Book Review

The Merman King by Michelle M. Pillow

The Merman King is Book Six in the Lords of the Abyss series. Despite not having read Books 1-5, I had no problems keeping up with this story about a merman who falls in love with a human, although some of the plot points may have been more fully developed in earlier books.

Long ago, King Lucius bragged that his land was better than the Gods’, which of course pissed them off. Poseidon cursed Lucius and his subjects, so that now they exist as Merr (merpeople), and can’t come to the ocean’s surface or go on land. Much later, King Lucius, still King of the Merr, thinks that one of the Merr might have found a way for them to breathe above water. While Lucius is testing it out, he saves a woman, Olivette, who has fallen from a boat and is drowning. Lucius takes Olivette to Atlantes (not a typo – they spell it that way). On the one hand, by bringing Olivette to Atlantes, where the Merr take human form and breathe air under a giant dome, he saves her life. On the other hand, now Olivette has to either always stay in the dome or become a merperson. Everyone is very sorry about this, but them’s the breaks, as my dad used to say.

Olivette does not want to become a mermaid, mostly because they can’t expose their skin or breathe above the water’s surface. This isn’t an amphibious version of mermaids, which is a downer for sure. You are either of the sea or you are not. Moreover, Atlantes is in such a deep location that she would never be able to reach the surface as a human without dying. The perks of living in Atlantes include making new friends, eating cinnamon rolls, having amazing sex with the king, being immortal (in terms of aging), and admiring lovely works of art. Downsides include not being able to have children, not being able to leave Atlantes for too long lest one turn into a mindless sea monster, and being caught in the middle of a war between the Merr and I quote, “a mermaid cult.”

And now for the question of the ages: How do mermaids get it on? The sex scenes in The Merman King only take place between people in human form. It’s implied that they never do have sex as mermaids. They do, however, have a sex-positive culture and make use of sex toys when they don’t have a physical partner. They have sex or masturbate in private, but without a culture of shame.

The imagery in the book was wonderful. I enjoyed Olivette’s friendships with other women, and the tours of Atlantes that these women take her on. The idea that merpeople are trapped below the surface was a welcome complication. Just hanging out in Atlantes was fun, and Olivette is a funny and engaging heroine. One thing I liked about her is that when disaster looms, she suddenly finds her role as a leader – not because of some superpower but because:

I’m from Florida, the land of hurricanes. So we treat this like an oncoming disaster. Best to be prepared. If it doesn’t come, great. If it does, we have an emergency plan in place.

Then she goes on to organize the evacuation, because she’s a badass.

This is a very short book – my paperback copy has 152 pages. As one expects from a short book, the romance happens very quickly. My biggest gripe is that none of the characters are developed. No one in the story has much depth, no pun intended, and I’m guessing that the war subplot would have made more sense if I had read the other books. Olivette comes out seeming like the most genuine character, and she gets the most emotional growth. I liked her matter-of-fact approach to everything and the fact that she asks sensible questions.

This story was pretty superficial as a stand-alone. It was enjoyable because the characters were decent individuals and Atlantes was pretty. However, I wish it had been about three times as long so that Lucius and Olivette could have been more three-dimensional and their relationship could have had more room and time to grow organically. It was frustrating to be so close to a well-developed, imaginative story and yet so far.

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The Merman King by Michelle Pillow

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  1. Demi says:

    I was excited to try out this series but partway through Book 1 I had to DNF, since the heroine had dialogue that made no sense to me (she kept insisting she was a logical scientist…?), and the hero got an insta-boner that just…turned me off. It’s a shame, since the covers are beautiful and I love the idea of an underwater culture. Olivette is an adorable name!
    Of course, this series is being compared in my mind with the new Mira Grant book which is AMAZING, so there’s that.

  2. Rose says:

    Wait, if Atlantes is so far underwater that the heroine can’t get to the surface without dying, how did the hero bring her down there?

    Also, scrolled too quickly and read the subtitle as Lords of the Asses, so…thought this was going to be The Orca King redux. Am simultaneously relieved and disappointed.

  3. CarrieS says:

    The hero and the other Merr have all gone through the conversion process from human to Merperson so they are fine. (But – what about decompression? Ha, we do not ask these questions. They are fine)

    Olivia hasn’t gone through that process yet so she’s fully human.

    Why didn’t she drown on the way down? I have no idea. Maybe it’s quicker to swim down than up?

    This book doesn’t hold up well to scrutiny.

  4. Rose says:

    @CarrieS thank you for answering! Not being a logical scientist myself, I’ll cease trying to apply logic here.

  5. Demi says:

    @Rose and @CarrieS – I have answers! Or, at least, I have the beginning scene of Book 1 (SPOILER ALERT)…

    The hero saves the heroine from drowning, if I remember correctly. He then locks lips with her to create some sort of…basically, I’ll call him a “Suction Savior” and leave it at that. How this works scientifically, I couldn’t tell you. She ends up magically naked at some point in the Merr lair, cue inappropriate boner at her unconscious form.

    “Lords of the Asses” – historical gay BDSM club? Hahaha.

  6. Carol S says:

    If his bottom half is fishtail, where does the boner come in?
    (asking for a friend)

  7. CarrieS says:

    When he shifts into human form.

  8. Carol S says:

    I mean, I always thought this was the real reason Ariel gives up life as a princess to live on land…..

  9. Demi says:

    All I can see now in my mind’s eye is the anatomy of this boner as it applies to “The Hour of Gann” with the lizard-like men…it somehow…pops out from behind a little slot…hmmm…

  10. Antipodean Shenanigans says:

    Ok so I just finished Goddess of the Sea by PC Cast that features woman on merman sex, mermaid on merman sex, and human on human sex. Basically ther merman’s *ahem* fish stick pops out. Similar to the Amphibian Man in The Shape of Water. (Safe for work gif demonstration)

  11. roserita says:

    I’m a couple of days behind, but where do the cinnamon rolls come from?

  12. Annie Zachary says:

    Want to Join the family of real beautiful mermaid, You can actually become a real mermaid instead of buying or wearing of artificial mermaid tale. You can get a spell or wear a ring that can turn you into a mermaid at anytime you want to. contact email: joinmermaidfamily @ gmail . com You can explain to us how you want it, our child Melissa is a real mermaid and we have a huge family of real mermaid. 

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