A Local Habitation, Seanan McGuire

A Local Habitation
Seanan McGuire
Copyright 2010

Yes, I read the second book in the series!  Even though I dogged the first book for being flat and dark because of the main character's self loathing I'm glad to say that October is becoming more likable.  She didn't lead the pity parade in this book like she had done previously.  This time around she was definitely more confident and appealing.

In this installment of the October Daye series our heroine, Toby, and Quentin, a foster from Sylvester's court, go on a road trip to Tamed Lightning aka Fresno.  Sylvester's neice, January has failed to contact him or return his calls and he wants to make sure everything is okay.  We soon find out that all is not right in Tamed Lighting, a small county wedged between two rival fiefdoms and the people there are not very forthcoming with the 411.  Apparenlty the fey that work at January's company, ALH (note acronym for the title of book), are dropping dead and a mystery is afoot, a weak and slightly transparent mystery based on the who and the why...  Is it a rival fiefdom or someone on the inside?  Is it political, financial or personal?  The choices are slim and as the characters get picked off in the book the options become even more limited.. 

Unfortunately, this book was not as action oriented as the first one.  It attempted to be more cerebral and it kind of drug itself out a little.  I think part of the problem is that the story was basically contained within one environment, ALH, so space and characters were limited.  There was a lot of hall walking, cafeteria sitting and people dropping dead.  Plus, Toby tried to perform two different blood rituals that caused her to sleep a lot.  The book did start out well with engaging conversation and humor but once they reached ALH the story took a darker turn and the plot started to drag.  The mystery had an unsurprising resolution and at points you wanted to bang your head because Toby had a tendency to be a little dense.

AND!  I did not get my full fix of Tybalt.  Again, there are allusions to a romantice relationship from the beginning of the book, but then it goes flat and there's not a sense of closure between the two.  I know they pair back up on the third book based on the teaser in back, but, this book left me wanting. Not in a 'can't wait until the next book' kind of way either.  There wasn't any character development with regard to Tybalt and I found this disappointing. 

Actually, there really wasn't any character development in this book.  Toby's character, although more likable than in the previous book, remained weak.  The author brought back Connor, someone Toby grew up with and, if I remember correctly, is an ex-boyfriend but they can't be together because Connor is married to Sylvester's mad as a hatter daughter.  So it would appear that McGuire is trying to build two connecting love triangles with Toby, Connor, Tybalt and Toby, Connor, Crazy Daughter.  Not a Connor fan so I hope the author strays from that in book 3.  Yes, I intend to read book three.

There was also a cyber-dryad who was a wierd combination of War Games meets Tinkerbell that I was neither impressed nor interested in.  I get the idea that Fairy is odd and full of possibilities, but to let an inanimate character who lives in a server that needs to be re-booted to stay 'online' rule a county?  Hello?  Fairy and SciFi do not mix well in my mind.  Something about a cominbination of something older than old and something modern.  Then there were the lovebird twins.  Male by day, female by night and emitting pheremones like crazy the whole time.  One dies but Toby is able to resurrect the twin.  hmmmmm.... 

For all my complaining, I did enjoy the book and read it mostly in one sitting.  I can also say that my views are tainted slightly because when trying to remember some of the character's names I read other reviews that reminded me of issues I had when reading the book.  Even though I found October to be a dark and unhappy character in the first book I did notice improvements with this one.  I get that this is supposed to be a noir style series, but typically you will find something indearing about the character.  I have not yet found that in Toby.  What I do like is some of the supporting cast.  I really like Tybalt and wish that McGuire would develop him better.  I also like Quentin and his back and forth banter with Toby as well as Toby's relationship with the Luideag.  As I mentioned before, I will be reading the third installment in this series.  After reviewing the author's website I see that it has to potential to go up to 8 books.  Not sure she can keep me engaged for that long, but we'll see.