A Lick of Frost

But what these unobservant birds

Poodlerat’s book blog

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January 9, 2008 at 5:14 pm · Filed under Book Reviews, Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror

122. A Lick of Frost by Laurell K. Hamilton (Contemporary Fantasy) 274 p.

A Lick of Frost To my complete lack of surprise, I wasn’t impressed with this newest addition to LKH’s Merry Gentry series. From the very first novel, it had about the same quality as the trashiest of the Anita Blake series, and it’s only gone downhill from there. Why do I keep reading it? One of the great mysteries of the universe.

After suffering several assassination attempts while making a Christmas visit to the Unseelie court, Princess Meredith has cancelled her planned visits to the Goblin mound and the Seelie court. A Seelie noblewoman has accused three of Merry’s guards of rape, and the Seelie want them to answer for it. Merry knows the accusations are false, but how can she prove it to the human authorities her uncle Taranis, the Seelie king, has called in?

This book is actually better than its prequel, Mistral’s Kiss, in that it has some semblance of plot, and Merry spends more time out of bed than in, but unless you, like me, cannot stop yourself from reading LKH’s books even when you know, from previous experience, that they will not be worth your time, don’t bother.

Books read: 122
Pages read: 36,172

Tags: 50 Book Challenge 2007, Laurell K. Hamilton, Merry Gentry

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2 Comments »

CJHill wrote, on January 9th, 2008 at 10:36 pm:

It will always be one of my greatest unexplained mysteries - why Laurell K. Hamilton went from writing good stories with complete plots to writing porn. It’s so sad. I loved Anita Blake but I’m not sure I’m reading any of what comes after Micah. And I’ve stayed away from this series for the same reason.

cjh

Poodlerat wrote, on January 10th, 2008 at 1:17 am:

Yes, definitely stay away from Merry Gentry! I got sucked in, and I’m really bad at giving up on characters I sort of like, but there’s no reason why others should suffer.

The other weird thing is how weirdly abrupt the break is. Before Obsidian Butterfly, it’s mostly plot with some romance, and we pretty much stick with the same love triangle. After Obsidian Butterfly, pretty much everything that made the series so good was gone. (I don’t count OB toward either side, since it’s almost an interlude outside the series, with Anita on her own and away from St Louis. And I know a lot of people don’t like it, but it’s the book that introduced me to the series: I picked it up at random off a table at Indigo and was immediately hooked by the premise and Anita’s distinctive narration. So I love it no matter what anyone says.)