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A review by simoneandherbooks
Seasonal Fears by Seanan McGuire
4.0
Well, Seanan McGuire's gone above and beyond to create another story of alchemy and mystery set in the same world as Middlegame. It's a companion novel, so you can read it alone. However, I think you'll really benefit more if you've read the first. Thanks to Tor dot com for a gifted copy of the book.
I wasn't sure what I was expecting when I started this book. I knew that there was going to be some wibbly wobbly timey wimey-ness to it because if it's a companion to Middlegame, then there's definitely going to be talk of the Impossible City, the Up-and-Under, and maybe even appearances from the A Deborah Baker books she's written.
And this book does all of those things and more. One of the reasons why I love reading Seanan McGuire is her ability to create these incredible worlds. A place where real life huamsn can dream of places they've only read in books or seen on TV. Portals to worlds that coincide with ours, energies that exist that shouldn't exist. And this one explores these concepts just as much as any of her other books. Alchemy is supposed to be the study of science and magic and I think Seanan McGuire does an excellent job throughout this series with creating her alchemical world.
Seasonal Fears features two main characters, Harry and Melanie, but if I'm going to be honest, this is Harry's story. Melanie has been sick since she's been born and Harry is the jock football player with a huge sense of humor. In many ways they're different, but they've loved each other for as long as they've known each other. But when both of them collapse one day, only one came back alive and thus began their journey on the improbable road to the Impossible City.
I absolutely love the play on seasons in this one. Seanan McGuire's creativity is one of the reasons why I come back to her stories. Using the same concepts in Middlegame of embodying intangible things and making them human plays itself out in Seasonal Fears as Summer and Winter. It's so beautiful to think about; how a person can embody a season and their emotions contribute directly to how the season will play out. On top of that, the corruption and lies behind the seasons and the people who embody them. It was part political, part emotional, and just really blew my mind.
Harry and Melanie were also the kinds of characters you rooted for. While both of them come from different backgrounds and lived very different lives side-by-side, you can relate to either of them in any of the ways. Harry is naive and hard-headed, which makes it difficult for him to understand the alchemical concepts that are being explained to him numerous times. Melanie is made for the season she was built for, which made it easier for her to accept what's happening. Their relationship was sweet and the kind of young love that makes readers sigh with joy for them and make you fiercely protect that innocence from any outside parties.
And throughout the story, there were numerous outside parties; people who were trying to kill Harry and Melanie for their candidacy as Summer and Winter. I also loved this part of the book because Harry and Melanie weren't technically the chosen ones. They are candidates for the position and they were on their way to claim the crowns for themselves, but so were a few dozen other people. It was interesting to see them on their journey, but I also felt like it was unnecessarily long. I honestly felt like the journey was too long and the destination scenes were too short. I would have loved the reverse.
Seanan McGuire definitely puts in a lot of effort to make sure every reader understands clearly what's going on. Perhaps there was some feedback from Middlegame being too difficult in its concepts, so she doubled-down on this one. In some ways, it was a little too much becoming more repetitive than informative. But I can also understand her frustration with receiving "I don't get it" feedback from her first novel. I truly appreciate that she took the time to really flesh out these ideas creating a much more robust world that's a bit more digestible. It wasn't as good as Middle game, in my humble opinion, but it was still something I devoured.
Of course, this book isn't complete with a few surprises around each corner. I loved seeing the characters from Middlegame make an appearance and also a lot of understanding behind what happened to them, the parallels of the story to the stories by A Deborah Baker, and deeper understanding of the entire alchemical world created by Seanan. I appreciate this book for finally bringing to light some of the more confusing aspects and while it wasn't perfect, it was definitely the perfect companion.
I wasn't sure what I was expecting when I started this book. I knew that there was going to be some wibbly wobbly timey wimey-ness to it because if it's a companion to Middlegame, then there's definitely going to be talk of the Impossible City, the Up-and-Under, and maybe even appearances from the A Deborah Baker books she's written.
And this book does all of those things and more. One of the reasons why I love reading Seanan McGuire is her ability to create these incredible worlds. A place where real life huamsn can dream of places they've only read in books or seen on TV. Portals to worlds that coincide with ours, energies that exist that shouldn't exist. And this one explores these concepts just as much as any of her other books. Alchemy is supposed to be the study of science and magic and I think Seanan McGuire does an excellent job throughout this series with creating her alchemical world.
Seasonal Fears features two main characters, Harry and Melanie, but if I'm going to be honest, this is Harry's story. Melanie has been sick since she's been born and Harry is the jock football player with a huge sense of humor. In many ways they're different, but they've loved each other for as long as they've known each other. But when both of them collapse one day, only one came back alive and thus began their journey on the improbable road to the Impossible City.
I absolutely love the play on seasons in this one. Seanan McGuire's creativity is one of the reasons why I come back to her stories. Using the same concepts in Middlegame of embodying intangible things and making them human plays itself out in Seasonal Fears as Summer and Winter. It's so beautiful to think about; how a person can embody a season and their emotions contribute directly to how the season will play out. On top of that, the corruption and lies behind the seasons and the people who embody them. It was part political, part emotional, and just really blew my mind.
Harry and Melanie were also the kinds of characters you rooted for. While both of them come from different backgrounds and lived very different lives side-by-side, you can relate to either of them in any of the ways. Harry is naive and hard-headed, which makes it difficult for him to understand the alchemical concepts that are being explained to him numerous times. Melanie is made for the season she was built for, which made it easier for her to accept what's happening. Their relationship was sweet and the kind of young love that makes readers sigh with joy for them and make you fiercely protect that innocence from any outside parties.
And throughout the story, there were numerous outside parties; people who were trying to kill Harry and Melanie for their candidacy as Summer and Winter. I also loved this part of the book because Harry and Melanie weren't technically the chosen ones. They are candidates for the position and they were on their way to claim the crowns for themselves, but so were a few dozen other people. It was interesting to see them on their journey, but I also felt like it was unnecessarily long. I honestly felt like the journey was too long and the destination scenes were too short. I would have loved the reverse.
Seanan McGuire definitely puts in a lot of effort to make sure every reader understands clearly what's going on. Perhaps there was some feedback from Middlegame being too difficult in its concepts, so she doubled-down on this one. In some ways, it was a little too much becoming more repetitive than informative. But I can also understand her frustration with receiving "I don't get it" feedback from her first novel. I truly appreciate that she took the time to really flesh out these ideas creating a much more robust world that's a bit more digestible. It wasn't as good as Middle game, in my humble opinion, but it was still something I devoured.
Of course, this book isn't complete with a few surprises around each corner. I loved seeing the characters from Middlegame make an appearance and also a lot of understanding behind what happened to them, the parallels of the story to the stories by A Deborah Baker, and deeper understanding of the entire alchemical world created by Seanan. I appreciate this book for finally bringing to light some of the more confusing aspects and while it wasn't perfect, it was definitely the perfect companion.