Category: Toby Daye

Full of Briars by Seanan McGuire

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On August 3, 2016

In Fiction, K-O, Seanan McGuire, Toby Daye

Full of BriarsFull of Briars

by Seanan McGuire
Series: Toby Daye, #9.3 (but it takes place before The Winter Long)

Kindle Edition, 44 pg.
DAW, 2016

Read: August 8, 2016


I’m pretty torn about this one, to tell you the truth. Toby’s squire, Quentin, is our narrator this time out — and it’s worth reading just to see Toby, May, and Tybalt from his perspective. His parents have come to make everything official with the new Queen of the Mists — and while they’re around, they might as well check in on him and maybe bring him home.

There’s no action, no violence, Toby doesn’t come close to dying — it was so weird. There was a lot of talking — which was fun. Toby was Toby, being irreverent and nigh-disrespectful to Quentin’s parents, as she argued for them to leave him where he is. Tybalt was more Tybalt-y than usual, making sure that Quentin’s folks knew how little he cared about their status. Quentin’s growth as a character, as a person — his maturation, thanks to age and his service to Toby — is what’s on display here.

It was fun to read, and I wouldn’t discourage anyone from it — but I’m not sure it added a lot to my understanding of Toby or anyone else (including the central character). This is the first non-full length story I’ve read in this universe, and it doesn’t really make me think about trying another one. Still, it was entertaining enough — and had one killer line (and a few that were really good) — so I might.

—–

3 Stars

A Red-Rose Chain by Seanan McGuire

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On September 10, 2015

In Authors, Fiction, K-O, Seanan McGuire, Toby Daye

A Red-Rose ChainA Red-Rose Chain

by Seanan McGuire
Series: Toby Daye, #9

Mass Market Paperback, 358 pg.
DAW, 2015
Read: September 2 – 3, 2015

“Wow. Your ego has grown since we’ve known each other, hasn’t it?”

“Ah, but, you see, I have wooed and won the woman of my dreams. Admittedly, some of those dreams would be more properly termed ‘nightmares,’ but I don’t believe we get to be that picky when talking about such things . . . If my ego had not grown, it would surely be a sign that I was no true cat, and you would leave me for another.”

And that, folks, is why half of McGuire’s readers want to be Tybalt and the other have want to have a Tybalt in their lives. A Red-Rose Chain is chock-full of these kind of moments sprinkled between espionage, intrigue and peril.

Queen Windermere is still trying to figure out the whole Queen of the Mists thing, getting her howe and her kingdom running the way they should, and what not when a message is delivered: the Kingdom of Silences has declared war and in three days will begin attacking. King Rhys of Silences (which is in Portland, OR) was put on his throne by the bogus Queen of the Mists that Windermere recently overthrew, and he seems to be getting nervous about his position.

Who else would Windermere appoint as her ambassador to negotiate peace in the three days than Toby? Pretty much anyone in her kingdom. Which seems to be the conventional wisdom — and Toby agrees — but for her own reasons (some of which Toby eventually guesses) the Queen insists. She also doesn’t have a lot of options (see previous paragraph). So Toby and her fiance head off to stop a war instead of instigating one — and they take along Quentin, May, and Walther (the alchemist/Chemistry professor) to lend a helping hand.

Now, he’s no Blind Michael, but Rhys is one of the more despicable people in this series so far. And while he observes all the necessary formalities and whatnot, it’s pretty clear that his heart isn’t ion the whole negotiating thing, and he’s just biding his time until he can attack. The last time these two kingdoms battled was a century or so earlier, and while they prevailed, it didn’t go well for the Kingdom of the Mists — this time, it’s sure to be worse. A perception strengthened once we see how Shadows treats a diplomatic party. So Toby can’t fail.

Toby’s got her friends with her, but in many ways, she’s more on her own that usual — she doesn’t have all the resources to call upon in Portland that she does in SF, but she makes the most out of what she has. At the end of the day, it’s Toby’s series and she’s the one that carries the weight of the plot and the weight of the weight of the mission on her shoulders. McGuire pushes her in ways that she hasn’t been pushed before. I wasn’t thrilled with a couple of the moves McGuire made in the final couple of chapters — not bad writing/plotting, I just didn’t like what Toby had to go through. She prevails, naturally — though, not unscathed, but through grit, determination and the loyalty she commands (and returns) from her allies.

As a small break from the diplomatic tension, we spend a little time with Tybalt’s Portland counterpart. The two are very different from each other, (which is nice to see the variations in personality), but clearly have a a good deal of respect for each other. There’s an interesting shared past for either of them that we’re teased with, too. Would’ve been nice to get more, maybe one day. For the present, it’s nice just to get a little bit more of Tybalt’s pre-Toby history.

Looking ahead to #10 and beyond, I’m a little worried that things are going too well for Toby — particularly where Tybalt is involved. Will McGuire let her be that happy for long? At all?

That’s a worry for another day, for now, I’m going to say that this is one of my favorite reads of the year and leave it at that.

—–

4 1/2 Stars

Review Catch-Up: Hidden by Benedict Jacka; The Winter Long by Seanan McGuire

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On August 10, 2015

In Alex Verus, Authors, Benedict Jacka, F-J, Fiction, K-O, Seanan McGuire, Toby Daye, Urban Fantasy

These have been nagging at me for eleven months now. No, I have no explanation for why it took me so long, but I’m glad I took a lot of notes on both. I’m going to get this posted before I start the next Jacka novel (which should be happening today). While I’m at it, the next Toby Day is a couple of weeks away.

Anyway, overdue mini-looks at a couple of the best Urban Fantasies I read in 2014:

HiddenHidden

by Benedict Jacka
Series: Alex Verus, #5


Mass Market Paperback, 293 pg.
Ace, 2014
Read: September 26 – 30, 2014
. . . man, I have really missed Alex. Everyone’s favorite diviner has really come a long way, lately — shedding the near lone-wolf thing, and is now looking after a passel of magic rookies. Whether they want him to or not.

Anne Walker is definitely in the “or not” category. She’s done all she can to stay away from Alex — but she probably didn’t mean to include being kidnapped as one of those ways. Alex goes to some pretty dark places to help someone who doesn’t want it.

At the same time, Alex (via the Council) is feeling some pressure for the events of the last book. They’re also pressuring him to do some official work for them. Plus the rumors are getting more and more intense that his mentor, Richard, is back. If that’s true, no one is going to be happy. Naturally, everyone thinks that Alex knows what Richard is up to. And every time he says he doesn’t, he convinces them that he does.

So yeah, Alex has his hands full.

I think it was Chekhov who said that if a magic user grabs a focus in the opening chapters, that by the end of the book . . . Anyway, that was a nice use of it.

Not that Alex has had an easy life over the last couple books (or we wouldn’t be reading them) but the one big take away from Hidden is that it’s going to get a lot worse for our friend (I swear I hadn’t read that note when I wrote about Veiled over the weekend). There are other take aways, mostly happier, but I’ll leave that to you to find.

A wholly satisfying read. Get to know Alex Verus.

4 Stars

The Winter LongThe Winter Long

by Seanan McGuire
Series: Toby Daye, #8


Mass Market Paperback, 358 pg.
DAW, 2014
Read: September 13 – 16, 2014

I don’t like parties. Someone always tries to assassinate someone I actually like, and there are never enough of those little stuffed mushroom caps.

A book starts off with a line like that? You’re going to have fun.

Thankfully, one’s appreciation of a book doesn’t depend on how the protagonist acts. When I was on page 46, I wrote , “Granted, this is early, but Toby’s being stupid, foolishly so. She’s not paying attention to anything said during the fight she just had — actually, technically didn’t really have. Instead, she’s reacting to something that happened to a friend, and acting out of fear, prejudice and alarm. That disappoints me. Her saying, ‘that smile, brief as it had been, was all I could have asked for. A smiling Tybalt was a Tybalt who was still capable of stepping back and looking at the situation rationally. I loved him, but even I could find him frightening when he was fixated on vengeance.’ Man, choke me on the irony, McGuire.”

There’s just go much about this novel that I can’t describe without spoiling it. Let me limit myself to a couple of more notes: Toby lost a lot of blood on this one — I mean like The Bride in the Showdown at the House of Blue Leaves kind of a lot. It’s a good thing she has a healing factor to make Logan jealous. While she’s bleeding she’s having her world rocked.

McGuire takes a lot of what Toby’s “known” since we met her (all of which is what we’ve “known,” too) and turns it upside down and shakes the truth out. Every other book in the series has been affected by these revelations — in one fell swoop, she re-wrote previous 7 books — which is just so cool. It’s not that we’ve (we= readers and Toby) been wrong, our understanding is just . . . askew. There’s also some nice warm fuzzies in this book, which isn’t that typical for the series. McGuire’s outdone herself.
5 Stars

Dusted Off: Ashes of Honor by Seanan McGuire

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On July 7, 2014

In Authors, Fiction, Seanan McGuire, Toby Daye

Ashes of Honor (October Daye, #6)Ashes of Honor

by Seanan McGuire
Series: Toby Daye, #6


Mass Market Paperback, 353 pg.
DAW, 2012
Read: September 5 – 6, 2012

Best.Toby Daye.Ever.

Sure, that just means it’s the best since the last one (which was the best since the one before…and so on). But still, wow. Really wow. This series has entered the terrain of Harry Dresden or Mercy Thompson–why bother writing a proper review? The reader knows it’s going to be good, the only question is, how good is this entry–really good or just great?

Action, intrigue, splash of humor, character development, romance…this one has everything. We get more of some old friends we haven’t seen in awhile, some characters who were in danger of over-use get scaled back…

couldn’t ask for more from this one.

—–

4 1/2 Stars

Chimes at Midnight by Seanan McGuire

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On September 18, 2013

In Fiction, Seanan McGuire, Toby Daye

Chimes at Midnight
Chimes at Midnight by Seanan McGuire
Series: Toby Daye, #7

My rating: 4.75 of 5 stars

Seanan McGuire is a writing monster — she’s pumping books out like crazy — she’s got the Toby Daye books, the InCryptid books, the Indexing serial, other short fiction — plus the stuff she puts out under the name Mira Grant. And they’re all really good (well, I assume the Grant ones are — not my taste — but based on reviews/awards, etc. they’re just as good). It’s really not fair. But I’m not complaining. As much as I’m enjoying Indexing and the InCryptid books are just plain fun, neither are in the same league as the Toby Daye books — and somehow, I forget just how good that series is between novels. I’ve been hooked since, maybe Chapter 3 of Rosemary and Rue and the addiction just grows each time.

Chimes starts off with Toby looking into the Goblin Fruit trade, seeing what she can do about it. It turns out that the situation is worse than she thought it was, and so she decides she needs to take it to the Queen. Which makes sense, unless you think about how well things go between those two, but Toby does her duty — and things go from bad to horrible (skipping right over “worse”) in a New York minute.

The series grows by a few new characters, most of whom I fully expect to see returning often, if not in every book from now on — all interesting, powerful, and I want to know more about. The stakes are higher than normal here, which is saying something, because they’re usually pretty high — and the long-term ramifications of the possible (and actual) plot developments are significant. You can feel the significance of the choices Toby’s making on almost every page, she’s pushed to new limits and deals with them in her own inimitable way.

A couple of highlights for me: I swear at one point at the end of Chapter 5, Toby channels Leverage‘s Nathan Ford, which was a lot of fun to read, and says a lot about the improbability of what Toby’s trying to pull off. Also, we’re introduced to a new Sidhe — the Cu Sidhe (the canine equivalent of Tybalt’s Cait Sidhe) — and it might be my favorite thing ever that Maguire’s created. Sure, I’m a sucker for well written dog characters, and the way she introduces and uses this particular character? Magic.

The only quibble I have here is how quickly things are resolved — to get the ending that we do, I’d expect another 70+ pages of action, maybe even another book before we get to the conclusion we have here. I don’t want to say that McGuire rushes or hurries through things here, because I see (I think) how and why she did what she did. It just seems to be that it’d have been better to spend more time on it. Then again, considering the tension I felt during the last 100 pages or so, maybe it’s better that things went they way they did.

McGuire calls this this start of the second stage of Toby’s adventures, and in retrospect, I can see an element of closure in Ashes of Honor. Based on the shake up in royalty, the deals Toby has to make to get things done and save those she cares about, and the revelations about one particular character — there’s plenty of fodder for a great second stage, even without whatever new ideas she has in store.

I cannot wait.

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