Late Eclipses

Warning: minor spoilers for previous October Daye novels.

Half-human, half-fae private investigator Toby Daye can’t catch a break. She has just come to terms with the existence of her Fetch, the physical manifestation of her impending death, when everything changes on her once again. Her dear friend Lily, the Undine who rules over the Tea Gardens, is sick, and no one seems to know why. Then more of Toby’s loved ones start falling ill – and someone seems to be trying to blame it on her. With the help of her loyal friends and allies, Toby sets out to catch whoever’s behind the illnesses, only to discover a shocking secret about her own identity.

I’ve been enjoying this series since the beginning, but this book is definitely my show more favorite in the series so far. There are a lot of big changes for Toby in the book, and I liked that some of the mysteries in her past are starting to become clear. I also enjoyed seeing the development of her personal relationships (and, yes, I am completely rooting for Tybalt), as well as her growth as she confronts new challenges. Toby’s wry, self-deprecating voice is fun to read, especially during moments where the emotional stakes are high. While I was able to believe in the seriousness of those moments, the humorous one-liners kept things from getting too heavy. If you’ve been enjoying this series so far, or if you’re undecided about whether to continue, I definitely recommend picking up this installment! I’ll also be checking out book five when comes out in September. show less

McGuire doesn't fail to delight, and I fall a little more in love with Toby Daye in each volume of this series.

I read this entire book on a plane flight from Ohio to Texas, and found myself annoyed when I had to put it down now and then for things like landing and layovers. I feel like I'm repeating myself in my praise here, but I don't know what else to say: McGuire draws lovely, complex, fascinating characters and places them in a fantastic world that gives me chills and makes me daydream.

The plot here is ridiculously simple: Fey who should not be able to die are dying of diseases no one can place. Friends and enemies are unclear, and it turns out that if Toby doesn't solve the problem soon, she's not going to survive to solve many show more more.

It's a testament to McGuire's wonderful skills as a serial writer that a plot so simple and in some ways so mundane can be so terribly captivating. The story itself doesn't quite live up to the intensely creepy An Artificial Night, but it is solid and fun and had me worried more than once. More importantly, characters and relationships grow in this volume, several long-term mysteries are kicked up a serious notch, a few tantalizing secrets are revealed, and I turned the last page still wanting more, more, more.

It's a good thing she writes so quickly. show less

So I leapt directly into this one after finishing three, which felt like a game changer... turns out that it was, but that this one made those changed games feel like appetizers for an epic game-changing main course, which is THIS one. The things Toby did in the prior books lead directly to this one, and the stakes were never higher or more personal. One really feels like McGuire has been playing a long game and it’s paying off. And even after finishing this one I feel like there is so much more ahead. I cannot wait to get there.

If all of the fae are some flavor of "crazy", then it's not really crazy, is it? Especially when they can shake off "crazy" when the plot is needful? I mean, Amandine doesn't strike me as someone who is one banana short of a bunch, she's just playing a game where no one else knows the rules, or even what game is being played. But that's true of basically everyone above Toby's pay grade. Amandine, the Queen of the Mists, the Luidaeg, Rayseline, even Sylvester. Rayseline is maybe the only one I would actually call mad, but it's more like her moral compass points to BAD. So maybe let's stop using crazy as shorthand for "I don't understand"?

I enjoyed the story a lot but I would really like to see Toby not require rescue by all and sundry show more because she rushes headlong into danger. You have to read these with an absolute belief that Toby is the only one who can help, otherwise they make no freaking sense at all. (Why do people keep asking her for help when it always seems to end with her half-dead? There must be other people with, I dunno, weapons training and no death wish who could help out.) show less

October Daye reminds me of that friend whom I liked a great deal, but who was a disaster waiting to happen. Make a shopping date, and she'd show up 45 minutes late and then discover she lost her credit card at the first store. We'd have some commotion looking for it, involve two or three innocent bystanders, run back and search the car, call home and convince someone to search her house until they found it, and then after much quibbling, she'd agree to borrow some money so we could go ahead and complete our mission. The good news is that October has improved quite a bit in this book and will not only actually allow friends to help, but she'll probably cut the twenty minutes of pointless arguing down to five.

What I found enjoyable in show more Late Eclipses is some interesting plotting, some long-awaited character development in October, and as always, various fae legends come to life. While she has seemed to believe that self-sacrifice is the most important part of problem solving, this time she's actively involving others in seeking solutions. There's also an twist involving October's heritage that is quite a surprise for her--although perhaps less so for the rest of the fae and for the series reader--and provides a number of avenues for further story development.

Still, McGuire's writing remains troubled by inconsistencies and repetition. Inconsistencies like Toby telling Tybalt "you might want to let go of me before I'm compelled to break your fingers" about ten minutes after she's mused on how good he looks in suede and leather, followed by a gentle but politically motivated kiss. Inconsistencies like stating Oleander is the biggest nightmare known to Lord Sylvester's court, but that she's probably just a legend to most fae. Character inconsistencies like Etienne believing October saw Oleander after the ball, but then tried to attack her because she fled "the Queen's justice," which was understood to be a death sentence. Then there's the repetition: if I've read don't say "thank you" to the fae, I've read it twenty times, and in this book, we add in "don't talk about fae deaths to the purebloods."

October is still a bit of a dope and could certainly use a cell phone instead of charging back and forth across San Francisco and Faerie. Physical movement often takes the place of actual plot points, but at least in this book, her willingness to involve the group means we have greater opportunity to interact with Danny the taxi-driving troll and May the doppelganger as we go. I could pass on the developing love-triangle (Team Tybalt! Team Connor!) but at the moment it isn't overpowering the story.

Overall, a number of improvements in character that keep the series readable. The fae world is as always, creative and fascinating, so I'm sure I'll be looking for the next book.

Three and a half stars.

Cross posted at http://clsiewert.wordpress.com/2013/06/01/late-eclipses-by-seanan-mcguire-more-l... show less

Grudging four stars here. This book, LATE ECLIPSES, and the next in the series were more or less dropped in my lap and even though LATE ECLIPSES had the same roster of pluses and negatives that all the October Daye books do for me, it was still better than most of the other options available at the moment, and I'll pick up the next one soon. My rule with stars is three for a book that's fine but I don't want to read more from the author and four if I do. Since the answer is yes, four.

I was on board with this one until the final third of the book, when I got a little antsy and bored as the climax rolled near. Now that I know that McGuire & Mira Grant are one and the same I keep looking for similarities in the style & they're show more surprisingly plentiful. Really, Toby and George are different versions of the same character. And both of them do a fair bit of grandstanding, but I like it in the Newsflesh series and feel impatient with the October books. Little things, like, there's a scene where Toby makes a big fuss about who's going to accompany her on a dangerous mission - Tybalt or Connor. And then the choice she makes turns out to be completely irrelevant and, personally, I felt let down. I wanted the payoff.

I also get super irritated by the theme of heroism in the October books. It's so similar to the themes of journalistic integrity and moral justice that thread through the Newsflesh books, which I love. But here, whenever October includes the word "hero" in her inner monologue, I roll my eyes.

Anyway. LATE ECLIPSES marks a major turning point for the series. If you think about it, the changes were inevitable. It's a universal law of urban fantasy series that the bad guys have to escalate in power from book to book, and Toby barely stood a chance against Blind Michael. Trying to tackle anyone more powerful than him would be sheer suicide, and, let's be honest, poor October Daye spends a healthy percentage of her books injured and incapacitated as it is. So instead McGuire goes back to the fundamentals of who October is and changes it up. The results are pretty interesting.

Fans of the series are sure to enjoy it. Disgruntled fence-straddlers like me won't be won over, but I was glad to be reading a book that had solid writing, worldbuilding, plotting, and snark after suffering through a few duds. Anyone unfamiliar with the series should start with book one. show less

I finished this book in record time, also thanks to a rainy and cold Sunday, but I probably would have kept at it even if the sun had been shining.

This time the threats Toby must face don't just concern people she cares about, but are part of an intricate plot to hurt her: there is a heavy sense of impending doom (or rather, heavier than in previous novels) as Toby must suffer loss upon loss and become more isolated and helpless until the conspirators are able to strike the final blow.

Once more, as already happened in An Artificial Night, she is more than ready to sacrifice her life in order to avoid further harm to others: there is this almost-suicidal quality to her actions that clashes with her undeniable will to survive and the way show more she fights against foes and obstacles. This dichotomy makes me wonder if it's just a psychological trait or if it's something that goes hand in hand with her changeling (i.e. hybrid) nature. Whatever the reason, it makes for a fascinating character that grows with each new installment, to become more complex and layered.

Contrasting impulses also dominate her emotional attachments, where Toby's yearning for an old flame is at war with a new (and IMHO much more interesting) attraction that plays in a complicated dance that's nothing short of fascinating.

Together with the character-building there is an equally strong world-building that's firmly based in myth and fairy tales intersecting more or less seamlessly with our mundane world: the point of view of these creatures on our modern society offers many opportunities for intelligent humor that in its turn balances quite well the darker overtones of the stories.

For someone who has always been wary of serialized books, I have to admit that I've become an October Daye addict. And no, it's not a complaint.... show less