Great Book! | A Stroke of Midnight (Meredith Gentry, Book 4)

Not Free SF Reader | A Stroke of Midnight (Meredith Gentry, Book 4) | Laurell K. Hamilton

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	• A Stroke of Midnight (Meredith Gentry, Book 4) Laurell K. Hamilton Ballantine Books, 2006 - 416 pages average customer review:based on 240 reviews view larger image
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Overly fragmentary, and slow plot advancement, but still enjoyable

Princess Meredith, the private detective and not-so-private Princess of Faerie, is back in this 4th installment in the Merry Gentry series.

The race for the throne is underway, and Merry gets busy fulfilling her royal duties of trying to get pregent by one or more of her royal guards (all of the previously celtic dieties in centures and millenia past, when the primal forces of magic were much stronger in the world) ... and in the process, the Goddess (and the presence of magic along with her) begins to show more signs of returning, and restoring vitality to the faerie realm ... a vitality that has withered over the millennia under the cruel sadism of the Queen of Air and Darkness.

Prince Cel is still in prison, but his followers (and other elements opposed to having a half-breed like Meredith take the throne) have not been idle ... there has been foul murder done within the halls of the sidhe, and further murders are attempted - and neither Princess Merry nor her Elite Guards (even as they begin to reclaim some of their old strength from ages long past) are safe.

The author tells her tale with her usual mix of steamy magically-enhanced sex, mythological fantasy, court intrigue, and forensics. It's a highly enjoyable romp.

My only memorable nit is the authoress' tendency to write, at times, in extremely short and fragmentary chapters ... such as breaking up a single continuous scene into 5 chapters, of only 3-5 pages each. There's no apparent rhyme or reason to her chapter divisions, and her plot advancement is slow.

Reading this as I am hot on the heels of George R. R. Martin's excessively long-winded and overly complex "A Song of Ice and Fire", encountering back-to-back chapters of only 3-5 pages each, and all of them a seemingly unbroken continutation of the parahraphs immediately before ... it caused an involuntary nervous twitch, and I had to repress the urge to laugh hysterically.

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Great Book!

I LOVE everything I've read by Hamilton so far (Which includes all available Anita Blake and Meredith Gentry novels) and I love this one too! Granted, I may be a bit biased... but if you're into dark fantasy, Vampires, Erotica, Sci-Fi, Romance, Horror, faries, or any combination... these are WONDERFUL books! Laurell is a very good writer with wonderful attention to detail! This is book #4, I would STRONGLY suggest beginning with book #1 of course, but in my opinion any of Laurell K Hamiltons' works are a real treat!

Not Free SF Reader

Meredith's Sidhe bodyguards, of all types and flavors are keen to have
sex with her as much as possible, as if any of them win the faerie bun
in the oven lottery, prestige awaits.

Also, it appears that doing so, brings back long unused and dormant
powers from the time when the Sidhe were top dog, not the humans.

Apart from this, they have to solve the murder, in public, at a press conference, of two people, and the Sidhe are involved.

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Merry Gentry tries some new tricks

A Stroke of Midnight is the fourth in Laurell K Hamilton's Merry Gentry series. They are best read in order, so I recommend you go back and start with A Kiss of Shadows (Meredith Gentry Novels). The series is a fun ride, so you might as well start from the beginning.

Merry Gentry is a princess of Faerie, where the Faerie are an ancient magical race that had powers which caused humans to think of them as gods. The Faerie are faded from their ancient glory and live among us, with unearthly beauty and superhuman powers bound by their treaty with our government. This fourth installment takes place over the course of a few days before the Yule holiday, when Merry returns from Los Angeles to her Faerie home.

Although Merry herself is mortal (dubious heritage on her mother's side), mysteriously she is belatedly awakening into a power that has not been seen for centuries in Faerie. Her power is manifested through sex - she is able to catalyze power in others and in her surroundings during lovemaking. This makes for erotic reading as Merry's primary mission, set by her Queen, is to have as much sex as possible with as many eligible Faeries in order to get pregnant. Pregnancy will secure Merry's place in the succession.

What makes this not pornography is that there actually is a plot and character development. The reader ends up caring about Merry and the future of the Faerie people. Even the internal Faerie politics, normally a snoozer for me, was well done and kept my interest. However, this is not a book for people who only want to read about sex inside committed relationships.

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Not great, but not nearly as bad as the last two

The Meredith Gentry series makes me wish I were not such a nice person. I don't want to keep reading these books. Truthfully, they keep disappointing me. But I am a person who finishes what she starts, and four books into a series I won't give up. I just won't.

That being said, A Stroke of Midnight is by far the second best Meredith Gentry novel after the first. The last two books were more a "Faerie Court Politics for Dummies" course rather than actual novels. I get so sick of reading about how the fey will never lie. Really? I've only had it beat into my head 1,000 times, I almost forgot. Also, you should always compliment a sidhe who is trying to look nice. And when they look for comfort they touch one another. I get it! Can we get on with the story now please?

A Stroke of Midnight almost went on with the story. I'll say... about 50 pages out of the entire 366, which is a lot considering the drivel contained in the last two stories. At least this book gave me a little info about why faerie started fading, what the sithen means to the future queen, and FINALLY a taste of what Queen Andais is all about. I'm still not satisfied. I still think I'm being strung along so that I will continue to shell out $8-$20 (depending on whether I spring for the hardback) for a series that has no clue where it's going and just expects me to go along for the ride. I have to be honest, though. This ride is a little boring and I might try to get off at the next station.

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I am Meredith Gentry, P.I., solving cases in Los Angeles, far from the peril and deception of my real home?because I am also Princess Meredith, heir to the darkest throne faerie has to offer. The Unseelie Court infuses me with its power. But at what price does such magic come? How much of my human side will I have to give up, and how much of the sinister side of faerie will I have to embrace? To sit on a throne that has ruled through bloodshed and violence for centuries, I might have to become that which I dread the most.

Enemies watch my every move. My cousin Cel strives to have me killed even now from his prison cell. But not all the assassination attempts are his. Some Unseelie nobles have waited centuries for my aunt Andais, Queen of Air and Darkness, to become weak enough that she might be toppled from her throne. Enemies unforeseen move against us?enemies who would murder the least among us.

The threat will drive us to allow human police into faerie for the first time in our history. I need my allies now more than ever, especially since fate will lead me into the arm of Mistral, Master of Storms, the queen?s new captain of her guard. Our passion will reawaken powers long forgotten among the warriors of the sidhe. Pain and pleasure await me?and danger, as well, for some at that court seek only death.

I will find new joys with the butterfly-winged demi-fey. My guards and I will show all of faerie that violence and sex are as popular among the sidhe as they are among the lesser fey of our court. The Darkness will weep, and Frost will comfort him. The gentlest of my guards will find new strength and break my heart. Passions undreamed of await us?and my enemies gather, for the future of both courts of faerie begins to unravel.

From the Hardcover edition.

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