I've been a fan of Laurell K Hamilton for a while now, and have read everything she's written, and I have to admit that it's getting harder to justify with each new book of hers I read.



"Lick of Frost" is the sixth book in the Merry Gentry series, and it is becoming much more like the later Anita Blake books with each successive installement. I would say that the Merry series is still slightly better than the Anita series has become, but the difference is getting less all the time.



All in all I would say that this book was diverting. I'm not sure I can go so far as entertaining, but I was interested enough to read until the end. Like the later Anita books though I found the shortage of actual content to be very annoying.



What do I mean? Well in Hamilton's later books there is very little in the way of actual plot development. You could write down in just a couple of paragraphs the entire plot of the book without missing anything out. Vast amounts of time are spent minutely detailing people's outfits, or repeating the same tired phrases and statements about the heroine and the men in her life, and the sort of sex they're having. There's almost nothing NEW in any of her writing anymore. The characters move from set scene to set scene and I find myself getting frustrated waiting for the story to get started.



I read a review of Hamilton's writing that said it reads like fan fiction. I think that's a very accurate and fair way of putting it. I honestly think that I could write the next Merry book, or the next Anita book, and you'd be hard pressed to know the difference with the real article. It feels like Hamilton has lost that creative spark and is now simply churning out the books to keep the cheques coming in.



It's sad because I know she can do better. Where is the inspiring fiction from the first 6 Anita books? Or the (sadly) one-off "Nightseer"?



"Lick of Frost" is an adequate addition to the series. If you enjoyed the others then chances are you'll like this one too, just don't expect big things.