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

[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?

[fangedsekhmet.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the explanation, I'm more glad than ever that I haven't touched those *l*. But yes, that does sound like a familiar trend there toward the end, which makes me think she just writing the same books with different names.

The whole thing is starting to remind me of a TV show that keeps skipping cancellation, but is just padding itself out with more of the same to no end or effect. Playing in your world is fine, but if you don't plan to go home for lunch you'll starve.

Which is my crappy analogy for plot=good, blathering on with no goal=boring.

[killiara.livejournal.com]

Agreed. I liked her overreaching plot, and at the end of it I closed the book and went, "Well, the story's over, great job. Now to test her worth: Will She Stop Writing When It's Done?"

The answer? No. Q.Q

Does no one freaking know how to END a story anymore????

[dwg.livejournal.com]

It's interesting now, because we're not getting a Merry book this year. LKH went from Divine Misdemeanors, to Flirt -- which she wrote while writing DM -- to Bullet, to the next AB:VH book. She's said that she can't keep up her deadline schedule as is (o rly?), and given how attached she is to AB:VH, Merry was clearly the only sacrifice she was willing to make. And the thing is, Merry was meant to be a close-ended series of originally five books, but then it went up to eight or so, and now I have no idea, because the number changes. I've been thinking that it'll wind up being like AB:VH where she'll write it until her dying day, but that she's dropped the MG book for this year gives me hope that maybe she's willing to wrap up the series after all. I am prepared to have this hope crushed under the heel of LKH like so many have been dashed before.

[gator-grrrl.livejournal.com]

I don't think she has a contract from the publisher for any more Merry books. After the disaster that was Divine Misdemeanors, she may not get another one.

[knowthyself.livejournal.com]

"and the magical ring (on her finger) that tingles whenever a fertile man is near"

Wait, WHAT? What kind of bullshit is this? I mean, I knew the series descended into crap (I read the first one, it was pretty good, then I read some AB and the heard what happened in both and stopped there), but...what? I mean, just...no! No! You don't need a ring that does that! Because MOST men are fertile! Unless I totally missed where she turned the world into a place where that's not true, why would anyone, even someone trying to get knocked up, ever need a ring that does this?!

[rin-x-x.livejournal.com]

The premise is that the ring is supposed to go off when a fertile mate is nearby the wearer, and thus a match can happen. I believe its mentioned somewhere in the book that it was used for that particular purpose.

In reality it is merely a plot device, because one cannot have sex with Merry without being in love with them, so if you get zapped by the ring, you are now instantly in love with Merry, or will be soon. I think there is only one or two men around Merry right now that the ring didn't go off for.

[dwg.livejournal.com]

This is from the outset! The ring was a gift from Andias to help Merry pick viable suitors from the guards! And since the aim was to get pregnant, having sex with dudes that couldn't help with that would have been useless. From memory, there's been at least one guy where the ring didn't tingle in response and there was a sort of friendly, "Oh well, good luck with the pregnant thing!" from the guy. But it also means that Andias could send guards that Merry didn't like or want as her potential king for her to sleep with.

And then, there's a schedule for Merry to sleep with at least one guard every day (though sometimes they team up and swap days) until she is pregnant, unless she's on her period. Uh, because charting when she's ovulating must be some strange modern thing that supernatural beings that are thousands of years old cannot possibly fathom? Then again, she winds up with twins to six different fathers so she can KEEP THEM ALL like the guards are her personal Pokemons.

[knowthyself.livejournal.com]

I don't recall the ring at all, but it was a while ago that I read the first book.

Well, to be fair, if getting pregnant meant I got to live, I'd probably go right ahead and keep up a daily schedule as well, there's a lot at stake there! But I imagine ovulation days would see an increase in activity, yes.

[dwg.livejournal.com]

I get the reason for the daily schedule, and since it's fictionlandia it's always wheee fun awesome sexytimes with the back-breaking orgasms and hot guys, but my biology brain is making O____o faces because it doesn't work that way. And the other thing is that they are relying on the old fashioned way of conception, when there are other options. Especially since they said from the start that faeries find it difficult to conceive. I'm gonna guess that Merry never visited a fertility specialist to see what her chances are? Which seems odd because she's meant to be the modern American princess that grew up outside the Sithen and its arcane ways.

[knowthyself.livejournal.com]

Well, you know what they say about trying to find biology logic in an LKH novel.... :)

[dwg.livejournal.com]

Well, you know what they say about trying to find biology logic in an LKH novel.... :)

There, I fixed it for you. ;D

[lady-fellshot.livejournal.com]

Tea. All over the monitor.

Thank you. XD

[roguetailkinker.livejournal.com]

Yes, thank you!

She stated from the outset that the fey are becoming infertile, hence the reason for the "whoever makes a baby first, gets the throne" contest. If the king/queen of the fey is sterile, their people become sterile too. Andais stated later that she took Cel to a human doctor whose tests showed that Cel was sterile, and that's the only reason Merry was given a chance at the throne.

Also, as stated below, that wasn't the ring's primary function- originally it matched up fertile couples to keep the species going. It was only when the magic of fey started fading that the ring ceased to do that.

And I rather think the sex-every-day thing has as much do with the men's previous sexual deprivation as making babies. ;-)

[world-dancer.livejournal.com]

I thought it could still match up other fertile couples, Andias just wasn't doing that any more for her own reasons (or maybe didn't have the magic to activate it). There was some hinting that Merry might be able to do this, but you know how LKH is about her heroines giving men away to others when they could be spewing into the series super vag.

[roguetailkinker.livejournal.com]

I don't know, I had the impression that Andais wasn't able to do it anymore, but I could be wrong. Merry did do it though, remember Nicca and his new wife?

[x-trickster-x.livejournal.com]

"Oh well, good luck with the pregnant thing!" from the guy

I want to be his friend, he sounds normal.

[judes.livejournal.com]

I'm a little late to the discussion, but I just finished reading Swallowing Darkness (after reading Mistral's Kiss and Lick of Frost at super speed before) and I gave a sigh after I closed the book. I thought the series was finally done. Meredith would start her merry harem of faerie magick in LA and would live happily ever after with her babies and men. I thought it was actually a satisfactory ending, even if it involved multiple cop-outs. But then I find out there's already another book and more to come. My question is WHY.

I definitely agree with this comment with the "metaphysical nonsense" part. I actually loved the idea of crazy queens/kings on the thrones of faerie, the whole bloodthirsty terrible beauty part of the sidhe and the sluagh and the lesser fey. I love the hands of power and I didn't even mind the glowing sexings (with its comfortable predictability. thrust thrust, orgasm builds, Merry screams, and then screams some more. Everyone is healed). I was quite surprised when she changed Frost into the stag, and thought that FINALLY, she was going to do away with one of Merry's lovers and that she would actually have to go through some personal growth as a character and mature. And it would make the two babies, six fathers thing less ridiculous. But no. It doesn't happen that way.

Also, LKH doesn't seem to like doctors. Doctors are portrayed horribly in her series as incompetent and useless.