Midnight Never Come (Onyx Court 1)

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To the fae of the Onyx Court, living in a secret city below London, these scientific developments are less than welcome. Magic is losing its place in the world and science threatens to expose the court to hostile eyes. The first part of the book felt a little slow to me. Brennan takes us through the beginning of the English Civil War and the execution of King Charles. While the story is interesting, I find this series most engaging when we see the parallels between the human and faerie realms, and the faerie side felt a bit nebulous in the beginning. (By the end, on the other hand, you couldn’t pry the book out of my hands.)

From the celestial heights the arbitrary acts of life seem patterned like a fairy-tale landscape, populated by charming and eccentric figures. The glittering observers require vital doses of joy and pain, sudden reversals of fortune, dire portents and untimely deaths. Life itself proceeds in its unpredictable infinite patterns — so unlike the measured dance of stars — until, for the satisfaction of their entertainment, the watchers choose a point at which to stop." There were a lot of opportunities for action and high stakes, but the author kept passing them over. I wish the story had been little more broad and less focused on just Lune and Deven (oh yeah, I didn't particularly like Deven). There was a lot of scheming going on but not much else, and sometimes I really questioned the characters motives. I would have loved for there to be a proper battle with the Wild Hunt, but I do understand that this is not that type of book. Brennan makes the wise decision of stepping a little away from Lune in terms of point-of-view. This enables Brennan to play a few cards close to her chest, plus there’s the fact that Lune has steadily become an emotionally remote character. These books already have a certain “coolness” or “distance” about them, and narrating this one through Lune’s eyes would probably exacerbate that. Instead, we focus primarily on the tomboyish sprite Dame Irrith and on the current Prince of the Stone, Galen St. Clair. Irrith snoops into the doings of the rebels against the Queen and starts to wonder whether some of their theories might be correct. Galen has an unrequited love for the Queen but is being pressured to marry by his father. The two of them eventually become allies and more. Sir Antony Ware, an alderman with a seat in the Commons, toes a fine line between Royalists and Puritans, trying to keep his seat long enough to do some good. For it's not just the mortals of London who are affected, but the fae of the Onyx Hall beneath the city feel the pain and upheaval of the world above. So, there were actually a couple of reasons why I almost didn't read this book. First, I hadn't actually read the first two volumes in the series, Midnight Never Come and In Ashes Lie. I intend to remedy this inexplicable omission quite soon, but it didn't actually harm my enjoyment of this book at all. While I'm sure there were sequences that would have had more richness if I'd read the previous volumes, everything you need to know to grasp what's going on in this book is explained in the text.Disclaimer: I happen to know the author of this book. I don't think that this much changes my opinion of the book, and I don't think any of my readers are expecting journalistic standards of objectivity from me anyway, but I feel like I should note it. This is a book that invites you to slow down and savor. Broken into five acts, each act builds more tension, moving from a relatively leisurely introduction toward a much more focused struggle in the final act. By the end, I had a hard time closing the book, and lost quite a bit of sleep as things came to a climax. A Star Shall Fall: Takes place in the mid-18th century and concerns the Enlightenment in general and Halley's Comet in particular. We meet some new characters and see the return of others. Lune is immortal but Deven is mortal and can not live forever. Instead Lune has chosen a new Prince of Stone, a mortal to help rule at her side. Anthony’s role is more than ceremonial. He’s Lune’s connection with the mortal world and it’s a connection that works both ways. He needs the fae in the real world as well. As we get to the third in Marie’s Faerie series (Midnight Never Come, (2008; In Ashes Lie,(2009))we reach the Age of Enlightenment in England, the time when historically science superseded superstition and religion.

I really wanted to adore this one, because it combines two of my all time favourite things - faeries and Tudors! And while I did like it, I didn't love it quite as much as I was hoping to, which is kind of disappointing, because there needs to be more fantasy-tudor books! Just...I need them. But this was quite different from what I had thought it might be like, and although I did think it had a stunning premise, I found it a little hard to connect with the story. I wanted to fall in love with characters and rave about this book, and I tried so hard to do that, but it just wasn't happening. Brennan mixes in these books - as she did in her fist book - a well balanced blend of historical research and fantasy; and especially in A Star Shall Fall the mix of Victorian-age science blended in with the world of the fae and was very nicely done. This is a very beautiful book. I say that meaning the literal aesthetic. The cover is super pretty, and the idea just appeals to me so much. Faeries and Tudors! This book sounds like it was made for me. And the faeries themselves were pretty cool - twisty and magical and dark and interesting. I loved reading about them! I wanted to know more about the hidden courts and the faeries that lived far from the mortal world. I wanted there to be some more rich world building and for this to be a big, beautiful, sprawling fantasy novel. Unfortunately, we didn't quite get there. I think that my main issue with this book it that it feels like a fairy tale. Now, I love fairy tales, don't get me wrong. They are beautiful stories and are amazing to retell! But they are always written slightly detached - you don't get right inside the characters, they aren't super well built and detailed. And that is really what this book was like. Everything was beautiful and lyrical and interesting and had so much potential, but I felt very distanced from the story. I could find much connection with the characters, because they were just instruments to tell the tale. They felt like the fairy tale characters that I described. I really wanted to relate to and love them, but there wasn't enough there for them to feel like real, likable people. This is the sort of book which should be right up my alley - a historical fantasy, with Elizabeth Tudor, no less, and fae.I guess I will start with the title of the book series, “The Onyx Hall”. In the book we hear a lot about “The Onyx Hall”, which is basically an underground haven for faeries, goblins, sprites, and many other mythological creatures. The Hall protects them from the mortal world above them (London). The middle of the 17th Century was not kind to England. Charles I Stuart was a poor king; Scotland was in turmoil; Ireland threatened to revolt; Civil War tore the country to shreds over (mostly) religious differences, leading to the execution of Charles and the fleeing of his son to the Continent; The Cromwellian Protectorate led the country further into ruin; the Plague killed thousands in 1665/6; wars with the Dutch waxed and waned; and then the Great Fire of 1666 destroyed 80% of "inner" London (that portion within the old Roman walls) as well as a large chunk to the west of the wall.