A Stroke of Midnight (Poche)

The climax of the previous novel, "Seduced by Moonlight," was encouraging to me because when Merry and her company returned to the Unseelie Court to meet again with the Queen of Air and Darkness we finally got to the point where Hamilton provided proof she can still deliver the horror that made her Anita Blake novels so great. I really did not care if Hamilton wants to keep throwing soft core porn into her novels as long as she also delivers on the gut-wrenching horror. My major complaint with "A Stroke of Midnight" is that Hamilton takes her foot back off the pedal, which is why I ended up rounding down on this one. I thought Hamilton had reached the beginning of the end game, but the story really does not advance much father. Indeed, we do not get close to the next stroke of midnight as this story take place the next day (but apparently in more than 24 hours).

The best part of the Meredith Gentry series is the chess game that is going on between Princess Meredith and Prince Cel to be chosen as the heir to the throne of Andais, Queen of Air and Darkness. It does not matter than Cel only half way through his imprisonment, chained and covered in Branwyn's Tears, as punishment for one of the previous assassination attempt on Merry, the game is still being played and the metaphor still applies (just think of Cel as having been castled). The only thing that has changed after the developments at the end of "Seduced by Moonlight" is that the other side has figured out that taking out some of Merry's pieces can be as important as getting the princess herself. Consequently we have a constant mix of assassination attempts and sex scenes.

Also, of course, Merry is exhibiting new powers. It is simply not a Laurell K. Hamilton novel unless her heroine has new powers that develop in the last chapters of the novel. This becomes somewhat maddening because when this happens it usually means the action has to ground to a stop while the other characters explain to Merry what is happening. This is also rather frustrating because neither Queen Andais nor the rest of the Unseelie Court is getting up to speed on the significance of the powers Princess Meredith is exhibiting. At some point even her Aunt Andais has to get it through her thick skull that the Goddess, the sithen, and most of her guards, have endorsed Merry's claim to the throne. It is not going to be pretty when that happens, and I strongly suspect that when the Queen forces Merry to her bed she is going to get an unpleasant surprise.

I want Hamilton to get to that point where the horror a lot quicker than she obviously intends to at this point in the series. Maybe given the pressures of having to top her endings in a dozen Anita Blake novels has forced the author to take a different tack with the Meredith Gentry series, which is to avoid the challenge by avoiding the big finishes with the giant doses of horror. "A Stroke of Midnight" actually ends with both a bang and a whimper, but neither is of the sort I was really hoping for.

Quite simply, we should be father along in the story, and if it is still three months until Cel is released from his imprisonment you hate to think how many novels would be between now and then given the pace of this one (I suspect Cel will be given an early release although I am not sure who will do the freeing). Then there is the question of the ring choosing a king for Merry, because you have to think if Galen, Frost, Doyle or any of the others were going to be chosen it would have happened by now. Maybe it has to do with the idea that if she gets pregnant she gets married and sharing her body with so many would just be for fun rather than politics. But I think the true problem is that unlike the Anita Blake series the Meredith Gentry saga is going to be over when she wins the game, which is why Hamilton is just stringing us along at this point.

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