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

[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.