Wednesday, August 17, 2022

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Be the Serpent by Seanan McGuire

 




 Full Disclosure:  This book was read as an e-ARC (Advance Reader Copy) obtained via Netgalley from the publisher in advance of the book's release on September 6, 2022 in exchange for a potential review.  I give my word that this did not affect my review in any way - if I felt conflicted in any way, I would simply have declined to review the book.

Be the Serpent is the sixteenth book in Seanan McGuire's October Daye series of urban fantasy novels, one of my favorite continuing series that I currently read.  As you might expect from the sixteen book in a series, you can't really start the series here, even as this is the beginning of a new act in this Fae Fantasy series: with the fifteenth book finally featuring October "Toby" Daye getting married and getting a pretty seemingly happy ending.  But well, if you've read this series for a while, and you know Seanan McGuire, you should know that such happy endings (see Book 6, Ashes of Honor, Book 10, Once Broken Faith, etc.) never last too long, as McGuire follows them up by putting Toby through more traumatic experiences than ever before....although those novels tend to be thrilling and strong so you never really feel too hoodwinked about having the rug pulled out of you.  

And man is Be the Serpent no exception, with McGuire taking the happiest ending Toby has ever had and forcing her to deal with the greatest tragedy yet.  The story honestly begins in a bit of a frustrating fashion for the first third - not because it's bad or slow or anything, but because a lot of the drama relies upon a mystery that invested readers of the series (of which should be most of the readers at this point) will have guessed the answer to already, so it feels like it takes a bit too long for Toby to catch up.  Once she does however, this novel becomes incredibly dark, strong and thrilling, and concludes with an ending that is just breathtaking and will leave you desperate for the next novel to see how things shake out - as for the first time I can remember in the series, this book ends with a genuine cliffhanger, and it's one that will leave you gasping.  

Note: This post will contain spoilers for Books 1-15 only.  Spoilery discussion of THIS book and speculation about the future of the series, will go in a separate post that will be posted after this book is released - which can be found here.

----------------------------------------------------Plot Summary-------------------------------------------------------
October Daye's life has never been better.  She has a loving found family, an actual husband - both in the eyes of Faerie and in the eyes of humanity - and has a firm place in Faerie, one in which she can even travel to a neighboring kingdom and enjoy a Honeymoon (at Disney no less!)...even if that involved a bit more political maneuvering than she'd like.  And even if it's soon to be the anniversary of her worst moment - her transformation into a fish - and the incredibly awkward moment where she has to testify at Raysel's trial (and fulfill one last promise), well it's hard to see what could ruin it all.  

But when Cassandra and Karen Brown - two girls who Toby might as well as be an Aunt to....and two girls who strangely happen to be Seers - get a terrifying vision all at once, it seems that Toby's worst nightmare is yet to come.  For the time has come for an old friend of hers to reveal that she is not who she seems, and soon Toby and her friends will be up against a force that once bent Faerie to her will....and tried to slaughter all the beings that she deemed unworthy, beings like Toby and so many of her friends.  

This time around, not even the powers of Toby's Firstborn ally, the Sea Wtich, might be enough...and the costs of failure will be blood....and the costs of success may be just as high.....
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So invested readers of the October Daye series have almost certainly noticed two characters whom the narrative has given hints about as being more than they've seen - I'm not going to name them in this review to stay non-spoilery, but well we're 16 books in, and so I expect that a lot of people following this series, if not most, are invested enough to have put those clues together.  And so when the publisher's plot preview suggests that an old ally will turn out to be an enemy, most readers will figure it's going to be one of those two characters...and the plot will reveal which one of the two really quickly (in fact, that other character isn't even in the book). 

Thus the reader will catch on to some of what is going on much earlier than Toby does, which was a bit frustrating to this reader, who kept waiting for Toby to get a clue (admittedly, there's good reason why it takes her long enough to figure it out, but that doesn't make it any less frustrating).  Don't get me wrong, this book is still compelling and a ride while Toby is trying to figure things out that the reader has long since understood, so it's not like the book drags, but well....I don't do well with reveals that are obvious and yet made to be big things by a narrative, and this is definitely one here.  

Yet once that reveal is out of the way (about 40% of the way through), this book picks up into a tremendous ride, as Toby is forced to deal with a nightmare stemming from the origins of Faerie - origins that have previously only been hinted at and are now partially revealed here.  This is a dark dark book as a result, where at least one character permanently dies on the good side, and the antagonist's powers are so strong that Toby can only hope to temporarily contain her - and not even as far they managed to do with Eira (kept sleeping under Elf Shot seemingly still).  And after a book that ended with happiness and triumph, this one is instead filled with absolute heartbreak, as Toby is forced to make choices without good outcomes, ones which will make every reader who cares about the characters just hurt in sympathy. 

And oh my god that ending.  Good lord that ending.  Never before has this series had a true cliffhanger ending honestly (the closest is book 11), and this is one goddamn dark cliffhanger ending.  It will send chills down your spine, and make you NEED book 17 immediately, because you will need to know how things can turn out alright ever again.  And with McGuire - they might not.  (This isn't helped by the included novella featuring a tale of the distant past which is similarly heartbreaking). 

This series remains a tour de force, and this is easily the most gamechanging book since book 8 (The Winter Long), which was the first book with absolutely stunning revelations, and well...8 books later, here we go again.  I can't wait to see how this takes us going forward.  Ugh, but I do have to wait another year I guess.   

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