Book Review: Once Broken Faith AND (Bonus Novella) Dreams and Slumbers by Seanan Mcguire

Once Broken Faith
And THIS is why Seanan McGuire’s October Daye series is one of my favorites… Here we are, at book ten (plus numerous shorts and novellas), and the newer books are just as enjoyable and well-written as the early ones. As with Jim Butcher’s Harry Dresden books, this series never disappoints. Somehow, these two authors have managed to build worlds that seem to be almost self-propagating – the stories never recycle, the characters never stagnate, the worlds continue to develop and expand.

It cannot be easy to keep coming up with original plot lines, character development, and adventures year after year – many series start out brilliantly, but fade into stereotype or trope as the years and books go on. This doesn’t always mean those series lose me (or other readers); sometimes it’s okay to revisit comfortable spaces with characters you love. But when an author manages to keep you comfortably off-balance by continuing to advance his/her story lines and world, as in the Toby Daye books, well, it’s something special…

If you don’t know the series yet DEFINITELY give it a look (and ditto the Dresden Files) – there are dozens of stories in each by now, so you’ll have a pile of fantastic new tales to delve into!

Dreams and Slumbers
What an excellent “free” story, provided at the end of the latest October Daye (Once Broken Faith) – it basically just continued the story, albeit from Arden’s POV instead of Toby’s. While I don’t normally pick up shorts, I like them rather a lot when they build on a series that I read already because they add depth, and usually a new/different voice and focus. That’s exactly what this one did.

Don’t read it if you haven’t read OBF though – you’ll get MAJOR spoilers and won’t understand what’s going on at all…