Looking For a Good Book

The 19th book in the October Daye series!

October (Toby) Daye is pregnant and she’s been confined to the house and it’s driving her crazy. When a chance comes to leave, she takes it, even though it is a potentially very dangerous mission for the Queen, and even though Toby is getting close to her due date.

Some valuable artifacts have been stolen from the Queen’s vault. Artifacts, which, in the wrong hands, could mean a lot of trouble for everyone in the realm. Of course this is a job for Toby – it’s just the sort of thing she does on a regular basis, but she’s not usually 8-1/2 months pregnant.

With her usual combination of skill and recklessness, Toby tracks down both the artifacts and those involved in stealing them, putting both herself and her unborn child in mortal danger.

Just as I was beginning to wonder if it was time to stop reading the October Daye series, author Seanan McGuire pulls some magic out of her word processor and delivers another exciting story in the ongoing Daye saga.

One of the reasons I think about stopping my reading of the series is that there has been, in my mind, a lot of ‘sameness’ to each book – in order to save the realm, a group of people, her family, or whatever, there’s something that only Toby can accomplish. She shouldn’t go. She’s not at full strength. But she does it anyway, coming close to death, but someone she knows (her husband, the queen, someone with a vested interest, someone who owes her a favor), steps in to help. Want to guess which that book is from? All of them maybe?

But in the hands of master craftsperson Seanan McGuire, it doesn’t matter too much. They’re a heck of a lot of fun. McGuire keeps us on the edge of our seats waiting and wondering – not so much about whether or not Toby will succeed, but HOW she will succeed, and how damaged she’ll be with the outcome.

But what also makes it interesting is that there are very few clear-cut ‘good’ or ‘bad’ people. You’re never quite sure if person ‘X’ is going to be helpful or harmful in the story. Not because they switch allegiances (though that’s possible) but perhaps they’ve been enchanted, or perhaps they’re just people and looking out for themselves. This definitely keeps us on our toes and, as I say, helps to keep the series fresh and interesting.

As with all the October Daye books that I’ve read, this includes a short story/novella at the back of the book, and like, usual, it’s from someone else’s viewpoint. This time it’s Baron Torquill – a voice new to me, but I liked his tale every bit as much as Toby’s. I hope we’ll see more of him in future volumes.

These books are very entertaining for fans of fantasy or urban fantasy or contemporary fantasy (I’m not sure of the current, correct term for this genre). McGuire is a master storyteller. It may be hard to jump right in to this book without knowing more of the history of the character. However, I think that McGuire does a very good job of keeping the reader caught up on anything important that may have gone on before. Reading the previous books in the series may not be essential, but would be helpful.

Looking for a good book? Silver and Lead is the 19th book in the October Daye series by Seanan McGuire. You don’t get to 19 books in a series if you aren’t doing something right. If you haven’t read anything in this series and you claim you like fantasy, you need to try these books. If you already like Toby Daye, this will likely ‘wow’ you.

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

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Silver and Lead

author: Seanan McGuire

series: October Daye #19

publisher: Tor Books

ISBN: 9781250375193

hardcover, 400 pages