Sixteenth in the October Daye urban fantasy series and revolving around Sir Daye. The couple focus is on Toby and Tybalt who are two months married.
My Take
It begins with a recap of Toby and Tybalt’s wedding in When Sorrows Come, 15. That they survived their honeymoon. That’s Toby’s life . . . all about survival, lol. It sure grates Toby that she had to be nice the whole time on her honeymoon, lol.
It continues as a combination of today and looking back over how Toby and Tybalt’s relationship grew.
McGuire uses first-person protagonist point-of-view from Toby’s perspective, and it’s all such a mish-mash of Oberon’s abdicating responsibility every time things get iffy and Titania’s megalomania. I gotta say it’s a confusing story with some horrific events. I sure can’t blame Toby for telling Oberon he’s a deadbeat dad. Although Oberon seems to have made some improvements by the end of Be the Serpent.
Sharing. Yep, Raj hasn’t quite got the hang of that one.
Whoa, lots of reveals at the “court” to determine if Rayseline should be awakened early. Simon certainly has a lot to say about his actions for Eira while Rayse’s actions are revealed and judged. That Luna. What a nasty woman! And she’s getting what-for from a whole lotta purebloods and her own daughter, hee-hee!
Poor Karen, fated to a life of sleep.
That bit about the Firstborn planting a plant or a new sister or Maeve singing up a new brother was definitely an unexpected look at fae. Toby says that “every Firstborn exists to fulfill a function in Faerie, and they fulfill it through their children”. Oberon has his own reveal about his and his wives’ origins and why they had children. How their hatred grew. How poor a parent Oberon was.
There are some confusing bits in here, such as the use of the Llangefni screen, who Simon’s mother is, and what’s going on with Stacy.
Ooh, Toby goes after Oberon, who finally explains why he locked them out of Faerie.
I gotta say that I love the idea of Quentin and the other kids growing up to think of the Luidaeg as a friend instead of the world’s greatest monster.
Titania is the nastiest woman. And isn’t that sad, that cruel tricks are the entire point of Faerie.
What it gets down to is that Be the Serpent is a nasty story with such hideous betrayal. I really don’t see why that woman shouldn’t be killed. She deserves to die an extremely slow and painful death. Preferably by changelings.
I really, really, really want to see how Oberon evolves in the series.
The Story
It’s a trial of sorts as to whether Rayseline Torquill deserves to be brought out of her elf-shot sleep with a promise from Toby.
Rayse only wants to feel safe and learn who she is without her mother hovering with her expectations.
And the oracles. The Seers. Faerie is making them because they’ll be needed.
The Characters
Sir October “Toby” Daye, Dóchas Sidhe, a bloodworker, is the Knight of Lost Words, the official Hero of the Realm of the Kingdom in the Mists, also known as Aunt Birdie. Jonathan Daye had been her human father. Her “former” mother is Amandine the Liar, a Firstborn daughter of Oberon and Janet Carter. Quentin is Toby’s squire and had been a blind foster until he was revealed as the son of the High King and Queen of the Westlands . . . and the current crown prince. Dean Lorden, Quentin’s boyfriend and Toby’s brother by marriage, is the oldest son of Dianda and Patrick as well as the Count of Goldengreen (Ashes of Honor, 6). May had been Toby’s Fetch (An Artificial Night, 3).
Tybalt is the Cait Sidhe king of the Court of Dreaming Cats in San Francisco and Toby’s new husband. Raj is Tybalt’s nephew and heir and “brother” to Quentin. Juliet “Julie” is a tiger-striped changeling Cait Sidhe of the Court of Dreaming Cats.
Muir Woods is . . .
. . . Arden, Queen Windermere’s knowe (Chimes at Midnight, 7). Her younger brother is Crown Prince Nolan. Madden, a Cu Sidhe, is her seneschal. Cassandra Brown, an aeromancer is the queen’s chatelaine and Toby’s honorary niece. Lowri is the captain of the Queen’s Guard. Walther Davies is a Tylwyth Teg and a chemistry professor at UC-Berkeley who created the cure for elf-shot. Gilad had been Arden and Nolan’s father, the Lady Sebille their mother; Denley had been the first King in the Mists.
The Undersea Duchy of Saltmist is . . .
. . . part of the Undersea Kingdom of Leucothea. Simon Torquill Lorden, Toby’s official father, is married to Duchess Dianda and Patrick Lorden. August (The Winter Long, 8), Toby’s sister and the only other Dóchas Sidhe in the world, chose to side with Simon as well. Peter is Dianda and Patrick’s younger son. Simon’s mother had been a human, Celaeno.
Shadowed Hills is . . .
. . . the duchy ruled over by the discourteous Sylvester Torquil, a Daoine Sidhe (who had been a changeling), and the spiteful Luna, a Blodynbryd. Their horrible elf-shot daughter, Rayseline, has had a horrible life as a child whose blood warred between fae and plant. Jin, who had served in the court of Arden’s grandparents, is an Ellyllon and a healer. Sir Etienne, a Tuatha de Dannan, is married to Professor Bridget Ames, a human. Chelsea, a powerful teleporter, is their daughter. Melly and Ormond are Hobs who run the place.
The Roane had . . .
. . . formerly been the Selkies of Half-Moon Bay. Elizabeth Norton is their leader. Gillian Marks, Toby’s formerly human daughter, is now a Roane (The Unkindest Tide, 13).
Mitch, a changeling of Hob heritage, and Stacy Brown, one-quarter fae, Barrow Wight, are two of Toby’s best friends and parents to their five remaining children, who all seem to be Seers: Cassandra; Karen, an oneiromancer; Andrew, a pyromancer; Tony; and, Jessica, who will probably be a rhapsodomancer. Her grandparents, pure-blooded Gwragen, disliked changelings.
Faerie
Oberon is the Lord of All Faerie. He abandoned Faerie when a Ride failed and Maeve, one of his wives and the Winter Queen with a power for transformations, disappeared. Titania was the Summer Queen with a power for illusions. Janet “Jenny” Carter, Amandine’s mother, broke Maeve’s Ride,
The Luidaeg, a.k.a. the sea witch, the Lady of the Lake, and Antigone of Albany, is Toby’s aunt and known as mother of the Roanes and binder of the Selkies. Poppy, a pixie who got big, is the Luidaeg’s Aes Sidhe apprentice.
Amphitrite, Firstborn of the Merrow and one of Titania’s daughters, is not a malicious fae. Erda was devoted to her mother, Titania, and opened the Shadow Roads to the Cait Sidhe. The Cait Sidhe are the descendants of Malvic, Oberon’s son. Jibvel. Eira Rosynhwyr, a.k.a. Evening Winterrose, a Firstborn of Oberon and Titania who hated all Seers, had been Simon’s evil boss. Eira had invented elf-shot, a poison that puts a pureblood to sleep for 100 years and kills changelings. It sounds like the Morgen were a branch of fae who died out; they had belonged to Liban. Ffion is Firstborn of the Ellyllon.
Acacia, a.k.a. the Mother of Trees, is the widow of Blind Michael (An Artificial Night). Luna is their daughter. Hoshibara is the kitsune whose skin Luna stole.
Oleander de Merelands, of Peri descent, had been an assassin and Simon’s handler/lover. Connor O’Dell, a Selkie, had been Toby’s boyfriend back in One Salt Sea, 5. April O’Leary is (A Local Habitation, 2) a cyber dryad and the Countess of Tamed Lightning, trying to bring technology to Faerie. January had been April’s “mother” (A Local Habitation, 2). Elliot, from Tamed Lightning, is a Bannick, a species notorious for cleaning. Diamont looked more like a boulder than a boy and became the father of the Bridge Trolls. Queen Regent Amalia and Crown Prince Theunis rule the Court of Angels in Los Angeles.
Manuel Lorimer had changed his mind by the end of Late Eclipses, 4. Gordon. Dare had been one of Devin’s kids in the Home in Rosemary and Rue, 1. Kerry loves to bake and had been one of the four with Julie, Stacy, and Toby. Changelings and merlins make up most of the therapeutic network.
Dugan had been a courtier to the false Queen of the Mists. Changelings, part fae and part human, are considered a disposable underclass. Thomas the Rhymer. Danny, a taxi driver, is a Bridge Troll and a friend of Toby’s.
The Shadow Roads are airless and freezing able to be travelled only by the Cait Sidhe. Night-haunts eat the flesh and magic of dead fae. A Llangefni screen is a form of illusion. A Ride occurred every seven years, alternating between Maeve and Titania, feeding a human sacrifice to the Heart that had created Oberon, Maeve, and Titania. Knowes are hollow hills built where the nearest realm of Faeire intersects with the human world. As they grow, they start to have their own opinions.
The Cover and Title
The cover finds a leather-clad Toby prepared to swing her blade at the danger menacing her and a fae sitting in the bracken with an arrow in his shoulder. The background is quiet in its foggy setting, softening the huge tree trunks and the field of giant mushrooms. At the very top is an info blurb in a white-shadowed black with the author’s name below it in red. A green badge proclaims more information in a pale yellow. The title is in a white distressed font at the bottom, crossing Toby’s hips. At the very bottom on the right is the series info in pale yellow.
All I can come up with for the title is that friend who will Be the Serpent.