Brain Cramp

[rolanni]

So if the ruler of the Unseelie Court is the Queen of Air and Darkness, her counterpart in the Seelie Court is...?

Comments

[badgermirlacca.livejournal.com]

Jealous.

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

I meant, besides jealous.

[filkerdave.livejournal.com]

King of Dirt and Light, of course.

Which is why the Seelie Court does so much better with plants.

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

King of Dirt and Light, of course.

Pfft!

[filkerdave.livejournal.com]

Hey, you asked...

(Ask a silly filker, get a silly answer?)

[oberon.livejournal.com]

King of light and illusion?

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure that's original with Laurell Hamilton. I was sorta hoping for something, um, I could support independently.

[hoosier-red.livejournal.com]

...just as undeveloped, character-wise, because 90% of the time all we get are long, drawn-out descriptions of what Merry's guards are wearing, what color their hair and eyes are, how built and gorgeous they are and how they're fabulous in bed (even though none of them have been able to knock her up, mainly because I suspect the stupid ninny isn't using the fourteen day rule), and also indicating to me that SOMEONE is having a massive middle age crisis but we won't go there.

*blink*blink* Didn't know all that was inside me. Gosh, I feel better.

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

Ah. Then I shouldn't bother seeking out the rest of them. I was quite taken with A Kiss of Shadows, and Doyle's da man...

[hoosier-red.livejournal.com]

*sigh* The problem is, the central plot of Merry having to duel, scheme and sleep her way to the Unseelie Throne is actually pretty good, so if you can put up with lots and lots and LOTS of pointless sex scenes*, I say go for it.

*I say pointless because I of all people will cheer on a nice juicy nomping scene in a book. But when it happens over and over and OVER again, it starts getting boring.

[alfreda89.livejournal.com]

*sigh* The problem is, the central plot of Merry having to duel, scheme and sleep her way to the Unseelie Throne is actually pretty good, so if you can put up with lots and lots and LOTS of pointless sex scenes*, I say go for it.

Bingo. This is a perfect statement of what is very entertaining about the books. However--the sex ratio is high, leading to NYT sell-throughs. I almost started laughing with the current one (which comes from the library--don't buy in hardback if you're a fast reader. I buy in paperback.) Because all these very important things are happening because Merry is back in the home of Faery in the USA, and the mound is responding to her as the avatar of her goddess--and what this means is, they're frantically trying to solve a mystery/murder, keep the humans from finding out what's going on, corner the nutty Queen privately to tell her the grail is back (something the light court would probably go to war over...) and every time a new guard who is still fertile touches Merry, all sexual heck breaks loose.

I did spend some pleasant minutes re-writing this important, interesting stuff into how I'd do it as a fantasy novel--a true fantasy novel--and it would be a *much* shorter interlude than this book....

I've picked up Laurell's feed, and she recently admitted that she's stubborn as the day is long (true) and probably went on the sex binge because people told her she couldn't. Now that she's realized that, it will probably cut back to more manageable proportions.

I did find the Queen's admitting she's infertile a moving scene. After all this, I vote that Merry becomes High Queen, with a new sithen, and Andais and Shoto produce a lovely Seelie prince to eventually inherit the Dark throne. Cousin Cel should get what's coming to him.

14 day rule? Tell all!

(I suspect Merry hasn't gotten pregnant for a simple reason--her goddess is ruthlessly using her, the first fertile seelie female of any kind in hundreds of years, in a last ditch attempt to renew the courts. She's of a fertility goddess line, so that's how she can re-awake powers...and she can't do it pregnant, because of current laws among the fae. So, she's gonna be the LAST one pregnant...and I suspect by more than one man, just to drive home to the fae they are not humans and shouldn't ape human culture.)

Rolanni, I've seen more than one reference to the Queen of the Wood, Queen of the Golden Wood, Queen of the Secret Forest...that may be an older name for the Seelie Queen, when it's a queen. "Lord or King of the Wood" when it's a male ruler.

[hoosier-red.livejournal.com]

I did spend some pleasant minutes re-writing this important, interesting stuff into how I'd do it as a fantasy novel--a true fantasy novel--and it would be a *much* shorter interlude than this book....

Quite frankly, if you leave out most of the nomping, you could compress the last four books into one really cracking novel.

I've picked up Laurell's feed, and she recently admitted that she's stubborn as the day is long (true) and probably went on the sex binge because people told her she couldn't. Now that she's realized that, it will probably cut back to more manageable proportions.

Good. She's a goodwriter, and I really enjoy her stuff, but this was just a bit too much.

14 day rule? Tell all!

Well, Merry IS part human, and her reproductive system is similar to a full human in that she has menstrual periods. So why she doesn't just count fourteen days from the onset of her period, add a day on either side for a safety margin and nomp away like bunnies for that whole time (which would be the fertile period in a human woman) is beyond me.

But Laurel has indicated in the last book that it may take more than one sidhe male to impregnate a sidhe female, so I think you make an excellent point that Merry 1) probably won't get pregnant until the very end, and 2) it'll take two guards to do it. Nicca is out of the running, Galen is slated for someone else, Rhys has other fish to fry, and the rest of them are window dressing, so I suspect she's going to wind up with Doyle and Frost.

[alfreda89.livejournal.com]

Quite frankly, if you leave out most of the nomping, you could compress the last four books into one really cracking novel.

Hear, hear! Laurell would haunt us, but the first four could be a kick butt long first novel of a trilogy.

Good. She's a goodwriter, and I really enjoy her stuff, but this was just a bit too much.

I hope so. We can't actually suggest that, though. Laurell is Anita Blake without a gun, she never forgets a slight, but may forgive it. She's a smart lady and good writer--she'll eventually go back to that, and dazzle us with the book.

Yes, 14 days hummm. It would be a scream if that finally hits Merry like a brick. And how can she choose? She can't tell the others she suspects it...convincing Doyle and Frost to share that night would be her first major decision of her reign. Although back to back nights might do it. So, who do you think gets Galen--someone in the Seelie Court?

I keep waiting for someone to tell Andais that Merry has just as much of her family's genetic history as her son has--the only difference is that someone else (Essus) chose the other side of the gene pool. (I'm assuming a similar form of genetic inheritance for seelie, since they can breed and be fertile with humans.)

so I suspect she's going to wind up with Doyle and Frost.

I agree, with one caveat--I think there will be a third, a fertility type she hasn't met yet, maybe newly tossed out of the Court of Light...ideally, a strong healer. At least I'd be tempted to do it that way. (With a secret, devastating other hand of power.)

I'm sorry, Rolanni, we've seized your question! But we do recommend the series, with reservations.

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

I think there will be a third,

This would have the benefit of covering all bases -- Earth, Water, Fire and Air -- and thereby uniting the Courts.

Ah, oops?

I'm sorry, Rolanni, we've seized your question! But we do recommend the series, with reservations.

No problem. I now know to put them on the "see-if-the-town-library-has-them" list.

[alfreda89.livejournal.com]

I think there will be a third,

This would have the benefit of covering all bases -- Earth, Water, Fire and Air -- and thereby uniting the Courts.

Clever woman. I was thinking the three aspects of the Consort to the goddess avatar, but that makes it even neater.

So we do we write our version? 8^)

[seachanges.livejournal.com]

I don't believe the rulers of the Seelie Court actually have titles in that sense. At least, I've never run across any in my reading on the subject.

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

Oh, good.

I get to be Creative...

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

My source is Katharine Briggs' An Encyclopedia of Fairies, published in 1970. She pins "Seelie Court" on the Scottish general-issue "seelie" for "Good Fairies", from which construction "Unseelie" proceeds. So, for my particular purposes, that's Good Enough for Rock 'n Roll.

I probably did pick up "The Queen of Air and Darkness" as the Queen of the Unseelie Court from War for the Oaks (one of my favorite books ever), since I can't find any corraboration in Briggs, but I was, y'know, hoping...

dates back only to Emma Bull

[romsfuulynn.livejournal.com]

Or more properly, the combination of the Queen of Air and Darkness with the Unseelie Court originated with Bull but seems so natural that it has been picked up elsewhere.

Seelie & Unseelie go way back and so does the Queen of Air and Darkness, but the combination is recent. (At least according to Emma who talked about it at a convention I was at.)

Laurell Hamilton does have a something for his title, but I believe it is unique to that series, unlike the Queen of Air and Darkness.

Re: dates back only to Emma Bull

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

Or more properly, the combination of the Queen of Air and Darkness with the Unseelie Court originated with Bull but seems so natural that it has been picked up elsewhere.

It was a fortunate pairing.

Re: dates back only to Emma Bull

[torrilin.livejournal.com]

On the other hand, the title Hamilton picked is a solid counterpoint to the Queen's title. You can construct some other titles (things like Queen of Light and Water) so that you're not borrowing Hamilton's myth. And... who says that it has to be a Seelie male vs Unseelie female? In a sane system, there'd be a title for the Unseelie male and a Seelie female as well and you'd have a *real* court system and *real* politics. And from there, you've got lots of room for things to get really interesting.

[(Anonymous)]

Do the powers really need to be a counter, or opposing pair? What if deep down inside they were all basicly the same, but believed in different things and it was just their driving issues that caused the rift between the 2 courts?

- Jeff

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

Well, speaking only for myself, here... The story as developing needs two magical powers in opposition, each with its own agenda regarding and designs upon a third geography. Philosophically, I'm comfortable with a Dark Court and a Light, because, well, I've been hanging out with Liadens too long *g* Also, the interplay of Light and Dark creates Shadow... and I feel a Roger Zelazny moment coming on...

[merlinpole.livejournal.com]

I don't remember when I first came across the term "The Queen of Air and Darkness." I'm sure I came across it long before reading e.g. Poul Anderson's award-winning many-times-anthologized SF story (novella?)of that name, for example.


http://www.clarsa.com/lyrics.html

has a poem from the story, most of the way down the page, excerpt,

"To Arvid came she striding from where she watched the dance,
The Queen of Air and Darkness, with starlight in her glance.
With starlight, love and terror in her immortal eye,
The Queen of Air and Darkness cried softly under sky:
"Lie down you, ranger Arvid, and join the Outling folk.
You need no more be human, which is a heavy yoke."

I'm trying to remember if e.g. Thomas the Rhymer or Tam Lin mentions the Queen of Faerie as being the Queen of Air and Darkness, what I can remember of the lyrics of them, no, but....

[nachtswerg.livejournal.com]

The Ruler of Earth and Light (oddly, both of those as being opposites within their grouping).

One request, can we slap some tags onto some of the postings here? While I've read all of the series, so don't mind seeing major spoilers, others might be a wee bit bothered...