All of Seanan's books are fun, and I and my staff at The Portal Bookshop regularly get someone new hooked on the series

Received as part of the 2019 Hugo packet for Best Series.

Fun urban fantasy originally read in paperback.

"Ashes of Honor" is the sixth book in the Hugo nominated October Daye series by Seanan McGuire. Each time I read a new book in this series I am convinced that no book could contain any more action, suspense, danger, intrigue, twists, humor, and coffee. And each time I read the next book in the series, I realize that I was wrong. It feels like everything I want to say about "Ashes of Honor" will turn into a spoiler, so I will be careful. In this novel, our fae detective heroine Toby is up against the biggest stakes ever, while she is also dealing with both emotional and physical healing. Fortunately, her circle of friends and allies are there for her at every step of the adventure. Likewise, Toby is also there for them and those that need her no matter what the personal cost. The plot starts out strong, gets hotter every chapter, and ends in a satisfying way without slowing down a bit. This was definitely a good read. I have a hard time understanding how Seanan is going to be able to top this in her next novel, but I am sure she will!

In which October gets a temporary break from politics (yay) to chase after a changeling with incredibly strong teleportation powers (less yay!)

Thank you so much for making this book available for Hugo voters. I will always vote for Seanan as she’s my favourite author.

I am planning a Seanan book binge in the new year. After I have read this book I will submit my review to NetGalley, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Angus & Robertson, and Booktopia.

This book in the dark fantasy series feels like a rinse and repeat I'm afraid. After the great One Salt Sea we are back on land with a shrinking cast and another missing child to rescue. This time Toby Daye has to find a changeling child which her friend Etienne didn't know he had, whose magic has come out strongly but uncontrolled. The teen girl is using this power to teleport herself and some entity has noticed.

I think that one reason these books often don't feel complete to me, is that there is so little humour. Any genuine humour comes from interaction between humans and Fae; the Fae seem to have no sense of humour whatsoever, except that sadism amuses (some of) them. Which is probably just as they would be. But if we only meet humans when they are in distress, the laughs could only arise from mockery. Having a large troll as a San Francisco taxi driver is good. We need more of that, please.
Also we get repeated mentions of Toby wearing the leather jacket she lifted from the King of Cats, who never asks for it back; I am guessing this is because it's now an integral element of the cover design.

I downloaded an ARC from the Hugo Awards pack on Net Galley. This is an unbiased review.

Oh the ending of this is worth a full five stars and more, and part of me wants to give them. The sensible part of me intervenes... and after the tussle we end up with four stars. Another missing child, yet another unique tale... and yet again Toby gets herself well over her head. This time, it's a changling none of us knew about and it's slightly unclear as to what the hell is going on. But with a half blood tearing holes through the fabric of reality, Toby has little choice... and we all know she'd agree anyway. Family means no one is left behind.

The reason for my lower rating - and hell, four stars isn't low - is because this starts slowly. But then it doesn't pick up. I was well over half way through before I felt things moving, and whilst there is definite character development it probably doesn't merit half a book. That said, I'm invested enough in this world now to have enjoyed every second. And when the finale comes... oh, be aware this is going to break your heart and then stomp on the pieces.

Let's be honest. When four stars is a 'low' rating, you know you've hit gold. I have some other minor niggles - not least the whole 'indestructible' thing, but they didn't impinge on my enjoyment at all. All in all, this is a bloody fantastic series and I wish I'd found it years ago.

October Daye series given by the author (/publishers/organizers) with the voters' packet for Hugo Nomination of Best Series in 2019. Reviews will be coming later, and likely posted first to GoodReads/Amazon/B & N as books are already released.

As this was part of the Hugo voting packet, I will not have time to read this and review before the archive date. I will try to update this review when I have read this book.

I downloaded this as part of my Hugo Voter packet. Fantastic! My top nominee for Best Series. Seanan McGuire is a treasure.

I really like this series and it just keeps building on itself. Toby is hired to find a missing changling daughter that until a few days before she went missing her father didn't know about her. Turns out her magic doesn't have the normal limitations that fey children have and none of the drawbacks of being a half blood. Lots of backstory from previous books gets filled in a bit with this book and it really makes me want to read the series all over again.

The plot of this story is less compelling to me than the previous two books in the series. It's less a mystery than an adventure story, and that doesn't hold my interest quite as well. However, the world is so enjoyable to be in, and the characters are so compelling, I'm willing to set aside the plot, and just hang out.

October Daye used to be a private eye who worked for the fae in San Francisco, because being a changeling made that a natural choice – right until she got forced to spend nineteen years as a fish after an investigation went wrong. Once the curse was broken, she tried to go back to a normal life, only to get dragged back into murders and mysteries. Rosemary and Rue is a murder mystery with curses; A Local Habitation is supposed to be Toby as a political envoy, and then; and An Artificial Night is a missing persons case with shades of Tam Lin.

I think my problem with this series is that I was sold on it as a mystery series with fae, and it's really really not. It's an extended character study with a vague mystery to hang the character stuff on, which is fine when that's what I'm expecting (see also: Sunshine is great, fight me), but when I'm expecting a mystery it makes me really salty. Especially because the foreshadowing is a bit too obvious for me and tends to reveal the plot about a third of the book before Toby realises what the plot is – it's been suggested that this might be because I have a lot of genre savvy for mysteries, and that other people didn't have this problem so absolutely judge that for yourselves! It makes Toby look absolutely oblivious though, which is frustrating for me as a reader.

As a character study though, they're not bad! Toby is a mess who flings herself into all of her problems like they're the last thing she's ever going to do (I think because in most of these they literally are), and her problem solving skills are inventive. I love her friendship group as well, though she doesn't treat them well – which I thought she'd learned by the end of the first book but more fool me – but I enjoy reading about them and how much she is loved, and how she absolutely cannot process it. The voice the story is written in is really great, especially for how Toby explains the weird politics and magic of the fae. I love how her magic works, because the reliance on nursery rhymes to help her shape it really makes me happy. And the scenes that are meant to be horrifying are really well written – there is a scene with the night haunts in A Local Habitation that is delightfully creepy! I just... Hit a point in book four where I couldn't deal with how unrelentingly terrible everything is for Toby and the people around her anymore?

I feel like I should love these a lot more than I do, especially because I think everyone in my online social group adores them. It might just be a combination of trying to read a lot of them in quick succession before the Hugos, which meant that I burnt out on them, and that my expectations of what they were were mismanaged. If I'd come to it as an urban fantasy series where sometimes there are mysteries and sometimes there is going to other planes to fight a creature from nightmares, maybe I would have been okay and I would love it as much as everyone else does! Especially because, as it's been pointed out, I really like Human Disaster heroes, so this might be internalised misogyny showing up to steal my wallet. As it is, I am taking a break from the series until I feel brave enough to try again.

[This review is based off the omnibus provided by the publisher in the Hugo packet.]