, it tried to eat my hand. I need this hand. Make Galen do it."

"Galen's still recovering from last time he did it. You do it."

"Make Frost do it, it's his kid too!"

"No, my kid's the other one! Sholto is your kid's other baby daddy."

[slayra.livejournal.com]

Eeeek! That's a killer combination... imagine how popular they'd be in High School.

LOL! With this many men Merry will never have to change a diaper... how convenient. :p

[alondra-del-sol.livejournal.com]

Hold on a sec here. So each twin has 3 fathers? Is that really how it is? If so then...*tries to find a universe where that would be genetically possible*.

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

The Irish mythological hero Lugaid has three fathers (who are also his uncles, ew).

One presumes LKH stole the trope from there.

[slayra.livejournal.com]

One can always assume it wasn't quite that literal in the Irish mythology... more like a "Mama mia" kind of scene. I mean that part where he had different body parts separated by red stripes is kinds creepy (imagine MG's children with red stripes separating each father's attributes... ugh!).
Still, even if he really had three fathers, this king was related to some high powered characters and/or celtic gods. Merry gentry is a fairy princess and a half-human.
And... erm, this is the 21st century; if Laurell wanted to borrow from old celtic mythology (assuming she did), couldn't she have picked something more glamorous and interesting? It might "UAU" people from the 1st century BC that a guy had three fathers, but for 21st century people, who kind of know it's genetically impossible... it's just weird. And gross. O___O