Short Book Reviews: The Latest "October Daye" Adventure

 Be the Serpent, by Seanan McGuire (DAW)

I’ve loved Seanan McGuire’s “October Daye” urban fantasy since the very first volume and looked forward to each new installment. Be the Serpent is every bit a treat for long-time fans of the series. It is not, alas, an entry point for the new reader. Long-running series are often burdened by sheer weight of backstory. McGuire is skillful enough to weave in bare-minimum necessary details, but after 15 previous volumes, that amounts to a lot. Even though I had read all the previous volumes, some more than once, I found myself wondering who is this person and when did that happen? I wished for a “refresh my memory” synopsis from time to time, especially when supporting characters had similar names (like Simon and Sylvester, although there aren’t enough letters in the alphabet to give everyone in Toby Daye’s world a name starting with a different letter). I have the greatest sympathy for the poor, unsuspecting reader who tries to jump into the middle of the story. To be fair, there are plot elements that don’t depend on an encyclopedic knowledge of What Has Come Before and are engrossing in their own right.

Be the Serpent has the same delicious blend of Faerie, magic, romance, mystery, and action, not to mention great characters, as has come before. Fans will love it, me among them. If I was disappointed by once-terror-inspiring characters descending to warm-fuzziness, the switch from BFF to arch-enemy more than balanced it out.

The story ends on a partial resolution, a false cadence as it were, promising that the story isn’t over yet. This is great news for fans, maybe not so much for someone still trying to figure out what’s going on.

I tried to read the attached novella, but I kept falling asleep.

 

Very Short Book Reviews: For Your Winter Reading Delight

 A Killing Frost, by Seanan McGuire (DAW)

The “October Daye” series keeps getting better! And by “better” I mean richer and more nuanced, always packed with action and dramatic tension and characters we have come to adore. As Toby and Tybalt-King-of-Cats prepare their wedding, she is jolted to discover that she must invite her father to the ceremony or risk the dire consequences of an insult. In this case, her father is not her biological sire but the ex-husband of her mother – the notorious and much-despised Simon Torquill. Simon had made strides toward redemption when he traded his Way Home to save his daughter and is now in the thrall of an evil faery queen. Toby’s quest involves far more than tracking him down. The themes of forgiveness, loyalty, self-discovery, and compassion for self and others run like golden threads through the vivid action.

The Properties of Rooftop Air, by Tim Powers (Subterranean)

“If Charles Dickens had written Killer Klowns,” by Tim Powers doesn’t come close to the weirdness of this dark – dare I say Dickensian – novella. It’s definitely one of the edgier, darker Powers works I’ve read, and the novella length sharpens the focus further. A must-read for Powers fans and lovers of the darkly twisted, although not for the faint of heart and probably not the best gateway drug. If you’re new to Powers, try The Anubis Gates, On Stranger Tides, or Declare before diving into this one.

Adventures of a Dwergish Girl, by Daniel Pinkwater (Tachyon)

Daniel Pinkwater is at his best, most charming and delightful in this tale of a girl from the Dwerg people – you know, the “little men” responsible for Rip Van Winkle sleeping for twenty years? The ones you can never find, no matter how hard you look? The ones who mine gold in the Catskills, can run unbelievably fast, practice domesticity on a level capable of boring any young person to tears? Such is Molly Van Dwerg’s world until she decides to leave home, armed with a couple of Dwergish gold coins and irrepressible self-confidence. Her gift for making friends is rivaled only by her appetite for pizza and papaya juice. When the nearby town of Kingston is menaced by bad guys after the gold and willing to burn down the town to get it, Molly enlists her friends and her wits to save the day.

Charming reading for the entire family.

Short Book Reviews: Two October Daye Adventures (with Selkies)

I've finally caught up on the "October Daye" series by Seanan McGuire. As a special treat, each novel is followed by a novella featuring one of the secondary characters.

Night and Silence, by Seanan McGuire (DAW)

I’ve loved the October Daye series since the beginning, so I’m always up for another adventure. While I highly recommend reading the books from the beginning, McGuire gives you everything you need to enjoy jumping in – or in case it’s been awhile and you’d like a memory refresher. A long time ago, Toby had a daughter with her human boyfriend. That daughter, Gillian, has been raised by her father and stepmother (whose encounters with fae are another story entirely, and not a happy one), is now a college student, and believes Toby abandoned her. Now Gillian’s life is in danger and Toby must not only rescue her but solve a succession of mysteries while convincing her daughter to let her back into her life. It’s just as entertaining and heart-touching as the previous volumes, perhaps more so because of Toby’s intensely personal emotions when it comes to her daughter.

The Unkindest Tide, by Seanan McGuire (DAW)

At the end of Night and Silence, October Daye has managed to save her daughter’s life by convincing the sea witch to give Gillian one of the few precious Selkie skins, thus giving human Gillian immunity to elfshot, a poison fatal to humans but not fae. But the terrible story behind the Selkie skins and the massacre of their original owners, the Roane, is rapidly drawing to a climax. The sea witch, mother to the Roane, has vowed to re-create that race by transforming the Selkies so that they can no longer remove or pass on their enchanted skins to their children. In effect, they will become permanently fae. For this, the sea witch needs Toby’s special blood magic. Gillian’s life depends on the fae protection of her Selkie skin, so she too will lose her humanity in the process, and the mother-daughter relationship between Gillian and Toby is rocky at best. The action moves briskly along as the son of Toby’s friends, heir to another aquatic kingdom, is kidnapped and one of the Selkies turns up dead, her skin missing. More exotic locations and fascinating characters mark this latest chapter. The story, like those before it, is brimming with the warmth and humor of Toby’s personality. Despite the complexity of all that has come before (many volumes of it!) I found no difficulty in immersing myself in this tale, so skillfully does the author handle all the backstory, relationships, and personalities.