Swallowing Darkness (Meredith Gentry, Book 7)

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Product Description
I am Meredith, princess of faerie, wielder of the hands of Flesh and Blood, and at long last, I am with child–twins, fathered by my royal guard. Though my uncle, Taranis, King of Light and Illusion, claims that he is the true father since he abducted me from my home, betrayed, and defiled me. And now he has branded my guards as a threat to my unborn children.

Bearing an heir has placed me halfway to my aunt’s throne, that much closer to my reign over the Unseelie Court–and well ahead of her son, my cousin Cel, in this race. Now I must stay alive to see my children born and claim my place as queen.

But not all in faerie are pleased with the news, and conspirators from every court in the realm plot against me and mine. They seek to strip my guards, my lovers, from me by poisoned word or cold steel. But I still have supporters, and even friends, among the goblins and the sluagh, who will stand by me.

I am Meredith Nic Essus, and those who would defy and destroy me are destined to pay a terrible price–for I am truly my father’s daughter. To protect what is mine, I will sacrifice anything–even if it means waging a great battle against my darkest enemies and making the most momentous decision ever made as princess of faerie.

Customer Reviews: Read 125 more reviews...

1 out of 5 stars

Disappointed and furious. November 5, 2008
199 out of 241 found this review helpful

I'm not sure where to begin on this.

I've been reading the Meredith Gentry series for several years now, and when I realized book 7 was out I eagerly went to get it. I hadn't minded the series' decline from an intriguing urban fantasy into all! sex! all! the time!, mostly because the sex was hot and there was still enough political intrigue to keep me interested. Like other fans I was horrified by the cliffhanger ending of book 6, in which Frost got turned into a stag, and Merry was kidnapped and possibly raped by the Seelie King. I'd heard rumors that book 7 was to be the end of the series, so I was really expecting something big.

And I got... dreck. Utter dreck. Did somebody ghostwrite this for Hamilton? I hope so. Because she's a better writer than this -- I wouldn't have followed the series this far if I didn't think so -- and if this dreck is her work then that means she needs to take a break from writing for awhile. She's clearly burned out or bored.

It's hard to pinpoint what pissed me off most. I wasn't happy about the plot, which pretty much consisted of "the characters run here to do something, then they run there, then they run somewhere else." The last few books have been like that, so I'm used to it, but I really had hoped for more in this book, given that we had so many dangling plot threads to resolve. And while this book acknowledges these plot threads, it doesn't resolve them so much as handwave them out of existence. For example, Merry was assaulted by her uncle at the end of the previous book. But since she conveniently doesn't remember it, and apparently doesn't care that something horrible was done to her while she was unconscious, it has no psychological effect on her. She doesn't even think about it past the first ten pages or so of the book, and she never gets around to using the clever media manipulation strategy that she mentioned at the end of book 6 (scratch that -- we're *told* she uses it, but we don't get to see it). The rape, if it occurred, becomes irrelevant. I found this actively offensive; if a story includes a rape as a plot element, it really shouldn't be trivialized the way it is here.

On top of that, the book contains sudden, inexplicable personality changes in a number of characters. Cel, the series' primary villain, suddenly abandons all his intricate plots and plans and just walks in front of Merry's car with a sword to challenge her. Later, he just decides for no reason to tell her what a bad thing he's done, in a classic Villain Monologue. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot? Merry herself, who's spent the whole series using clever, nuanced diplomacy to solve problems (something I admired greatly about her) suddenly stops bothering and instead just whacks things with magic or a sword. Queen Andais, who I have to admit has been one of my favorite characters because she's so complex and messed-up -- she barely appears here, but when she does, she suddenly becomes one-dimensional and contradicts everything she's said and done for seven books. Seriously. It's as if she was secretly replaced with Taster's Choice. It's shameful.

I wasn't happy with the pace of the book, either, which was breakneck -- for no reason. The characters were running all over the place, but they weren't running *to* anyplace. They had no goal; they just reacted. It feels as though Hamilton just decided to toss as many plot threads at them as she could think of, just so she could hurry and wash her hands of the series and move on to something more interesting.

But by far the most infuriating thing to me was how Hamilton chose to resolve the biggest and most important plot threads of the series. I won't spoil the ending, but I'll just say this: it pretty much negates everything Merry has endured. All the deaths, all the blood and suffering, her rape (for whatever that mattered), her being forced to bear children on command, her father's death... the ending makes *the entire series* pointless.

Unless you feel that the point of the series was to get Merry laid, pregnant, and married off. And you know what? The sex scenes in this book are dreck too. For that alone, I want my $20 back.

I'm going to stop here, lest I lapse into incoherent raging profanity and make this review unpublishable. Suffice it to say that I do not recommend this book at all.

1 out of 5 stars

Swallowing tedium November 5, 2008
53 out of 69 found this review helpful

For her last few books, Laurell K. Hamilton has been toning down the sexual content in favor of what can be loosely termed "plot."

Well, turns out there are far worse things than endless sparkly-magical sex scenes. After the shattering cliffhanger ending of the previous book, the seventh Merry Gentry book "Swallowing Darkness" promptly goes on a road tour of Faerie instead of sticking to an actual central plot. It feels like Hamilton has gone as far as she can, and is flailing around instead of getting out of the water.

In the aftermath of being raped by her uncle, Merry is recovering in the hospital, where she gets over her rape by cuddling with her fave boytoy. Rape as minor inconvenience -- how nice.

After ordering her various fey boytoys not to attack Taranis, she receives a visit from her feisty brownie grandma. Unfortunately there's a malign influence warping Gran's thoughts -- with disastrous and fatal results for three people close to Merry. Enraged, she and Sholto summon the Wild Hunt and set out to destroy the conspirators.

But it turns out that the conspiracy goes far further than Merry expected -- and that certain Golden Court sidhe are trying to weed out the stronger boytoys. And of course, divine magical favors just rain down on Merry whenever she sneezes. To keep her entire harem (half of whom I've forgotten) safe, Merry decides to take drastic steps in the human world... but only finds a new conflict with her cousin Cel.

Having knocked up her heroine -- which is supposedly the series' goal -- Laurell K. Hamilton seems to be at a loss for what to do to keep the series going ahead. So we end up with a bunch of vaguely connected crises, punctuated by interludes of Sparkly Magic From Goddess-Merry, magic horsies and lots of sparkly magic roses. It's a little like being alternately choked with flowers and clubbed with a rock.

"Swallowing Darkness" does manage an impressive amount of plot, including the resolution of couple half-forgotten subplots -- and a surprising twist during Merry's stay in the sluagh. Unfortunately most of the plot is just Hamilton slapping in new random problems whenever things get too peaceful. Whoops, somebody's suddenly dying! Eek, a traitor! Yikes, a royal challenge from out of nowhere!

Nor does Hamilton's writing help, since she seems to be bored with her own story when she isn't trying to channel Patricia McKillip's lush prose. Her incredibly stilted, rambling dialogue ("We ride." "To save your Storm Lord." "To save the future of faerie"), repetition (everybody seems to have "moonlight skin") and awkward descriptions ("Gold like the metal of a piece of jewelry") hamper the story even further.

And as with all Hamilton's fairy novels, we get hot pale supernatural men who all worship the heroine, dumb blinkered mortals, lightweight Wiccan theology, Christian-bashing, oral sex worship, and lots of nasty and/or crazy women who simply can't measure up to the heroine. Yes, even a sweet li'l old grandma, who is reviled for daring to hold a grudge against her mother's murderer. Apparently Merry's magic vagina not only turns you into a god, but erases all your past crimes.

But the book's biggest weakness is Merry Gentry herself. She floats through the book in a cloud of Convenient Magical Powers, and occasionally pauses to cold-bloodedly kill people. Everybody is awed by her, she declares herself to be a goddess, and her "ruby" blood spontaneously generates assorted fairy beasties (it's MAGIC!). It's rather nauseating to have a heroine who is such a blatant self-insert.

"Swallowing Darkness" has some shreds of good plot in there, but they're surrounded by jack-in-the-box disasters and a main storyline that is being stretched way too far. And it's not over yet....

1 out of 5 stars

Do authors read this? November 25, 2008
51 out of 58 found this review helpful

I read in another reviewer's comments that this was the last in the series. Huh...well...you wouldn't know it by reading the book. Since Hamilton left characters and situations hanging all over. When I started this book I was pleasantly surprised on two accounts. First Hamilton managed a catchy beginning by bringing up the rape cliffhanger from the previous book. Then she somehow dug really deep and did not bring up sex for a whole 150 pages....aaaannnnd that's about the only two nice things I can say.

On the down side, the rape situation was dropped and never came to a closure. Apparently it was way more important to laminate over Frost turning into a stag because, you know, even though he is alive and will probably get his life back in another 100 years that wasn't good enough for the character. Hamilton (in her like and continous fashion of not being able to separate Anita from Merry) turned Merry into a selfish puck. If Merry was truly the giving, loving soul, Hamilton tries to paint her as, she would love him enough ('cause, you know, the character "says" she loves him) to be happy that he is okay, not hurting, and will be fine. Her character is the only one hurting and apparently (again, Anita like selfishness) that is all that matters.

The reader is then treated to the condescending VOICE normally found in the Anita Blake series. Now we have the character, Merry, "explaining" things to the reader. (You know, cause we be two stupid to figure it out so we needs Hamilton to spell it out four us.) Near the end of the book I wished I made tally marks for every time the character thought in her head these words: "some people may think . . . but." Another sore spot for me was that for several books now, it was pointed out that once Merry got pregnant she would "marry" the father of her child and become monogamous. Well, ho!ho! Apparently, Hamilton decided to pull another Anita switchero and decided..."What? Monogamous? Who said anything about monogamous? Phewy! Everyone knows only the men are monogamous in Hamilton books!" Then, Hamilton noticed there were two men Merry hadn't done the nasty with so she threw those two in for kicks and giggles.

I think I'm at the point where I read Hamilton's books just so I review them. I'm enjoying trashing her novels more than I enjoy reading them. But, hey, you got to get your kicks somewhere;-)

3 out of 5 stars

Lots of plot, little style November 4, 2008
47 out of 63 found this review helpful

Laurell K. Hamilton's principal strength as a writer is the vividness of the worlds she creates. Her universes are so evocative it keeps readers coming back for more. One main weakness is an imperfect grasp of the basics of writing. Twenty years ago, editors and proofreaders would have smoothed some of these wrinkles. Nowadays, the author is on their own.

After several installments where Merry's storyline advanced in mincing half steps (Seduced by Moonlight, A Stroke of Midnight, Mistral's Kiss), the previous book, A Lick of Frost, showed marked plotting improvement. I was restless with anticipation for book seven.

In Swallowing Darkness, the pace is breakneck. Sadly, the plot advances and answered questions come hurtling at the reader's head with little regard for pacing, transitions, or style. Major plot points depends on Merry and others doing something stupid and (with respect) out of character. It seems as if Ms. Hamilton is tired of wrestling with a protagonist other than Anita Blake, and wants to dump all the answers to Merry's story in our laps and wash her hands of the whole universe.

While I enjoyed discovering the answers to many of my questions, I continue to be frustrated at how this author fails to grow as a writer. I'm so tired of last chapters where a few sentences of plot exposition attempts to tidy away unraveled loose ends. As a reader of much amateur published fiction (fanfic) I'm familiar with the prima donna creator who never gets any better because she refuses to regard any of the basics as important, and spurns constructive criticism or editing. Sadly, Ms. Hamilton continues to be such a writer, and therefore rates 3 stars at her best, instead of the 4 or 5 stars she could achieve.

1 out of 5 stars

Really awful. November 17, 2008
45 out of 49 found this review helpful

This novel is incoherent. It has no recognizable plot line. Merry and crew jump from scene to scene with no flow or transition. Certain members of her harem disappear from the book altogather and others pop up out of nowhere. Merry has new relatives that we have heard nothing of before. The defining characteristics of Doyle, Sholto, and many others have been completely separated from the way the characters have been depicted from the previous books. This is all extremely sloppy writing.

Speaking of sloppy, this book has another problem that many of LKH's books have. The proofreading is atrocious. I don't know what the problem is at the publishing house but they need to get a handle on this issue. When I pay over $20.00 for a book, I expect it to be relatively error-free. Just a personal issue but one I know many people have an issue with.

Many of the plotlines that have been connecting the books are ignored or concluded abruptly and unsatisfactorily. As mentioned in other books, the media storyline for Taranis is not followed up. LKH mentions that it happens, we are told it happens, but we never actually see it. The most basic premise of writing is to show the reader, don't tell them it happens.

Overall an unsatisfactory read. The only good thing about the book is that it ends numerous plotlines. Many dangling plotlines are resolved and few new ones are developed. If you are looking to get out of this series, this book is a good place.

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