An Artificial Night [Mass Market Paperback]

Warning: Certain things in this review might be considered mild spoilers.

You pretty much know the day's going to suck when the harbinger of your death knocks on your front door before dawn. But while October Daye is less than thrilled to meet her Fetch, readers are more likely to enjoy the experience. May is one of several intriguing and entertaining elements in An Artificial Night, the third book in Seanan McGuire's urban fantasy series. (Earlier books are Rosemary and Rue and A Local Habitation.)

Transformation is a running theme in McGuire's books, and An Artificial Night is a transformative book in the series. Unlike the previous two books, there's no mystery to be solved. There's also a lot less urban and a lot more fantasy to be found here. Except for one adrenaline-pumping chase scene through San Francisco, all the significant action takes place in faerie lands, places you would never mistake for a human city.

More important, this is the book in which we leave behind Toby, the reluctant private investigator and damaged person, and truly meet October Daye, knight of Shadowed Hills and hero. Here in full display is the moral determination, the unshakable loyalty to family and friends (that has in turn inspired the love and loyalty given her, which is key to the book both plotwise and thematically), and the near-pathological stubbornness that together form the core of Toby's character. Instead of being pushed into action, Toby chooses to oppose Blind Michael, leader of the Wild Hunt and a massively powerful Firstborn of the fae. Michael has stolen the children of friends, something Toby finds intolerable, so she takes on a seemingly suicidal quest to retrieve them.

Naturally, since this is a Seanan McGuire story, Toby goes through all sorts of hell in her efforts to free the children, and not everyone gets a happy ending. But the resolution of the primary conflict is believable and effective, and the progress made in both Toby's relationships and her awareness of and belief in herself makes for a satisfying read.

There were some elements I didn't like. I hope there's more information coming in future volumes on why May appeared when she did. There's a riff on Tybalt's feline nature that felt forced and manipulative. I would have liked to see more done with the concept of rhyming magic. I wish Toby spent less time unconscious. And I really, really wish that Toby was quicker on the uptake sometimes. (The initial advice she got from Lily wasn't particularly obscure. I got it immediately, and I shouldn't be that far ahead.)

Still, An Artificial Night is the most exciting and most emotionally satisfying of the October Daye books to date. I give it 4.5 out of five stars.

Rating: 4.5 / 5 Stars

AN ARTIFICIAL NIGHT has the most interesting storyline so far in the October Daye series. Instead of playing the role of a failed detective, we watch Toby's attempts at being a hero. And let me just say that I enjoyed this approach much more than the detective route, simply because there was more action and adventure as opposed to idly standing around, clueless.

I thought that this book had a lot more humor in it, much to my delight. I also found that I was unable to willingly set the book down at any point--something that I was able to do with books 1 and 2.

There's no cheerful Toby this time around. She's pessimistic and sarcastic, much like the Toby I have come to know and accept. Said pessimism grated on my nerves at some points, but I think it's more because she attempted to justify her actions a bit too much instead of just sucking it up and moving on. This does not happen often, just once or twice.

In regards to Toby/Tybalt: well, their interactions were limited this time around. Instead of having our darling King of Cats playing a key role in the story, Tybalt steps back to let a few other characters shine. Though that's not to say he doesn't stop by. He does, quite a few times. And he's a bit more affectionate to boot.

When I first initially heard that Tybalt wasn't around as much, I was distraught. Aside from the interesting world building (which I wasn't really feeling in A LOCAL HABITATION), Tybalt is the main reason I adore this series so much. Surprisingly enough, I did enjoy the book, even with the lack of Tybalt.

I found that Toby's obliviousness to Tybalt's feelings wasn't driving me insane this time around. I mean, she's still oblivious at times, and it made me want to scream, but then at other times, she hinted that she knew how he felt about her. For instance, during one scene towards the end with her, Connor, and Tybalt. I almost gasped when she acknowledged there might have been something there. Maybe she's finally been slapped around often enough that common sense is overpowering her lack of understanding when that cat flirts with her.

I had a few complaints about Toby's Fetch, May. First of all, what purpose did she serve in the story except to make Connor want to cry, be slightly annoying, and drive like a madwoman? (I'll admit the second scene when she drives over the bridge had me laughing hysterically, but that's more because of the children than anything else.) Second, for someone who's so closely associated with death and whatnot, a lot of the characters acted nonchalant around May. They had an initial reaction of regarding her with distaste, but then they kind of just... shrugged her off and moved on.

I kind of liked May towards the end, but I'm not too fond of her at the same time. I don't like that she's squirmed her way into Toby's life. I don't like that she's just there with no true purpose. There was such a fuss about her at the start, and I feel kind of let down now. I would have awarded this AN ARTIFICIAL NIGHT 5 stars if May had been explored--or even if there was a hint about her serving a purpose in the next story.

Likewise, the final showdown didn't entirely feel final. I would have preferred it if there was a huge fight between everyone in the scene right before. That screamed finality to me more than the last scene, but hey, I like my drama, and I like chaos.

Complaints aside, I enjoyed AN ARTIFICIAL NIGHT moreso than A LOCAL HABITATION. Despite the fact that Tybalt played less of a role in this story, I think I prefer the adventure over mystery. Toby's a bad detective because she's so oblivious to the things that matter. But a hero? A bit dorky, but a huge improvement. I'm eagerly anticipating book 4, LATE ECLIPSES, in March. Something tells me Tybalt will be playing a larger role this time around.

Since it's already been done, I wont bother to summarize the plot, other than to say that some kids go missing and of course, it's up to Toby to find them. This book was a lot better plotted than the previous installment, nonetheless, I was pretty disappointed with it. In fact, I no longer plan to follow this series unless I happen to spot it at the library.

I thought this series had a ton of potential, but I feel as though it's going nowhere. I also get the feeling that the author doesn't know where she's going with a lot of the things and plots she's introducing. Or rather, I feel as though she has the vague idea of where she wants to end up, but no real ideas or plans as to how she's going to get there. There is nothing wrong with that (it must be true of many authors), it's just that, as a reader, I don't like to be aware of it, you know?

For instance, here we are introduced to Toby's "fetch," a fey-like doppleganger creature who supposedly heralds Toby's own death. An interesting concept I guess, yet it seems to mean absolutely nothing in this story. This was presented as being a huge deal--supposedly "fetches" are rare--yet pretty much everyone acts like it's business as usual. Technically it is, I mean Toby always has brushes with death, right? But this Fetch was apparently only here for some comic relief and occasionally lending a hand. I guess beyond that, the author hasn't really figured it out. I'm sure she has ideas, but as yet, none are forthcoming. This really annoyed me. I mean why make this "plotline" (really, it was more like an idea) such a big part of the story if she's not going to address it--or at the very least, advance it a little? I guess I could assume she's got something clever and interesting planned for it in the next book, but I feel like I've been doing that since the end of book 1...and I'm STILL waiting.

There was also Toby's whole quest to defeat Blind Michael. I don't want to give anything away, so I will only say that I felt like there was a whole lot of build up to this quest (like this was going to be the hardest thing Toby ever pulled off), and I'm sorry, but in the end I was like, really, that's it? That's all there was to it? Again, I assume the author is planning to address the rest of this in the next book, but all I can say is, I'm not planning on sticking around for it.

The same can be said of the whole will-they-or-wont-they Toby+Tybalt romance. To be fair, I think my disappointment here is mostly my own fault. I thought I had Tybalt all figured out. I figured he had been carrying a torch for Toby for a while, and I thought maybe he was secretly madly in love with her or something... But after reading this book, all I can say is the author REALLY blows us off (yet again) on this front... I get that this is not supposed to be romance, but I find it very irritating that in the last book Tybalt seemed to be all about protecting Toby, yet in this book Tybalt doesn't even seem to mind that Toby's own death herald's in town and she's supposedly in a world of crap. What's worse, is the author's got Tybalt giving all these really annoying cryptic excuses for his absences. Obviously, she's setting something up, right? Yet she's not giving the reader actual hints, she's just giving us these lame cryptic remarks that mean absolutely nothing. There seemed to be a half-hearted attempt at making us believe Tybalt cared near the end, but by then it was just way too little too late.
So I guess in the end I no longer feel like I can trust this author to deliver, yet at the same time, I felt that I had to give this book 3 stars instead of 2, 'cause it was actually better than the last one.

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