Silver and lead
Seanan McGuire
Heroing while pregnant
When we left our Toby at the end of Sleep No More (or The Innocent Sleep) after she and her allies had succeeded in temporarily disposing of Queen Titania, Toby had learned that her unborn child had survived Titania’s alternate reality undamaged. Since then water has flowed under the Golden Gate. Toby’s baby is due in two weeks. She is hugely pregnant, to the point where locomotion is problematic, and running or touching her toes are entirely out of the question1. What’s more, husband Tybalt is so overprotective as to make Toby virtually a prisoner in her home. She’s going nuts.
Then Toby and Tybalt get called to an event at the court of Toby’s liege, Arden, Queen in the Mists. This is an invitation that even Tybalt cannot get Toby out of. Once there, Arden takes Toby aside to tell her that someone has ransacked her treasure vaults. Some of the items that were stolen are höchst dangerous, so she wants Toby to get right on the problem of getting them back. Of course Arden doesn’t want Toby to do anything that might endanger her unborn child -- Heavens, No! -- but she seems to envision Toby sitting in a basement cellar somewhere strategizing about the problem.
Arden, have you met Toby? Of course, Toby soon finds herself in the thick of things. For once it’s not really Toby’s fault. It transpires that it is no coincidence that the excrement made contact with the ventilatory apparatus at the moment when Toby was about to pop.
So, this was pretty good. I am on record as opining that October Daye is the strongest of Seanan McGuire‘s many series. I was also relieved to find that our Seanan seems to have come out of the bout of clumsy over-explanation that has (in my opinion) marred her most recent novels.
Seas and shores
As usual, this book includes a bonus novella. It’s called Seas and Shores. It takes place contemporaneously. We knew already that Dianda Lorden, the reigning Duchess of Saltmist, was pregnant. Her husband Simon Torquill, who was in the Bay Area (having been summoned by Arden for the same event that kicked off the action of Silver and Lead) is urgently called back to Saltmist, because Dianda is giving birth. The novella mostly concerns that. The events surrounding Dianda’s birth-giving are less dangerous and exciting than Toby’s trials in Silver and Lead.
This novella would be perfectly fine, if not for the narrator, Simon. Simon has a dark past in which he did bad things, under the influence of two very bad people. He has since repented and is full of remorse. SO MUCH REMORSE! Nicer people than me like Simon, but I find his Marvin the Paranoid Android act tiresome. He’s such a drip.
At this point I should mention that the cover illustration of a relatively svelte Toby gives an entirely inaccurate impression of Toby’s physical state.