#late eclipses

[bookcoversonly]

Title: Late Eclipses | Author: Seanan McGuire | Publisher: DAW (2011)

[dude1818]

Late Eclipses

Decided to go straight into the next October Daye book since I'm kinda on vacation and don't have other things to do. I liked this one more than the previous one, I think; the pacing made more sense. The two unrelated conspiracies against Toby also added a nice layer of misdirection, although that was undercut by the bad guy in this one explicitly taunting Toby the whole time, and the conflict being that no one else believed her. We're currently 4 for 4 on killing the bad guy at the end, and it would be nice to mix that up a little; at least only 3 out of 4 are actual murder mysteries in the first place

One thing that's been bugging me in this series is that I feel like Toby misses a lot of obvious clues. She's been a PI in the fae and mortal worlds for years, and even if the mortal world shot past her while she was a fish, she should still be way more genre-savvy for the fae stuff. For example, I figured that April was the murder weapon while they were still at the first crime scene in the first book, and realized the broad strokes of what Luna did to escape Blind Michael the moment we saw the dead kitsune girl. Maybe the audience is a little primed because we've only seen one member of each of these races so far, but for these examples in particular, they're super rare races in the area anyway! And with all the nonsense riddle shit, I know Toby doesn't like them, but she should at least be resigned to figuring them out to solve the cases, not ignore the hints. One thing at least that was done very cleverly in this book was at the Ball, when Toby got back to her drink and decided not to drink from it after it was unattended, "even though [she] doubted anyone would slip something in it while in Sylvester's domain." Having the stem of the glass itself be poisoned was absolutely brilliant, because the timing makes total sense in hindsight but neither she nor the audience would realize it at the time

As for the reveal about Amandine, I figured she was probably First- or at least Secondborn at some point in the third book. I expected her to secretly be a Firstborn Daoine Sidhe though. (And googling how to spell that just spoiled me on who the real Firstborn Daoine Sidhe was 😔) I didn't realize the way the system worked until the recap at the start of the fourth book mentioned that Acacia was the Firstborn dryad, not a Firstborn dryad. Once I was informed that each Firstborn was the progenitor of their race, then I knew that Amandine was going to be the Firstborn of some heretofore unnamed race that was just her and Toby

[book-quotes-and-moodboards]

From the looks on Garm and Etienne’s faces, she couldn’t have surprised them more by announcing her intention to leave the knighthood and become a professional streetlamp.

Late Eclipses (by Seanan McGuire)

[geraniums-red]

Seanan McGuire - Late Eclipses

Book 4 of the October Daye series

This review is more spoilery than usual, because I can't complain about a villain's motivations without giving away who the villain is, or talk about characters dying without naming the character.

I mostly liked this book. Toby Daye now has friends and allies, but this is balanced by her needing to be in about three places simultaneously, and having made some enemies as well. However, I felt that the ending was weaker, and that spoilt my enjoyment of the book as a whole.

I was sad to see Lily die, or at least transform into another state. Part of me hopes that the transformation means she could come back at some point later in the series, but I suspect it is not that kindly a universe. Perhaps it will feel more real when Toby gets to breathe for long enough to mourn her.

I was disappointed that Rayseline was involved in the plot to kill her mother. I can accept that she was driven mad by being trapped and isolated for most of her childhood, and that she might not have a particular aversion to murder, but her choice of victim feels wrong. If she'd been trying to kill Toby for not rescuing her, or even her dad, that would have made some sense, but the one person who suffered through the same hell as she did seemed like her least likely target.

I am uncertain how I feel about Toby's heritage based power-up. She'll now get fun new magic to play with, but I've never been fond of 'chosen one' type narratives, and I was enjoying the ways she found to do things with the least possible magic use.

An acceptable book. Not my favourite, but skipping it would be a bad idea as events in this book feel like they'll have an impact on the rest of the series.

[living400lbs]

"Okay, my life makes even less sense when you understand it. Whose doesn’t?"

from Late Eclipses by Seanan McGuire

[book-quotes-and-moodboards]

Things have to work out in the end, even if it takes throwing yourself at them until something gives way. Most of the time it’s you, but sometimes, when you get lucky, it’s the world.

Late Eclipses (by Seanan McGuire)

[book-quotes-and-moodboards]

“You take the fun out of everything.”

“That’s me,” I agreed. “Toby Daye, assassin of fun.”

Late Eclipses (by Seanan McGuire)

[quietflorilegium]

"No matter how bad the world gets, you still have to feed the cats."

Seanan McGuire, “Late Eclipses”