Failure of Merry Gentry?

[cobalt-cin.livejournal.com]

Hi Guys!

I have been a Lurker for quite a while and have read along nodding with alot of the points you have all brought up on here. I was just wondering though the focus seems to be more on the AB series and granted this has fallen a long, long way since Obsidian Butterfly. I stopped reading the series after NIC but have followed the rest of the series in the brillaint blogs posted on here. Thank you, all of you who have saved me the time of actually reading them myself. It is rather like watching a rollercoaster to hell as the series sinks even further.

My question for you is did anybody ever read the Merry Gentry like i did and prefer it? When I read the first Merry book I thought it was great. I had read the first three AB books by the time i read the first Merry book. I preferred it to the AB series. I thought it was a better premise and being more into mythology, Old World Fairy Tales and the Fae I found it really interesting. I initially liked the fact she was loud and proud about her sexual activities and likes and it got me up to the third book believe it or not. I liked the world that was set up and characters surrounding Merry, including her men all had sinister, suspect motivies. I find it rather sad the series has been ruined in Hamilton's hands. Does anyone else see that this series had the bones of a really awesome series that failed? What do you think Hamilton could have done to make it a better series, aside from not assasinating characters like Doyle and Sholto or turning it into a sexual free for all, or what could another author have done with this? Yasmine Galenorn and a few YA authors I've read over the years feature Fae and do a far better job, making them into the scary, unnerving and unpredictible Fae I expect to see.

Comments

[rameena.livejournal.com]

I love love love the edges of LKH's world in Merry Gentry. A lot of the ideas are pretty cool. I was excited when the first book came out at the idea of an alternate reality version of world history, with the fae being an active part and signing treaties and such, but she tends to just throw out little details and then abandon them. What kills me is that plot and story development are all window dressing for what is just erotica. I hate that every single man that Merry encounters is not just sexually attracted to her, even though LKH keeps trying to make a ridiculous point that technically she's not the fae ideal of beauty, but they also fall in love with her and are willing to throw away centuries of caution for just a chance with her. bleh.
but yeah, I agree with you. I'm down with sex, just not to the exclusion of everything else. I think she could/should have done so much more with her books.

[mad-troll.livejournal.com]

I agree with all you wrote, except for the "erotica" detail [plot and story development are all window dressing for what is just erotica].
No erotica, nope - it's just plain pr0n.

[tooimpurenangel.livejournal.com]

I really liked the first two MG books. I thought it was a fun 'verse and then nothing happened with Sholto and I gave up. No tentacle sex? No, thanks!

Seriously, I think I got to the fourth book and sex had become a chore. Booooring!

Same thing with AB. The sex is necessary because people will die if she doesn't. They both have had their free will removed and I don't find that entertaining in the slightest.

[quizzicalsphinx.livejournal.com]

I think I've told the story of How I Discovered LKH here before: I'm deeply into faerie mythology and Irish folklore, from an almost academic point of view, and I've been working for a while on taking that mythology and giving it a very pro-feminist slant (well, didn't start out that way, but it went that way by itself and it seems to be working so I won't question it). After giving a co-worker the first couple of chapters of the story and some of the background information, my co-worker told me, "Oh! You need to read these books! They're just like what you're writing about!"

First off, please never tell a writer that their work-in-progress is just like a previously published book. It is incredibly disheartening. Second off . . . the books in question were, of course, the Merry Gentry series. I read them and immediately had to wonder, what the hell does my co-worker think of my writing? Seriously?!

But I did like them on one level, and I believe it's the level my co-worker picked up on when she said my story was "just like" Merry Gentry: the series does tend to play with the theme of the dangerous, dark beauty of Faerie, the old ties between blood and beauty and seduction that kind of got wiped out when the Victorians whitewashed the old fairy-tales. I was and am very pleased to see that concept of Faerie returning to mainstream media; the last time I'd really seen anything resembling it was Jim Henson's Labyrinth, which has all the concepts of seduction in a more kiddie-friendly version with the exception of David Bowie's prominent crotch, which admittedly is a little difficult to overlook.

[terrie01.livejournal.com]

I love Labyrinth, but, as an adult, I always have these moments of "Is it just me or did David Bowie shove an armadillo down the front of his pants?"

[suzycat.livejournal.com]

The dangerous, dark elements, the faerie politics etc, the issues Merry faced as a "half breed" type... they were all so interesting. But I think LKH like a LOT of writers suffers badly from the inability to murder her darlings. She won't kill people and in her universes she really should. Similarly if a character is one she has an investment in (ie Merry/Anita or one of the men) she won't have them take responsibility for a poor decision or deal with any real negative fallout. It is a terrible, terrible failing. Your characters are not your children, and even if they were, you'd be doing them a terrible disservice if you never let them learn anything.

When I read the first Merry book I really, REALLY wanted to read a prequel that examined Merry's life as an undercover faerie with her family after they'd been expelled. That would have been awesome. Well, unless LKH wrote it, in which case it would be tedious and retconny.

[vaegue.livejournal.com]

I liked the first book as well. Actually, the first Merry Gentry was the first LKH book I read, and this expanded into all the Anitas (until the 14th book).

I think LKH is trapped by the idea that sex is the most awesome and edgy theme to explore ever. I don't know what made her leap off the precipice, but every single idea might not begin with sex, but it certainly ends with sex. Like Sholto. Really cool idea. And then, inevitably, LKH only seemed to see his tentacles as sex instruments. Because apparently you can't use tentacles to do anything else. Like kill people.

Jean Claude and Anita? Fascinating idea. The aduer/ adeur thing, it would have been mind blowing if LKH decided to explore it from the 'JC is a manipulative bastard, and he's been meaning to use sex to brainwash Anita all along...' But sadly, sex wasn't the means to the end, it was the end. And somehow, perversely, Anita came to enjoy being shackled by her sexual urges.

I think that's the huge failing of a lot of the so called 'edgy' paranormal novels. The authors seem to define 'edgy' as 'porn', and having lots of sex and being sexually desirable is the be all and end all to being powerful as a woman. And because of that, every single aspect of the narrative, from the characters' motivations to every single bump of the plot, down to the smallest details of the world... everything is related to sex.

So why do these YA books / other paranormal succeed? I find the better ones are less focused on the main character's romances (and consequent sexxors), and more focused on their external and internal struggles with defeating the big bad. Romance is a good thing. But it should be taken with teensy doses. It shouldn't be the focus on the story, and it definitely shouldn't be the sun which the world of the story revolves around.

[dwg.livejournal.com]

I like the premise of the Merry Gentry books, and like AB:VH there's so much potential that's just being squandered. I mean, Merry is a PI, but she doesn't really do any PI work. She doesn't use those skills to help her unravel the mysteries as to why she's being dragged back to court, or use those skills to help her survive. I know a few people who don't like the MG books because they're more political, but imo they're not political enough. And what politics is in there is just plain stupid with everyone sitting around to talk about what's happened, what might happened, and what they're going to do. No, when you're setting up that smiling the wrong way at someone can cost you your life, this doesn't make any sense that they'd sit back and go "you're right, Merry, we should all learn to love each other. I can't believe that after so many thousands of years, I never realised that I just needed a hug and to talk about my sexual frustrations."

No, god. Stop right there. Have the faeries be beautiful and brutal and fight to remain in this world or have others content with fading away, ne'er to be seen again and there can be weeping over how some of the giants of magic may disappear forever. The books could still be full of porn, and none of it would be at the detriment of plot or character.

Also, tentacle sex. We could have had that. I am disappoint.

[killiara.livejournal.com]

YES. As soon as we met Sholto I was completely, "Aww yeah, tentacle sex is on!" And I was looking forward to exploring the whole facination and 'Ew extra body parts' vs 'but they feel good' dichotemy.

Instead what do we get? A freaking glowy tattoo. X.X

[mizmalice.livejournal.com]

I've never read the Merry Gentry series but my main problem with Anita Balke was her turnaround from being almost puritanical about sex to screwing everything that moved. Therfore if the Merry Gentry series started with her being very open about her sexual activities then I could see how it might have a better premise as a series.

Is Merry Gentry worth checking out? The premise sounds interesting enough to hook me for a couple of books or so.

I'm not the original poster, but...

[ardeth30.livejournal.com]

Sure, if you get them from a library or friend. :) Least that way you only lose a couple of hours. *shrugs*

[world-dancer.livejournal.com]

The first few books are reasonable. There's politics. And the sex is not as initially annoying since it's a plot point that the main character needs to get pregnant.

Unfortunately, the story doesn't hold together and sex overwhelms all sense eventually. I made it to book 3 or 4. They're better popcorn novels than the Anita series, and more honest about what they are, but that's about all I can say for them.

[suzycat.livejournal.com]

In addition to the very good information you've had already, I feel I must warn you that MG novels contain almost unfeasible quantities of anime-like HAIR. If you are not into ankle length hair in candy colours, you may find this a dealbreaker.

[sune-kitty.livejournal.com]

I used to adore Merry. And then dear LKH forget character descriptions, lost continuity and turned the stories into an excuse for cookie cutter porn. I love the world she set up, and soooo much more could have been done with it. It makes me sad.

[dinpik.livejournal.com]

Same. She was doing a good job of building up the showdown between Merry and her cousin and then just... blah. Nothing.

I believe having to churn out an AB book one year with a MG book the next has burned her out. It may also be one reason while all she focuses on is sex: writing nothing but sex is easier than an intricate plot.

[fangedsekhmet.livejournal.com]

If the MG series has turned bad too (haven't read it, don't intend to) did it coincide with the downward spiral of AB? Anyone know?

[dwg.livejournal.com]

Yes and no? I mean, MG started out from the gate as faerie porn, and you can sorta sit there from the first book and go "well of course Merry is going to win and bring back magic to the land and be saviour to the courts with the power of her love." so it's not really surprising when lo, this is the way it pretty much turns out. The first book came out before Narcissus in Chains, and then LKH alternated between writing MG and AB:VH books.

The only difference is that in the MG books, LKH actually had a long-term story arc for the first...it was initially meant to be five books, but then I think one of the books got split into two? (I can't remmeber if it's Stroke of Midnight and Mistral's Kiss?) but basically you get to book four and it's a big wind up for something to happen, only it doesn't. The arc ended in Swallowing Darkness (loling forever at the title) and LKH swore she was never going to tie herself to a plot like that EVER AGAIN, which is why she was so giddy to get into Divine Misdemeanors because she finally got to "play" in the world and not have to stick to this grand plan.

But I find the Merry books to be a whole lot more metaphysical nonsense, because there's mystical visions involved that everyone then has to sit around and analyse and explain the significance to Merry, even though she's the one that had the vision. The other thing that grates is that LKH said she wanted to have a book where people touch each other in a not necessarily sexual way -- like, touching for comfort, support, etc etc -- only none of that happens, because there's Merry's quest to get pregnant, and the magical ring (on her finger) that tingles whenever a fertile man is near, and more men keep getting sent to her to have sex with and to level them up and bring them into their godhoods. Sound familiar?

[everstar3.livejournal.com]

LOL! Poor Bastian, he really should have stayed off the internets.

[nightmer.livejournal.com]

I think I read the first MG book about the same time I was reading the earlier Anita books. I thought the plot was kinda interesting but the Anita books were more so. By the time I finished AB and got back to MG I'd lost my patience with them. The series take a lot of the aggravating elements of AB and makes them worse. The self-absorbed speshul speshul narrator, the flimsy excuses forcing the heroine into porn, the long drawn-out descriptions of everything Merry-related. I re-read one of the earlier paragraphs describing the three rings of Merry's irises in depth and couldn't stop rolling my own eyes.

The ideas are neat, and I probably would have been more tolerant of the annoying parts of the series if Anita hadn't done it first. 90% of my problems with the series could be fixed if LKH laid off making Merry the center of everyone's universe. MG had less far to fall than AB, but the series has still been a disappointment.

[vlredreign.livejournal.com]

Funny thing. I fell in love with the Anita books in the beginning. I came across Circus Of The Damned in the library, and then hunted for others, so I read them out of order. I finally did re-read the first 7 in order, so that the events made sense. After the rape the wasn't (according to LKH) in NiC, I really lost my appetite for Anita. I hung in there for 3 more books (yes, masochist over here), then gave it up. I hated Micah, the ardeur, Micah, the emasculation of Jean Claude, the whininess of Richard, and the ho-ish, homophobic Anita. Basically, I hate that LKH took a great character and a great premise and wrecked it.

Then came Merry. I read them from the first, and loved those, too. What I loved was the Fae world. LKH took some basic Fae legnd and created this whole civil war, which was a cool idea. The Unseelie Court accepting everyone that was different, odd...ugly in the eyes of the Seelie Court. Very cool. Andais was a psycho, but that was okay, too. Uncle Whats-his-nuts, the king of the Seelie Court, cool move making him a sicko. Getting to pick guys to have sex with that haven't had any in a thousand years, SCORE!!! And then...yeah.

The premise was good, the civil war was good...but Merry remaining mortal? Dumb. And seriously, I see how that made for an interesting twist, but still...dumb. How are you gonna be Queen of a people when they live forever and you're gonna pop your clogs in about 50 years?? But okay, I dealt with that. The six daddies for two babies?? I know I flunked biology, but I would have paid more attention if we had covered this phenomena!

I think what made the Merry series better was that we knew we were getting a lot of sex from the beginning, there was an outline, and while there were still rampant typos and editing issues (y'all remember the 'insert here' fiasco?), it was still better in a lot of ways. Just like the Anita books were good right up to the chapter in NiC when Anita, JC and Richard were going upstairs to have a threesome. Once they got up there...the books turned to stir fried shit. Actually, the best thing that could have happened would have been for Anita to die when she got gored.

[roguetailkinker.livejournal.com]

I could be mistaken, but didn't they figure out that Merry is no longer mortal? She thought she was still mortal because she was feeling sick and immortals don't get diseases, but then she realized it was morning sickness from being pregnant.


Not addressing any particular person, but this has bugged me for some time:

The fey are magic. They can make dead plants come to life with a touch, they can bring a storm from a clear sky, they can make people see things that aren't there, so why do so many people seem shocked and disgruntled that their procreating involves magic too? LKH didn't even make that up, she took it from Celtic legend about the sidhe. Maybe some people here should go tell the Irish that their mythology ought to follow the rules of biology?

I'm no LKH fangirl, but I wish people here wouldn't try so hard to find things to complain about. The Anita Blake series is one thing, but she stated from the start of the MG series that these are magical beings and the rules are different for them.

[devilmet67.livejournal.com]

I'd actually read the entire MG series before I'd even heard of AB- just had other things going on- and like most thought it was a pretty interesting premise. The sex didn't bother me so much since it was already included, but when it slid into 'porn w/o plot' territory I lost interest. DM was the last straw for me.

[wonderbink.livejournal.com]

One of the things that's so . . . not even really frustrating but just kind of baffling is the stuff that gets set up in the first book and never really concludes.

Whatever happened to Griffin? Or Roane? Or Jenkins the Scary Reporter Guy? I haven't read past Mistral's Kiss, so do they ever show up after that point? And if they don't, what the hell was the point of bringing those characters in and detailing their stories if they were never going to be heard from again?

[cobalt-cin.livejournal.com]

I agree with you all. Particuarly on the loss of characters like Roane who appeared in the first book and disappaired. I believe the grandmother was still there in the first book and mentioned, but she is also gone. I too loved the fact of the Civil War, the danger of fading, the infertility and the fact that both courts were ruled by nutcases with no stops put on them. The fact that the main heir to Andais was a nutcase as well fitted the interest i held for what could happen. I too waited anxiously for the showdown between Merry and her cousin. But alas this went no where. I also waited for Sholto to gain some balls and real power, out of all of them he had the real power. His taking over the Unseelie court would have been an interesting angle. In better hands all of these ideas could be such an unnevering and brillaint premise to write with in the hands of a better Hamilton or other author.

There also seems to be a running theme on the fact that the leading males Doyle, Jean Claude, Richard etc had their balls cut off. I noticed this sudden downfall in leading male characters and some of the female ones around NIC and the third book in Merry Gentry. Connection with her private life? Something else? Who knows. But imagine how much better both series would be if Jean Claude, Richard or Doyle kept their balls?

I also liked the figure of Merry's father. Was a really interesting character and the vague undertones of political intrigue and manouvinering he did was great. But again Merry failed to pick this up and run with it after the first 2 books. I too find the downward spiral into bad porn with cookie cutter men is just so sad. The Celts and Scandinavians did not dream up cookie cutter monsters.

[snarky-imp.livejournal.com]

I read Merry first during one of those spells where I'd run out of books by authors I actually knew I liked (or loved to hate) and the Fae appealed way more than the Anita books had anytime I saw them in the hospital gift shop.
Because I liked the first two Merry books so much, I figured I'd give the Anita books a shot. Got whiplash going from Merry to early!Anita, too. (Yes. I kick myself with each new AB book for ever wishing Anita would just shut the hell up and sleep with Richard.) I hated Guilty Pleasures for the most part and disliked Anita like crazy, but figured the books had to get better.

I loved the world she'd laid out and how she had so many ideas that could have been so damn awesome if she'd just remembered them long enough to do something with them. I still remember when Andais first freaks the hell out and starts torturing _everyone_ and the phone call I got at 2am that night from my best friend who loooooved that scene to bits and could not wait to discuss it.

And then she lost it. I don't remember when I officially gave up hope for the books the first time, but the final nail in the coffin was 6 daddies for two babies, and this was on the heels of whichever book took less than a night to complete but felt so very much longer. And then she loses Frost... for a freakin' DAY. The rage.

Oh. The rage. I thought the Cel showdown would have been better and I have pretty much blocked out how stupid I found it that no one had really thought Cel had killed Merry's father. Really, people? Damn.

[desert-vixen.livejournal.com]

I have pretty much blocked out how stupid I found it that no one had really thought Cel had killed Merry's father. Really, people? Damn.

I bought Andais having a major blind spot about her son having killed her brother, but yeah... for the rational people among us, Cel should have been Suspect #2 or so. (I was sort of wondering if we were going to find out Andais had him offed, though.)

[world-dancer.livejournal.com]

Alright, I liked the first 3-4 books. I didn't love them, but I thought they were tolerable popcorn. The sex was less annoying since it was turned into a plot point, which even made sense. And the politics/alienness of the fae had promise.

Book 1 was a bit annoying in that you can actually count every 50 pages there will be a sex scene/near sex scene.

Following books were annoying in that I don't get why this woman is a PI when she does nothing PIish. That was a waste of time when something could have been done to differentiate her from Anita by giving her a different occupation (Anita is basically a PI) and interests.

I ended with the book that didn't end the plot (or subplots) and basically saddled Merry with a bunch of men she didn't want. That felt more like rape than romance/erotica any more. And the politics had disappeared beneath the screwing.