Book Review: Jamie's Merman by Daisy Harris (2012)
Urban Mermen book 1
After Daisy Harris' rather good mermaid/were-seadragon romance "Mere Temptation" I had high hopes for her urban mermen series - erotic merman slash. Hunky mermen, red hot slash, where's the bad? Sadly I was rather disappointed with Jamie's Merman.
Marin is the only gay merman (selkie) in his pod. He's mated to mermaid Sally, but can't perform so he travels to the human realm to find a lover more to his taste. As soon as he meets slutty young barman Jamie he knows he's lucked out. He takes Jamie home, but Sally thinks it's for a threesome. Jamie leaves and goes back home. Marin talks to Sally and realises that she doesn't particularly want him either so they both travel to the human world. Marin convinces Jamie that he wants a one on one exclusive relationship and Sally hooks up with Dave, Jamie's only straight flatmate.
Talk about moving fast! Dave and Sally are in bed within minutes of making eye contact. I know this is only a 73 page novella, but really! Our main lovers aren't much better, making love on first meeting and they declare their love for each other after what? a day? two? not long anyway. When Marin first boards Jamie's boat, Jamie thinks he's in costume, and by the next chapter he's fully accepted the existence of mermen. It's all too fast. Real people don't react like that.
Other niggles: The misuse of the term selkie. Marin is a merman complete with fish tail. Selkie - seal shapeshifter. OK we do get the tail becoming a kind of skin, and our merfok do live in pods, but I felt that merman would have been perfectly adequate - they aren't selkies as they are in folklore.
The writing itself isn't great. Very heavy on the use of christian names. I know it's hard in the m/m genre to differentiate between lovers. In a straight romance you can use he and she, but in the m/m genre he and he can become confusing, however using three christian names in one sentence is excessive. Here's a sentence I've just spotted flicking through at random: "Jamie tried to clench around him, every fibre of Jamie fought the way Marin held him open." - very name heavy which is clumsy and sadly detracts from the eroticism of the scene.
The mechanics of the tail are a bit weird, inconsistent or not developed enough. It splits to reveal legs, but stays connected at the waist to look a bit like a sari in some scenes and a thong in others - I think it can also move I'm presuming a bit like a monkey's prehensile tail - never quite clear how that works. Also in one scene we get a split for the penis - great for underwater sex scenes - though never used as we then move into the tail splitting to become cloth like leading to human form sex.
Characters are so so. Marin is a perfectly respectable hero for this type of story. I like how he's totally clueless to Sally thinking he was going to find a lover for them both to share. He's hunky and I like the chameleon change hair and skin. I wasn't so keen on Jamie. He's a bossy little thing, bit too dominant for a bottom. As he describes himself in the next volume he's "complicated" and they switch roles - which is fine but if that's the route its going much more character development is needed. This is a weird one - for the story as it stands it would work better if Jamie was less complicated, yet I think he's rather interesting and would suit a longer story.
Things I did like. It's a novel about gay mermen, with proper fish tails. Check. It's reasonably erotic to boot, although there does seem to be a far too high percentage of sex to story - things move way to fast. I like the fact that the selkies can only stay out of water for a very short time and get landsick. It's a nice lite romance with a happy ending, even if that ending is a bit too convenient.
To conclude, I love the fact that Jamie's Merman exists, hurrah for merman slash! It's also fairly hot, but let down by the characters, writing style and plot. The cover is a bit of an eyebrow raiser too, talk about blatant and certainly didn't fit my picture of the characters.
Available in hard-copy with its sequel "Hiro's Merman" published under the title "Urban Mermen"
Verdict: 3/10
Sango packs the item water tight and then swims the channel
to the destination, getting it there safely. He returns and passes out at the
president’s feet. He wakes naked, in the president’s bed. Minami asks him how
he achieved the impossible. If a mer-person tells a lie they turn into bubbles
and die. Sango has no choice but to reveal that he is a merman – and shows his
fishtail. [We don’t see how he suddenly manifests his tail, but I’ll give this
the benefit of the doubt and say he pours a glass of water by the bedside onto
his legs]. Minami is both stunned and aroused, never having seen anything so
beautiful. 
He dries out and is hugely embarrassed to be completely naked... and human, before Minami! Minami wastes no time in seducing the super cute merman. Afterwards, his girlfriend turns up. Minami breaks up with her, but Sango knows that if Minami stays with him, he will never have a normal life and family. He lies and tells Minami he doesn't love him and then goes to the seashore to await the sunrise and his metamorphosis into bubbles. Minami finds him and says that he will never let him go. Sango remains as he is, true lover conquering all... and they live happily ever after.
Back to our merman story...
The use of the mermaid in this episode is pretty insane. Since the plot has nothing to do with water. The previous episode 2.8: "Next Tuesday" is a water-based episode in which a helicopter crashes in the middle of an oil rig and becomes the platform for a battle between a giant squid and a giant scorpion. Magnus and Will are stranded and it seemed to me an ideal opportunity to bring in our resident mermaid, or some other helpful merfolk but are there mermaids anywhere to be seen, are they heck? The whole squid episode makes very little sense (why would squid and scorpions be mortal enemies anyway? What with one living under the sea and the other being land dwelling.) The McGyver style plans like ripping out the helicopter's wiring to create a radio antenna and using a blowtorch to try and sever the cables holding the helicopter (still with a tank full of fuel BTW) are equally WTF??? Still the squid vs scorpion battle on giant suspended helicopter is visually pretty damn cool.
We've seen all manner of evil sea goddesses, from Ursula in the Little Mermaid to Uxía Cambarro in Dagon, until Kali though, I'd never seen an underwater goddess spider. My experience of depictions of the Hindu goddess Kali are pretty much limited to The Golden Voyage of Sinbad and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom - two childhood favourites. Though very different in Sanctuary, and not drawing on any myth I'm familiar with, I thought her portrayal was fantastic! We see her goddess persona in a dreamscape pool and the reflection on the water gives her multiple arms. I was just going yes! yes! 
I must say that I was pleasantly surprised with Sanctuary Season 2 - It's taken some really unusual directions. While I am disappointed that there hasn't been more mermaid content, I must applaud the decision to focus more on plot arc. Also I don't think mermaid fans will be too upset over the portrayal of Kali here - she is an ancient sea goddess and I love the dual aspect, of sexy siren and giant spider. Highly original.
Timid crybaby Kanan (Uke) comes home from work to find his bathroom flooded by the flat upstairs. Going upstairs to investigate he finds a male mermaid asleep in the bathtub. Kaioh (Seme) is the son of the king of the sea and is currently living on land to better interact with humans. As soon as he meets Kanan he decides to move in with him since the downstairs flat has a bigger bathtub! The pair become lovers and after an idyllic honeymoon period mostly spent in bed, Kaioh has to return home for his father's birthday and takes Kanan with him.
Haru, the boy Kaioh bullied as a child sees how attached the prince is to his cute human lover. He kidnaps Kanan and forces Kaioh to fight him a a duel. He fights dirty and tricks Kaioh into leaping into the water to rescue Kanan, and has a giant clam ready to ensnare his tormentor. Kaioh has true love on his side and escapes the clam. He's about to kill Haru, but Kanan pleads for mercy and Kaioh indulges him. Kaioh rescues Kanan and drags him off to bed to be ravished happily ever after....
Things/innovations that I did like: Mermaids tears turn into pearls which they sell in order to make money. A bathtub can be used as portal between the underwater world and our own - they jump into the bathtub to get to the undersea kingdom and we imagine that's how Kaioh arrived as well. There's also a nice nod to "Mermaid Forest" when Kaioh teases Kanan that a human can obtain eternal youth an immortality by consuming mermaid flesh.