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Ashes of Honor
It is part of the October Daye #6 series and is a in eBook edition on September 4, 2012 and has 353 pages.
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Other books in this series include [books_series]
Sixth in the October Daye urban fantasy series about Toby, a knight in Duke Torquil’s service in San Francisco. It’s been a year since events in One Salt Sea.
My Take
I just love this series and this story is no exception. If only because Toby finally gets just why it is that Tybalt keeps coming to her rescue! McGuire is colorful and describes people, scenes, and battles beautifully. She does an incredible job of blending the supernatural wonders of the fae with the down home qualities of Toby and overlaying it all with very human values.
Whew…it’s betrayals galore against a sea of friendship and honor. More heart-stopping action that you can imagine and a whirlwind tour of many fae knowes, Courts, and Faerie.
While it’s wonderful that Toby insists upon protecting everyone, she does need to consider potential situations lest she continue to need rescuing and coming to the attention of the human police.
Toby learns from Etienne how difficult life was at Court when Luna and Rayseline were kidnapped, which helps to explain his own actions. However, she is amazingly clueless about Tybalt, who feels increasingly thwarted by Toby’s obtuseness. Events in Ashes of Honor certainly don’t make it easy for him to find the opportunity to illuminate her!
It’s Chelsea’s experiments and flight that cause all the problems in this one from the revolt in the Court of Cats to Riordan’s fleeing the County.
Oh, I just love what Tybalt says to Toby: “Some of us, October, will not leave you.” I cried. It’s also where Toby starts to get a glimmer of the truth.
Toby makes an excellent counterpoint to Bridget’s nastiness about the fae stealing human children. So, take that, Professor Ames!
The Story
How very embarrassing for Etienne. One of Toby’s critics at Shadowed Hills, and now he’s come begging for her help. Seems Etienne has been a very bad boy and his chick has, well, not exactly flown home so much as escaped the roost, trying out her powers. Now he needs Toby’s help precisely because of the woman she is.
It’s catch-as-catch-can back-and-forth between everyone. If we’re lucky, Toby will catch Chelsea before she rips Faerie apart. Before the assassins win.
The Characters
Sir October “Toby” Daye is a “knight errant in service to the Court of Shadowed Hills. Spike, her little rose goblin, does what it can to help. Cagney and Lacey are her half-Siamese cats, spies for Tybalt. Quentin is a fosterling assigned to Toby as her squire. Some very subtle hints are tossed in here as to the identity of Quentin’s family and I’m curious to find out if my suspicions are correct. May Daye, Toby’s Fetch, is her roommate and “legally” her twin sister. Jazz is a raven shifter and May’s girlfriend. Amandine is Toby’s Firstborn mother, a daughter of Oberon who brought Toby up as Daoine Sidhe when, in reality, she’s a Dóchas Sidhe.
Tybalt, a Cait Sidhe and the local King of Cats, is…ahem…”the meddling tomcat who doesn’t respect the boundaries of others” per Toby. Good thing as Toby needs a lot of rescuing in this one. Anne O’Toole was Tybalt’s wife. Raj is Tybalt’s adopted nephew and his most likely heir to the throne of the Court of Cats. He also knows better than Toby how Tybalt feels about her. Samson is Raj’s ambitious, moral-less father. Julie accepts Toby, grudgingly. Shade is Tybalt’s opposite number — the Queen of Cats and is not allowed to interfere with another Cat Court.
Sir Etienne is a Tuatha de Dannan knight in Sylvester’s service and not one of Toby’s fans. The belligerent and obnoxious Professor Bridget Ames teaches folklore at UC-Berkeley and is in a rage with Etienne for what she perceives as his betrayal. Chelsea is the changeling daughter with too much power whom he didn’t know he had.
Sylvester Torquill, the Duke of Shadowed Hills, is Toby’s Daoine Sidhe liege lord and practically a father to her. His duchess is Luna, Blind Michael and Acacia’s daughter. She’s a Blodynbryd, a rose dryad. Toby’s relationship with Luna continues to fracture. Grianne has her own band of MerryDancers, and Jin is an Ellyllon healer.
Countess April O’Leary of Tamed Lightning (A Local Habitation) is a friend, a computer construct come to life with the help of a dryad, and the “daughter” of January O’Leary, Sylvester’s niece. Li Quin Zhou, a Shyi Shuai, a luck fae, is Countess January’s widowed spouse with certain privileges that come in handy. Elliot is a Bannick, a Russian fae with a need to clean.
The Luidaeg, a Firstborn, a child of Maeve and Oberon, and an old sea hag to whom the Selkies owe their existence, is Toby’s aunt. It seems she’s been hiding her real home under a pigsty. Professor Walther Davies is a Tylwyth Teg and a chemistry professor at UC-Berkeley. Jack is Professor Davies’ much put-upon graduate student.
Officer Thornton is with the San Francisco Police Department and just keeps being more and more interested in just who Toby Daye is.
Treasa Riordan, the Duchess of Dreamer’s Glass, is a paranoid, greedy, aggressive regent for her land, which borders Tamed Lightning. Sergio is a Folletti, an invisible fae who look as if made from spun glass and he and his fellows work for the duchess.
Danny is a fae taxi driver. The “knowes are little pieces hewn out of the Summerlands, carved to fit fae needs and desires…reflect[ing] the personalities of their keepers”. Devin ran the Home, a refuge for street kids who were changelings but it was NOT from the goodness of his heart (see Rosemary and Rue). Dean Lorden has taken over the County of Goldengreen from Toby. There is a High King and Queen of Faerie who live in Toronto.
Shadowed Hills is a secret Faerie fiefdom hidden outside San Francisco ruled by Duke Sylvester. The Shadow Roads are Tybalt’s secret pathways. There are different realms in Faerie: The Undersea is the home of the Merrow and Selkies, water creatures; the Fire Kingdoms which are the domain of salamders, the Keali, Teine Sith, and Djinn; the Land Kingdoms are where most of the fae live; the Oversky which is anchored in the clouds and is home to the Folletti among others; and, the Snow Kingdoms. The Rose Road can be accessed by a Blodynbryd and it runs between” the Summerlands and places where the walls of the world are thin”. Annwn is one of the deep realms cut off from the rest of the fae by Oberon five hundred years ago.
The Cover and Title
The cover is shades of purple from the lavender to the grayed red-violet of Toby’s shirt while a pointy-eared Toby, in a leather jacket and hip-hugging jeans, cautiously listens outside a building. There’s a feel to the cover and I can’t decide if it’s snowing or we’re underwater…!?
I don’t know what inspired the title unless it is the remains of cait sidhe who didn’t survive the chase through the Court of Cats. That would indeed make them Ashes of Honor.
