#owlbear reads Toby Daye

[owlbear33]

Fairy Blood Magic Alchemy is terrifying, A Red-Rose Chain was fantastic

I think I've read it 3 times now, and I've read every Toby book up to this point at least 3 times, the books after this point only once (at most, I'm still waiting on paperbacks of Sleep No More onwards)

it feels like these books get more gorry and injurious for Toby with each book up to this point*, I think iirc the trend is downward from this point

Once Broken Faith next, a book I don't really remember all that well, but as I said I've only read it once before, maybe it will come back to me as I reread it

*(Ashes of Honor with its multiple disembowellings is adn outlier and should not be counted)

[owlbear33]

I need that August/Arden arranged marriage fic, I'd write it myself but I've got no idea where to start

I mean maybe she was suggesting marrying off Nolan (that seems more likely), but Arden is more fun

[owlbear33]

read When Sorrows Come today, along with its accompanying novella, really really good, so many sweet character moments, an absolute joy to (re)read.

I think some of my fave scenes are all the tender conversations between Toby and Quentin, I love their relationship so much

really it felt like a chance to check in with so many of the characters that have popped up once or twice in the preceding 14 books

seeing Pete again was fun

I think this is the first book where Kerry has been fairly major, like she's not had more than the odd mention in prior books, she's pretty great

August, August intrigues me, I hope we get more of her in future books

and this brings me back to Be The Serpent the book that started this reread, going to start that tomorrow (well later today, it's already 1:50 am) and then I'm not sure, maybe I'll switch to InCriptid and reread all of that, or maybe I'll get back into Mercy Thompson and give what I have of that a reread (still not a massive fan of Patricia Briggs Werewolf lore), or something else,

I'll need something to read between now and when I get my hands on Sleep No More at the end of August

[owlbear33]

I LOVE Arden Windermere

Chimes At Midnight was good, introduces Arden and she's a lot of fun, as is Madden, Mags and so much else

Goblin Fruit is interesting, I guess it's the Toby Daye answer to the stories of things going really badly for humans that find themselves in fairyland, eating fairy food

I think it's much more that, than a funky anti-drug PSA

good book

anyhows, on to The Winter Long

[owlbear33]

fundamentally I think I'm just that bit more attracted to hopeless romantic theatre nerd Cat(Man) Tybalt than I am to Ex-Military (current Security contractor) Domineering Control Freak Werewolf Adam Hauptman

[owlbear33]

so yeah that's Toby done with till the end of August

I think I'm going to stick with the Contemporary Fantasy and Fairies theme and give The Modern Faerie Tales by Holly Black another go, failing that I'll try and give what I have of the Mercy Thompson series (Patricia Briggs) a reread

maybe one then the other, we'll see assuming I finish The Modern Faerie Tales

[owlbear33]

the end of One Salt Sea has always brought tears, and this time was no different

Absolutely amazing book

[owlbear33]

I think one of my fave things from the Toby Daye series in terms of worldbuilding is the sorta semi-sentient architecture

I just love that if you talk to the walls a bit (in a knowe), be polite and friendly, and the walls will be polite and friendly back

more generally I love all the little extradimensional spaces fairies have access to, from Shallowings right up to skerries and all in between, but I really really love that a knowe wants you to be nice to it, you should be nice to your knowe

[owlbear33]

Ashes of Honor was fun, I love a good Magical otherworld, and I love an intricate planar cosmology (I think prior posts on such things as Planescape have made that clear), this book had loads of one and more than hintings of the other, more so even than other October Daye novels

(given such things are also present in the Incryptid series, and perhaps Wayward Children, I've not read any of that yet, I can imagine that Seanan is also a fan of such things)

idk this book was fun, and it showed us so much of the cosmology and had some great character moments, but for all the high threat, disembowelment and all, it felt like just a fun gorry and painful adventure, some of the books cover grand and momentous events, this one idk it felt like a break from that, in a good way, Toby doesn't get many of those

of course, some of these events are more momentous in hindsight

also having an Afanc show up was great

Chimes at Midnight next, time for Toby to become a kingbreaker

[owlbear33]

it may actually say this somewhere so this might actually be news but what it is, is the path from Rosemary and Rue to A Rose-Red Chain, for Toby, is a path of decreasing humanity (few bumps and backslides on that path), and resulting increase in FUCK YOU INCREDIBLE healing factor

but A Rose-Red Chain (or at least its end) is such an injurious mess for Toby, she actually has an honest near-death experience, like it was touch and go there for a moment when she got stabbed in the heart

such experiences you would hope would instil at least a touch of caution, and from my (admittedly limited) memory of the following books, they seem to have done so

Fairy Blood Magic Alchemy is terrifying, A Red-Rose Chain was fantastic

I think I've read it 3 times now, and I've read every Toby book up to this point at least 3 times, the books after this point only once (at most, I'm still waiting on paperbacks of Sleep No More onwards)

it feels like these books get more gorry and injurious for Toby with each book up to this point*, I think iirc the trend is downward from this point

Once Broken Faith next, a book I don't really remember all that well, but as I said I've only read it once before, maybe it will come back to me as I reread it

*(Ashes of Honor with its multiple disembowellings is adn outlier and should not be counted)

[owlbear33]

(wait did I really read all of Once Broken Faith today, I still have Dreams and Slumber to read though, and that can wait till morning)

I was wrong, Toby gets kinda chunky-salsad in Once Broken Faith plus there're a couple of really nasty skewerings, though only one of those was Toby

still, I think Toby spent less time in that book absolutely caked in gore it was all kinda concentrated near the end (honestly same with A Rose Red Chain), I think my point still mostly stands

Fairy Blood Magic Alchemy is terrifying, A Red-Rose Chain was fantastic

I think I've read it 3 times now, and I've read every Toby book up to this point at least 3 times, the books after this point only once (at most, I'm still waiting on paperbacks of Sleep No More onwards)

it feels like these books get more gorry and injurious for Toby with each book up to this point*, I think iirc the trend is downward from this point

Once Broken Faith next, a book I don't really remember all that well, but as I said I've only read it once before, maybe it will come back to me as I reread it

*(Ashes of Honor with its multiple disembowellings is adn outlier and should not be counted)