A Shiver of Light (Merry Gentry, #9)

by Laurell K. Hamilton

"Merry Gentry, ex-private detective, now full-time princess, knew she was descended from fertility goddesses, but when she learned she was about to have triplets, she began to understand what that might mean. Infertility has plagued the high ranks of faerie for centuries. Now nobles of both courts of faerie are coming to court Merry and her men, at their home in exile in the Western Lands of Los Angeles, because they will do anything to have babies of their own. Taranis, King of Light and Illusion, is a more dangerous problem. He tried to seduce Merry and, failing that, raped her. He's using the human courts to sue for visitation rights, claiming that one of the babies is his. And though Merry knows she was already pregnant when he took her, she can't prove it. To save herself and her babies from Taranis she will use the most dangerous powers in all of faerie: a god of death, a warrior known as the Darkness, the Killing Frost, and a king of nightmares. They are her lovers, and her dearest loves, and they will face down the might of the high courts of faerie--while trying to keep the war from spreading to innocent humans in Los Angeles, who are in danger of becoming collateral damage"--

• ISBN10: 0425255662
• ISBN13: 9780425255667
• Publish Date: 3 June 2014 (first published 1 June 2014)
• Publish Status: Remaindered
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Berkley Publishing Group
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 372
• Language: English

Reviews

[Silvara]

Check out my other reviews, discussions and link ups at Fantasy of the Silver Dragon.

I love this series because of the wide variety of Fae we get introduced to. And the Fae are not the sweetness and light that some stories and cartoons make them out to be. They are the stuff of the original dark fairytales. There are other reasons I love the series, but most of them fall into a guilty pleasure area.

Taranis finally falls into madness in a way everyone around him can see it, whether or not they choose to. Except of course most humans, because they are not around him all the time like the Fae. And Andais is slightly less crazy in this book. None of the torture or killings she has been famous for in the previous books. This would be because she wants to be allowed to meet Merry's children. As well as the fact she is no longer trying to get Merry to kill her.

There are a few explicit sex scenes in the book, and at one point you are going to want a box of tissues handy. But most of the book revolves around the new babies and their magic. As well as the Taranis story-line. All the old favorite characters are in this book, as well as a few characters we haven't seen much of in a while, and characters we didn't get to know well. I loved the scene with Aisling, and he has a few different moments in this book.

If you've read the previous books, you should read this one. If you like books with a wide variety of Fae that aren't sweetness and light, and don't mind sex scenes, you should read this series.

This review was originally posted on Fantasy of the Silver Dragon

[tellemonstar]

I liked it.

[Melanie]

My review and an extended sample of the audiobook are posted at Hotlistens.com.

2.5 stars for story
4 stars for narration
2.5 stars overall

This is a really hard review for me to write. I've been a huge fan of both the Anita Blake and Merry Gentry series for many years. I've stuck by Ms. Hamilton while I've watch many people I know leave because the amount of sex in her books has increased to such an extent. I've never had issues with the amount sex in the books, though I will admit some stories were missing a plot outside of sex. I also read/listen to erotica, so that was never an issue for me. However, that is not to say that I don't have complaints about the books. Many of the issues that I've had, I have been able to overlook because I felt that I could focus on how much I enjoyed the story and especially, the characters. However, my annoyances with Ms. Hamilton's writing styles are starting to outway the quality of the characters and story, in my opinion.

First, the lack of continuity of the facts throughout the series. In this book, it is mentioned that Kitto isn't able to bite Merry because his bite is poisonous, but in a previous book, he bit her to share flesh as part of the bargain with Kurag, goblin king. There is also talk of Frost's former love, Rose, and her mother, also named Rose. The book mentions that they are dead, but in a previous book the mother is still alive at the Seelie Court. I know that you can't always remember everything about every character you write, but this has become a large issue for Ms. Hamilton in both series and is happening more frequently as of late. In an Anita book, a character's name even changed. That is unacceptable to me. Once I started noticed this issue, they now stick out like a sore thumb to me.

Second, the excessive descriptions of the persons features and clothing. This has always been something Ms. Hamilton has done. She makes sure you know the height, hair and eye color of every single character and many times throughout every book in the series. There is also a great deal of page time spent describing the fashions that each person is wearing. This is one of those things that I have always written off as part of her writing style and just dealt with it.

With this book in particular, these two issues really bothered more than normal for a couple of reasons. One, I have been waiting five years for the next Merry book, so I was extremely excited about a new story in this world. Then I start reading and the first two thirds of the book is almost a recap of the first eight books and Merry having kids. At 32% into the book, Merry had had her babies, left the hospital and spoken with her Aunt on the mirror. That was pretty much it. Tons of dialogue, lots of descriptions and rehashing everything that is going on in previous books. I had gone through and done a complete relisten to the series this year as a refresher, I didn't need the first half of the book to do that for me. Even if I hadn't done it, it was too much, in my opinion. That being said, once we started having actual stuff happening, the political plotting wasn't too bad. There is a huge spoiler that I saw prior to reading. I had seen what the event was, but not who it involved on Twitter. It is not an event that I'm happy with, but I think it at least has a point in the overall story, so I'm okay with it. I don't want to say more about, so as not to spoil it for anyone, but it was not the best I've ever seen this type of event written. It didn't have the "feels" that I thought should go with it. I know that is very vague, but once again, I don't want to spoil this for anyone who wants to read it.

I wanted to like this book so bad, but it just wasn't up to what I expect from a Merry Gentry book, especially after a five year hiatus. I guess I needed more new story and less dialogue discussing the past; Frost's former love, killing Cel, Rhys's new sithen, the battle with the Nameless, etc. I would've liked more action, less dialogue and reminiscing. I will say that the overall story arc doesn't end with this book. I'm still interested to see where Ms. Hamilton takes Merry and her men. A lot happens, big things, in the last quarter of the book, so should be interesting. I'm still not ready to give up on this series or Ms. Hamilton yet.

Narration
This part is really hard for me too. They changed narrators from the person who has normally narrated this series. While I don't think Charlotte Hill did a bad job, I really dislike changes in narrators this late in a series. She made a lot of changes to the way some of the names were pronounced. I don't know which narrator had the correct pronunciation, but the change was difficult for me. One character it took me a few minutes to even figure out who it was because of the pronunciation of his name was so different. If this was book one of the series and not book nine, I think she would've been fine. She did fine with both men and women. She put the emotion into the stories. There were some scenes where Merry was sobbing, you could hear it in her voice.

[elysium]

Finally new Merry Gentry book and I'm happy to say that I enjoyed it.

It wasn't very action packed but it was nice to see what's going on in their lives. We see some new sides about Andais which was nice.
I have to confess I was little relieved when discovering who's going to die. Glad it wasn't my fav character...

One problem I have is that there's so many characters in the series and they just keep coming. I don't think we need so many minor characters who has nothing to do in the big picture.