Review: The Unkindest Tide

The Unkindest Tide by Seanan McGuire
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

How long, how long? How long have we waited, readers, for Antigone of Albany, aka The Luidaeg, to find justice for what was taken from her? At last we are at the close of Act 2 and she has the means by which to restore her beloved children (that would be Toby) only how many goddamn conspiracies and coups and murders may try to prevent things for a while longer. No matter, Toby and her friends are going to fix everything up right as rain. Sure Tobes might bleed a bit in the process, okay, a lot in the process, but almost everyone will be fine.

The politics of the fae world that Toby has tried to straddle while living in the mortal one have always been complex and requiring of deftness and foresight. Luckily for Toby and her friends and allies, her abilities as a detective have taught her some trenchant perceptions about the ghastly way some of the purebloods and Firstborns do business. Speaking of which, who among you thought that all of Titania's children were awful? This book will prove you wrong in spades. And who of you thought you knew about Evening Winterrose's relationship with someone named Dawn? Wrong again! (Has anyone other than Tybalt and May ever told Toby the straight truth, I wonder?) And who thought that Gillian's choices, as she now wears a selkie skin, would be postponed or simple or lead to her being some sort of thin-blooded Dóchas Sidhe after that damn elf-shot wears off? Wrong, wrong, wrong.

This book ends a long arc that we've known about since "One Salt Sea" - the cruelty that has broken the Luidaeg's heart and why Toby's loyalty, fondness for, and willing to regularly indebt herself at the drop of a hat (trust me on that, says Quentin, rolling his eyes) to the Luidaeg changed the arc of her hopes and the future of the selkies. The Luidaeg, clearly the best aunt you could possibly have (as long as you don't piss her off) finally puts something back in place in her world. Now all that's left of the justice seeking for the slaughter of her children is... Killing Frost. Silver and Iron? Let's hope so.

A great installment in the series but not an appropriate entry point into the world of October Daye.

The US print and e-book editions have a novella, titled "Hope is Swift'" about a certain teenage Cat Prince who been giving Ginevra, Regent of Tybalt's Court of Dreaming Cats, a rather difficult time of things. Occasionally, he is just too much of a cat.

Buy it or borrow it, love it, tell me you can't wait for Killing Frost?>

I received a Digital Review Copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

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