Midnight Blue-Light Special is the second Incryptids series, which is up for the Hugo Award for Best Series. McGuire doesn't waste any time in raising the stakes from Discount Armageddon. In that first book we were introduced to Verity Price, a competitive ballroom dancer who also happens to be a descendant of a family known for protecting supernatural creatures (cryptids) from those who would do them harm. From those like The Covenant of St. George, an organization dedicated to wiping out cryptids wherever they may be found.

They were introduced in the first book, but here they are to conduct a purge of the cryptids of New York City. That sounds about as bad as it is. There was a lightness and playfulness to Discount Armageddon that much diminished in Midnight Blue-Light Special. It's a more serious novel, though still lightened by those talking religious mice (the Aeslin really are the best). Verity is racing to prepare the city's cryptid population for the coming purge and is preparing to, with her life if necessary, stop the Covenant from carrying it out - all the while not knowing if her Covenant boyfriend is going to betray the her or the organization which raised him. It's a tense novel, and like most books written by Seanan McGuire - it's incredibly smooth and, if I can be be excessively cliche, "a real page turner"

I first read Discount Armageddon a couple of years ago, when I was in a bit of an urban fantasy phase and started a bunch of series - I carried on with a couple of series, at least for a while, but this wasn't one of them. Not because I didn't enjoy it, since I gave it 4 stars at the time, but for no particular reason at all, so in some ways I'm glad that the series being nominated for the Hugo has made me pick it up again (with some assistance from Netgalley).

The basic premise, like much urban fantasy, is that all of those monsters etc. are real and they live alongside humanity, though in the case of this series since we're mostly working from the perspective of someone who's trying to understand them (rather than kill them), the term 'cryptid' is most used. Our protagonist in this book and the next in the series is Verity Price, part of a family who parted ways a couple of centuries earlier with an organisation called the Covenant who think that the only good cryptid is a dead cryptid.

Alongside a shitty job working as a waitress in a mostly-cryptid strip joint, Verity is also a wannabe dancer and takes part in competitions (and a reality TV show) under an assumed name. In hindsight, I think it was this aspect of the character that I didn't care for as much this time around. When a representative of the Covenant who just happens to be tall, dark and handsome turns up in New York, Verity unsurprisingly ends up having sex with him while also dealing with a plot to wake a dragon buried under the city's streets.

All in all, Discount Armageddon does what it needs to do - a lot of world-building for following books in the series, introductions of the main characters and cryptid types, and it can't be faulted for that. On a re-read, I found Verity a little more annoying than previously and the insta-romance a bit obvious, not that this has stopped me moving on to the next book in the series (Midnight Blue-Light Special) since I have it to hand...

Thank you very much for the publisher for making this available for Hugo Awards consideration. InCryptid is currently (2018) nominated for Best Series.

As with the first book in the series, I enjoyed Verity's second outing, and especially appreciated how much more we get to see of some of her cryptid friends in this one - Istas was wonderful, and the chapters from Sarah's perspective also made use of interesting biological distinctions which made her feel convincingly non-human despite the very similar narrative voice. I am interested to see how the apparent perspective shift in the next book plays out, as I was surprised that most of Verity's family remained off-camera for this outing, although we hear enough about them second hand that they do already feel like significant characters in the series.

I love this series and appreciate the chance to revisit before the Hugo voting - I've been buying the earlier books slowly. This entry has some big developments for the world and gives some great short story jumping-off points, but isn't my favorite overall. Very glad I kept reading, though.

I absolutely adored this book, which was both a bit of a delightful surprise and the first step in laying a foundation of affection for everything that comes after this!

The second book starts a few months after the Discount Armageddon. Dave’s Fish and Strips is now a burlesque club that features the cryptids so the customers think it is all fake. But not everything is right. The Covenant is coming to town to check on Dominic and get ready to purge NYC of the cryptic population. Verity does come do a decision about living two lives in New York as she is working hard to protect the cryptid population and gather forces that can fight back against the Covenant while the ones that can’t fight try and flee or find safety somewhere. A good conclusion to this story arc and the next book will feature one of Verity’s siblings