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Jun. 13th, 2011 02:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skygiantsI enjoyed reading An Artificial Night and Late Eclipses, the most recent two October Daye books, a lot more than I liked Blackout and All Clear, but they do have in common that they are all really good drinking game books.
The October Daye (Half-Fae Detective) Drinking Game
1. Every time Toby thinks about how she and Tybalt King of Cats totally do not get along at all even though he's really hot, and man, isn't it weird how he keeps showing up to spontaneously help her out and getting all desperate when she's in danger: drink!
2. Every time Toby thinks about how the cranky elder Fae the Luidaeg is inevitably going to kill her some day, then promptly goes to ask her a dangerous favor (which the Luidaeg immediately grants): drink!
3. Every time someone blames Toby for somebody else's unrelated death, leaving her to deal with inexplicable hostility from a former ally: drink!
4. Every time Toby, while in the process of charging into danger, thinks about how she doesn't actually have a death wish but she has to admit she can see how someone could easily make the mistake: drink! Drink twice if this is promptly followed up by somebody earnestly confronting her about her death wish.
5. Every time you figure out a major reveal a good six chapters before Toby does: drain the glass!
Now, that being said, An Artifical Night and Late Eclipses are both actually much better on 1., 2., and 5. than the first two books were. Toby is just really bad at figuring out when people like her, but I'm glad she's starting to get a clue even if it is three books late! Which is also nice because the Luidaeg is the most interesting character in the series, by far. I also think the plot of An Artificial Night is the most compelling one we've seen (that's the one with the creepy child-hunting Wild Hunt) and I very much like the addition of May Day, Toby's twin/fetch/cheery personal foil who provides an excellent antidote to Toby's constant gloom.
I am sad that my personal theory - that Raysel is neither insane nor evil, or if insane not evil, just bitter and with perfectly good reasons to be annoyed at everyone, and that Connor is the evil one who is making her look evil on purpose - has apparently been disproven. First of all, I like it when that trope I call Irritating Person Syndrome (the law under which any character whom our protagonist finds annoying or who dislikes our protagonist will inevitably turn out to be evil) is subverted, and I was hoping it would be in this instance; and second of all, I was really hoping Connor would be evil because he is deeply annoying to me. I don't want him to be a proper love interest! GO AWAY CONNOR.
I also said I wasn't going to talk anymore about how Eurowashed the worldbuilding/mythology was after pointing it out in in my post about the first book, because it's pretty inherent to the premise and is clearly not going to get any better, you accept it or you don't as you choose. But I do feel it's worth pointing out that the most prominent character of color in the series has now been murdered, and that the one Fae character from an actually non-European mythology has turned out to be a European fairy who literally stole and appropriated the identity of a Japanese kitsune in a way that I think is perhaps more telling than the author meant it to be.
The October Daye (Half-Fae Detective) Drinking Game
1. Every time Toby thinks about how she and Tybalt King of Cats totally do not get along at all even though he's really hot, and man, isn't it weird how he keeps showing up to spontaneously help her out and getting all desperate when she's in danger: drink!
2. Every time Toby thinks about how the cranky elder Fae the Luidaeg is inevitably going to kill her some day, then promptly goes to ask her a dangerous favor (which the Luidaeg immediately grants): drink!
3. Every time someone blames Toby for somebody else's unrelated death, leaving her to deal with inexplicable hostility from a former ally: drink!
4. Every time Toby, while in the process of charging into danger, thinks about how she doesn't actually have a death wish but she has to admit she can see how someone could easily make the mistake: drink! Drink twice if this is promptly followed up by somebody earnestly confronting her about her death wish.
5. Every time you figure out a major reveal a good six chapters before Toby does: drain the glass!
Now, that being said, An Artifical Night and Late Eclipses are both actually much better on 1., 2., and 5. than the first two books were. Toby is just really bad at figuring out when people like her, but I'm glad she's starting to get a clue even if it is three books late! Which is also nice because the Luidaeg is the most interesting character in the series, by far. I also think the plot of An Artificial Night is the most compelling one we've seen (that's the one with the creepy child-hunting Wild Hunt) and I very much like the addition of May Day, Toby's twin/fetch/cheery personal foil who provides an excellent antidote to Toby's constant gloom.
I am sad that my personal theory - that Raysel is neither insane nor evil, or if insane not evil, just bitter and with perfectly good reasons to be annoyed at everyone, and that Connor is the evil one who is making her look evil on purpose - has apparently been disproven. First of all, I like it when that trope I call Irritating Person Syndrome (the law under which any character whom our protagonist finds annoying or who dislikes our protagonist will inevitably turn out to be evil) is subverted, and I was hoping it would be in this instance; and second of all, I was really hoping Connor would be evil because he is deeply annoying to me. I don't want him to be a proper love interest! GO AWAY CONNOR.
I also said I wasn't going to talk anymore about how Eurowashed the worldbuilding/mythology was after pointing it out in in my post about the first book, because it's pretty inherent to the premise and is clearly not going to get any better, you accept it or you don't as you choose. But I do feel it's worth pointing out that the most prominent character of color in the series has now been murdered, and that the one Fae character from an actually non-European mythology has turned out to be a European fairy who literally stole and appropriated the identity of a Japanese kitsune in a way that I think is perhaps more telling than the author meant it to be.
