http://cobalt-cin.livejournal.com/ ([identity profile] cobalt-cin.livejournal.com) wrote in [community profile] lkh_lashouts2010-06-15 11:20 pm
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Failure of Merry Gentry?

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.

[identity profile] dwg.livejournal.com 2010-06-15 11:57 am (UTC)(link)
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.

[identity profile] killiara.livejournal.com 2010-06-15 04:25 pm (UTC)(link)
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

[identity profile] dwg.livejournal.com 2010-06-15 05:07 pm (UTC)(link)
I KNOW, RIGHT? That's all I was basically hanging in there for with the series. I have been bitter since a re-read of Kiss of Shadows and Sholto rocks up to whine about how he's not pretty enough, when really, he should be the rock star of the faeries because he's King of the Sluagh. Somehow I find it unbelievable that the rest of the Sluagh nation are okay with some Sidhe shaving off his tentacles, even if he did go willingly to her to get laid. And I am not buying into them being okay with Merry as their queen with the surprise accidental marriage. These are supposed to be the creatures that even gods fear, so why they're playing nice, I don't know. :\

[identity profile] killiara.livejournal.com 2010-06-15 10:24 pm (UTC)(link)
Expecially with Meridith going on and on about how beauty for the Unsidhe court is variable, and how monsters can be seen as totally hot (except for nightflyers, because only her readers are kinky enough for that apparently).

I was damned surprised that the Wild Hunt didn't call itself on the fey ladies that did that to Sholto. Forget the other men in Merry's harem, he's my favorite, probably because he retains the most of his sense of self and dosen't just become an accessory for Merry's... erm... arm. right. That's the word I meant...

[identity profile] world-dancer.livejournal.com 2010-06-16 02:07 pm (UTC)(link)
Wait, wait, they cut off his TENTACLES?

I know people sometimes call Merry/Anita castrating bitches, but that's making it literal.

I'm now really really pissed.

[identity profile] killiara.livejournal.com 2010-06-16 06:53 pm (UTC)(link)
Aaah, but it wasn't 'Merry' who did it, it was a few unnamed Sidhe bitches who lured him off with the promise of sex and then tied him down and said, "No way we're sleeping with you with those bits" and proceeded to shave them off at the skin level. Then leave him with no orgasm.

He eventually gets them back, and they're now tattoos which he can manifest as physical now, so Merry dosen't have to play with them if she dosen't want to.

...

Way to chicken out, LKH.

[identity profile] world-dancer.livejournal.com 2010-06-17 02:35 am (UTC)(link)
Yeah, definitely chickened out.

And how is Sholto, king of the sluagh, powerful if nameless sidhe chicks can castrate him?

Also, just because you have appendages doesn't mean you have to use them every time. But you don't cut them off.

[identity profile] roguetailkinker.livejournal.com 2010-06-21 05:21 am (UTC)(link)
Actually, one sidhe woman lured him off for some bondage sex, and some sidhe males then came in and cut off Sholto's tentacles. But then Merry magic-sexed him and he's all better now. Gripe about the writing if you like, but Sholto does still have tentacles.

[identity profile] roguetailkinker.livejournal.com 2010-06-21 05:33 am (UTC)(link)
Um, no, it was a few unnamed sidhe males who cut off his tentacles after one named sidhe woman lured him to her bed for some bondage sex. Not quite the same.

And Merry did play with the tentacles quite happily in chapter 15 of Swallowing Darkness:

"I shoved my small doubts down, and watched his body go from the exotic tattoo to the reality of the image. I didn't know if it had been the magic of the wild hunt, or the times he had used the extra bits to comfort me this past night, but I could no longer see him in his glory as anything but beautiful."


and

"Once I had been horrified at the thought of having to embrace him with all the extras revealed, but as he knelt beside us and reached for me, all I could think of was how many uses we could find for so many of his extra bits."

Geesh, I come here to grouse about LKH and wind up defending her.
ext_104173: (what why?)

[identity profile] jeza-red.livejournal.com 2010-06-15 06:03 pm (UTC)(link)
...you mean there's NO tentackle sex?!

...then why did I start reading this sh*t>__

[identity profile] killiara.livejournal.com 2010-06-15 10:22 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm holding out hope that LKH will come to her senses and give us hot tentacle smexings.

[identity profile] roguetailkinker.livejournal.com 2010-06-21 05:18 am (UTC)(link)
Swallowing Darkness, Page 155, American hardcover. Tentacle sexin' ahoy.