I received this book for free from in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Sleep No More
by
Seanan McGuire
urban fantasy in a Kindle edition that was published by DAW Books on September 5, 2023 and has 385 pages.
Explore it on Goodreads or Amazon
Other books by this author which I have reviewed include Rosemary and Rue, A Local Habitation, An Artificial Night, Late Eclipses, One Salt Sea, Discount Armageddon, Home Improvement: Undead Edition, “Never Shines the Sun”, Chimes at Midnight, "In Sea-Salt Tears", Indexing, The Mad Scientist’s Guide to World Domination, Half-Off Ragnarok, Midway Relics and Dying Breeds, Games Creatures Play, The Winter Long, Sparrow Hill Road, The InCryptid Prequels, Pocket Apocalypse, Black as Blood, Blocked, White as a Raven's Wing, The Ghosts of Bourbon Street, IM, "Good Girls Go to Heaven", A Red Rose Chain, "Full of Briars", Reflections, Once Broken Faith, "Dreams and Slumbers", Shadowed Souls, Chaos Choreography, Magic For Nothing, Indigo, Every Heart a Doorway, Down Among the Sticks and Bones, The Brightest Fell, "Of Things Unknown", Beneath the Sugar Sky, Night and Silence, "Suffer a Sea-change", The Girl in the Green Silk Gown, "The Recitation of the Most Holy and Harrowing Pilgrimage of Mindy and Also Mork", Tricks for Free, That Ain't Witchcraft, "The Measure of a Monster", The Unkindest Tide, "Hope is Swift", Come Tumbling Down, Imaginary Numbers, "Follow the Lady", In an Absent Dream, "The Fixed Stars", "Forbid the Sea", "No Sooner Met", Across the Green Grass Fields, A Killing Frost, "Shine in Pearl", When Sorrows Come, "And with Reveling", "Singing the Comic-Con Blues”, "Candles and Starlight", "Such Dangerous Seas"
Seventeenth in the October Daye urban fantasy series and revolving around a former half-changeling, half-fae knight. The focus is on a perfect Titania-created Faerie.
Unless you’ve read the entire series, you’ll miss a lot of how this land of Faerie has changed.
My Take
I really did NOT like this story at the start but I did get into it better as it went along. I still don’t like it. I hated the concept that McGuire put forth, showing us how awful Faerie could be under Titania. The whole idea of bearing a child you’ll turn into a servant, the disgust for whole branches of fae. It was bad enough in the old “world”, but this one is so much worse. Even if August and October are living together in the same household.
It’s October’s conflicts over “knowing her place” and being happy about it versus her desire to get out and see things that makes things interesting, although that opening chapter was quite confusing. I was under the impression that the Hamadryad family was on the move during Moving Day — “We departed on the first hour of the Moving Day festivities”. My confusion about this world only grew deeper — which is why I gave Sleep No More a low rating. I gotta say McGuire did a great job of obfuscating why what was happening was happening.
McGuire is using first person protagonist point-of-view from October’s perspective, and I do think McGuire could of used it better. Sure it was well done, but . . . it was too easy in some ways. It felt as if October was accepting things too easily OR at least not fighting the truths she learns very much. Maybe I’d’ve liked it better if there’d been more angst . . . I dunno.
Amandine. Yeah, that’s a fae at whose death I would rejoice. She is the nastiest woman! She’s bringing up October to be comfortable as a servant in someone’s household, maybe August’s. It’s a law in this Faerie that each noble house and Firstborn bear a changeling child to ensure there’ll be servants. What the Luidaeg reveals about Amy’s actions during October’s childhood made me want to scream!
The twists and turns McGuire does to “explain” why things are the way they are in this new world are enough to make me gag. Although, I did enjoy Arden’s revenge on Oleander!
Toby does get her wish for adventure and McGuire uses this to show up how medieval Toby’s life is. It also begins to open Toby’s eyes to other truths. This traveling about also shows us how different life is in Sleep No More compared to all the previous stories in the series.
Chrysanthe has a nice agreement with her fae and others, as does Duchess Zhou. Simon hasn’t had his experiences and has had a, ahem, hypocritical family life in which he’s fooling himself about October. Nice that some aren’t suffering too badly. Then again we learn about the Cait Sidhe being trapped and the Undersea’s trauma.
This story holds a version of Luna that never ran away from home. I can see why she ran. There’s also a bit of back history on the Cait Sidhe and how the Cat Courts were formed which is fascinating. Poor Tybalt. He’s so confused and angry!
That Etienne is something of a hypocrite as well, as you’ll learn when you read some of his back story. Hmph.
Oh, wow. The Luidaeg summarizes up Titania’s reasons for doing what she’s done, and how October is at the heart of so much of it. Her explanation is riveting. Ah, geez. We also learn more about October’s childhood and what Amy was doing to her, a drop at a time. It does bring up a question. The Luidaeg tells October that changing someone’s blood balance to human meant death. Does she mean that now that person would eventually die or that they died on the spot? It does serve to point up Amy’s selfishness. Yeah, really, that woman should just die.
It’s noted that Titania doesn’t create but does decorate.
There is wisdom at the end in terms of love and friendship, about true parentage,
Oberon. Oh, brother. What a mess he’s made. He didn’t think anything through and created a murdering monster.
It’s a Faerie shaped to Titania’s “perfect” preferences . . . *shudder*
The Story
Something is very wrong in Dreamer’s Glass and Duchess Zhou requires someone of Sylvester’s bloodline to cope with it. Luckily, it’s Moving Day and therefore safe for a changeling to be on the move between lands.
It was a mistake to let October out into this new Faerie . . . where she encounters people who knew her before. They know that she can save them, as she always has before.
The Characters
Mother’s Tower is . . .
. . . home base for Amandine the Liar, the Firstborn of Oberon and Janet Carter and August and October’s mother, who has the power to balance someone’s blood. Father is Simon, Count Torquill, Sylvester’s twin and sworn alchemist to the Rose of Winter, a Simon who had been born a changeling. The easily bored August is the elder and “true” daughter while October, a.k.a. Aunt Birdie, is the required changeling servant daughter; both are Dóchas Sidhe, blood balancers.
Shadowed Hills is . . .
. . . a backwater duchy ruled by a bachelor Duke (and uncle and hero) Sylvester Torquill. Sir Etienne is Sylvester’s seneschal and has a new squire, Quentin, a blind foster who hates and despises changelings. Bridget “Bess” Ames is Etienne’s human wife and a professor of folklore; Chelsea is their “changeling” daughter. Sir Grianne is a Candela with a crew of Merry Dancers and Sir Garm is a Gwragen, known for their illusions. Kerry is a Hob changeling and October’s friend; Melly is her mother, the unofficial chatelaine of the knowe. Meriel. Ilya is a Bannick who works in the laundry. Helen is an unaffiliated changeling. Ormond. Sir Tavis is a Bridge Troll. Jin is an Ellyllon healer.
Dame Eloise Altair, a minor local Daoine Sidhe noble, pretends to be nice. Kyle, a Bridge Troll, runs with her in the night. Luna is a Blodynbryd who owns the Summer Roads Key that had belonged to her grandmother; Blind Michael is her father. January ap Learainth, who still lives at her father’s halls in Briarholme, would have been cousin to October. Rayseline, in the “other” story, was supposed to serve a year in October’s household.
Golden Shore is . . .
. . . a kingdom of refuge for changelings where King Theron and Queen Chrysanthe are Ceryneian Hinds. And there’re no extradition treaties. Arden and Nolan Windermere, brother and sister, who can trace their lineage back to Armorica, are working for them, rescuing changelings. They used to live in Muir Woods. Madden, a Cu Sidhe, is the Windermeres’ best friend. King Gilad and Queen Sebille Windermere had been Arden and Nolan’s parents and the rulers of the Kingdom in the Mists before they were murdered by Oleander de Merelands.
The Duchy of Cattails is . . .
. . . within Golden Shore. Dame vch Gwenlan has a farm here.
Wild Strawberries is . . .
. . . a kingdom from which a lot of changelings are fleeing.
The Kingdom of Silences requires . . .
. . . Amy’s services.
Dreamer’s Glass is . . .
. . . a duchy ruled by Li Qin Zhou, a Shyi Shuai, a luck fae. Siôn is a Coblynau with a gift of finding. Terrie-Alexander is a Gean-Cannah changeling. April O’Leary is a cyber dryad who hasn’t changed and reminds an unknowing Toby of too much and hurts Li Qin with what she doesn’t remember. Avebury, a Barrow Wight, is a familiar! cook. Minna is Avebury’s sister who has never come back to visit. In the other world, the duchy had been ruled by Duchess Riordan.
Tamed Lightning is . . .
. . . the county ruled by January O’Leary, the Countess of Tamed Lightning, who is April’s other mother and Li Qin’s wife . . . but not here. Yui had been January’s talented alchemist.
The Undersea is . . .
. . . an entire kingdom cut off. The impossible Dean Lorden is the son of a Merrow, Dianda, and her beloved Daoine Sidhe, Patrick Lorden. Peter is Dean’s younger brother.
Chained Thunder had been . . .
. . . a failed fiefdom.
Oberon is the Lord of all Faerie with two queens: Titania, the Summer Queen, a.k.a. the Lady of Flowers and Mother of Illusions, and the “dishonored” Maeve, the Winter Queen, a.k.a. the Lady of Frost and the Traitor Queen.
The Luidaeg, a.k.a. Antigone of Albany and the sea witch, is a banished, dead?, daughter of Oberon and Maeve. Other siblings included Ismene, Hirsent, and Mug Ruith was her youngest brother, who became Blind Michael whose hunts stole and transformed children into Riders and Ridden. Blind Michael married Acacia, the Mother of the Trees, Firstborn of the Dryads and of the Blodynbryd, and Titania’s daughter. Eira Rosynhwyr, a.k.a. the Rose of Winter, is a Firstborn of Titania. The Cait Sidhe are the only line descended from all of the Three: Erda is a daughter of Titania, Malvic is a son of Oberon and Titania and the first King among Cats, and Jibvel is a son of Maeve.
Tybalt is one of Malvic’s, a Cait Sidhe and king of the Court of Dreaming Cats in San Francisco. He’s also Toby’s husband after events in When Sorrows Come, 15. Raj (of Erda’s line) is Toby’s nephew and heir. Depending on which story we’re in, Ginerva is either a visiting Princess from the Court of Whispering Cats or Queen Regent to the Court of Dreaming Cats.
Know that the Cait Sidhe have been extinct for centuries . . . in Titania’s Faerie. None of the beast kind walk in Titania’s Faerie.
The Browns had been Stacy and Mitch’s children. Seers all. Anthony, Jessica is no more, and Andrew are those who appear. May Daye had been October’s Fetch in the other world until she was simply Toby’s sister. Jazz is May’s significant other. Poppy is the oversized pixie who is the Luidaeg’s apprentice.
The Queen of the Mists is the false one. Moving Days are Samhain and Beltaine when the courtiers, changelings, and servants could move between demesnes without giving offense. Lughnasa is a banned festival. Eion and Maia are Hamadryads, descended from Melia. Their beloved changeling children are Ashla and Gable. The Library of Stars. In either world, changelings are lesser, born to be servants to the fae. The Iron Tree is the ultimate execution device. Night-haunts eat dead fae and leave behind a simulacrum. “Devin” is here and runs Home where changelings can find refuge.
There are Roads that were opened by or for specific groups: the Blood Road, the Thorn Road is for Maeve’s children to escape Titania’s, the Road of Rust is for the Gremlins, and the Shadow Roads belong to the Cait Sidhe and are used by the Candela. The Moorland Trail had been a shortcut. The Rides — a true Ride is always a sacrifice — occurred every seven years to deliver a sacrifice to the Heart (the very core of Faerie) to heal the wound that happened when the Three were made. The Changeling’s Choice is when a changeling must choose between being fae or human.
The Cover and Title
The cover is a gloomy brown wallpaper, well-suited to the storyline with an oval mirror reflecting a grim, forward-facing Toby. In front of the mirror is another grim long-haired Toby in her black leather jacket and a long green gown, holding a sword. At the top is an info blurb in yellow with the author’s name in white below it. To the left of Toby’s hips is a black badge with an inner yellow border and another info blurb. The title is a’slant below Toby’s hips in a yellow distressed font. Trapped between the first and last words of the title is the series info in yellow.
The title is the heartfelt wish of many who wish to Sleep No More in Titania’s “perfect” world.
