Once again Seanan McGuire does it again.

I love the way each of the books in this series work off of what happened in the prior books, but expands further into McGuire's incredibly developed world. When I first read Middlegame I said in my review, "McGuire's world building was fantastic, but my favorite part was that it was very evident that she has developed WAY more than she let us see," and I'm so happy to report that not only was I right about that, but that there is so much more than I expected. This is the type of series that I could see easily being 20 books, because there is so much space to work with.

For what it's worth, I didn't love the primary narrator in Seasonal Fears, but Tidal Creatures goes right back to being a damn near perfect novel.

The only downside to getting an ARC for Tidal Creatures is that I didn’t get a chance to hear Amber Benson's fabulous narration!

Tidal Creatures is superb. I loved the story of Kelpie and the Lunars. Kelpie had such an innocence and I enjoyed watching characters like Erin turn into a protective mother hen. (Erin?! 😂 girl is a marshmallow in the middle).

Tidal Creatures had a lot more of Roger and Dodger(first book=Middlegame) but I also loved the mythology of all the various pantheons and how they fit this incredibly logical, alchemical world.

I think one of my favorite things about this series is that even though these stories cross through each other they are very very different. I can’t recommend this series enough to fans of urban fantasy and folklore!

I absolutely love the feeling Seanan McGuire's writing gives me. This is book 3 and while I didn't enjoy quite as much as book 1 or 2, I loved the misfits banding together aspect. It's fascinating and complex, the world-building is on another level

I had such a fantastic time reading this book! I love her writing so much, and this world is so strange and weird and I was excited to go on this latest adventure! The first two books were almost stand alone plots, all connected to this world, and I loved how this book tied in!

I don't fully remember Seasonal Fears, so I'm not sure if the alchemists played much of a role, but in this book, it defines what the series conflict is, I'm pretty sure, the race to the Impossible City, and who is going to be in control. We did get that in Middlegame, but then, we didn't really know what was going on, and now we do.

I really enjoyed the perspectives that we got in this book, with Judy, an incarnate of Chang'e, one goddess of the moon, Kelpie, a lab tech for the alchemists that learns some brutal truths, and how their stories came together, with the alchemists wanting to get to the Impossible City through the Lunars. It was so fantastic!

Things are coming together in this book. I'm not sure how long the series is going to be, besides at least 4 books because it can't end here, but the conflict between the alchemists, and basically everybody else who isn't an alchemist, espcailly the ones that know about them, well, I want to see the alchemists wiped out because of just how horrid they are.

This was an amazing book and I can't wait to read more by Seanan McGuire!

A welcome return to form! Readers who loved Middlegame but felt left out with Seasonal Fears will be relieved to find that McGuire captures some of that alchemical magic once more and introduces several new characters and concepts that further build onto the wildly creative world she has created.

In Tidal Creatures (Alchemical Journeys Book 3), Seanan McGuire has continued creating a series that is brilliantly layered and full of incredible depth. As much as I loved the first two books in the series, I found myself loving Tidal Creatures as much as the previous two as it delves into the folklore and gods worshiped around the world and how they manifest.
What makes this novel so intriguing and complex is the intricate folklore that Seanan McGuire delves into, tying this novel into the series with a fluidity and ease, exploring the nature of godhood, the universe and magic. I loved the multiple incarnations of the moon gods and how they tie into the rest of Seanan McGuire’s alchemical universe. The story flows from through different points of views, exploring both the moon gods but also those tied to them including the alchemical college as they attempt to take control of creation.It also gives insight into what it means to be human and a monster, exploring love and loss.
Seanan McGuire has brought her usual brilliance to the third book in the series. While all of her books are incredible, this rises above along with the other books in the series to explore profound ideas and the construct of the universe. The story is brilliantly layered and thoughtful with concepts I will need a second read through just to begin to grasp. The characters are vivid and delightful. I especially loved that we got much more of Roger and Dodger than in the 2nd book. If you liked Middle Game and Seasonal Fears, this is the book you want to read next. And if you haven’t read the series, what are you waiting for? This is the apex of Seanan McGuire’s storytelling, beautiful, creative and breathtaking to read.

Tidal Creatures by Seanan McGuire
adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

I received an advance reader copy thanks to NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group. The opinions expressed are entirely my own.

Tidal Creatures is the third book in the Alchemical Journeys series by Seanan Mcguire. This time out the focus is on moon gods and goddesses. Chang’e, second in command of Berkeley’s moon divinities, discovers that one of their own has been killed and it seems it’s not the first time in the recent past. Chang’e and her human host Judy decide to investigate these deaths.

Meanwhile, Kelpie, a lab assistant for the local alchemical lab learns that everything she thought she knew about herself and her lab is a lie. She runs for her life and has to navigate her confusing new reality and try to stay alive.

Of course, these two storylines are bound to intersect and things get very complicated before it’s done.

I loved this one so much! I don’t think it’s quite as good as Middlegame, but since that’s one of my favorite ever, it’s a hard bar to top. I did enjoy it much more than Seasonal Fears, which I found very predictable and anticlimactic.

In additional to the mystery of who is killing the moons, it incorporated Roger and Dodger (and Erin) in a way that advanced their character arcs as well as the plot of this volume. While this was is very much the story of the Moons, the characters from Middlegame were incorporated into the plot in a way that didn’t feel like a cameo/unnecessary inclusion. I also loved that we got some insight that their journey is not done, just paused for now.

Judy is a linguistics grad student, who just so happens to also be one of many incarnations of the moon goddess Chang’e. All of the moon gods known to humanity have these living avatars out in the world, and the many incarnations take turns shining over the glorious Impossible City at night. But some of these incarnations have been disappearing – a fact Judy/Chang’e doesn’t know until an avatar of the goddess Aske turns up dead, still bleeding moonlight from her divine form. Judy and her fellow incarnations must try to figure out who has been killing pieces of the Moon.

This is a solid entry in the series and, in my opinion, much better than book two. I still feel like I don’t totally understand what’s happening when they get really into the conceptual stuff, or at least I couldn’t explain the ins and outs of it to you, but I get it well enough in the moment to suspend disbelief and keep going with the story. This book was not nearly as confusing to me as the last one. This book also had a lot more from the characters we got to know in the first book, which I really enjoyed. I missed Roger and Dodger.

Representation: POC characters, LGBTQ+ characters

Definitely don’t start with this book three. You’ll be lost. This series and the related Up and Under series by her under a different name reminded me of hearing her say once at a convention that she went out of her way to get a specific folklore index book. Can’t remember what title she mentioned but the folklore and murder vibe of this book very much fits the author. It’s been a very enjoyable series.

Thank you NetGalley, Tor Publishing, and especially the magnificent Seanan McGuire for the eGalley copy of Tidal Creatures.

Yet again Seanan McGuire knocks it out of the park. As she so regularly does with her Wayward Children series, in this third entry in the Alchemical Journey's series, we have the opportunity to visit some of our favorites from Middle Game (book 1) and missed dearly in Seasonal Fears (book 2).

The mechanics of the world begin to really come into their own in this entry in a way only teased at in the first two. Unfortunately, the pacing suffers a bit in the process of honoring a bloated cast of (of essential) characters. It's well worth a read; I thoroughly enjoyed it and have zero regrets, but as a piece of writing it doesn't quite reach the same bar as most of Seanan's works.

The premise revolving around the embodiments of moon gods was a lot of fun - it was cool to be reading about the gods themselves and the people who carried them. There were some interesting ideas around how this affected the lives of those people that I wish were a little more fleshed out.

There were also so, so very many characters. With all of the side characters and the people carrying the moon gods being essentially two characters each, it was a bit difficult to keep everyone straight and some were much less developed than others. One of my favorite characters in particular was left a little bit on the back burner towards the end.

The plot itself dragged a little at the beginning while also wrapping up pretty fast at the end, leaving some questions. But honestly, the way Seanan McGuire writes these books makes it very easy to look past the shortcomings. 4/5.

If I could give this more than 5 stars I absolutely would!
I am constantly amazed at how Seanan McGuire makes the most nonsensical things make complete sense in this series!
While this isn't really full of action it still managed to suck me in from the first page. I loved how each book in this series builds on the world we first read in Middlegame. We not only learn a ton of new things, but we get to visit some of our favorite characters from previous books. Roger and Doger (sigh) I just love those two.
I loved the characters, the world, and really everything else about Tidal Creatures. I was immersed in the story and when it was over I just wanted it to keep going! I can't wait to see how the next story is going to unfold!

3.5 stars

This will certainly need a reread from me at some point after the book is fully published. It took me over two weeks to read, simply because things in my personal life blew up around the same time, and that certainly did a disservice to the reading experience.

Overall, I wanted to like this more than I did. I'd place this above [book:Seasonal Fears|58724596] in terms of ranking, but still nothing compares to [book:Middlegame|35965482]. Some characters felt more prominent than they should have been, while others that should have been on page more were hardly there at all. It felt like some information kept being repeated over and over again when characters were being told things that we as the reader already knew multiple times over.

I really liked the expanded worldbuilding of the alchemical world, and how Roger and Dodger are both so important in it, but also just another piece of a much larger puzzle. I thought the manifestations of the Moon through different mythological gods and goddesses was a great concept, even if it ended up slightly muddled as more and more characters were introduced.

I'm looking forward to whatever the fourth book will inevitably be, because I'm sure there will be one, I just hope it works some towards developing a bit more of a metaplot than books 2 and 3 have.

The first 25% of Tidal Creatures is a bit too enamored with being metaphysically clever, but if you can get past that bit, you have a book that combines the alchemical experiments of Middlegame and the manifestations of nature in Seasonal Fears into a fun and creative new entry in the series.

Tidal Creatures starts off following two narratives, one about Kelpie, a human(??) girl who works in alchemy lab and happens to have hooves, a tail, and orange skin; and one about the human manifestations of moon deities as they try to solve the murder of one of their fellow manifestations. I really enjoyed heading back into the world of alchemical constructs and cuckoos; while it took me a little longer to get on board with the moon, by the time the two narratives meet, I was fully hooked and invested in the plot.

While not as strong as Middlegame, I found Tidal Creatures to be much better than Seasonal Fears - I don’t think you need to read Seasonal Fears to read this, but I would highly recommend reading Middlegame first, as the main characters from Middlegame are heavily involved here (and many of the plot points of MG are spoiled as well).

There are a few Seanan writing quirks that will always annoy me a bit (she is very into having her POC characters talk about the problem with white people, and mini-monologues of characters talking about how they know something is bad, and they’re learning, and they’re doing their best), but I’m always impressed by her creativity in creating new worlds.

"Every night, a Moon shines down on the Impossible City...

New York Times bestselling author Seanan McGuire takes us back to the world of the award-winning Alchemical Journeys series in this action-packed follow-up to Middlegame and Seasonal Fears.

All across the world, people look up at the moon and dream of gods. Gods of knowledge and wisdom, gods of tides and longevity. Over time, some of these moon gods incarnated into the human world alongside the other manifest natural concepts. Their job is to cross the sky above the Impossible City - the heart of all creation - to keep it connected to reality.

And someone is killing them.

There are so many of them that it's easy for a few disappearances to slip through the cracks. But they aren't limitless.

In the name of the moon, the lunar divinities must uncover the roots of the plot and thwart the true goal of those behind these attacks - control of the Impossible City itself."

I know I joke about Seanan McGuire's output, but she seriously is rivaling Stephen King and probably even James Patterson... But this literally is her fifth book of the year and not her only release in June...

Reading Tidal Creatures felt like Seanan McGuire answered all the prayers I had after finishing Seasonal Fears. Some background information for those who haven’t read the Alchemical Journeys series (or my reviews of Middlegame and Seasonal Fears): Middlegame is one of my all-time favourite books, primarily due to the two protagonists Roger and Dodger. I never expected it would become a series. When Seasonal Fears was announced, I understood it to be more of a spiritual sucessor set in the same world of Middlegame. I prepared myself for little mention of Roger and Dodger. I was right to do so. Seasonal Fears expands the alchemical worldbuilding a bit further, but the new protagonists meant nothing to me.

So, I went into Tidal Creatures with a well-adjusted mindset, preparing for a book more in the vein of Seasonal Fears than Middlegame. But no! (This is where you should dip out of the review if you want absolutely no information about Tidal Creatures‘ plot and characters.)

Tidal Creatures features new protagonists Judy (who shares her body with an incarnation of the celestial goddess Chang’e) and Kelpie (who begins the story knowing nothing about her past and quickly learns more after she escapes from an alchemist’s lab). Tidal Creatures doesn’t try to recreate the characterization or relationship buidling that were so strongly present in Middlegame and absent (for me) in Seasonal Fears. But at least I found both Judy and Kelpie more interesting characters than Seasonal Fears‘ Melanie or Harry. Certainly it helps, for my personal preferences, that neither are framed primarily by a romantic relationship. But what truly excited me was the shift back to a focus on Roger and Dodger.

I was definitely screaming crying throwing up when Erin and Smita appeared. (Actually, I was clapping like people do on a sitcom when a famous guest start walks in lmao). I highlighted every single little reference to Roger before he’s actually named or appears himself on page. Tidal Creatures begins focused on Judy and Kelpie, but Roger and Dodger (and Erin!) play a much larger role in her story than they did in Melanie and Harry’s. Once they’re introduced, they remain part of the action. We even get a decent number of pages from Dodger’s POV, and learn a lot more about what’s next for her and Roger, and their relatiosnhip with the Impossible City.

I wondered for a minute if the structure of this series will be a bit like Wayward Children – some books focus more on Roger and Dodger, some books less? I can only continue to pray we get more like this. But, we’ve only got two books left in the series after Tidal Creatures: Inkpot Gods in 2026 and Asphodel in 2028 (source). You should have seen the look on my face when I saw the final book is titled Aphodel. I have some working theories about her, one of which is that she’s not actually dead, but I am currently revising that theory based on a few tidbits of info revealed in this book 👀

We’re working through the elements. MIDDLEGAME = Fire SEASONAL FEARS = Earth TIDAL CREATURES = Water INKPOT GODS = Air ASPHODEL = Aether

— Seanan McGuire (@seananmcguire.bsky.social) Mar 31, 2024 at 19:45
In addition to so much Roger and Dodger Erin, we get so much more worldbuilding! Look, if you’re all about the characters, then yes, they’re great, but for me there is no recreating the relationship from Roger and Dodger. So what I’m looking for with each new installment in this series is A) more of Roger/Dodger/Erin and B) more worldbuilding. Tidal Creatures offers a lot more concrete worldbuilding, including where/how Roger and Dodger fit into it all. Excellent, I was quite pleased by this. Also I think now that maybe I should reread Seasonal Fears to see if I pick up more on the worldbuilding in that volume. I do recall that reading Seasonal Fears, even if I didn’t love it, helped me better understand a few things in Middlegame, so perhaps Tidal Creatures will do the same for me and Seasonal Fears.

464 pages zipped by like nothing. I read this book in under 24 hours. I would read more chunksters if they were written like this! I adore the writing style McGuire uses in this series, which I find quite similar to the style of Wayward Children. It’s just so compelling, it never feels like a good place to pause reading so I just keep going. I don’t listen to audiobooks but I imagine the audio versions of this series would be *chef’s kiss*.

Now, I will be a little more critical and admit that yes, the plot structure feels quite familiar. The conclusion was a bit anti-climatic. But I don’t care much about that – I’m all about the characters with a good serving of worldbuilding with this series.

The Bottom Line 💭
If you loved Middlegame, or especially were a fan of Roger, Dodger, or Erin, then you need to pick up Tidal Creatures. If you didn’t care for Seasonal Fears and were thinking of dropping the series, PLEASE RECONSIDER. If you didn’t love Middlegame but you did love Seasonal Fears… 🤔 then I can’t relate and you’ll have to decided for yourself if you should read Tidal Creatures lol.

If you haven't read Middlegame in a while, I would recommend doing a quick refresher since this one depends on some knowledge from that book. Still great, but I do wish I had read the first more recently. Regardless, McGuire always treats character development with a special skill that few other authors seem to master. I love her writing and this book. Will definitely purchase for the collection!

_Tidal Creatures_ is a direct sequel to _Middlegame_, which I loved. I wish I had read it more recently before reading this one as it did rely on knowledge of the previous book to make sense. _Tidal Creatures_ is the story of Kelpie, an alchemical construct intended to help the alchemists harness the energy of the Lunars, manifestations of various lunar gods.

The story is engaging, with unexpected twists and turns. I really enjoyed it.

Thanks to Netgalley and Tor for the early copy of Tidal Creatures by Seanan McGuire. Below is my honest review.

The latest entry in the Alchemical Journeys follows manifestations of the moon goddesses from all sorts of cultures around the world. They follow the night sky over the Impossible City, shining their light over the City's residents. They also have their own special entryways into the Everything, providing paths to their Windows that let them perform their shining duties. Unfortunately, the alchemists have figured that out and are trying to find a way to use those moon goddesses to get access and claim the Impossible City.

Luckily for the rest of the world, a handful of misfits find their way to each other, including some major deals like, oh, the living embodiments of the Doctrine of Ethos.

I really enjoyed this one. It took a while to build, but once it did, we got to learn a TON about the alchemical world and met some really cool characters. I can't wait for the next one!

Definitely recommended, but please read the first two before picking this one up.

First things, first, I enjoyed this book a lot. I love this world of alchemy and the metaphysical and manifest gods/ideas that McGuire has created. I love the variety of characters, their different abilities and agencies, and that no one is truly safe. There is always a true edge of danger for the characters, which more writers need to have in their writing.

That said, this addition to this series is not as good as the first or the second book. I would say that unlike the second book, you really need to have read Middlegame in order to understand and follow this one. Also, I felt like this book spent a lot more time explaining the exposition/characters than actually showing the exposition. It really shines when it lets the characters lead, and (perhaps ironically,) the characters don't get to shine as much in this book. And while it is a lengthy book, part of why it suffers is that we don't get enough time with the villain of this particular book; the horror is there, but it's muted compared to the first two. The ending also felt rather anti-climactic, especially compared with the previous books. The beginning, though...that was a such a masterpiece of drawing you in to the story and the characters.

It's still great! Definitely earns its four stars; it is fascinating, disturbing, and creative the way I expect all of McGuire's writing to be, and she doesn't disappoint on that front. I hope she keeps returning to this world, because I'm here for it. If you liked either of the first two books, then you'll almost certainly enjoy this one.

As always, I found myself wishing the next book had already been written and ready for me to dive into.