A Kiss of Shadows
by Laurell K. Hamilton
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Book Summary Information
Author: Laurell K. HamiltonEdition: Hardcover
Format: Bargain Price
Published: 2000-09-30
ISBN: N/A
Number of pages: 448
Book Reviews of A Kiss of Shadows
Book Review: One of The Most Braindead Plot Elements in History
Summary: 2 Stars
The first novel of Laurell K. Hamilton's Merry Gentry series is not, actually, that terrible a book. It's by far the best in a not particularly great series, actually. What made it almost impossible for me to read is that the basic premise, the set-up, is one of the most grotesquely, ridiculously stupid things I've ever read.
Princess Meredith NicEssus has fled Faerie, in fear of death at the hands of her aunt, Andais, the Queen of Air and Darkness and ruler of the Unseelie Court. High profile fae in this world are major public figures, like rock stars or the royal family of England. The sudden disappearance of one of the Unseelie royals is a very big deal indeed. Every news media in the world reports the story....and it never goes away. We are told solemnly that reports of Princess Meredith being spotted are right up there with Elvis sightings. Meredith's image, the story of her mysterious disappearance, is everywhere. I mean, neolithic pygmies living in deepest Africa know who Meredith is, and what she looks like.
Meanwhile, Princess Meredith has disguised herself as a mortal private eye. Thing is, she hasn't disguised herself very much at all. Her supernaturally pale skin is now humanly pale skin. Her fae red hair is now human red hair. Her facial features remain the same. And with everyone on the planet wondering where is Princess Meredith, for years on end, no one recognizes her. Let me hasten to add, there is no magic involved in this, they honestly simply don't recognize her. And the crowning touch to this masterful disguise, the name chosen for her pseudonym to hide the fact she's actually Princess Meredith is....wait for it....Merry Gentry.
Jesus wept.
And for years, none of her co-workers, no one who knows her, says to themself, "Hey, wait a minute, that women who looks almost exactly like Princess Meredith....Merry Gentry....Princess Meredith....oh my God, Merry Gentry is Princess Meredith!" Nope, she's just incognito, baby.
At which point I almost threw down the book and said, "You have GOT to be kidding me." It's absolutely amazing to me this made it through the editing process. Do Laurell Hamilton's editors do anything other than rubber stamp her writing? Given her past six or eight novels, including this one, I'm tempted to say: no, actually.
Summary of A Kiss of Shadows
"All it would take was my true name being mentioned after dark, and it would float back to my aunt. She was the Queen of Air and Darkness, and that meant that anything said in the dark was hers to hear, eventually. The fact that spotting the missing Elven American Princess had become more popular than spotting Elvis helped. Her magic was always chasing blind leads. Princess Meredith skiing in Utah. Princess Meredith dancing in Paris. Princess Meredith gambling in Vegas. After three years I was still a front-page story for the tabloids, though the latest headlines had been speculating that I was dead as the King of Rock and Roll . . ."Three years ago, Princess Meredith fled the court of her cruel Aunt Andais, the Queen of Air and Darkness, leaving that garden of decadent delights and backstabbing intrigues for the comparative calm of Los Angeles. Using her magic to pass for human, Meredith began a new life as a private investigator specializing in supernatural crime. But now Doyle, the Queen's chief bodyguard and assassin, has been dispatched to fetch her back--whether she likes it or not.
The product of a marriage designed to cement peace between the rival Seelie and Unseelie courts, Meredith has always been scorned by both factions in spite of her royal blood. But that blood is behind the Unseelie Queen's surprisingly urgent summons.
For ever since the fey's exile from Europe to America, their power and purity have been fading. Desperate to renew her race, Queen Andais now pins her hopes on a contest between Meredith and her own son, the sadistic Prince Cel. The first to produce a child will win the throne.
The loser's reward will be death . . .
Laurell K. Hamilton's bestselling series of novels featuring Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, established her as one of the hottest new writers of dark fantasy and erotic horror. Now, in a thrilling adventure of unbridled imagination, Hamilton turns her talents to the glittering, myth-drenched lands of Faerie and brings them brilliantly into the postmodern age. Enter a thrilling, sensual world as threatening as it is beautiful, replete with the titanic passions of immortal beings once worshipped as gods or demons. Full of earthly pleasures and dazzling magic, Laurell K. Hamilton's A Kiss of Shadows will hold you under its hypnotic spell.
Laurell K. Hamilton revitalized vampires, werewolves, and zombies in the popular Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter books. In this new series, she updates faeries. A Kiss of Shadows introduces Merry Gentry, a.k.a. Meredith NicEssus, a faerie princess of the Unseelie Court, where politics is a blood sport. Merry, who's part sidhe (elvish), part brownie, and part human, never really fit in. She's short, not skilled in offensive magic, and mortal because of her human blood. These are real liabilities when your family, especially aunt Andais, Queen of Air and Darkness, is out to kill you. Merry has been in hiding for three years, living in Los Angeles and working for the Grey Detective Agency, which specializes in "supernatural problems, magical solutions." A new case sets her against a man who uses forbidden magic to seduce fey women and drain their power. A plan to trap him goes awry and Merry's cover is blown. Now Andais knows where she is. But things have changed in Andais's court, and Merry is changing too.
Despite the selkies, brownies, goblins, and ogres in this book, it's not for children. The fey are "creatures of the senses"--and in the Unseelie court, sex and pain go together. Merry is sexually adventurous and surrounded by gorgeous, powerful males, most of whom want her badly. She's politically savvy and no coward, though she's not the warrior Anita is. Hamilton fans and readers of adult fairy tales like Anne Bishop's Black Jewels trilogy will want to give Merry a look. --Nona Vero
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