Monday 8 January 2018

Review: Of Things Unknown - Seanan McGuire

An April O'Leary novella included in The Brightest Fell.

October Daye Series:
In Little Stars (Short story available to purchase through Patreon)
Rosemary and Rue
A Local Habitation
An Artificial Night
Late Eclipses
Through This House (Short story in the Home Improvement: Undead Edition anthology)
One Salt Sea
In Sea-Salt Tears (Free short story available on Seanan's website)
Ashes of Honor
Rat-Catcher (Free short story available on the Lightspeed Magazine website)
No Sooner Met (Free short story available on Seanan's website)
Chimes at Midnight
Never Shines the Sun (Short story included in the print version of Chimes at Midnight)
Forbid the Sea (Free short story available on Seanan's website)
Stage of Fools (Short story available to purchase through Patreon)
The Voice of Lions (Short story available to purchase through Patreon)
The Act of Hares (Short story available to purchase through Patreon)
Instruments of Darkness (Short story available to purchase through Patreon)
With Honest Trifles (Short story available to purchase through Patreon)
In Deepest Consequence (Short story available to purchase through Patreon)
Jealous in Honor (Short story available to purchase through Patreon)
Quick in Quarrel (Short story available to purchase through Patreon)
The Winter Long
Heaps of Pearl (Free short story available on Seanan's website)
Shore to Shore (Short story available to purchase through Patreon)
Write in Water (Short story available to purchase through Patreon)
Live in Brass (Short story available to purchase through Patreon)
The Ambitious Ocean (Short story available to purchase through Patreon)
And Thrice Again (Short story available to purchase through Patreon)
The Fixed Stars (Free short story available on the Baen website)
A Red-Rose Chain
Full of Briars (Short story)
Once Broken Faith
Dreams and Slumbers (Short story included in Once Broken Faith)
The Brightest Fell
Of Things Unknown (Short story included in The Brightest Fell)
These Antique Fables (Short story available to purchase through Patreon)
Night and Silence
Suffer a Sea-Change (Short story included in Night and Silence)
The Unkindest Tide
Hope is Swift (Short story included in The Unkindest Tide)

Visit Seanan McGuire's website for more information

Review:
Of Things Unknown is an April O'Leary point of view novella that can be found in The Brightest Fell, it follows on from events that happened at Tamed Lightning way back in A Local Habitation but timeline wise it's about three years on so should be read after The Brightest Fell.

April is a fascinating character, as a dryad who lost her tree and was somehow magically connected to a computer hard drive she's totally different from anyone else in the series. She thinks differently and doesn't understand emotions the same way most people do so it can be quite hard to relate to her, she comes across as fairly cold and logical but she does care about the people around her and she tries hard to do the right thing. She's just fairly childlike sometimes and has been easily manipulated by people who she should have been able to trust.

Anyway, April has spent three years as the Countess of Tamed Lightning since the death of her mother January. It's not a position she ever wanted and she finds it difficult at times but she's done her best to keep things running how her mother would want them and she's done a pretty good job of it. One thing she hasn't been able to do is get over events from A Local Habitation though, she is desperate to make amends for the mistakes she made and she thinks she's figured out a way to do it.

This was a brilliant novella that is going to have huge consequences in the rest of the series, I can't wait to see how certain things play out in the future and I was excited by the direction things went. It was nice to Toby from someone else's point of view and I enjoyed getting to know April a little better.

Source: Short story included in The Brightest Fell

Other Reviews:
If you have reviewed this book on your blog please leave a link to your review in the comments & I'll add the link here.

Hardback / Paperback (preorder):

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