Late Eclipses by Seanan McGuire
Jul. 8th, 2012 01:27 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
Two years ago, October ‘Toby’ Daye believed she could leave the world of Faerie behind. She was wrong. Now she finds herself in the service of Duke Sylvester Torquill, sharing an apartment with her Fetch, and maintaining an odd truce with Tybalt, the local King of Cats. It’s a delicate balance – one that’s shattered when she learns that an old friend is in dire trouble. Lily, Lady of the Tea Gardens, has been struck down by a mysterious, seemingly impossible illness, leaving her fiefdom undefended.
Struggling to find a way to save Lily and her subjects, Toby must confront her own past as an enemy she thought was gone forever raises her head once more: Oleander de Merelands, one of the two people responsible for her fourteen-year exile. But if Oleander’s back, what’s her game? Where is she hiding? And what part does Toby’s mother, Amandine, have to play?
Time is growing short and the stakes are getting higher. For the Queen of the Mists has her own agenda, and there are more players in this game than Toby can guess. With everything on the line, she will have to take the ultimate risk to save herself and the people she loves most – because if she can’t find the missing pieces of the puzzle in time, Toby will be forced to make the one choice she never thought she’d have to face again …
It’s several months after AN ARTIFICIAL NIGHT. Toby now lives with her Fetch, May and despite residual psychological effects from her time with Blind Michael, life is good. But when the Queen of the Mists makes her a Countess, it’s the beginning of a deadly game, one with uncertain rules. Before Toby can figure out her next move, her friend Lily is poisoned and as she grows weaker the Changelings who enjoy her protection grew more vulnerable.
The poisoning is part of a wider plot. Oleander de Merelands has returned to strike at Toby’s friends and allies, leaving Toby’s loyalty to Sylvester in question and her life at the mercy of those who hate her. Unlocking the mystery means looking at her own past and her relationship with her mother, Amandine. The answers will force her to make choices, the result of which will change her world forever …
The fourth in Seanan McGuire’s October Daye Series develops on the overriding arc, but while the character relationships are well handled the mystery element remains weak and the villains easy to guess.
The big weakness remains with the mystery. Toby doesn’t investigate – she charges from one scene to the next, constantly reacting rather than planning. Although she’s called on this, it doesn’t make it any less frustrating. I was also irritated by her self-identification as a hero. While she does do things no one else will, it’s a self-aggrandizing rather than a tragic label and one that’s undermined by the fact that Toby petulantly mouths off at authority figures.
McGuire portrays friendships well, especially Toby’s friendship with May and although I missed the Luidaeg, the Lily storyline carries real emotional punch. Unfortunately both Raysel and the Queen of the Mists are two-dimensional at best and the love-triangle with Connor and Tybalt bored me because it’s so obviously skewered in Tybalt’s direction. The best scene is one where Toby discovers the truth about her heritage and decides to take responsibility for other Changelings, which offers great potential for the future books and it was good to see characters and plot points from the earlier books coming into play here.
The fact that the plot doesn’t grab me and that Toby is too reactive is a big issue for me. While I liked the way McGuire builds on elements from the previous books, I’m not sure that I’m going to read on.
The Verdict:
The fourth in Seanan McGuire’s October Daye Series develops on the overriding arc, but while the character relationships are well handled the mystery element remains weak and the villains easy to guess. It’s an okay read and there are things I enjoyed but it isn’t enough to make me desperate to read the rest of the series.
Two years ago, October ‘Toby’ Daye believed she could leave the world of Faerie behind. She was wrong. Now she finds herself in the service of Duke Sylvester Torquill, sharing an apartment with her Fetch, and maintaining an odd truce with Tybalt, the local King of Cats. It’s a delicate balance – one that’s shattered when she learns that an old friend is in dire trouble. Lily, Lady of the Tea Gardens, has been struck down by a mysterious, seemingly impossible illness, leaving her fiefdom undefended.
Struggling to find a way to save Lily and her subjects, Toby must confront her own past as an enemy she thought was gone forever raises her head once more: Oleander de Merelands, one of the two people responsible for her fourteen-year exile. But if Oleander’s back, what’s her game? Where is she hiding? And what part does Toby’s mother, Amandine, have to play?
Time is growing short and the stakes are getting higher. For the Queen of the Mists has her own agenda, and there are more players in this game than Toby can guess. With everything on the line, she will have to take the ultimate risk to save herself and the people she loves most – because if she can’t find the missing pieces of the puzzle in time, Toby will be forced to make the one choice she never thought she’d have to face again …
It’s several months after AN ARTIFICIAL NIGHT. Toby now lives with her Fetch, May and despite residual psychological effects from her time with Blind Michael, life is good. But when the Queen of the Mists makes her a Countess, it’s the beginning of a deadly game, one with uncertain rules. Before Toby can figure out her next move, her friend Lily is poisoned and as she grows weaker the Changelings who enjoy her protection grew more vulnerable.
The poisoning is part of a wider plot. Oleander de Merelands has returned to strike at Toby’s friends and allies, leaving Toby’s loyalty to Sylvester in question and her life at the mercy of those who hate her. Unlocking the mystery means looking at her own past and her relationship with her mother, Amandine. The answers will force her to make choices, the result of which will change her world forever …
The fourth in Seanan McGuire’s October Daye Series develops on the overriding arc, but while the character relationships are well handled the mystery element remains weak and the villains easy to guess.
The big weakness remains with the mystery. Toby doesn’t investigate – she charges from one scene to the next, constantly reacting rather than planning. Although she’s called on this, it doesn’t make it any less frustrating. I was also irritated by her self-identification as a hero. While she does do things no one else will, it’s a self-aggrandizing rather than a tragic label and one that’s undermined by the fact that Toby petulantly mouths off at authority figures.
McGuire portrays friendships well, especially Toby’s friendship with May and although I missed the Luidaeg, the Lily storyline carries real emotional punch. Unfortunately both Raysel and the Queen of the Mists are two-dimensional at best and the love-triangle with Connor and Tybalt bored me because it’s so obviously skewered in Tybalt’s direction. The best scene is one where Toby discovers the truth about her heritage and decides to take responsibility for other Changelings, which offers great potential for the future books and it was good to see characters and plot points from the earlier books coming into play here.
The fact that the plot doesn’t grab me and that Toby is too reactive is a big issue for me. While I liked the way McGuire builds on elements from the previous books, I’m not sure that I’m going to read on.
The Verdict:
The fourth in Seanan McGuire’s October Daye Series develops on the overriding arc, but while the character relationships are well handled the mystery element remains weak and the villains easy to guess. It’s an okay read and there are things I enjoyed but it isn’t enough to make me desperate to read the rest of the series.
