The Silver Sea
Seanan McGuire
The Silver Sea is Seanan McGuire's January 2024 Patreon reward. This is a fairly substantial work: 52 pages in PDF. She introduces it as follows,
(Image: a bucket containing many frogs.)
And we're back to the Undersea, as Simon tries to cope with returning home after Titania's spell, adjusting, and snapping out of a post-traumatic fugue. Poor buddy.
Best read after Sleep No More and The Innocent Sleep.
In previous Patreon stories (Like a Dream, Give Sorrow Words, and a bunch more) we followed Simon Torquill as he joined his new spouses Dianda and Patrick in Saltmist. Simon was, when we first met him in the October Daye series, a bad guy. However, he was, it turns out, corrupted by bad companions (principally his lover Oleander and his ancestor Evening Winterrose). He is now out of their influence and is working on becoming a Good Guy.
The thing is, Bad Guy Simon was kind of deliciously evil. Good Guy Simon is an incredible drip, a sort of fae version of Marvin the Paranoid Android. If you're a Good Person you are probably happy to see Simon with a shot at happiness, getting therapy to help him with his difficult past. But if you're me, you're getting very tired of Simon being such a depressing drip and wish Seanan would snap him out of it. (Yes, yes, I am a terribly, evil person. Next question?)
Well, that may at last be happening. At the end of Be the Serpent defeated evil Faery Queen Titania cast an illusion over all the fae of the San Francisco Bay Area, in her attempt to control Toby. In Sleep No More and The Innocent Sleep Toby and Tybalt told the story of how they escaped and broke Titania's ride, trapping her.
But, as they say, "It's an ill wind that blows no one good." Although Titania's illusion was bad for almost everyone, Simon was put in a happy place where he got to act like a father to his two daughters August and Toby. And he did, showing such kindness as was in his power! It's not much, but Simon is now blessed by the memories of those months of illusion during which he acted like a decent Mensch. This may, and I say this with caution, may have finally snapped him out of his funk. He's still not very interesting, but he is no longer actively painful to spend time with.
This story is also interesting in giving us a glimpse of the state of affairs following Titania's defeat. Seanan doesn't tip her hand much, but we do get some hints. Badass Toby is back. (Hurray!) The next big events will be the birth of Toby and Tybalt's child, and of Dianda, Simon, and Patrick's. We leave The Silver Sea with Toby and Dianda happily pregnant.