Even if you have read a good many fantasy stories with faeries it is a tough job to not think of those comforting, kindly creatures. And, maybe in a fantasy land's fantasy they exist, but lately, I am not seeing much evidence of faeries being sweethearts.Picture at right Laurell K. Hamilton
Courtesy of http://www.laurellkhamilton.org/media.html
A bit of structure: the Faerie, Fae, and Fairy are different names for the same types of creatures, although Fae refers to them collectively and in the singular. Another word, for Fae, used by them is "Gentry," In the Meredith Gentry books, which I love, Fae are not just pure fairies: there are lesser fae and Sidhe or nobles. There is a light court, the "Seelie" court and a dark court "the Unseelie" court. Light and dark seem referential on a number of levels: the fairest of the fae, Seelie Court denizens are lovely to look upon and are described in a way that make me think Pre-Raphaelite but petite. The Unseelie court is filled with all the more mixed types including Merry, who was the King, but took a half brownie wife and had Merry, a mortal. He is assassinated as part of the back story. His sister Andais, Queen of Air and Darkness, is a twisted and sick person. Fae are darn resilient and she likes to mutilate her lovers knowing they will have to live. Sick, sick, and sicker. The Seelie, in this series are no better morally, they are just prettier.
Merry lives in our world as a private detective. In Merry's version of our world Jefferson, yes that Jefferson, invited the fae to live in America when the European's kicked them out. Oh, she lives with a bunch of the Queen's guard. all attempting to get her pregnant. Keep a fan and a loved on to hand while you read these novels. And these are very nicely written, well proofed and edited novels.
There are even fae in the Sookie Stackhouse novels by Charlaine Harris. They are even nastier. I won;t say too much because they don't appear in the story until the later novels. What a shock that there are so many kind of other! The next book in the series hinges on the outcome of an altercation between the good faeries and the bad. It is coming out soon!
Another writer, Karen Marie Moning, is deep into her own fae fever. Her earlier book series about Scottish Highlander MacKeltars who keep the compact between the fae world and ours locked in a secret room. The MacKeltar's are hotties indeed, and they prefer their gals with a bit more flesh than is currently in fashion. Remember the fan and loved one from above -- keep them close. The books do seem to get a trifle formulaic after the first few, but they are still enjoyable. And the Fae in this series are all Seelie, having locked the Unseelie away. They are still meddlesome for their entertainment. In other words, they'll mess with you just to see you squirm.
That series seems to have lead her to the Fever Series: the story of a young bartender from Atlanta, MacKayla Lane who gets caught up in the Irish faerie world and learns she is a Sidhe Seer. To protect themselves, fae employ glamour. Even the unseelie fae can greatly improve their appearance with glamour A Sidhe Seer can see past glamour. Mckayla ends up in Dublin tryng to solve her sister's murder but she ends up nearly trodding the same path. This series involves a brooding "other" which species we know not. Jerricho Barons is immensely well-off and has great cars: what he has in cash he lacks in social graces, but because she is a seer and can also sense items he saves Mac from some escaped unseelie nasties who are sucking the life out of Dublin. Mac ends up living in his bookstore, (A bit like a Tardis in it's interior dimensions) Barrons. MacKayla is bedeviled as well by what she calls a "Death-by-Sex" fae, V'Lane. Appaarantly once you have a fae lover no other will do and you will become obsessed. There is a lot of "almost-sex" with V'lane, some posturing with Barrons but things get more interesting after a bit. Both men want MacKayla to lead them to a millenia old book of evil that is become a living entity on its own. It is loose somewhere in Ireland and the very pact that holds the Unseelie at bay is about to come smashing down on Dublin. Frustratingly, the next book in this hard to put down series is not out until December 28, 2010. You can read some excerpts at her website http://www.karenmoning.com/about/index.html.
On TV, Torchwood a Doctor Who spin-off from the BBC had the most memorable bunch of faeries and perhaps the first glimpse some might have of their nastier, murderous and kidnapping nature.In the episode, "Small Worlds," the fae are quite ugly and chant the following, poem by Yeats. .
- "Come away, O human child!
- To the waters and the wild
- With a faery, hand in hand,
- For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand."
- (excerpt from "The Stolen Child", a poem by W. B. Yeats
Check out the hideous faerie from the series:
