A Stroke of Midnight

Americas, Merry Gentry, alternate reality, contemporary, deities, dreamscapes, fairy tales, fantasy, kink, magic Add comments

Mar 222010

By Laurell K. Hamilton
Read: March 2010
Rating: Whirlwind

Time moves differently in the sithen. Merry says, “I wish we had more time!” and suddenly they do. Time is moving glacially outside the hill, giving them all they need… to catch a killer.

The book begins with a press conference, sometime in the afternoon (I think). Shortly after it ends, they discover a fey and a human journalist (who should not have been able to leave the protected areas) have been murdered. Merry, used to the human way of things, persuades mad Queen Andais to let her bring a human forensics team in. The fey are used to hiding magical evidence, not physical.

The timeline… ohmagawd, the timeline. This one night stretches to infinity. And they all just keep running with it. Physical battles, magical madness, sex, and nobody calls time out for a sandwich. I can only think that every time Merry does her sex magic that heals, it’s also refreshing their bodies. Still.

We lose track of a lot of characters–Merry’s swept up in goddess-directed magic, so she’s not in a good place to tell us where everyone is all the time. It can be very confusing.

And the multiple partners thing is beginning to wear on me, just a little. See, in the earlier books, she brought the men back to their power through sex. But she was also making intense connections with the men who shared her bed regularly. I was cool with that–her affection and her power called to theirs. But now she’s having sex with men who she doesn’t know as well, and amazing things are still happening. Because the Goddess, Danu, is pushing for it. Merry is her vessel.

And, dude, this is a LOT of bed-hopping. (Without actual beds, mostly.) Merry has partners lined up, because of her obligations. She has to sleep with Nicca before Andais will let him be with HIS lover. Andais also wants her to fuck two green sidhe. Kitto needs reassurance. AND she still owes Sholto from LA months ago.

Plus, people still trying to kill her.

This infinite night doesn’t end so much as it… stops and starts again. Next volume!