A Local Habitation is the second novel in Seanan McGuire’s October Daye
series, and her second published novel out of, to date, twelve novels
(ignoring her other published works) under two different names. That’s
quite remarkable when you realize that, as of writing this, less than
three and a half years have passed since the publication of her first
novel, and conventional publishing wisdom once held that if an author
published more than a novel a year, they would over-saturate their
market and alienate their audience by competing with themselves. Stephen
King (presumably among other authors that I know less about) challenged
this wisdom in the 1980s, at one point publishing 4 successful novels
within a single year in 1987, and since then outstanding authors like
Seanan McGuire have had their chance.
Most of this has little to do with A Local Habitation,
other than the fact that it was published months earlier than it would
have been in previous decades, and the fact that it’s led to other
novels that I look forward to reading. If you haven’t guessed by now, A Local Habitation
is another good book by Seanan McGuire featuring half-human,
half-Faerie (specifically, Daoine Sidhe, possibly the darkest-themed Fae
mentioned yet in the series) detective, now out of retirement. I
wouldn’t say it’s quite as good as Rosemary and Rue,
for a variety of small reasons, but it’s a good sequel, and Toby is one
of those characters that you can’t help but want to meet, again and
again.
For
the past couple of reviews, I’ve been discussing the merits of
mysteries of different sorts within novel plots, seeing as how both
Talon and Toby are detectives by trade. A Local Habitation
is an example of one of those mysteries where putting enough plot
elements in the book for it to be solved logically- in other words,
making it so that the reader can follow along with the mystery- can
result in the reader solving the mystery well enough before the
character in question that one can spend the entire novel arguing with
the protagonist about it. I suppose this was necessary in the case of A Local Habitation- it’s a Clue
style murder mystery that stops introducing suspects right around the
time that it becomes clear the mystery needs to be solved. Aaaaand as
the suspects are physically eliminated, one by one, and the only ones
left are the ones that conclusions have been drawn about… yeah, it’s not
too hard to see by that point. Even if I was arguing with Toby that
process of elimination is not evidence and it turned out to give her the right answer after all. Still, of the three other facts that needed deducing, I figured them out about five chapters in and waited for Toby to catch up for the rest of the book.
That fact does hurt A Local Habitation‘s
ranking, at least compared to its superior predecessor. The
predictability of parts of the mystery, and the fact that we didn’t get
to learn much more about Toby, make this the lesser novel in a way that
feels as though it’s content being a sequel. This was only the second
sequel that McGuire had written- or at least, published- so I can’t
begrudge it all that much. This doesn’t make for a bad book, but what it
does mean is that it doesn’t hold a candle to her other works that I’ve
read.
As for the characters, we mainly follow along with returning cast October Daye, star of Rosemary and Rue,
and Quentin, a Daoine Sidhe adolescent, along with a host of new
characters which of course dwindle as they’re picked off throughout the
book. In fact, they’re picked off at such a rate that Conner and Tybalt
of Rosemary and Rue
are forced to take up the reins of supporting characters within the
mystery. While it is nice to see them both again, the fact that neither
of them does anything that particularly requires it to be them- other
than Tybalt having a conversation with the local cats, that is-
indicates that they could have been a pair of original characters,
adding depth to the mystery and making the success at catching the
culprit a little bit more meaningful, by actually saving a pair of
lives. As it is, you get the distinct impression of the police showing
up on the scene too late, with not enough to go on, and as a result
catching their man too late to do any good but on time to punish them
for it. True, the same events could have continued on somewhere else had
Toby and Quentin not arrived, but the pickings were pretty slim in
Tamed Lightning by the time the story wraps up.
If
it sounds like I’m being a little harsh on this novel, it’s true. I
tend to come off as nothing but complimentary with McGuire’s work, so
when I find a novel with flaws in it, I want to be clear that that’s
what they are. It goes without saying that Seanan is a terrific
character writer, a subtle plot artist and an extremely vivid
storyteller; every time she puts finger to keyboard this is clear. What I
want to be equally clear is that, while being a good book by a great
author, this isn’t a great book. It’s still better than Timecaster, though- let’s say a 4/5, even though I don’t usually numerically rate novels.
Once
again, if you like mystery and slightly morbid fantasy with a hint of
action, you’re gonna want to check out Seanan McGuire’s A Local Habitation.
The characters- the main ones, anyway- are vivid and fun to be with,
the plot is engaging and suspenseful, even if not as suspenseful as it
seems to the protagonist who is apparently way too close to the
situation to draw certain conclusions- and the action and story are
entertaining. Just read Rosemary and Rue first, both because it introduces the characters, and because it’s just a better book.
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