Saturday, September 9, 2017

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Brightest Fell (October Daye Book # 11) by Seanan McGuire


The Brightest Fell is the eleventh book in the October Daye series, an urban fantasy series set in San Francisco (and the Fae equivalents).  For those unfamiliar with the series, this is a Fae Fantasy series, following the actions of October "Toby" Daye, private investigator, knight, hero of the realm, and oh yeah, half-human changeling, as she attempts to solve mysteries, missing-persons cases, and other situations that come up that threaten the Fae world.

Like every book in the series, the book starts with Toby narrating events in a way to sneak in a summary of what's happened so far (and this book also comes with a quick intro to the series before the story begins).  So in theory you COULD start with this book....but I would NOT recommend it, as this book's main plot deals with one of the bigger mysteries in the series, and will lose a lot of its impact if you haven't read the prior books.

In addition, this book is almost certainly the darkest book in the series (MAYBE Book 5 comes close, but I don't think it does), and several of the major characters are sidelined by the plot.  So it's not as fun as much of the series.  If you've enjoyed the series previously, you'll really enjoy this book.  But it might be tricky if you start here.

One more thing before the Jump: This book also contains a bonus Novella "Of Things Unknown" which takes place from the perspective of April O'Leary and deals with the events of Book 2.  Since it's included in every version of this book, I'll be including the novella as part of my review.

More after the Jump:



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Things seem to be looking up for Toby.  She's having a bachelorette party with her friends and a diverse selection of some of the most powerful fae in the area, and there's no sign of any crisis that might cause her to be covered in her own blood.

And then her mother, Amandine, firstborn daughter of Oberon, knocks on her door.  Amandine, who has been known for insanity for years, who spent the first few years of Toby's life trying to secretly turn Toby Human.  The last time Amandine had encountered Toby, she had saved Toby's life by restoring her Faerie blood.  So maybe this won't go poorly?

Yeah, not so much - apparently Amandine isn't there out of motherly love, but to demand October find her pureblooded sister, August Torquill, who has gone missing for over 100 years.  And to ensure Toby's complaince, she forces Tybalt and Jazz into their animal forms and kidnaps them.  The only way Toby can possibly find August is to wake up and work alongside her father, Simon Torquill....the man who once ruined her life and turned her into a fish for 14 years.

In the Novella, April O'Leary is told by her surviving mother, that there might be away to restore the people she helped kill in Book 2 to life.  But doing so won't bring back the one person April cares about most, her mother January. And she would sacrifice everything...maybe even everyone...if she could find a way to bring January back.
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As I noted previously, this is the darkest Toby book yet, from start to finish.  A large part of that is that Toby is accompanied throughout this book by only Simon and Quentin, with Tybalt out of the picture.  The result is that we don't have really the heartwarming or amusing dialogue that goes with even the most dangerous situations Toby usually gets into.

That isn't to say this book is BAD.  It's definitely in the upper tier of the series.  We're dealing with one of the major mysteries of the series in "What happened to August?" as well as "What is the purpose of the Dochas Sidhe bloodline?" (well, sort of that last one), which are big mysteries in this series, and the answers are somewhat satisfying.  We also revisit plot threads dangling from books 6, 7, and 8 (and the Novella revisits book 2), and none of it feels cheap.  And some of the interactions between October, Simon, and August are a bit heartbreaking.

The result is an intriguing plot for fans of the series and a story that is dark, but still fits well in the October Daye series.  It's not my favorite book in the series but it's up there.

The Novella included in this book is a perfect compliment because of the tone - the novella has basically no relation to the main story, but ends on a much much lighter note, which will make any fan of the series smile.  It probably ups my grade a full 0.5, which is a lot when I'm already rating a book an 8.  Again, if you haven't read the series before, this novella probably won't do anything for you, and the final result IS predictable, but it's such a heartwarming result that just feels so deserved for these characters, that it's hard to do anything but smile at it.
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