Seanan McGuire's Tidal Creatures is the third book in her Alchemical Journeys series and it's a powerhouse. It's been a while since I read the previous two books, but it's likely that you may want to read them before taking this particular journey.

The Lunar gods take human hosts and navigate the skies at night over the impossible city. The Alchemists are looking for a way to infiltrate the skies, using the lunar gods, and then rule the world. ("Alchemists have no morals" we are told.)

At Berkely College, Jane, the human incarnation of the god Change'e tries to avoid a professor who she is sure can see her god identity, while meeting up with another god who is returning from his journey across the sky. What she finds, however, is the incarnate of the god Mani at the door to the world where they begin their journey.

Working with other gods, and bringing the death - most likely a murder - to the attention of her superiors, Jane will try to find out how this god could die and what the danger means to them all.

We will also meet Kelpie - the result of a lab experiment when the Alchemists were trying to create familiars of the moon gods. She's managed to escape the confines of the lab and is still trying to understand her place in the universe before the Alchemists find her. She encounters Roger and Dodger (characters from earlier volumes) who assist her.

Not only is McGuire an outstanding writer (not to mention extremely prolific), I am constantly amazed at how fresh and unique her work is. At its core, this is a murder mystery set in a fantasy universe not unlike our own. And if there's one thing that McGuire does, maybe better than any other living fantasy author, it's world-building.

This world of Moon Gods, their human hosts, and the travel across the sky is fantastic (and I encourage multiple meanings of the word). It's so different from anything I've read, and yet McGuire weaves it into the story so seamlessly we don't feel like we're getting a different world - we have always had this world. Some of this comes from tossing in little nuggets from our culture. For instance:

She could have been a modified human. They came through the lab sometimes .... The other alchemists scoffed at them behind their backs, called them 'Moreaus' and acted like they were fools for making themselves less than human.

Perhaps there aren't a lot of people out there that recognize 'Moreau' and why it would be a term ascribed here, but it helps me connect these people and this story with the world that I already know.

There are some down sides to this, though. It is easy to get caught up in the beauty McGuire's work and overlook the story that's going on. At least that's the case for me. I've caught myself numerous times having to go back and re-read something because I missed the action for the language.

But if I missed something, that's on me. I think McGuire is an amazing author and she brings it all together - the fantasy, the mystery, the world - with grace and precision.

Having read a number of McGuire's books, I find it more than just a little bit interesting that the author has a fascination with doors or at least sees access to new worlds through hidden doors in our world. Doors play a part in the story and they are very important in the Wayward Children series as well. I don't know that there's anything specific to make of this - it's just something I noted during my read.

Looking for a good book? Tidal Creatures by Seanan McGuire is a powerful book, with creativity, great language, a unique mystery, and phenomenal world building. Fantasy fans will want to dig into this series.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read and review an advanced copy of this novel. I highly enjoyed it and will be recommending it.

Tidal Creatures by Seanan McGuire is the third book in the Alchemical Journeys series.

I have read the other two books in the series and loved Middlegame. I do not remember the second one really at all. I would rank this one higher than Seasonal Fears (looked that up and gave in 2.5 stars) but not a five star read. I really enjoyed the moon aspect but found the killer to be the obvious conclusion. I wish there had been more depth with that cast. I personally found that there were too many characters so while there was a lot going on and it was hard to follow, the big reveal was there the whole time.

I am still glad to have read it and I appreciate the world continuing. I hope McGuire is able to find her footing in this world. 3.5 stars. I did not hate and it times I was really intrigued. Thank you to NetGalley, Seanan McGuire, and Tor Publishing Group for the free book. This was an honest review.

Another wonderful entry in McGuire's body of work You do need to read the first two in the series in order to get what's going on, but with McGuire, that's never a hardship.

Recommended.

Tidal Creatures continues to build out the world Seanan McGuire introduced us to in Middlegame and deepened in Seasonal Fears. Like Seasonal Fears, it starts off by introducing us to a new batch of characters that personify/anthropomorphize a new set of universal concepts. In this case, embodiments of the Moon in all the forms such embodiments have taken throughout all the world’s mythologies. Unlike the main characters of Middlegame (who are forced to become the embodiment of the Doctrine of Ethos by their Maker) and Seasonal Fears (who become embodiments only after winning a competition), the human embodiments of the Moon are chosen by the Moon gods/goddesses themselves and the situation is less “embodiment” and more “time-share.” The human avatars of the Moon are able to go about their lives as essentially human, except when the Moon needs to shine through them and the resident Moon god/dess must take full control. I loved this idea that in a universe where almost every natural concept/constant is embodied, the ways the embodiments function can be so varied.

Where Seasonal Fears was a road-trip novel, Tidal Creatures is a murder-mystery. (It’s been long enough since I’ve read Middlegame that I’m not sure what classic genre I’d place it in (I really need to do a re-read), but at this point I’m almost positive part of McGuire’s plan for this series is to use the trappings of a different classic genre for each entry.) Someone is killing the moon gods of the San Francisco area. Which is a problem because part of the job of the Moon gods is to cross the sky above the Impossible City (the heart of all creation, thanks to the alchemy of an author named A. Deborah Baker). The moon gods who notice what’s happening must figure out who is doing it before they can wrest control of the Impossible City (and thus, the universe) for themselves. This is a very “fair play” mystery – meaning all the clues are there for the reader to figure out the who, why, and how (because how the murder that start the book was even possible, given the victim was the living embodiment of the moon and fully empowered when it happened, is part of the mystery). Readers who enjoy having a juicy mystery in the middle of their fantasy/horror hybrid novel will not be disappointed and will probably enjoy the challenge of figuring it all out before the characters do.

Several of the main characters of the novel are the local embodiments of three moon goddesses and a moon god: Judy (Chang’e), Anna (Artemis), Professor Williams (Diana), and David (Máni). They are more like co-workers than friends, and even though they are all embodiments of the Moon, they are embodiments of different Moon deities, with different mindsets and histories, so they are not automatically best friends and comrades. I really appreciated that while two of these moon deities are familiar to just about anyone who experienced a public-school education in the United States, McGuire went out of her way to make the other two deities from non-Eastern-European traditions, and to give us a deep sense of what those deities were like in those traditions. She made me want to learn more about Chang’e and her peaches of immortality, Máni, and others who are mentioned but play less significant roles in the way the story plays out (Losna, Aske).

The moon deities are not the only main characters. There’s also Kelpie, a woman who thought her current unusual body type (mostly human, but with orange skin and legs that end in hooves and a few more subtle differences) was the result of a horrible lab accident that also wiped her memory. She learns what she really is and goes on the run from her employers, the Alchemical Congress of the United States, after her friend and mentor is killed for seemingly failing in a project designed to get the Congress access to the Impossible City before it is claimed by its rightful rulers. She encounters a boy name Luis and his mother, Isabella, who is an hechicera (a type of sorceress), who join her in her quest to find someone who can help her understand herself and help stop the man pursuing her.

In Kelpie, we have one of the most stunning portrayals of a person escaping and overcoming the trauma of gaslighting that I think I’ve ever read – a woman whose whole sense of self and purpose gets uprooted and who still finds ways to stay strong, move forward, and come to terms with what she really is. In Isabella, we get a stark indictment of the ways in which European colonization practically (and in some cases, totally) eradicated other belief systems (by absorption or by destruction).

I found aspects of each of the main characters relatable, and I came to care for all of them as much as I did the main characters of Middlegame and Seasonal Fears. And for those wondering, I can say without spoilers that while the MCs of Seasonal Fears only get a few passing mentions, the MCs of Middlegame enter the story much earlier, and play a much bigger role, than they did in Season Fears.

Fans of Seanan McGuire, fans of mystery-fantasy-horror hybrids, fans of tales of moon deities: you’ll find something to love about this book. BUT – you should probably at least read Middlegame if not Seasonal Fears before Tidal Creatures, to understand the alchemical underpinnings of the world and the history of the Alchemical Congress.



I received an advance reading pdf of this book for free via NetGalley from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. I received and read the ARC well before publication date but dropped the ball on posting the review until now. Tidal Creatures is currently available wherever books are sold.

Tidal Creatures is the 3rd-installment to Seanan McGuire's epic Adult SFF-series that has not just created a whole new world unto itself, but a whole new cosmology. Middlegame took the world by storm when it was released in 2019. I wasn't immune. When I read it, I fell in love. I always knew McGuire was a talented writer with a plethora of unique ideas, but this thing is off the charts.

The sequel Seasonal Fears didn't get quite the same level of fanfare upon its release in 2022, but I loved it nevertheless. I wouldn't say I loved it as much as Middlegame, but it was a brilliant continuation of the story.

Tidal Creatures is a monster in the way it continued to build out this complex and enticing world. I loved meeting new characters like Kelpie, Judy and Isabella. The cast of characters felt broader in this one than the previous novels and it was interesting to learn about them. Additionally, their interactions were deep and their banter, funny. Most of the new information we learned was accomplished through character conversations. Because of this, it never felt info-dumpy.

This story felt different too, in that it is a murder mystery of sorts. Someone is killing moon goddesses, and it's up to our cast to figure out why and then stop them. I thought that was an intriguing way to advance this overall story arc. The way it tied into the lore of the Impossible City and the concepts that we had starting building in the previous books was very well done.

I will say, I think if I read this again, I would probably enjoy it even more. There is a lot going on here and the way that the various perspectives are initially introduced, not coming together until a little way in, it was a lot to follow.

A part of me wants to say, I am done reading these as they're released for the rest of the series. I want to wait until they are all out so I can binge them all at once. Before Seasonal Fears released, I did reread Middlegame directly before I picked it up and I do think I enjoyed it that much more because of that. But now, we're so deep. I don't know if I have time to reread them all prior to every other subsequent release...

This is easy for me to say now. I'm sure as the next book releases I am going to flock to it like a Publisher's dream. All past hesitation blown out of the water by the overwhelming FOMO that I'm gonna feel. Either way, no matter how it happens, I love this series with my whole heart and will happily see it to the end.

I would recommend continuing on with the series to anyone who read and enjoyed Middlegame. I also highly recommend the companion series, The Up-and-Under by A. Deborah Baker, for more insight into the background of this world.

Thank you to the publisher, Tor and Macmillan Audio, for providing me with copies to read and review. This series is an absolute tour de force in the SFF space and I cannot wait for more!

I love pretty much everything Seanan McGuire writes but this series is especially good. I love reading the new characters and seeing how this universe evolves.

Middlegame is a favorite book of all time and Seasonal Fears was one of the most disappointing sequels I have ever read. This one falls somewhere in the middle. I had fun but with the shift in the series to the world building and away from character connection I don't expect the series to ever reach the highs I felt reading the first book. That said if you are a lover of world building info dumps like me, you will enjoy this book and find the momentum pretty strong. I am more interested in finishing the series now than I was after finishing seasonal fears.

Thanks so very much to Netgalley and the publisher for kindly providing me this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review. I do reviews on my main social media platforms and will be providing my full review there as I get through my TBR blacklist. Thanks again!

While I have enjoyed the previous two installments of the Alchemical Journeys books, this one seemed to be sprinkled with statements about "the white man", making a point to say when things are racist, statements of "you don't have permission to touch me", etc. that just stood out as odd in the overall scheme of things. The story was flat and didn't seem to have a whole lot going on. I could probably summarize in two sentences the entire book. For people who were killing uninhibitedly two books ago, they have now become "woke".

Thank you for the ARC, and apologies it took me as long as it did to get to this!

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I don't remember how I found Middlegame back in 2019, but it managed to wow me to the point that it landed at #4 on my Best Books of 2019 list. Despite author Seanan McGuire prolifically churning out hundreds of pages every year, Middlegame was my first introduction to her writing, and it set me down the path of the "Alchemical Journeys" series. Seasonal Fears, the 2022 follow-up to Middlegame, was equally inventive, but perhaps faded a bit from missing the novelty boost that came from the first introduction to McGuire's fascinating imagination, but I was still very much intrigued to find out what she'd conjured in Tidal Creatures.

The novel takes place in Berkeley, CA, on the campus of the university, where we're introduced to the general concept: there are a plethora of lunar gods throughout the world, and all of them are responsible for guiding the moon across the sky on a nightly basis. This guidance takes place in a between-worlds environment referred to as "the everything", a "glorious tunnel between worlds". The everything also provides access to the Impossible City, something that readers of previous Alchemical Journeys novels will know is the ultimate prize that the alchemists are striving to attain, only to be held at bay by the manifestation of earthly doctrines and seasons. Early in the novel, the moon goddess Aske is murdered inside the everything -- something that should not be possible -- and so the search for a killer in the midst of the gods and alchemists of Berkeley ensues.

McGuire spends a good amount of time explaining the concepts, and then explaining them again as our main characters (the Lunars / moon deities) meet others. It helps to ground the reader in what is going on initially, but then it becomes repetitive, as we continue to cover the same ground with new audiences. In addition, each moon god or goddess partially manifests with a human, and they can bounce between the human person and the god/goddess within that human body, which makes for a decent bit of confusion for the reader until one is able to keep straight all of the characters. Fans of the previous novels will be happy to know that Roger and Dodger make a more significant appearance in this novel, as well as other characters from Middlegame like Erin and Smita.

At one point in the novel, a character says the following:

"The way I see it, we have a braid of problems...Your friend's dead, and that sucks, and we need to figure out who or what killed her; we have an asshole alchemist running around making monstrosities and attacking people who haven't done anything to warrant it; and we have a group of alchemists who seem to have mostly been wiped out by the aforementioned asshole, who were making accessory packs of existing Lunars in a really complicated attempt at a honeypot. Does that sound about right for a summary?"

It does sound right for a summary, and if the novel better balanced those plot points with explanations of the Lunars' responsibilities, dual manifestations, etc., I think I would have enjoyed it more. However, the central mystery -- who killed Aske? -- takes a back seat to McGuire's expansive imagination and characterization of the Lunars. The repetitiveness on the core concepts, combined with a murder mystery that lacked nuance in terms of its plot development left me wanting the book to be better than it was. Ultimately, this was a 3-star read for me, but I have to acknowledge the incredible creativity and depth to which McGuire conjures yet another wholly original adjunct to her fantasy world, and so I'll round up to 4 stars.

If McGuire has no fans, I'm dead. I admittedly was meh on the last book in this series, but this one came back for redemption. McGuire's way of writing remains strong, and she continues to world and character build like very few out there. Her stories are original, in a way that there aren't many of out there, and the way she weaves so much together is absolutely worth a read.

Thank you @netgalley ,@torpublishing and author for the arc in exchange for my honest review.

Tidal Creatures is the third installment of the Alchemical Journeys series. After a lackluster opinion of the second book I was skeptical going into this one but was pleasantly surprised. This book follows a few main groups of people: the Lunars, moon gods manifest in humans; Kelpie,the embodiment of Artemis’ hind; and our old friends from book one Roger, Dodger and Erin. The alchemists are at it again trying to take over the Impossible City, this time however they are trying to use the Lunars who are tasked with walking above the city each night. When a Lunar is found dead in the Everything, a few other team up to discover who is behind the murder. This leads them to Roger and Dodger, the embodiment of the Doctrine of Ethos. Kelpie, after escaping from the alchemists, also ends up with the siblings. Together they investigate the murder and unravel the alchemist’s new plan for taking the city.

Let me start by saying I LOVE Seanan McGuire and one of the things I like most in series I’ve read from her is switching from the main story to world building side stories. Unfortunately, Seasonal Fears didn’t really build the world out or help explain the very complicated alchemical world. Getting to come back to the “main” story was much more appealing to me. In all honesty, this book really helped me understand what was going on in the other two. It’s still complex and quite confusing at times, but that’s what I like about this series. I don’t think this necessarily needed to be a series. The first book was great and could’ve been left there, but I did gain some more understanding throughout this book that made it a worthwhile read.

I appreciate McGuire’s diverse characters and her creative stories. I can truthfully say I’ve never read another book like this. It’s fun to read something that feels very original.

Thank you NetGalley and TOR for the eARC in exchange for my honest review!

Seanan McGuire has a third entry into her series where intellectual concepts can be anthropomorphized. Alchemists can even make them human, and can create humans and other creatures directly Tidal Creatures (hard from Tordotcom) like the lunars who are people who partner with the many Moon gods, exist along with personifications of the seasons. On the Berkeley campus, there is a group of Lunars who take turns being part of the moon that shines on the Impossible city. Then one of them is murdered. At the same time Kelpie is a lab assistant who thinks she was altered by an alchemical accident, but she is really a construct made to resemble the hind from Artemis’s hind from ancient legends. When the Alchemical Congress decides to take down the lab, she barely escapes. Now together with Artemis, other lunar deities, and some of the characters from the previous books, they have to find the murderer and keep the Impossible city safe from the Alchemists. This is an excellent series, though the concepts are head-twisting. Highly recommended.

Seanan McGuire's "Tidal Creatures" is a thrilling addition to the Alchemical Journeys series. Set in the vividly imagined Impossible City, the story follows lunar deities uncovering a plot that threatens their existence and reality's balance. McGuire’s exceptional world-building and fast-paced, twist-filled narrative keep readers hooked. The well-crafted, relatable characters, especially the lunar gods, add depth to the tale. This novel is a must-read for fantasy and mystery fans, showcasing McGuire’s talent for blending mythology and suspense.

First off...DISCLAIMER: I requested this title on NetGalley. Thanks to Tor/Forge for providing a temporary ecopy. This didn't influence my review in any way.

NEW HEIGHTS

Let's get it out of the way: if you adored Middlegame but felt that Seasonal Fears was a bit of a letdown, you only need to read Tidal Creatures to fall in love with the series all over again. And no, not only because this time Roger and Dodger play a huge part in it (though it does help 😉 😍). For one, the amount of exposition is just right - there's a lot to take in, that's for sure, and some of the concepts are tackled more than once, but you never feel like you're hammered over the head with them when it happens. Every time the god-incarnate situation, the alchemical procedures or the Impossible City (a.k.a. the center of creation) are discussed, the reader is given a new piece of information, or sees a familiar event from a new angle (or from a new character's eyes), so that in the end everything is an essential tassel to the book's mosaic, the same way as the Lunar gods need to come together to become the Moon that shines over the City itself. But this is just one of the reasons why this book restored my faith in the series...

OF GODS AND CONCEPTS

After two installments where the protagonists came in pair (with different grades of success - Roger and Dodger could sustain a whole book and then some, while Harry and Melanie were definitely less vivid and interesting), Tidal Creatures is a change of pace in that it introduces (or reintroduces, in some cases) a whole group of characters, who vary from gods incarnate/their human hosts, to alchemical constructs, to normal people who may or may not have an affiliation with magic (plus antagonists in the form of evil - or slightly less evil - alchemists, of course). Oh...and a dog (don't worry, he doesn't die - though there are other casualties...).
McGuire clearly put a lot of thought into shaping the symbiosis between the Lunar gods and their human counterparts, and the different grades of balance (or lack thereof) in what is, for all purposes, a partnership every host entered willingly, but not without consequences. It's like having two characters in place of one, sometimes even at the same time (though of course only one of them is at the forefront), and it's fascinating. There's also a unique coming-of-age arc involving one character who must learn the truth about herself the hard way, and finally...there are Roger and Dodger - Language and Math personified - in all their glory. After their brief cameo in Seasonal Fears, they get a lot more space here, and McGuire explores their god-like essence and the way they (can) rewrite reality, along with their effort not to rearrange the world (and the people in it) around their desires - not to mention, their tether to humanity on one end, godhood and the Impossible City on the other. It's a testament to the other characters though that Roger and Dodger don't steal the scene, and I bet you'll find some new favourites here, like I did 🙂.

GREAT EXPECTATIONS

Tidal Creatures departs from your average Seanan McGuire's novel in that it (partly) focuses on a murder and an investigation; but don't enter it expecting a classic murder mystery, if in a supernatural setting. This part of the plot is exciting, but mostly for different reasons than the actual whodunnit (I'll go as far as to say that it isn't that hard to hone in on the culprit - I'm not going to elaborate in order to avoid spoilers): during the sleuthing, we finally get a glimpse of the Impossible City we've been teased with since Book 1, and we delve into its mythology and its connection with both the Lunar gods and the Doctrine siblings (that is, Roger and Dodger). As it's custom with McGuire's best books, Tidal Creatures's strength lies in its complex, yet easy-to-love characters (with whom the author clearly empathises even when she puts them through the grinder) and imaginative worldbuilding (speaking of which, leave it to McGuire to weave aspects of lore into a new, original myth). With two more installments on the way and the road to the Impossible City firmly paved at last, the future for this series sounds glorious, and I can't wait to get there.

Note: I couldn't help but notice a small continuity error in the chapter titled Mare Ingenii: a character who's going under an alias is introduced by her real name, only for her alias to be used (correctly) a few pages later. I'm curious to see if this tiny hiccup will make it to the published version or not... Later edit: It was amended!

Seanan McGuire is an autobuy for me, both in audio and hardcover. I was so excited to continue the Alchemical Journeys series with book three Tidal Creatures. It was worth the wait! McGuire gave us an unputdownable story as we head to the Impossible City.

After the events of Middlegame and Seasonal Fears, I was eager to dive into Tidal Creatures. We find ourselves at Berkley College where we meet incarnates of the Moon Gods who dwell within a human host and take turns navigating the skies at night over the Impossible City. When one of them ends up dead, it will be up to Moon goddesses, Change’e and Artemis to find answers, but along the way they will find help & friendship.

We also meet Kelpie, who after escaping the lab learns she is not human but a personification of Artemis’s Hind. She stumbles across the son of Isabella, a hechicera who aids here and takes her to one of the coven’s meetings to introduce her to someone else who isn’t quite human. All of this takes them to the home of Rodger and Dodger, the living embodiments of the Doctrine of Ethos.

I loved how McGuire weaved in the gods, the Impossible City, and the alchemist who want to control it all. At its core, we have a murder-mystery. We learn from Diana, yes that Diana, that other moon gods have been murdered. Along the way, we will work to stop the alchemists, battle constructs and enter the city itself.

I found myself swept up in the tale and the stories of moon goddesses, Aske, Change’e, Artemis, and Diana, as well as the moon god Mani. I loved entering the home of Rodger and Dodger, whose home and its ability to adapt impressed me. We witness death, battle, and form friendships, all while McGuire has us pondering the universe.

If you love mythology, you will want to delve into the Alchemical Journeys series. Rich characters and a world filled with danger and possibilities. I encourage you to read the message at the beginning of the book from the author. Yes, dear author, the journey was worth it.

WOW. Just when I thought that the first two had killed it and were it for me, McGuire hits us with another one. I loved this one equally if not even more than the first two. This is book #3 in the Alchemical Journeys series and I just want more and more of it. I know some mention that the pace of this book just isn’t it but I didn’t see it that way, I thought that this book was paced just right and I wasn’t caught in a slow movement or going along too fast. I sat down and read this book in a beautiful quiet weekend and enjoyed each second (or page) of this read.

Thank you @netgalley ,@torpublishing and author for the arc in exchange for my honest review.

Tidal Creatures is a whopper of a bite. With the amount of world building, you just have to take a moment to appreciate the journey. A world that is so richly descriptive with the A Deborah Baker books and the intersections of these worlds. After Seasonal Fears we knew more about alchemy, but Tidal Creatures takes it even further. Each of these books in the series manages to be both so unique and carefully tied together. I enjoyed being introduced to new characters - which make this feel a bit more dystopian - and returning back to some of our favorites.

this is the follow up to Middle Game and Seasonal Fears, Its set in a universe where Someone is killing off moon gods, and it's up to the remaining human incarnations of the lunar deities to find out who. I enjoyed it! It didn’t stray too far from what we know of this story but added new elements to make it interesting.