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3.67 AVERAGE
3.67 AVERAGE
3.5 stars
Bumping this up half a star for this reread. So many things make more sense to me now. It's almost jarring to see how isolated Toby was in this first book. Tybalt and the Luidaeg are just as intriguing as ever, meanwhile Connor is even more insufferable than he was the first time through. He really is such a boy, and a bland one at that, that I have a hard time understanding what Toby ever sees in him.
Bumping this up half a star for this reread. So many things make more sense to me now. It's almost jarring to see how isolated Toby was in this first book. Tybalt and the Luidaeg are just as intriguing as ever, meanwhile Connor is even more insufferable than he was the first time through. He really is such a boy, and a bland one at that, that I have a hard time understanding what Toby ever sees in him.
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Curious to read the next and see what Tybalt does. Toby is interesting, but is the implication that she’s clueless or very depressed and that’s why she thinks everyone in her life is disappointed and will hold up that disappointment if she goes to see them?
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Pleasantly surprised.
Urban fantasy was a favourite genre for me in my teens, and probably still is to this day, but faerie urban fantasy has never been my thing. I started this book with little knowledge of what it was about and sort of groaned when I realised it was a 'faerie' book. I never feel they really 'get' faeries in urban fantasy, most of the time to me it just reads as slightly silly, but this series might have changed that for me.
In truth this series is like many other urban fantasy series out there. It's got it's kick ass, wise cracking heroine who is supposedly weak but ends up slightly mary-sueing her way up the food chain, the pre-requisite love interests, and the standard PI/detective murder plot.
Does it stand out a great deal? Maybe not, but it held my interest a lot more than I expected it to. If I could compare it to anything else it would possibly be the Kate Daniels series, in that the world is slightly more fantastical than most others, rose bush cat goblin, i'm talking to you.
It also takes time with it's characters so at one point at the end when you know something is about to happen, you don't want it to happen...
Overall, I'll definitely check out the rest of the series and see if it starts a craving for anything else fae related.
Urban fantasy was a favourite genre for me in my teens, and probably still is to this day, but faerie urban fantasy has never been my thing. I started this book with little knowledge of what it was about and sort of groaned when I realised it was a 'faerie' book. I never feel they really 'get' faeries in urban fantasy, most of the time to me it just reads as slightly silly, but this series might have changed that for me.
In truth this series is like many other urban fantasy series out there. It's got it's kick ass, wise cracking heroine who is supposedly weak but ends up slightly mary-sueing her way up the food chain, the pre-requisite love interests, and the standard PI/detective murder plot.
Does it stand out a great deal? Maybe not, but it held my interest a lot more than I expected it to. If I could compare it to anything else it would possibly be the Kate Daniels series, in that the world is slightly more fantastical than most others, rose bush cat goblin, i'm talking to you.
It also takes time with it's characters so at one point at the end when you know something is about to happen, you don't want it to happen...
Overall, I'll definitely check out the rest of the series and see if it starts a craving for anything else fae related.
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Mivel egy urban fantasy sorozat első darabjáról van szó, elkerülhetetlen a rengeteg információ, amivel a szerző bemutatja a világot és McGuire nem fukarkodik a tündér mitológiából szinte minden és mindenki feltűnik Oberontól a tengeri boszorkányokig. De a világ felépítése izgalmas és rengeteg lehetőség van benne, nem csoda, hogy már a 9. résznél tart a sorozat.
Részletek: http://olvasonaplo.net/olvasonaplo/2016/04/12/seanan-mcguire-rosemary-rue/
Részletek: http://olvasonaplo.net/olvasonaplo/2016/04/12/seanan-mcguire-rosemary-rue/
I loved the storyline. Loved the world. But I listened to the audiobook and just couldn’t enjoy the narrator. I think the rest of this series is going to be physical copies for me. But October’s world fascinated me and I can’t wait to return.
At first I thought that this book should be made into a TV series. It is a solid urban fantasy with quirky characters and interesting mythology. By the end it went with a little drama but I liked it quite a bit.
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
We are placed in a time of October Daye's--and yes, that is her real name--life where one part of it is closing and another is beginning. The book begins with her trying to track down the whereabouts of her liege-lord's wife and daughter. Toby is a changeling, and we hear constant reiterations of the fact that changelings are not nearly as powerful as full blooded fae, which gets somewhat tiring. She is also knight to a fae lord, has a human fiance and child, and is pretty good with her life, beyond the entire kidnapping scenario she's in. Then the shit hits the fan, she gets for fourteen years, and her life afterward is not the same.
Her fiance and daughter won't speak to her (and this is a part that rather irritates me), she doesn't want anything to do with the fae, but an old friend of hers, Countess Evening Winterrose, asks for her help. Evening binds Toby with a curse to find her killers (just before she is killed), and a task to figure out what happened, and Toby is sent on this harrowing adventure.
The book read fairly well. The pacing was decent, and I'm a large sucker for the fae, which worked in the book's favor. There were, however, several things that niggled at me and made the book fall somewhat flat. For instance, Cliff (her ex-fiance) and Gilly (her daughter) won't talk to Toby even after she comes back from what they presumed to be her death. You would think that they would at least try to hear her out and her story after being gone for fourteen years, but instead you have Cliff hanging up on Toby. Nice.
Then you have Devin, who I am ambivalent about at most. When Toby first begins to talk about him, the way she remembered him and the entire build up made it seem like, while not a horrible person, he was fairly close. Then we meet him and it turns out that no, he is actually somewhat an all right guy, and it's whip lash. It eventually settles on there always being a price to pay with him, and how it might not be worth it in the long run or--something. I didn't like him at all.
Then there was the events that led up to this entire mess in the first place. Toby knew who were the people who made her life fall apart and what does she do about it? Nothing. She doesn't even talk to her liege-lord about it, somehow it all slips into the background and the reader is sort of left puttering around and going, "Is that it? Really now?"
When the action starts it really starts, but the book was somewhat slow before that, with lots of information being dumped on the reader. Not much seems to happen and the suddenly it call falls down on Toby all at once. She gets hurt. Then she gets hurt some more. And hey, while she's already lying on the ground, let's kick her a few more times in the gut, just to make sure she gets the picture. It got to the point where I started to roll my eyes--there is being dramatic, and then there's letting your characters breathe for a few minutes without someone trying to kill them.
I am also very sick of the main character in first person POV novels describing how they look through a mirror. Fine. Okay. I know it's convenient, but c'mon, it stretches to ridiculous when the main character doesn't even notice what she is wearing until she's in front of a mirror. That's just stupid.
It wasn't all bad though. I liked Tybalt, the king of the Cait Sidhe, and would not mind seeing more of him around. I thought the beginning was well done, and the basic premise was fairly interesting. Toby isn't a bad main character, but I feel like she should start doing more things right instead of stumbling around and getting into a bigger mess all of the time. I'd liked to have seen better sides of her instead of assume that there are. There had to be good, concrete reasons as to why she became a knight, but all we ever really see are her failings.
The ending seemed to fit with the rest of the novel. There are a good many questions still left to be answered, but since this is the first book in a series, that's understandable. The villain was a bit too obvious, but the clues were strung up right and there really isn't much to say about that. It's probably better than the villain coming out of left field.
Overall, average at best. It was a fairly enjoyable read, though there were a lot of pitfalls along the way. 3/5
Spoiler
turned into a fishHer fiance and daughter won't speak to her (and this is a part that rather irritates me), she doesn't want anything to do with the fae, but an old friend of hers, Countess Evening Winterrose, asks for her help. Evening binds Toby with a curse to find her killers (just before she is killed), and a task to figure out what happened, and Toby is sent on this harrowing adventure.
The book read fairly well. The pacing was decent, and I'm a large sucker for the fae, which worked in the book's favor. There were, however, several things that niggled at me and made the book fall somewhat flat. For instance, Cliff (her ex-fiance) and Gilly (her daughter) won't talk to Toby even after she comes back from what they presumed to be her death. You would think that they would at least try to hear her out and her story after being gone for fourteen years, but instead you have Cliff hanging up on Toby. Nice.
Then you have Devin, who I am ambivalent about at most. When Toby first begins to talk about him, the way she remembered him and the entire build up made it seem like, while not a horrible person, he was fairly close. Then we meet him and it turns out that no, he is actually somewhat an all right guy, and it's whip lash. It eventually settles on there always being a price to pay with him, and how it might not be worth it in the long run or--something. I didn't like him at all.
Then there was the events that led up to this entire mess in the first place. Toby knew who were the people who made her life fall apart and what does she do about it? Nothing. She doesn't even talk to her liege-lord about it, somehow it all slips into the background and the reader is sort of left puttering around and going, "Is that it? Really now?"
When the action starts it really starts, but the book was somewhat slow before that, with lots of information being dumped on the reader. Not much seems to happen and the suddenly it call falls down on Toby all at once. She gets hurt. Then she gets hurt some more. And hey, while she's already lying on the ground, let's kick her a few more times in the gut, just to make sure she gets the picture. It got to the point where I started to roll my eyes--there is being dramatic, and then there's letting your characters breathe for a few minutes without someone trying to kill them.
I am also very sick of the main character in first person POV novels describing how they look through a mirror. Fine. Okay. I know it's convenient, but c'mon, it stretches to ridiculous when the main character doesn't even notice what she is wearing until she's in front of a mirror. That's just stupid.
It wasn't all bad though. I liked Tybalt, the king of the Cait Sidhe, and would not mind seeing more of him around. I thought the beginning was well done, and the basic premise was fairly interesting. Toby isn't a bad main character, but I feel like she should start doing more things right instead of stumbling around and getting into a bigger mess all of the time. I'd liked to have seen better sides of her instead of assume that there are. There had to be good, concrete reasons as to why she became a knight, but all we ever really see are her failings.
The ending seemed to fit with the rest of the novel. There are a good many questions still left to be answered, but since this is the first book in a series, that's understandable. The villain was a bit too obvious, but the clues were strung up right and there really isn't much to say about that. It's probably better than the villain coming out of left field.
Overall, average at best. It was a fairly enjoyable read, though there were a lot of pitfalls along the way. 3/5