Review: Rosemary and Rue by Seanan McGuire

Rosemary and Rue by Seanan McGuire
DAW Books, September 2009
Genre: Urban Fantasy


From the Back of the Book:

The world of Faerie never disappeared: it merely went into hiding, continuing to exist parallel to our own. Secrecy is the key to Faerie's survival—but no secret can be kept forever, and when the fae and mortal worlds collide, changelings are born. Half-human, half-fae, outsiders from birth, these second-class children of Faerie spend their lives fighting for the respect of their immortal relations. Or, in the case of October "Toby" Daye, rejecting it completely. After getting burned by both sides of her heritage, Toby has denied the fae world, retreating into a "normal" life. Unfortunately for her, Faerie has other ideas.

The murder of Countess Evening Winterrose, one of the secret regents of the San Francisco Bay Area, pulls Toby back into the fae world. Unable to resist Evening's dying curse, which binds her to investigate, Toby is forced to resume her old position as knight errant to the Duke of Shadowed Hills and begin renewing old alliances that may prove her only hope of solving the mystery...before the curse catches up with her.

My Thoughts:

To start off, Seanan McGuire also writes under the name Mira Grant (Feed, and Deadline) so I was excited to see what she could do with the world of Faerie.  I was not disappointed.  She put her own spin on the internal workings and politics of Faerie and those differences drove the plot along well.

I loved the variety of characters and for that matter creatures, especially Tybalt the King of Cats.  It's nice when authors remember that the Faerie world doesn't just contain Elves but also Selkies, Kitsune, Trolls, and Undine.  I found the way Faerie dealt with changelings to be very intriguing and it added more tension between Toby and other members of Faerie.

I thought that the mystery aspect of Rosemary and Rue was well-handled and the twist came as a surprise to me.  I loved how all the details came together.

Rosemary and Rue was a fun read and I'm definitely looking forward to reading the rest of the series.  If you are looking to add more Urban Fantasy to your life, definitely give Rosemary and Rue a try.

Written as Part of the Speculative Fiction Challenge

Other September Reviews from the Speculative Fiction Challenge


More by this Author:
As Mira Grant:
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Review: Intrigues by Mercedes Lackey

Intrigues by Mercedes Lackey

DAW October 2010

Genre: Fantasy

Unabridged Audiobook Narrated by Nick Podehl

Official Description:

Mags was an orphan and slave of 'bad blood' who toiled in a gem mine all his young life. He would have died before adulthood, had he not been Chosen and taken to Haven to be trained in the new Herald Collegium.

Now, Mags was never hungry and never cold. He slept in a real bed in his own room and, most importantly, he had Dallen, who was like another part of himself. And yet, aside from Lena and Bear, both loners like he was, he couldn't relate to most of the Herald, Healer, or Bard trainees. He was the only trainee who came from what - to the others - was unimaginable poverty.

There was another factor that contributed to Mag's isolation. Foreign assassins, masquerading at court as envoys, were discovered. As they fled from the Guard, one of them seemed to "recognize" Mags. Now, Mags was an object of suspicion.

He had always been curious about his parents, but after the incident it became urgent for Mags to discover exactly who his parents were. And at Haven, he had access to the extensive Archives. Poring through the Archives, he got only incomplete information: his parents, found dead in a bandit camp, had been two of a number of hostages, some of whom had survived. The survivors had told the Guard that Mags' parents spoke a language that no one understood or recognized.

This information did not help, for the ForeSeers had been having visions of the king's assassination by "one of the foreign blood". Some had even Seen Mags with blood on his hands. How could Mags defend himself against a crime that hadn't yet been committed?

My Thoughts:

Intrigues was a stronger book than the first novel of this trio but that doesn't make it one of her better works. Mercedes Lackey is at a dangerous point in her writing where she has written so much and created so many characters from different walks of life in the world of Valdemar that some of the character aspects and plot devices start to feel recycled. We've already seen: the orphaned boy who thinks mostly of food, the despised/out of place trainee/herald, the sport as training for war, the trainee/herald that alienated his or her friends before finding themselves out of contact and in danger, and the trainee hiding as a member of a highborn household and as a beggar. Despite the reuse of certain plot devices, Lackey still manages to bring out a fresh story and add to the Lore of Valdemar. I did enjoy getting to see the transition from the Herald Mentor method of training to the Collegium classroom style of training.

I really enjoyed the time I spent listening to the audiobook of Intrigues. The narrator did an excellent job making the characters distinguishable though I didn't always agree with his vocal interpretation of the characters. The opening sequence of the novel was a bit difficult with transition to audiobook since it opens as a very long stream of consciousness about food and how Mags reacts to the relative privilege of the Collegium versus how the other herald trainees adjust. It works effectively as a way to drop the reader into Mags' head and identify the character but it feels like ten minutes of discussion about food. It might work better on paper but as an audiobook it feels like a heavy-handed introduction. One aspect that made the audiobook an interesting experience was the differentiation because vocalization and mindspeech.

Intrigues (and the first book in the series) showed me how much I've changed as a reader since the years when the Valdemar Series was my favorite selection of books. Mercedes Lackey knows how to tell an interesting story but technically her writing isn't as good as many of the writers that I've found as an adult. Valdemar will always have a special place in my heart, but I do prefer more depth in my fantasy now. I did enjoy Intrigues and will certainly read the final book in the trilogy but I will do so as a break between heavier novels, and possibly as an audiobook too. (Intrigues made a great break from re-reading George R.R. Martin's Song of Fire and Ice books!)

Written as Part of the Speculative Fiction Challenge

Other May Reviews from the Speculative Fiction Challenge

Review: Spellwright by Blake Charlton

Spellwright is part of a new generation of epic fantasy novels. Charlton painstakingly crafts a world with a fresh inventive magic system, a myriad of languages, and a prophecy that every faction is interpreting for their own purposes. Nicodemus is a cacographer and the apprentice to a great wizard. His cacography is the magical equivalent of dyslexia and motivates him to search for the solution to his difficulties with magic.

I found this novel to have a slow start which is common with novels that require lots of background and world-building, however it took awhile into the book to really build that connection with the characters. I will definitely say though, that once I reached a certain point Spellwright transformed into one of those books that you can’t put down even though you should have gone to bed two hours ago. I definitely enjoyed the innovative approach to the magic system and how language influenced the spell work. I’m definitely intrigued by Language Prime and I can’t wait to see how it continues to change and effect Nicodemus in the books to come.