Catching Up with October Daye: a quick overview
Sunday, 16 February 2020 22:21![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lea_hazelAshes of Honor: Toby battles an unscrupulous duchess and a superpowered teen. Good, enjoyable, mostly satisfying ending with one moderately infuriating loose end. Romance kicks up a notch.
Chimes at Midnight: Toby stops pretending that she doesn't meddle in politics. She's knee-deep in it, now. Adds several new characters that I am very into. Also puts Toby through the ringer like, a ridiculous amount, even for this series. The "seems OP, please nerf" installment. Also notable for leaning its entire premise on what seemed to be a throwaway detail two books ago.
The Winter Long. author's foreword says something about this book's plot being the first she came up with, or else somehow or other the axis on which the plot turns. It's... certainly that thing. I found it infuriating for several reasons. It does resolve moderately well, but it filled me with feelings of, "this is not how I want to feel when I reak a book". It's hard to explain more clearly without spoiling.
A Red-Rose Chain: Toby's continued adventures in still kind pretending like she doesn't do politics, which is a naked, shameless lie. A lot happens in this book. Consequences are had by all. A very interesting issue is raised re: the use of Toby's magic. I found it the most satisfying of the four, overall.
Once Broken Faith: I just started this one, but the title seems promising.
There are four full-length novels that follow, and they come out at the rate of roughly one per year. I wonder whether I will be able to keep up the streak. And if not, what I should leaven it with, to keep from getting tone fatigue. Maybe it's time to catch up on the Attolia books. Or dig back into the 2019 Hugos trove, which I barely skimmed the surface of.
Chimes at Midnight: Toby stops pretending that she doesn't meddle in politics. She's knee-deep in it, now. Adds several new characters that I am very into. Also puts Toby through the ringer like, a ridiculous amount, even for this series. The "seems OP, please nerf" installment. Also notable for leaning its entire premise on what seemed to be a throwaway detail two books ago.
The Winter Long. author's foreword says something about this book's plot being the first she came up with, or else somehow or other the axis on which the plot turns. It's... certainly that thing. I found it infuriating for several reasons. It does resolve moderately well, but it filled me with feelings of, "this is not how I want to feel when I reak a book". It's hard to explain more clearly without spoiling.
A Red-Rose Chain: Toby's continued adventures in still kind pretending like she doesn't do politics, which is a naked, shameless lie. A lot happens in this book. Consequences are had by all. A very interesting issue is raised re: the use of Toby's magic. I found it the most satisfying of the four, overall.
Once Broken Faith: I just started this one, but the title seems promising.
There are four full-length novels that follow, and they come out at the rate of roughly one per year. I wonder whether I will be able to keep up the streak. And if not, what I should leaven it with, to keep from getting tone fatigue. Maybe it's time to catch up on the Attolia books. Or dig back into the 2019 Hugos trove, which I barely skimmed the surface of.
