Seanan McGuire (seanan_mcguire) wrote,
Seanan McGuire
seanan_mcguire
  • Mood: ecstatic
  • Music: The crows arguing outside my window.

ONCE BROKEN FAITH open thread!

To celebrate the release of Once Broken Faith, here. Have an open thread to discuss the book. Judging by the comments I'm seeing, some of you have had time, and I'd really, really rather book discussion (sometimes including spoilers) didn't crop up on other posts.

THERE WILL BE SPOILERS.

Seriously. If anyone comments here at all, THERE WILL BE SPOILERS. So please don't read and then yell at me because you encountered spoilers. You were warned. (I will not reply to every comment; I call partial comment amnesty. But I may well join some of the discussion, or answer questions or whatnot.) I will be DELETING all comments containing spoilers which have been left on other posts. No one gets to spoil people here without a label.

You can also start a discussion at my website forums, with less need to be concerned that I will see everything you say! In case you wanted, you know, discussion free of authorial influence, since I always wind up getting involved in these things.

Have fun, and try not to bleed on the carpet.
Tags: discussion post, once broken faith, toby daye
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  • 154 comments

Belated reaction and comments

Agraphena Venator

February 12 2017, 18:13:51 UTC 5 months ago

I read A Red-Rose Chain and Once Broken Faith back to back this past week, as I have been somewhat urban-fantasied out for the last couple of years, and greatly enjoyed them. The characters, both new(ish) and old remain very appealing and entertaining, yet, thankfully, there is more to the books than yet another throw-away adventure and continuing romance relationship trials. In particular, the fact that there is clearly an intriguing overarching plot, that is carefully established and hinted at throughout, running in the background - all according to Luidaeg's grand plan ;), is what positively distinguishes it from some UF series that caused my above-mentioned burn-out on the genre. And fleshing out of this interesting setting and it's mythology is very rewarding too, IMHO.

Having said that, I have some quibbles, namely:

Why was the issue of October giving up the rest of her humanity even on the table in OBF? As an effectively 3/4 or more fae-blooded changeling shouldn't she live and remain young for several centuries anyway? Shouldn't she have lived for more than 2 centuries even as a half-and-half?

Why are guards/knights/Sylvester always so useless when an altercation is at hand? Yes, yes, I know that Toby and her normal posse + an occasional mission-relevant specialist are the central characters and in most of this series' installments it makes perfect sense that they operate by themselves, but sometimes, like in OBF (also during final confrontations in One Salt Sea and Chimes at Midnight, etc.) the player party / NPC/ trash mob divide becomes a bit too blatantly obvious, IMHO, YMMV. Maybe I am OCD about this, but Toby, Madden and Quentin, of which only the former was armed, pursuing 3 dangerous, powerful criminals by themselves when there was a know-full of possible back-up available, seemed jarringly unbelievable to me. Toby could have still become separated or whatever and gone out of that window...

And seguing from that - shouldn't Quentin be more able to hold his own in a fight by now? I mean, he is about 18, taller than Toby, and presumably has been and is being tutored in combat and magic at Shadowed Hills?

Also - why, oh why are fae guards armed with medieval weaponry, which is not particularly suited to taking somebody down without killing them, if Oberon's law is such a serious consideration? Wouldn't blow-guns with darts coated in sleeping charms like the one used by Raysel/Dugan in OSS or something similar make much more sense?

Anyway, can't wait for The Brightest Fell and am hoping that maybe that "10 setting questions" thing that happened before ARRC could be repeated again in the future?