Spoilery Discussion: A Killing Frost and Seanan Mcguire's October Daye Series

This post is for a spoilery discussion of the 14th novel in Seanan McGuire's October Daye series.  If you are interested in the series and want to speculate on what the events of this book mean?  This is for you.  If not, and you still want to read this series, I recommend not reading on beyond the jump.


If you accidentally found this page and want to read the actual spoiler free review of this book, go here.


You have been warned.




Wow, a lot of things happened in this one for the long term plot arc.  Let's start with the major one:  OBERON returns!  And he was Officer Thornton the whole time??!  So the setup for this that is referenced is from Book 11, in which his response to Toby finding him when he gets to the modern world is to quote Tam Lin, which Evening then reminds her of.  I can't seem to find anything hinting at this in his other major appearances - his cameo debut in book 4 (as "Paul") or his major debut in book 6 (as "Officer Thornton"), which only makes it feel more out of thin air - especially as Toby is deliberately trying to avoid looking for Oberon in this novel making it kind of feel like an ass-pull to me that he was conveniently already there in the Luidaeg's apartment in the end.  Hence my complaints in the main review.

But anyhow, Oberon's return brings forth a lot of questions:  Why has he been in the Mists like so many other powerful Fae?  What has he been doing hiding in human form, and why has he acted essentially like a human entirely, right down to being horribly affected by Annwn and Duchess Riordan?  And what is he willing to do now that he's back - can he undo the curse of honesty on the Luidaeg (maybe?), unlock the other planes of Faerie (probably not), or more?  Will he reunite with Janet (Jenny as he calls her) and will he get an invite to attend Toby's wedding, which I'm betting will be next book?  Someone of his power being put back in play is a huge deal, and I really want to know how it's going to change things if at all - or if like I suspect McGuire will find some reason for him to remain in the shadows, not directly exerting his influence just yet....

That said, we get several other mysteries here in this book for us to ponder.  The first new one is about Stacy Brown, who is so anti-dating and whose parental situation is noted as not making sense - as a thin blooded changeling, her parents had to have included at least one changeling, and yet her grandparents hated changelings enough to not want to see Stacy's friends?  Did Toby ever meet these supposed grandparents?  It seems very likely now that her origins aren't quite what they seemed, and that's responsible for the seer talents of Cassandra and Karen.  And that we're not done with this plot thread....

One minor continuity error regarding Cassandra by the way: In Dreams and Slumbers she refers to herself as 23, now in this novel set a year and a half later she refers to herself as 18.  Being 18 makes no sense in context - it would make her a newborn when Toby was turned into a fish, whereas we know she was at least a young child with some memories who could talk ("Aunt Birdie")

Finally, for the second straight novel we get major hints about Marcia being more than what she seems.  I'd previously speculated after last book that she was either Arden's nursemaid Marianne or Maeve in disguise (and honestly, there's no reason she can't have been both), but this book certainly suggests more of the latter: after all, if Oberon can be a random human, it would certainly make more sense for Maeve to be a random thin blooded changeling hiding in plain sight and still watching over Faerie.  And she lies that she ran away from Simon (Quentin notes that she didn't get away) which means she was able to handle magic infused with the power of Eira, which is something that is hard to figure from anyone without at least the power of a Firstborn (and her being a random Firstborn also seems unlikely).  Given how overt the hints are getting the last two books, this feels like it has to be a big reveal, which basically leaves Maeve (or Titania as I saw one person predict, but that would be a very very weird reveal to square with Marcia's personality), and one that has to be unleashed relatively soon.

I think Book 15 is going to be Toby/Tybalt's marriage at last, which obviously bodes big things happening.  Can't wait to how it turns out.  Hopefully as happily as Dianda/Simon/Patrick seems to be, which is just so so damn cute.  Oh and I guess with August's choice here, and the Luidaeg's comment about August teaching Toby, that we're about to see more of August - perhaps as a new resident of the house......