Magic for Nothing (Incryptid #6) by Seanan McGuire

Antimony Price, youngest of the Price siblings is Not Happy. I mean, she’s never been her older sister Verity’s biggest fan but after she effectively declared war on the Covenant and revealed their continued existence to their old enemy she’s effectively put the whole continent - and her family in particular - at risk

They need to know what the Covenant is planning. They need a spy - and Antimony is the only current family member who doesn’t LOOK like a Price, she has to be the one to do it.

Of course being American - and with her skillset in travelling fairs - she’s also prime recruitment material for the Covenant which has never succeeded in getting a foothold in the US… but being a Price pretending to be Covenant pretending to be a performer certainly doesn’t make things simple

To me this book really proved just how well established and developed the main characters of this series are.

Because I didn’t like Antimony at the beginning of this book - I actively disliked her. Why? Because she doesn’t like her sister Verity and is very angry with her. I’ve read 3 books with Verity as the protagonist; I’ve followed her story, I’ve invested in her, I’ve cheered her on, I’ve loved the Arboreal Priestess. So when Antimony expresses her dislike I’m here on a firm “Excuse you, are you coming for my lady, Verity?! Oh hell no, you go through me Annie!”

Because this is how good those books were and how good Verity is: I’d invested in her sufficiently that I have a knee-jerk need to stand up for her against another fictional character.

(And, honestly, I’m not entirely over it by the end of the book - because while I didn’t dislike Antimony by the end, I still very much like Alex and Verity more).

I quickly grew to like Antimony, of course, because she’s also awesome and her beef with Verity is based on reason. I don’t agree with all of it but there’s more of a kernel of truth to it and it also underlines the great differences between the two sisters (It also means we can look back at Verity and Alex and their opinions of Antimony and see their views of their hostile and excessively violent sister are in turn skewed). Antimony has never had the same conflict as her sister. She has always known who she is and what she wants to be. She has takes her duty and family legacy extremely seriously alongside her dedication to weaponry and skills; she never had Verity’s conflict over what she actually wanted to be and do. Her views of her sister come from this lens and they’re not wrong - nor entirely right - but from such very different perspectives.

From that nuance I also love Antimony’s work with the Covenant. This is the first time we got to see inside the Covenant and learned a lot more about their training regime, their obsession with bloodlines and more of their hatred of all things supernatural and cryptid. I like the way they’re balanced - I expected them to be shown as human rather than cackling maniacal monsters, that kind of is expected now. I even expected Antimony to be somewhat sympathetic to a couple of characters (especially the layers of complexity towards her cousin, the Covenant loyalist who is treated appallingly simply because of the Price family’s defection). But so often when you have these “oh look the evil bigots are human!” it’s used to forgive or forget their bigotry and evil (a habit followed by news media as much as books). But while Antimony can see the humanity of the Covenant, at every single point of introspection she remembers that these people want to murder other sentient creatures just because of what they are. That is never forgotten, that is never downplayed no matter how human the covenant can be. Newspapers should take note.

Chaos Choreography (Incryptid #5) by Seanan McGuire

Verity has changed her life dramatically recently. She’s married Dominic, a former member of the Order of St George, which was definitely a surprise (though a family tradition). And she has finally made her decision to follow the family business of crypto-zoology rather than pursuing her career in dance.

At least until the producer of the dancing reality TV show she almost won calls her asking her to come back for a very special season. It’s a last chance at her dancing dream, one last chance to see if this is really what she wants… and one last opportunity she cannot turn down

Except when her fellow contestants turn up dead - and it looks like woo-woo and cryptids may be involved.

Hail! Hail the return of the Arboreal Priestess!

It’s been a long time since we saw Verity and I agonised for a little while about whether I wanted to see more of the rest of the family or welcomed the return of Verity. I know, I’m awkward because I lamented moving from Verity in the first place- and then I discovered Alex, The God of Scales and Silence and much preferred his storyline

But at the same time I love that we are returning to Verity. One element of series with shifting protagonists I’m not a great fan of is we tend to forget the older characters. They just vanish or fade into the background - characters which were once compelling enough for entire books are now seemingly reduced to irrelevance. So I love that we have established this precedence, I love that we can revisit these characters and that no-one with be forgotten. More series really need to take a lesson from this

And despite liking Alex’s story - that doesn’t mean I don’t love Verity, I do. And I especially love how this book is coming back to one of the main conflicts of Verity’s story that wasn’t entirely finished was her conflict over whether she wanted to dance or follow the family business. I mean she made her decision, but it felt vaguely like the decision was forced on her. And that’s not bad - sometimes circumstances over take her dream, but it was nice to see that her passion, her dream hadn’t completely left her and it was important to her to revisit it. I really liked how this was done, seeing her connect to old friends, having her both see the things she loved so much about dance but also seeing them with a new light and, perhaps, with less nostalgia. I really really liked the many excellent, subtle ways

Pocket Apocalypse (InCryptid #4) by Seanan McGuire

Alex, the God of Scales and Silence, has been asked by his girlfriend Shelby to help with a problem in Australia - her home where her family still fights to protect Cryptids

They’re having an outbreak of werewolves.

The Lycanthropy-W disease is one of Alex’s worst fears and one of the most devastating things that can afflict a country; especially Australia that has never had an outbreak before.

Of course, while the 36 society has no experience of Lycanthropy, Alex has no experience of Australia - and he has a very healthy respect for how dangerous the continent can be. And that’s aside from Shelby’s family

This book takes Alex and Shelby to Australia. I was struck with their being one major, vital point about Australia. There are no Aislinn mice in Australia.

I mourned, I sulked, I pouted, an Incryptid novel without Aisline Mice is clearly sadness. Until:

“One foot bumped my rolling suitcase, which gave out a faint cheer.”

Hail! Hail the God of Scales and Silence! Hail the Airline Smuggled Mice! Hail!

Yes, the glee returns!

Obviously, with the InCryptid series, there are a lot of things I’m going to praise every book, repeating over and over again. I will always praise the world building, the concept of cryptids and how they fit into the world and how they fit into the natural ecosystem. I will alway praise how incredibly creative they are but also how they fit so excellently with the cycles of the world - like how hunting therianthopes caused lycanthrope-W disease to spread because of the clumsy hunting of the Covenant, or how hunting unicorns caused the spread of cholera.

I will always praise the writing with its excellent pacing, the excitement of the action, the awesomeness of the personal relationships, the excellently presented world buildings, and the perfect inclusion of humour among the science and fun. I am always torn between both not being repetive in my reviews while still having to mention this every book because it would be remiss of me not to remind everyone of the awesomeness

And the Aislinn mice. Who are awesome

But aside from the standard awesomeness of all of the above, I also like the exploration of a, well, a morality spectrum, how the 36-ers differ from the Price family in power and resources and in attitude, and an examination of Alex’s own morality and how he has reacted to the 36-ers own attitude

Half-Off Ragnarok (InCryptid #3) by Seanan McGuire

Alex Price is following his family tradition of Cryptizoology. He is living with his non-human grandparents (he has a complicated family tree), working as a zoo keeper in the reptile house and continuing his research

Of course, the zoo authorities don’t know that his research is into the breeding habits of basilisk and tracking whether the local fricken population is changing. All the while trying to juggle a relationship with the big cat keeper, Shelby while keeping all his secrets

Then people start dying - turned to stone. With his basilisks, a local gorgon population and a cockatrice running around, there are several possible culprits.

Hail! Hail the God of Scales and Silence!

Yes, every book review in this series is going to start with a homage to the Aislinn Mice who are made of utter awesome. And my main complaint about this book is there wasn’t nearly enough Aislinn mice. More of the mice!

I have to admit I went into this book with an immense amount of hostility - because the protagonist was changed from Verity to her brother Alex. And it is Change and I liked Verity so I opened this fully prepared to say how wrong and unjust and awful this is and, in the name of the mice, we must bring Verity back.

Thankfully I was wrong - or, rather I was overreacting. I liked Alex as much as I liked Verity - even though they are very different people - and I like that, that they were clearly different people with very different approaches to their family legacy (while Verity is conflicted, Alex embraces it despite the frustrations). His focus on science, breeding and studying crytpids in the wild with a focus on reptiles and amphibians is very different from Verity and her urban focus. But he was still so interesting, utterly invested, scholarly (same as Verity with a different focus) and a whole lot of fun. I am happy with Verity and Alex

I also really like how we explore their unconventional childhood and how that has affected their relations with others and the constant

But even better is Shelby the Designated Love Interest who is so many more times more interesting than Dominic. It would have been easy to make her less scholarly or educated or science based than Alex, especially since he’s the geek and she is blonde and attractive - but I love how that is definitely challenged and she is more than happy to stand toe-to-toe with him intellectually or action-wise. They work really well together, are great fun and she has a nice developed history and a clear personality. I liked her a lot.

Midnight Blue-light Special (Incryptid #2) by Seanan McGuire

The Price family, Verity’s family, broke from the Covenenant of St George several generations ago – preferring to study and understand the cruptids out there rather than call them all monsters and unleash genocide on them.

The Covenant was not supportive of this split. And now they’ve arrived to perform a purge of New York City, Verity has a major problem trying to keep the local Cryptids safe – and to keep herself below the radar. Because if there’s one thing the Covenant want more than destroying “monsters” it’s destroying the Price “traitors”

The Arboreal Priestess Returns! Hail!

I have said it before and I will say it again, if you don’t love the Aislinn mice then you simply have no soul. And if I have one complaint about this book is that there needs to be so many more Aislinn Mice. More Aislinn mice. Moooore.

There’s also more Istas, the Waheela, who thinks everything can be solved with more carnage. I approve of her carnage approval.

There’s also some excellent development of Sarah, her powers, her nature, and her own awesome emotion and characterisation as her natural powers fail or don’t apply. That’s one thing that is so excellent about the world building of these books – everything is thought through, implications are considered – there’s depth as well as breadth. Like Sarah being unable to recognise people by facial features because she’s a telepathy – and recognises people by their thoughts.

This whole book is excellently balanced with the awesome world building (and I could go into it again – but really it’s a repeat of the same awesomeness I mentioned in the first book – just read that because it’s awesomely well done), the excellent action scenes, some really awesome characters who work so well together with some truly perfect familial bonds on display and all lightened with an excellent amount of humour to keep things light and action packed and deep and awesome.

Verity continues to be awesome as well, with her own conflicts about what she actually wants to do, the idea that she doesn’t have a choice any more – but how that resentment could grow to make her loathe her life. There’s a lot put into this that I really like – her own dreams facing the harsh reality of her family legacy.

As another bonus there’s less De Luca. Or it feels that way – since they spend far more time worrying about what he’s going to do and which side he’s on rather than actually dealing with his blandly bland self. Maybe I’m being unfair – I mean the whole debate over him is actually really well done. There’s a great acknowledgement that while Dominic no longer agrees with his extreme brethren – there’s still a huge step from that and turning his back on everything he believes him. The reaction of Dominic and Verity are both good – because Verity is hurt but reasonable, grudgingly; nor does she allow affection or their relationship to cloud her simple judgement. At the same time Dominic is excellently conflicted because loyalty vs new revelations is a hard thing to get through

I still don’t like him though… I find him bland next to the awesomeness that is the other characters, especially Verity

Discount Armageddon (InCryptid #1) by Seanan McGuire

Verity Price’s family is not like many others. She grew up dodging her sister’s habit of booby-traps and ambushes and dealing with her grandmother’s regular visits into hell to find her grandfather. Oh and her cousin isn’t human.

Her family has worked with monsters, protected humanity from them – protected them from humanity – and generally tried to keep things in balance. Unlike the Covenant of St George which is determined to kill anything they don’t consider human or right.

So when one arrives in town, completely derailing her dancing dreams, Verity is not happy.

Some books just make me smile. I just read them with a big silly grin on my faced because they’re so much fun and I’m enjoying them throughout and I get all kind of sad when it ends.

But this is the first book of an entire series so I have so many more fun books to charge through which I’m really looking forward to: book one has definitely got me hooked in here.

The world is fascinating – not because it’s supernatural beings in a modern world (there are no shortages of those these days), but the way they’re integrated is fascinating. Not by being open and revealed and being part of the human political world (which they’re not), but by having them part of the greater global ecosystem. After all, we have these worlds where the supernatural is part of the world, then why wouldn’t they be part of the food chain, part of the environmental structure, part of the general mess of myriad interactions that all creatures in nature go through?

This is a world where Cryptozoology is still, basically zoology. The studying of supernatural creatures – Cryptids – is, at the beginning, the study of creatures and beings. Intelligent cryptids have histories and societies and cultures. The non-intelligent cryptids have instincts and territories and are basically animals like any other

I love how this is explored. And I love how it is examined in far more detail than simply “are these evil”. A creature that hunts humanity is not just inherently condemned by Verity and her family – after all in a world where the supernatural exists “endangered big predator” or “giant lethal monster” are pretty much synonymous.

There’s also real ecological considerations – which affects humanity as well. If you wipe out a species that normally changes an ecosystem drastically. I really love how the whole concept of supernatural beings is addressed by in a very scientific, naturalist way which is truly excellent.

Shadowed Souls Anthology: Jim Butcher, Seanan McGuire, Tanya Huff, Anton Strout, Kat Richardson, Kevin J Anderson, Lucy A Snyder, Jim C Hines, Erik Scott De Bie, Kathryn Rusch, Rob Thurman

This anthology has a theme – and it’s generally a theme it’s handled quite well. Shadowed Souls are people who do not stand neatly in black and white morality and definitely straddle that uncomfortable grey shadow zone (ooooh title reference).

Firstly we have Cold Case by Jim Butcher with a story from the Dresden Files series. And if anything this is the story that defines the meaning of the book.

I like the exploration of Molly, now one of the younger Winter Queens with all the power and moral ambiguity of the Winter Court. The Winter Court has always been savage and dangerous and vicious – by design. It’s the bulwark against terrible outsider evil, it’s a court that has been built to fight an eternal, brutal war against monsters. The Winter Court is the very essence of dubious morality; of using monsters to fight monsters

I also like the how we go some way to explaining the rather bizarre horniness of the Winter Court. After all, Winter =/= generally mean sexytimes (except in Canada when hockey is cancelled). The bleak idea that Winter fae are super horny because of the war – because of the need to constantly breed because the war inflicts atrocious attrition on them is horrifying, bleak and very much in line with the theme of the court and the book.

So we have Molly, a character we know is a good and ethical and moral now with a whole lot more power and urges she has to learn to control – and having to do some really terrible things and make some really terrible choices for The Greater Good. Which is all the harder because Molly is a child of one of the Knights of the Cross, a man so good he gave literal demons multiple chances to repent. That’s a hard path to follow. We see both the good – upholding her duty to her people – and the terrible, her having to enforce the rules and sacrifices of the Winter court. And it is brutal. I love it

I am less thrilled with HOW Molly’s sexualness is portrayed here. So, yes, the Winter Court is horny, we know this – but in Molly this is interpreted by lots and lots of flirting. Which is fine, flirtiatious and sexually charged female characters are not a problem: but when Harry had the Winter Mantle he wasn’t sexually flirting – his thoughts were creepy and outright pushing for rape. It’s a stark contrast between male and female sexuality – especially when Molly also comes with a celibacy contract. And, yes, the story of sacrifice and suffering inherent to the Winter Court is powerful – but the backstory sets it in dubious light.

We do have a latino mage and several Native American supernaturals who play a decent role in the book

Sleepover by Seanan McGuire

While the opening story defines the theme of the book, I don’t see this book as fitting into the theme. The protagonist is a succubus but not inherently or unduly evil nor forced to make evil choices. She is coerced into a mission – but the mission is to rescue a child. That’s not morally ambiguous. And while we have a definite misunderstanding about why that child went missing, again there’s no real grey area so much as just a complete misunderstanding on the part of the humans as to how these beings work

I do love the whole concept of the world created – so much so that I think this book would be an absolutely awesome lead in to a new series so we could look at the Lilim and the Bogeymen and the culture and societies that are there that people have completely gotten wrong. If this is an excerpt of a longer series, count me in because the introduction of the main character and the world building definitely has me hooked

Also, lesbian protagonist who nods at LGBT cultural milestones without being defined by them – definitely here for this.

Once Broken Faith (October Daye #10) by Seanan McGuire

The cure for Elfshot – the poison that puts fae to sleep for 100 years – has been found and it promises to completely overhaul fae society. Now the ultimate weapon beyond death has the potential to be neutralised and who knows what the fallout will be. Especially with all the people who can now rejoin society

To keep ahead of the potential chaos, the High King and Queen of North America have called a conclave of West Coast monarchs to discuss the issue and the way forwards. And, of course, October is invited. And by “invited” he means “required to attend”. That means lots of Pureblood politics, being the only Changeling in the room and a lot of etiquette

Until a king is murdered – and then things get far more awkward and really, politics become the least of Toby’s worries.

There are so many characters in this book I love. I love October and her relationships with the other cast. I love how they can be very complex like her mixed emotions with Sylvester. I love how she manages to be sensible and emotional in a very real way. I love how he can respect someone but still not have time for the bullshit, I love how she interacts with the world around her striking a delicate balance as a changeling, yet a Changeling with influence. I love how her past has shaped her, I love how dedicated she is to the ones she loves – and all the ones she loves, not just her love interest. It is a joy to read through Toby’s excellent, complicated, very real eyes.

I love how she’s constantly out of her depth – but smart and funny and quickly adapting and able to cut through the bullshit around her with an excellent skill – being the outsider while being in the halls of power gives her an excellent insight on the glaring flaws of the court system. It’s excellent and excellent way to present world building as well.

The Luidaeg is an ongoing wonderful, terrifying, caring, powerful, arrogant, yet gentle, furious and awesome and snarky character who bulldozes her way through everything with the sure and certain knowledge that she will kill you and eat your skin if you have to

Then there’s Arden, the new Queen who is desperately trying to find her feet and is really not used to all this yet but she is desperately trying. And she has a decorating theme, so that’s half the battle.

All of these characters work so well because the world setting is amazing. And I don’t just mean the incredible work that has gone into researching and including so many fae varieties and legends and including them in the book. There are histories and politics and wonderful insights into magic (even if that magic is “magic is weird and has few rules). There’s a real sense of a heavy world beyond all the references that has just continued to build and grow over the period of the books. This works to make all the political intrigue – from the different crowns, the different view of Undersea, the treatment of Changelings, the Firstborn and how they relate to their descendants to the whole political structure – feel not just involves and complex but also real. Like it’s been fully designed to work, rather than twisted to fit the convenience.

A Red-Rose Chain (October Daye #9) by Seanan McGuire

The Kingdom of Silences has declared war on the Kingdom of Mists. The new Queen Arden is far out of her depths and has little idea how to respond…

So she throws October at the problem. She’s no trained diplomat but she has good friends and she is very good at thinking on her feet

And with both the old Queen and a kingdom that considers Changelings beneath notice, it’s going to be a hard fight to be heard or listened to – or to stop a war that the King of Silences so cruelly wants. Even if she could stop the war, the ongoing injustice and cruelty of the Kingdom of Silences cannot be allowed to continue.

The story is immensely fun, as I definitely expect from this series. October Daye continues to be a scrappy character who runs around well out of her depth as is her wont. But she fights, she struggles and she rests on her friends and her unique abilities to get things done even if she so often has to make things up on the spot

The writing and pacing is, as always, excellent – always keeping me on the hook, reading until I reach the end of the books and all the… well not exactly twists and turns so much as constant questions and confusion. October doesn’t know what she’s doing and that’s really well portrayed in the text. She’s been thrown into a situation beyond her control and she has no plans, she’s incapable of planning in these circumstances. All she can do is run and hope to keep up and hope an answer, some answer presents itself so she can stop a war and save the people she loves

I really like how this is, in turn, reflected in Arden, the Queen. She’s also supremely out of her depth, after all she has only assumed the throne recently and before that she was a book store clerk. Without weakening her in the slightest she is depicted as exactly what she is – a woman who is completely overwhelmed and terrified and needs nudging back into the correct direction. It doesn’t make her a bad person or even a bad queen – any more than October’s flailing makes her and it’s a nice parallel between October and the Queen as we see them both try to adapt to a situation that is so far beyond her. As an extra bonus October’s epic speech to get her back on track is awesome.

Sparrow Hill Road (Ghost Stories #1) by Seanan McGuire

Rose has been a ghost since 1952 when, as a 16 year old prom date, she was driven off the road by Bobby Cross one of the darkest and most sinister figures on the Shadowroads

She’s now a hitch hiker ghost, walking the highways – both real and shadowed – of America stealing chunks of life while she can, saving the few people she’s able to and ushering those she can’t into the next life.

But Bobby Cross hasn’t stopped hunting her – or others – over those last 60 years. One day she will find a way to be free as she learns more and more of the underworld, until then she keeps running

This world is amazing. This world is not just extremely imaginative, but there’s a truly vast amount of research behind it which is utterly amazing. All the ghosts stories, all the urban legends are pulled together and present depending on how people died. From ghostly-hitch-hikers, phantom drivers and crossroad demons – all the legends of death and the road.

The road theme is also excellent – it’s such an unexplored niche but at the same time so common in urban legends. Ghostly riders, ghostly hitch-hikers, ghosts who just want to go home, ghosts that convince you to pick them up and take them home… there’s a lot of ghost stories and urban legends about the open road

This all comes together with a lot of extra fascinating world building (route-witches, whole magic systems about roadways, living personifications of highways!) shadow roads and a whole load of magic and woo-woo all with an excellent road theme. It’s all very dark and very creepy and wonderful to take this all from the actual ghosts’ point of view

Which brings us to our protagonist: the Phantom Prom Date, Rose who died on the road at the age of 16. She walks the shadow roads, slipping between the levels of the ghost world and the real world. She haunts the highways looking for people to give her a ride and, through the rules of her kind of spirit (each ghost has its own set of rules which I kind of love). Her story has grown beyond all imagining in the 60 years she has been dead, some presenting her as a serial killer or horror of the road, some a companion and some even the truth – she tries to save those she can (sometimes very few) and ease the passing of those she can’t. Especially if they’re due to become a particularly terrifying ghost

Rose’s travels allow us to see so much of the world and the setting and she brings us a great lens through which to view her unlife: including why she and her fellow ghosts hunger for the chances of life they can get. Her experiences and insight are excellent. She’s an awesome character, in an awesome world with some really amazing maintaining of the theme. The spookiness, the sense of surreal – it’s really well done

Rose herself is a wonderful balance of despair, jadedness, ennui and practicality. She isn’t angsty – but she’s not in a good situation and she knows it; she finds what joy she has but knows it’s not going to last. That doesn’t mean she monologues her sadness all the time but the way she values and savours the moments she has in a way that makes it clear just how precious, rare and important they are. It’s really well done and carries a lot of the sense of the book without the need to be overt. I really like how it’s all conveyed

We do have some POC – the head of the Road Witches is an Asian woman and both powerful and wise. There are some other POC in the background, I won’t say they take up major roles but I think, beyond Rose herself, there aren’t that many major roles in the book. Maybe her best friend. Many of the characters, along with Rose, are female including Rose’s best friend and kind of mentor – it’s fairly female heavy and there’s a nice poke at the way she is treated as she wanders the roads – apparently a 16 year old hitchhiker, including the sexual hypocrisy she often fsaces. There are no LGBT people.

The Winter Long (October Daye #8) by Seanan McGuire

October has a long and difficult past – but at least she understood it. She’d also left a lot of it behind – she had a new life, new loves, new friends and was an honoured hero of the kingdom

But when old, long vanished people return, she quickly learns nothing was how she imagined it – and people close to her have been keeping vital secrets about her life, her past and her family

This book hit that wonderful sweet balance between EPIC and PERSONAL which is very hard to do.

We have a lot of epic because the antagonist is immensely powerful and threatens pretty much everything October knows – including the entirety of North America. She is vast and all consuming and not a power that October can reasonably match. More, this series is truly excellent at invoking the great forces of faerie, it really conveys the epic power of these beings as well as their truly alien, unknowable nature. When this series decides to bring out an epic power, there is absolutely not doubt at all how powerful it is – everyone one of the epic faerie forces has a sense of age and power that is really well conveyed even when showing their oh-so-human frailties as well. The book never really forgets what they are – epic, powerful, the stuff of legend. It’s what I’ve always loved about this series and this book doesn’t disappoint.

On the personal side – much of this book covers a lot of October’s past. Way back at the beginning of this series we knew October had recently been cursed by Simon and that this had seriously disrupted her life; Simon had also gone on to cause some trouble for Sylvester, October’s liege’s family as well. But his motives (and, relatedly, Oleander who also showed up to cause havoc) remained very opaque and in the later books we’d moved so far beyond that period in her life that it was rarely remembered. In fact, every now and then October would mention something like her fear of water and I’d suddenly remember. That isn’t a criticism – the October of The Winter Long is a very different person from the October of Rosemary and Rue, she has grown a lot and the things that once were such major issues for her have faded and been replaced by the far greater and more epic. But that growth and development makes it all the more important (and fascinating) to revisit October’s past with new perspective, knowledge and power, filling in all the gaps about her old friends, allies and enemies (and people who have moved from one category to another as well). I can’t say much more than that because I’m risking spoilers – but it is epic and fascinating and really adds to October’s backstory. And adds a whole lot more mystery to October as well – I really want to know who her grandmother is.

We also have some interesting world building on the Liudaeg who is definitely a favourite of mine – and also the interesting bindings that can restrain even the greatest and mightiest of the fae. It’s a really nice balance of surprising weakness in beings that are so incredibly powerful. There was other interesting world building elements, including what it means to be a child of Titania or Maeve (the two great fae matriarchs) with added elements of marriage in fae culture – and just what a faerie race’s First Born actually means to them.

Chimes at Midnight (October Daye #7) by Seanan McGuire

October Daye has a mission – to get Goblin Fruit off the streets. It’s a powerful narcotic, loved by Pureblood Fae – but it’s lethally addictive to humans and Changelings. Emphasis on the “lethally”, it will kill them. Unfortunately, the Queen doesn’t care – what do Changelings dying matter to her, even if dozens of children have died? And she doesn’t like October either – so she can have a banishment.

That leaves only one choice. The Queen has to go.

In three days

That’s quite tall order for deposing the local monarch – but she’s not popular and October has a lot of friends with some very cunning ideas and some long hidden secrets.

The plot of this book is Epic and Urgent and Heroic and Magnificent. Which is awesome. In fact, we need more unnecessary capitals – it was AWESOME. But it’s also hurried and a little disjointed.

October is taking down the Queen. Which means lots of manoeuvring to desperately come up with an idea that would knock her from her throne, which means lots and lots of brainstorming and lots and lots of rallying the troops. It means October rushing around everywhere and speaking to everyone. It means we get to see everyone, all the excellent character we’ve come to know and love (and I do love the characters in this series, more on that later). It makes that wonderful, spine-tingly epic feeling you get when a story is real and exciting and powerful and you can almost feel the epic consequences of the characters actions. Overlaid over all that is that wonderful, viscerally satisfying feeling you get when a long standing aggravating character is about to get theirs (the “Joffrey Slap” feeling). And there’s a time limit so all of this happens real fast with an extreme sense of tension and panic about it – because time is running out.

Awesome and excellent.

But…

3 days? Is far too short. It makes the whole kingdom look kind of odd that it only takes 3 days to depose the sitting monarch. I would actually have rather this be an epic campaign taking part over several books as October rallies her forces, gathers her allies forged in several books of helping and heroism and challenges people to pick the unstable, dangerous, fickle queen over her and her claimant. That would have added an extra layer of epic to an already epic tale – and made it more momentous that she had to gather all these forces and spar with the Queen for so long.

As it was, the story was still epic – but there were elements that felt forced or could have been better. Like taking over the queen’s castle full o’guards with just 2 people. Or the Queen able to perform near miracles with her Siren abilities (why don’t sirens rule the world?) Or the Queen only having a few gambits against Toby and Toby merrily teleporting left, right and centre to avoid them – leading to a disjointedness of her not spending much time in one place and not really hashing things out with Tybalt, Sylvester, Jazz or Walter.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s a truly awesome, epic book with lots of excitement and powerful scenes. But it could very easily have been more if it wasn’t so hurried. It’s less a complaint and more a lament about what could have been.

Along with the great story we have some great world building – and I do love the world of this series. When October found herself shifted towards the human end of the spectrum I was kind of sad because I thought there wouldn’t be much chance to explore Dochas Sidhe and what that means if October was barely fae at all.

What we did get was a lot of foreshadowing of more to come – with a prophecy and a lot of the Luidaeg and all revolving around the First Born and October being a Dochas Sidhe – so I think I just need to hang on in there because it’s all coming.

Carniepunk Anthology

By: Rachel Caine, Delilah S. Dawson, Jennifer Estep, Kelly Gay, Kevin Hearne, Mark Henry, Hillary Jacques, Jackie Kessler, Seanan McGuire, Kelly Meding, Allison Pang, Nicole Peeler, Rob Thurman, Jaye Wells

When I first saw this anthology I leaped to request it – so many of the authors included in it are the authors I already read and already love, a collection of stories by them was definitely something I was sure I’d be able to devour in seconds, loving every word.

I preface the review with this to make it clear that my expectations were very very high – perhaps too high given my oft mentioned dislike of short stories. This left me feeling a little disappointed.

Firstly, on the book overall I was impressed by the unity of theme, short story compilations by different authors can feel very disjointed as you are buffeted from epic story to laughing comedy to heart wrenching tragedy that makes them almost impossible to read in one sitting because they’re so different.  While the writing style of this book was, obviously, very varied the overall theme not just of Carnivals but of something sinister, dark and something pretty creepy was generally well maintained throughout. I don’t know if it was intended or if the authors just find carnivals as creepy as I do – but nearly every story had a strong sense of the creepiness, the alien and the outsider about them that helped keep the whole book together as a coherent whole which I appreciated.

In terms of the stories, the ones by the authors that drew me in were very much their style, but also nothing special and didn’t form much of a useful addition to their own stories:

Kevin Hearne’s The Demon Barker of Wheat Street, was a fun ride with characters I’ve come to know and love. Atticus, Oberon and Granuaile are always immensely fun romp around a Carnival, fighting evil with humour and flair with odd moments of depth and emotion to it that so characterises Kevin Hearne’s work; it’s good but not his best, lacking in style or real relevance to the world he has…  if you’re not a fan of the series already you’re going to be a little lost reading this one – and a little Spoilered as well, which is a bad choice for a short story, I think.

Jennifer Estep’s Parlor Tricks, is much the same. If you know her world and her characters then it’s a great read, a nice continuation and nice to see Gin in some semi-downtime. If you don’t know her world then you’re probably going to be more than a little lost as the full weight of her massive Ashland world is thrown at you. As a fan and a current reader of her series, I enjoyed it while still feeling I wouldn’t have missed anything if I hadn’t read it. That’s a good thing in the sense that I don’t want my series to depend on me tracking down anthologies, but bad in that I left the story feeling I hadn’t gained anything.

Seanan McGuire’s Daughter of the Midway, the Mermaid and the Open, Lonely Sea, surprised me in that it didn’t seem to be related to any of her actual series. While I liked this story, I also felt that it was the only one that didn’t fit the overall theme of the book, though I quite liked the subversion of finally presenting the Carnie’s point of view and taking their otherness that had been so pushed through the rest of the stories and making that a strength rather than the sinister nature that had been pushed so far. It was an excellent close to the book.

Notable others were Painted Love by Rob Thurman, it was the first story in the book and did a very good job of setting up the dark and sinister theme; the fantastic and the other, the evil and the cruel, the hidden threats as much as the hidden wonders. It was an excellent choice for the first story. But, as far as the story itself goes, it didn’t work for me. It had a nice twist ending but to make that work it forced a lot of character interaction that didn’t make a lot of sense and some very stilted descriptions. The story also had an over-wordy, over-introspective style that I’ve never particularly cared for. It did really set up the sense of the other – in ways that go beyond the simple supernatural creatures we’ve already known - and definitely laid the groundwork for the creepy, the evil and the sinister

Ashes of Honour (October Daye #6) by Seanan McGuire

 

October Daye is managing to move on with her life after the loss of both Connor and her daughter – but it’s hard and her grief is a background for this book. But, perhaps more so for that grief, she cannot turn away Etienne when he comes to her for help. He has a daughter, a changeling daughter who he never knew about. Her mother has only just informed him of her because she has gone missing – not just gone missing, but literally vanished before her friend’s eyes.

Perhaps not impossible, given that Etienne’s a Tuatha de Danaan, a skilled teleporter, but there’s definitely something suspicious with this disappearance. And to make it worse, Chelsea is one of those Changelings without limits – or controls – on her power. She can break barriers that were never meant to be broken, open portals to places that were best kept sealed and the consequence of doing so may be to bring down those barriers entirely, devastating faerie.

Getting involved quickly drops her into a whole heap of fae politics – only further complicated with chaos in Tybalt’s court of cats

This is another excellently written adventure with the multiple threads of the story coming together and conflicting with each other. They have a desperate mission, the world itself could rest in the balance and at the same time –with the worst possible timing – Tybalt is faced with his own revolution from the court of cats. I like how the four story threads we have here: finding Chelsea     , stopping Chelsea destroying the world, finding Raj and dealing with the court of cast are all interlinked, even extremely closely related storylines but they also serve as competition for time. It adds to the tension to have it all going on at once but also adds to the realism to have them inter-related.

The story is well paced, well balanced and nicely mixes character emotion and bonds with action to keep it moving at a decent pace. It’s nice to see the world develop and have some names put on long mentioned faces while at the same time visiting some of the older characters in the series; including Tamed Lightning. This gives a sense that it’s not just Toby. I also like that, while Toby is a special one-and-only-kind-of-fae (except her absent mother), she isn’t a special one-and-only-kind-of-fae with the Awesome Super Power of Awesomeness as is so often the case. Her strength, her power, her agency, her excellence as a character is not based on the special shiny powers she has or her amazing ability to kill things – because she doesn’t have them. She does have super miraculous healing which means she doesn’t spend nearly as much time healing as she did – but it does mean she can keep on being a punch bag which is one thing this series occasionally makes me uncomfortable about (though the first book was by far the worst on that and it has got exponentially better.

And the Luidaeg is still awesome. It is known.

Review: One Salt Sea, by Seanan McGuire, Book 5 of the October Daye Series

October Daye, the new Countess of Goldengreen has a new mission and never has so much rested on her.

The children of the Duchess of Saltmist, an Undersea realm bordering the Kingdom of Mists, have been kidnapped. Worse, the suggestion is that the Kingdom of Mists is involved – war is very much in the air. But it’s a war the Kingdom of Mists will not be able to win – and even if they did, the cost in immortal fae lives would be far too high.

The only chance to stop a war is to find the children – unharmed – and find out who has taken them and why. But on a more personal stake, October’s own daughter has also gone missing – and the same perpetrator is indicated. Saving the children now includes saving her own, mainly human, daughter as well.

There are few distractions from this main plot in this book – despite the running of Goldengreen and her knew squire – October has a kingdom (and children) to save in a mystery that takes her to the bottom of the ocean, confronts old enemies, follows a long path of clues and calls upon all her friends and allies to help.

The world building of this series continues to be amazing – and draws me in each book with as thirst to know more, especially now the whole concept of Undersea has opened up. Even almost-throwaway things like the origins of the Selkies are beautiful rich additions to an extremely varied and well planned world. I get a really huge sense of vast numbers of notes, maps, biographies and histories on Seanan McGuire’s desk that goes into making this amazing world.

The story itself is extremely well balanced and paced. There’s a maintained urgency without rushing and the story blurring. We take the time to be fully exposed to the emotional impact and consequences of what is happening without maundering around or getting bored by it or reduced to yelling “just rescue them already!” at the book. It’s well put together between emotional depth and exciting action with revelations coming often enough to keep things interesting without them being cheap or overwhelming.

And all of it was well written – the emotional scenes were strong and painful, the sense of tension and threat and the looming horror of war was fully presented and conveyed, the pain of the parents, the sheer amount at stake was all powerfully presented without being excessive or melodramatic

The story itself has sufficient clues and twists to keep it interesting as a mystery without so many that it becomes lost and convoluted – there are no loose ends, no excess distraction and the investigation is actually sensible and reasonable rather than relying on coincidences or random leaps of logic – again, a really well balanced story with the mystery and the logic working well together even in a world of fae and magic.

If I had one quibble about the story it would be that fairly early in the books the Duchess of Saltmist realises and seems to believe that her children have not been kidnapped by the Queen of Mists or her agents – so I’m not entirely sure why she is pursuing the war and imposing such a tight deadline on it as well.

Review: Late Eclipses by Seanan McGuire, Book 4 of the October Daye Series

Before the first book, October was turned into a fish for trying to rescue Luna and Rosalyn from the clutches of Simon and Oleander. But now, Oleander is back. A master illusionist and poisoner and a brilliant assassin, she is hunting October and those she loves.

As people she loves and values are brought down, October has to find a cure for the poison and catch Oleander before more people are lost. Or discover whether Orleander actually exists and isn’t just a figment of her own breaking mind?

As if an arch enemy poisoning people weren’t enough, her rival and other enemy, Rosalyn, ends up with unprecedented power in the Shadowed Halls. And the unstable and dangerous Queen of Northern California has her own vendetta against October – and is determined to settle the score. And here are these murders, ideal for framing.

And in the process, October learns far more about Amandine and herself than she ever imagined

As far as mysteries go, it was an odd one. There wasn’t  choice of villains or really choice of methods. From almost the word go we knew it was Oleander, in the Knowe, with the Poison. There’s more detective skill goes into a game of Cluedo than that. However, I don’t think it was a mystery or a detective story per se – though there was a considerable amount of detection involved in finding the exact vector of the poison – so maybe it’s a different kind of detective story.

I think far more it counts as a part action book, part political intrigue. October doesn’t need to find out whodunit so much as howdunnit and how to stab whodunit repeatedly when we have Rosalyn and the Queen on her back and so little of her normal support network. And I liked it. I was curious as to what would happen next, I wanted to see how the political intrigue would developed and I was interested to see how they would actually find their way through the maze and actually resolve everything. I never really knew what was coming next or how the plot would resolve – and it was a fascinating trip to the end as October dodged the obstacles in her way to finally confront the big bad in true heroic fashion.

Review: An Artifical Night by Seanan Mcguire, book 3 of the October Daye Series

The Hunt is riding again. His hunt rides forth every 100 years and before it does it gathers new riders and steeds into the fold. But the source for these new recruits are children – fae children to ride, mortal children for horses and the nights before Samhain Michael recruits new steeds and riders from their homes.

And in comes October Daye. Her best friends have lost their children, the Court of Cats have lost children and her friend Quentin has lost his girlfriend to the Hunt and October, as a hero, isn’t going to let that happen. Even if her Fetch has arrived, predicting her imminent demise.

With the help of Luna, the Duchess of the Shadowed Halls and the ancient fae, the Luidaeg, she has to enter the lands of the hunt and retrieve the children. But she is entering a new world with this quest, playing by the rules of children’s games and songs, fighting with rhymes and half remembered rules of fairness in a world that isn’t bound to reality. 

And, of course, even if you manage to save people from the Huntsman, how do you stop him turning his eyes upon you?

I think in this book we had the most powerful feeling of what it means to be fae –not just in the series but perhaps in Urban Fantasy in general. The surreal, malleable world, the shifting reality and the low grade3, unnerving terror was powerful. But more so was the simple use of children’s stories, of fairness and of arcane rules to the games. It added to the surreality and the alienness of the world, even told through the familiarity of children’s rhymes. In a way it adds to the terror of it – because these aren’t creatures that follow the rules and mores of adult society – not even of adult thinking – they are literally creatures of nightmares and as alien and incomprehensible as those nightmares.

This links with the huge richness of the world here to make something which is both epic and wondrous with lots of shinies and lots of surreal terrors.

The plot has an interesting element in that you think it’s solved and then realise – wait, I’m only half way through. And then we’d have a new chapter, a new start, a new twist. And then you think it’s resolved a second time, but again there’s a new chapter, a new twist to the tale. In other books I’ve found that irritating – but largely because there hasn’t been enough coherence between the stages. In this book each section of the tale naturally leads into the next. I also like it because we’re very much reading things through an almost fairy tale lens – and fairy tales end far too neatly with their “happy ever after”. Each “ending” would have been a great fairy tale ending – and then they all lived happily ever after, but what about the consequences? Does the story really end there? Are there no loose ends? So I quite liked it, I felt it was  rejection of the simple, pat ending.

Review: A Local Habitation by Seanan McGuire, Book 2 of the October Daye series

Sylvester, Duke of the Shadowed Halls has called October with a problem. His niece, the Countess of Tamed Lightning, isn’t answering his calls. He would check up on her, or send one of his top officials – but the neighbouring duchy of Dreamers Glass would take that as a move against them – and war would surely follow. Hamstrung by politics, he has to turn to October, a trained PI and his knight errant

Setting off with Quentin, a young Page from the court looking for some experience, things rapidly get out of hand. Not only are communications from Dreamers Glass being interrupted – but half of the inhabitants have fled after a string of murders.

A string of murders that continues while October Daye is there. With her PI experience and her Daoine Sidhe ability to read blood memories she’s perfectly placed to help solve the murders – as well as her duty to Sylvester. But the memories are absent and even the darkest forces in faerie won’t touch the bodies – more people keep dying. And, other than Quentin, anyone can be the killer, no-one can be trusted. And can they trust her? Especially with the dangerous politics of the County?

And, if murders weren’t enough, the people of Tamed Lightning have their own secrets, some of which could be just as dangerous as the murderer themselves.

The world here is amazingly rich with a huge variety of fae and faerie legends presented. It’s a very varied world, a very large world with, consequently, a lot of scope for different characters and abilities. I think these books are worth reading for their rich world alone and the potential of them.

October Daye is a nuanced character. She’s a Changeling in a fae society that ever treats her as less. She has her mother’s extreme reputation to live up to while at the same time she is limited to the power level of a Changeling. And this is after her last major quest for Sylvester resulted in her not only failing to rescue Luna and Rosalyn, but also being trapped as a fish for 14 years – the aftermath of which she is only just recovering from. She’s very ambivalent about being involved in faerie, but at the same time cares deeply for the people she regards as her family.

The plot itself has a lot of action – October is facing off against an unknown assailant, there’s a sense of danger around every corner, of constantly being stalked and just not knowing who or what is out there or why. The tension is very well maintained and there’s always a sense whenever a character leaves the frame that they may not be coming back. Other than October, there was a very good sense of “anyone can die” with lots of nail biting tension, head scratching mystery and occasional frenzied bolts of energy as the newest threat raises its head.

One thing that isn’t to my taste is the way October investigates – or, rather, the way the investigation is written. In fiction, I generally find there are 3 kinds of detective stories: 1) the investigator actively seeks the answer, follows a series of clues and brilliantly puts them together. 2) the investigator has a couple of clues then has a magical insight/stroke of genius/convoluted hunch that solves the puzzle. 3) The investigator does very little or her investigation turns up next to nothing, but the bad guy decides to try and kill her and eventually is caught.

October Day kind of fits into option 3. In fact, by the end of the book her suspect pool has dropped to 3 people and one of them highly unlikely. She could have flipped a coin. The problem is that it didn’t make her, a trained investigator, look very competent. Her investigation skills consisted of tasting the blood to use her Daoine Sidhe powers – and it not working. Ok, next body, taste the blood – didn’t work. Ok next body, taste the blood – didn’t work. And that was kind of the extent of her investigative skills; I think the only other investigating she does is call the Luidaeg for a ritual she repeats step by step. She also spends a lot of time being attacked and being injured - though not as bad as the last book. It’s sad because in the end October has a lot of second guessing of herself and her competence and I want to say “no, Toby, you did your best” but at the same time I’m faced with the fact she didn’t actually do a whole lot – and spent most of the book reacting rather than seeking the actual suspect.

Of course, she’s not helped by the other characters being even less competent. When January can’t get through to her uncle on the phone she just… leaves more phone messages? Really? She’s a fae leading a whole herd of other fae and one phone is all they can manage for communication? Add in that October repeatedly tells them to stay together but they continually split off. Why weren’t they all gathered in one room where they could all watch each other? Why did people keep wandering off alone? Why did October keep wandering off alone? It made no sense! They were in a desperate survival situation, they’ve been decimated, losing 3 quarters of their number and they’re still going for solo wanders?

Unfortunately, the book is pretty heavily erased with a very straight, white cast. There’s also so unpleasant hints towards the killer being mentally ill though it’s not entirely spelled out. I’m also unhappy with references to pureblood prejudice as “racism” though thankfully they’re not common

Those criticisms aside, it is a book I enjoyed. While there were actions of the characters I didn’t entirely agree with, but I didn’t find it sufficient to detract from the overall goodness that is this book, the depth of the world or the continuing interactions of the characters. It’s a series that continues to intrigue me and its potential only grows more with each new book.