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Late Eclipses (October Daye Book 4) by [Seanan McGuire]

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Seanan McGuire

Late Eclipses (October Daye Book 4) Kindle Edition

by Seanan McGuire (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

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Book 4 of 16: October Daye

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New York Times-bestselling October Daye series • Hugo Award-winning author Seanan McGuire • "Top of my urban-paranormal series list!" —Felicia Day

October "Toby" Daye, changeling knight in the service of Duke Sylvester Torquill, finds the delicate balance of her life shattered when she learns that an old friend is in dire trouble. Lily, Lady of the Tea Gardens, has been struck down by a mysterious, seemingly impossible illness, leaving her fiefdom undefended.

Struggling to find a way to save Lily and her subjects, Toby must confront her own past as an enemy she thought was gone forever raises her head once more: Oleander de Merelands, one of the two people responsible for her fourteen-year exile.

Time is growing short and the stakes are getting higher, for the Queen of the Mists has her own agenda. With everything on the line, Toby will have to take the ultimate risk to save herself and the people she loves most—because if she can't find the missing pieces of the puzzle in time, Toby will be forced to make the one choice she never thought she'd have to face again...

Print length

402 pages
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English
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DAW
Publication date

March 1, 2011
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18 years and up
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Seanan McGuire is a California-based author with a strong penchant for travel and can regularly be found just about anyplace capable of supporting human life (as well as a few places that probably aren’t). Early exposure to a vast number of books left her with a lifelong affection for the written word, and led, perhaps inevitably, to her writing books of her own, starting somewhere around the age of eleven. The October Daye novels are her first urban fantasy series, and the InCryptid novels are her second series, both published by DAW and bother of which have put her in the New York Times bestseller list. Seanan was the winner of the 2010 John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer; Rosemary and Rue, the first novel in the October Daye series, was named one of the Top 20 Paranormal Fantasy Novels of the Past Decade; and her novel Feed, written under the name Mira Grant, was named as one of Publishers Weekly's Best Books of 2010. She also won a Hugo for her podcast, and is the first person to be nominated for five Hugo Awards in a single year. You can visit her at www.seananmcguire.com. --This text refers to the mass_market edition.

Review

Praise for the October Daye series:

"The top of my urban-paranormal series list! I am so invested in the worldbuilding and the characters.... The romance is real and awesome, but doesn't overshadow the adventure." —Felicia Day

"I can't believe McGuire can come up with another adventure as riveting as this one. But then I say that after every book in this series." —SFRevu

"McGuire has never lacked for courage in her writing.... The phenomenally inventive October Daye series showcases her narrative daring and ingenuity beautifully." —RT Reviews

"Prepare to be dazzled.... Like the best of urban fantasy, with each reveal and mystery solved, Toby's world grows ever more enticing. As seductive as faerie itself, this is one series I could never give up." —All Things Urban Fantasy

"These books are like watching half a season of your favorite television series all at once.... More than anything else, it's the fun of it all that's kept me returning to McGuire's books and to this series." —SF Signal

"The plot is strong, the characterization is terrific, the tragedies hurt...and McGuire's usual beautiful writing and dark humor are present and accounted for. This has become one of my favorite urban fantasy series." —Fantasy Literature

"An urban fantasy detective series featuring a resourceful female detective.... [October Daye] should appeal to fans of Jim Butcher's Dresden Files as well as the novels of Charlaine Harris, Patricia Briggs, and similar authors." —Library Journal

--This text refers to the mass_market edition.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B004I1JC7E
Publisher ‏ : ‎ DAW (March 1, 2011)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ March 1, 2011
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 2504 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Print length ‏ : ‎ 402 pages
Lending ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled

Best Sellers Rank: #115,950 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #895 in Historical Fantasy (Kindle Store)
- #1,537 in Historical Fantasy (Books)
- #4,962 in Romantic Fantasy (Books)

Customer Reviews:
598 ratings

About the author

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Seanan McGuire

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Seanan McGuire is a native Californian, which has resulted in her being exceedingly laid-back about venomous wildlife, and terrified of weather. When not writing urban fantasy (as herself) and science fiction thrillers (as Mira Grant), she likes to watch way too many horror movies, wander around in swamps, record albums of original music, and harass her cats.

Seanan is the author of the October Daye, InCryptid, and Indexing series of urban fantasies; the Newsflesh trilogy; the Parasitology duology; and the "Velveteen vs." superhero shorts. Her cats, Lilly, Alice, and Thomas, are plotting world domination even as we speak, but are easily distracted by feathers on sticks, so mankind is probably safe. For now.

Seanan's favorite things include the X-Men, folklore, and the Black Death. No, seriously. She writes all biographies in the third person, because it's easier that way.

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LA in Dallas

Deaths and Revelations

Reviewed in the United States on December 6, 2021

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Late Eclipses is difficult to review because almost anything I tell you about it will be a spoiler. So, let's start by talking about where we are when the story starts and how we got here. In the previous October Daye novel, An Artificial Night, Toby killed Blind Michael, one of the firstborn, for good and sufficient reasons. By this act she broke Oberon's Law forbidding the killing of pureblood faery, and her life is therefore forfeit, in principle. Any enemy who wants to kill her has the right, if said enemy can collect on it. But we all know that killing Toby is easier said that done. Survival, as Toby herself acknowledges, is her great talent.

Toby has enemies. These include the Queen of Mists, who is head honcho of San Francisco Bay Area faery, and also Toby's sort-of relatives by marriage Rayseline Torquill and Oleander de Merelands. These people hate Toby to the point of wanting her dead. It is not at all clear exactly why they hate Toby so, but they do, and they are prepared to act on their desire. In fact, they are even willing to produce a few more corpses in order to facilitate disposing of Toby.

We knew all that, so I'm not counting what I just wrote as a spoiler. It is perhaps a bit of a spoiler in the sense that I'm implying that certain things you already knew are going to be particularly relevant. So, we launch into a tale of murder and vicious palace intrigue. Since you presumably know that the October Daye series continues for another 11 novels, it's a safe guess that Toby will survive these straits in some form. Will she survive unchanged? I'm not telling.

I'm giving this one five stars because I like dark stories, and because we learn a lot of new information about key characters, their origins and natures.

Helpful

Jessica@RabidReads

Solid installment in an increasingly fantastical UF series

Reviewed in the United States on September 14, 2016

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Several months have passed since we last saw October when LATE ECLIPSES begins, ending whatever relative peace she enjoyed on her off-season. <------I like that tactic, by the way. It makes all the hullabaloo our MC experiences on page feel more realistic, if we know things calm down when we're not looking. *whispers* No one can live in complete chaos 100% of time . . .

Regardless, it must be said that an appropriate alternate title for the fourth installment of Seanan McGuire's OCTOBER DAYE series might be: STUFF* ESCALATES.

1. Hateful characters get more hateful.

Most notably, Rasyeline Torquill, although the Queen of the Mists isn't far behind. Basically, if they've got an axe to grind with Toby, they're no longer content to passively nurse their grudge.

SO. Be prepared to grind your teeth, b/c shiesty broads are shiesty.

2. Boys will be boys . . . or cats . . . or USELESS CHICKENS (who literally HIDE their faces when people drive too fast).

Okay, so there's a bit of a triangle. Not much of one, b/c there's a clear front-runner, so mostly it's frustrating that other dude is part of the equation.

BUT.

There were also numerous times when Front-Runner made my heart grow three sizes, b/c it's more and more obvious that he really, really likes our girl. *grins dopily* *giggles like school girl*

So who cares about what's-his-name (the chicken)? #notthisgirl

3. October's mysteriously mysterious heritage becomes MORE shrouded in mystery, even as we get answers.

It's both frustrating and delightful. Truly. It's a talented author who can successfully walk the tightrope of enough-information-to-both-satisfy-and-intrigue, and McGuire manages that balance masterfully. *tips hat*

In short, I was reminded over and over again of all the reasons why OCTOBER DAYE made it to my Top 5 UF Series list: a kick-ass heroine who refuses to quit, no matter the odds, a hilarious and entertaining cast of secondaries (Raf is my current favorite), a hotter-than-HAWT love interest #tybaltismyking, a fantastically fae backdrop, and the compelling plots that tie it all together. And considering that it was renewed for three more books (11 - 13), McGuire is clearly doing something right. Time for you to find out why, if you haven't already. Highly recommended.

7 people found this helpful

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Keeps Getting Better. Dark and Dangerous

Reviewed in the United States on April 12, 2016

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There are some series that start out really strong and then start to lose momentum and then there are others that start out a bit slow but build over time to become better and better. I would say that the October Daye series definitely falls into the second category.

This series seems to be a bit darker than some of the other UF series I’ve become attached to. There seems to be a slightly grimmlike quality to it and not all the characters that you thought of as staples to the series are going to make it out alive. But that is part of the reason I like this. No character is completely safe and Seanan McGuire might kill someone I care about off at any time.
“What's the point of holding on if I can't save the ones that I can't afford to lose?”

Still even with all the potential death looming in the air there is still a frivolity and hilarity to Toby. She has even made a new friend in an unlikely place…her Fetch May. Who else do you think would befriend her personal incarnation of death??? Only Toby I think. But I love the addition of May’s character. She might have all of Toby’s previous memories up to the time May was sent to guide Toby to her death but now she is her own person and she isn’t quite like Toby in many ways the most obvious is that she is really quite happy and full of witty retorts and fun observations.

Toby has a few solid friends but she has also made plenty of enemies. It seems that one of them has decided to hit Toby where they think it will hurt the most by taking out her friends. When two of Toby’s friends that are never supposed to get sick fall deathly ill she is thrown into the mix trying to discover what is harming them. But with more enemies to count it is hard to discover who the main culprit behind this latest onslaught is.

But when you are down and out it seems that everyone comes out of the woodwork to take a shot at you. The Queen has found it a perfect time to place a trap for Toby and maybe a few others from her past want in on the torture Toby fun.

Still Toby soldiers on and finally we get a few answers and a lot more question about Toby’s mother and her true heritage.
“Oh, my dear, what she did to you, what you didn’t know she was doing, and how you fought! Like a lion you fought, never knowing the battle.” Lily sighed. “You were the last of her protections against roses and crossroads and all they meant, and when you failed her, she didn’t know what to do. My foolish princess who thought she’d be a shepherdess, if only she could make you a sheep.”

I will say that I’m really very invested in Toby and the overall arc of the Fae. I’m enjoying the world, the characters and the smaller book to book plots a lot better than the first few books. Overall everything has started to pick up some speed and it will be interesting to see going on what will happen with all the revelations and changes made in this book.

Other great things are scattered throughout too. There is of course Tybalt and I'm still totally on the TnT train, that can't happen soon enough. Surprisingly though besides May I am really loving both Quentin and Raj. I have some new theories about who Quentin might be and I'm thinking maybe we have a future King lurking in our midst. I am completely loving the mentor relationship between Quentin and Toby and love how devoted he is to their friendship. We all need friends like that. Raj on the other hand broke my heart a little in this...like I said before anyone can die and some deaths hit me harder than others but Raj's reaction to one in particular might have hurt the most.

On to the next one as I'm loving all of the stories more and more.

3 people found this helpful

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Hisham

Another thrilling installment in the Toby Daye series.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 5, 2016

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Late Eclipses is the 4th Toby Daye novel. The Toby Daye books are one of the best Urban Fantasy series around today. Any fan of Jim Butcher, Kelley Armstrong or Patricia Briggs (To name just a few) will love these books.

Book 4, Late Eclipses to a certain degree assumes the reader has read the previous books in the series. Toby, a half Human-half Fae Changeling has been quite the hero. Putting an end to the threat of Blind Michael, Solving numerous murders and generally annoying those who deserve it.

Now, The Queen of the Mists (who has no love for Toby whatsoever) has decided to "reward" Toby for her deeds by making her a Countess! There's also the not so small matter of one of Tobys closest allies falling dangerously ill - and the re-appearance of a dangerous enemy.

Secrets and lies swirl around the Mists as Toby must juggle one of her toughest cases with the added political intrigue of being a new landed noble of the Queens court.

I've now read this book three times (as of August 2016) and each time I re-read it - I notice new things that will later develop and further the Toby Daye story in future books. I really apreciate how far in advance the author has plotted out this series, and I love every minute that I spend reading or re-reading these books.

It's no secret that I'm a huge fan of these books. (I re-read the entire series in the run up to any new book release!) But as I've already said above, this series truly is one of the best in in SFF - let alone UF. Late Eclipses is a thrilling and gripping entry in the Toby Daye verse.

lynnsbooks

Great Urban Fantasy that keeps getting better

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 28, 2016

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4.5 of 5 stars
[...]
Late Eclipses is the fourth instalment in the October Daye series and is a book packed with emotion and revelations. Without doubt this is my favourite of the series so far and this is a series that I’m now totally hooked on and thoroughly enjoying – it seems to get better with each book and clearly this has something to do with the fact that each instalment just adds yet more layers and depth to the characters and the world making it richer as you progress. This is a wonderful combination of great characters (both good and bad), mysterious goings on, would-be romance and fantastically dark urban fantasy with fae shenanigans that never become boring.

If you haven’t read the previous books be warned that there may be spoilers contained below.

At the start of the book Toby is called to the Tea Gardens where Lily seems to be seriously ill. No sooner has Toby rolled up her sleeves to get serious when more difficulties seem to strike and from there the problems just escalate. To be honest I don’t want to go too much into the plot, suffice to say, like each of the previous books there is a mystery going on, people are dying, and, as we know, Toby can’t help herself from rushing into the fray head first. Of course in this particular book what works really well is the sense of isolation that is built up around Toby. In this particular book we see the return of an old enemy of Toby’s who has been absent since the first book, Oleander de Merelands. Unfortunately, although Toby keeps suspecting that Oleander is behind things she has no proof and nobody else has caught sight of her which all lends to the view that maybe Toby is starting to succumb to the sort of madness that sometimes takes possession of changelings. On top of that Raysel seems to have cranked up her own rather nasty endeavours somewhat and as a leftover from An Artificial Night the Queen of Mists is also gunning for Toby. Things look fairly bleak and for a while there it almost felt like Toby was going to flounder. Of course that’s the really great thing about these stories so far. Toby has made a lot of enemies, she also seems to have enemies just purely by dint of her own parentage, but she’s also making some firm friends.

By the conclusion of this story there are a number of eye openers. Revelations that are revealing and yet also not. Tantalising revelations if you like. You learn a little but you know that you’ve only seeing the tip of the iceberg and that if you just dipped below the surface a whole passel of further revelations would be waiting to spring out and surprise you. I think at the moment my biggest curiosity comes in the form of Toby’s mother Amandine. I have so many questions in that respect that I’m almost chomping at the bit to start the next book.

I really loved Late Eclipses. It’s cleverly written, much like the other instalments, to give a tantalising glimpse of the world in which Toby lives. At the end of the tale we can see that Toby has moved forward in more ways than one and I think this is a good thing because I feel at the moment that a huge amount of trouble is going to come her way, I just can’t help thinking that there is eventually going to be some backlash from her previous encounters and hopefully she will be at least a little better prepared to meet it if it does occur.

I highly recommend Toby Daye. It’s an excellent urban fantasy series. The main protagonist, well, she isn’t perfect, she makes mistakes but she is just great to get on with. The surrounding cast are well developed and whilst each story builds on the one that came before the stories have a standalone feel to them that, even if a few threads are left hanging, doesn’t leave you with that cliffhanger feeling.

E. Nicholson

The fae are no better than humans...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 26, 2011

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October learns that an old enemy is threatening her through her friends. She is unable to save everyone but can avenge them by putting a stop to the activities of the 'villains'. There is plenty of angst, plenty of action, and plenty of heroism. There is fascinating magic, and lot of detail about the workings of the fairy kingdoms. There is also a nice modern touch in the scientific research done by a fairy who, like October, lives in 'our' world most of the time.

The series takes us deeper and deeper into the intricacies of the fairy kingdoms, and perhaps in this fourth book has reached the stage where the story would not make sense to the reader who has not been following October's adventures to date. This is by no means a criticism; Ms McGuire has built us a world of fantasy and urban violence which draws us in and makes us anxious to know more. Part of the strength of the books lies in the build-up of information about October's family and friends; this could not be developed in the course of one volume without resorting to clumsy 'info dumps' and is in any case part of the intrigue that turns readers into fans. As the series progresses October is learning more and more about herself and her background. The reader learns the details at the same time as October, giving a sense of immediacy and intimacy to the discoveries.

This is a very satisfying novel in a series that gives urban fantasy a whole new layer of seriousness and delight.

Highly recommended.

DebB

Excellent - a brilliant continuation of the series...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 14, 2011

Verified Purchase

From the back cover:
"Two years ago, October "Toby" Daye believed she could leave the world of Faerie behind. She was wrong. Now she finds herself in the service of Duke Sylvester Torquill, sharing an apartment with her Fetch, and maintaining an odd truce with Tybalt, the local King of Cats. It's a delicate balance--one that's shattered when she learns that an old friend is in dire trouble. Lily, Lady of the Tea Gardens, has been struck down by a mysterious, seemingly impossible illness, leaving her fiefdom undefended.

Struggling to find a way to save Lily and her subjects, Toby must confront her own past as an enemy she thought was gone forever raises her head once more: Oleander de Merelands, one of the two people responsible for her fourteen-year exile. But if Oleander's back, what's her game? Where is she hiding? And what part does Toby's mother, Amandine, have to play?

Time is growing short and the stakes are getting higher. For the Queen of the Mists has her own agenda, and there are more players in this game than Toby can guess. With everything on the line, she will have to take the ultimate risk to save herself and the people she loves most--because if she can't find the missing pieces of the puzzle in time, Toby will be forced to make the one choice she thought she'd never have to face again..."

I think you would struggle with this if you hadn't read the preceding books - what's a Fetch, why does her niece Karen crop up, but only in dreams, who is Raj and so on. It's very much a continuation of a story in progress, and although it ends, in that there's no cliff hanging ending and the immediate problems are resolved, the story is clearly not over yet.

The choice mentioned in the back of book blurb was interesting, and certainly had me nodding sagely, in an "so that's how she's going to sort things out" sort of way - I've been wondering from the outset how half mortal Toby was going to progress among all those wonderful immortals, and it's a fascinating development - I need to re-read with slightly less haste (I wanted to know what happened!) to really get this bit straight. I look forward to finally meeting Amandine in some later book.

Good bits? Toby's iron poisoning was well described, Tybalt is opening up some more, and Toby has friends, really good friends who stick their necks a looong way out for her and without whom she'd be in serious trouble - always good when the ancillary characters get their time in the sun.

Not so good bits? Well, speaking personally, if it comes to Tybalt versus Connor I'm afraid I'm an out'n'out Tybalt groupie, and while we get an impression of progress, it's in both directions, and circumstances change towards the end that levels up the playing field a whole lot - which I didn't want!

Bad bits? None I can think of.

This is a great part 4 of maybe 7, Seanan's web site lists another 3 to come, one this year and two next - and I'll certainly be waiting for 'em all! Highly recommended, but only if you read the first three (which I also highly recommend...)

4 people found this helpful

I Read, Therefore I Blog

Eclipsed

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 8, 2012

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It's several months after AN ARTIFICIAL NIGHT. Toby now lives with her Fetch, May and despite residual psychological effects from her time with Blind Michael, life is good. But when the Queen of the Mists makes her a Countess, it's the beginning of a deadly game, one with uncertain rules. Before Toby can figure out her next move, her friend Lily is poisoned and as she grows weaker the Changelings who enjoy her protection grew more vulnerable.

The poisoning is part of a wider plot. Oleander de Merelands has returned to strike at Toby's friends and allies, leaving Toby's loyalty to Sylvester in question and her life at the mercy of those who hate her. Unlocking the mystery means looking at her own past and her relationship with her mother, Amandine. The answers will force her to make choices, the result of which will change her world forever ...

The fourth in Seanan McGuire's October Daye Series develops on the overriding arc, but while the character relationships are well handled the mystery element remains weak and the villains easy to guess.

The big weakness remains with the mystery. Toby doesn't investigate - she charges from one scene to the next, constantly reacting rather than planning. Although she's called on this, it doesn't make it any less frustrating. I was also irritated by her self-identification as a hero. While she does do things no one else will, it's a self-aggrandizing rather than a tragic label and one that's undermined by the fact that Toby petulantly mouths off at authority figures.

McGuire portrays friendships well, especially Toby's friendship with May and although I missed the Luidaeg, the Lily storyline carries real emotional punch. Unfortunately both Raysel and the Queen of the Mists are two-dimensional at best and the love-triangle with Connor and Tybalt bored me because it's so obviously skewered in Tybalt's direction. The best scene is one where Toby discovers the truth about her heritage and decides to take responsibility for other Changelings, which offers great potential for the future books and it was good to see characters and plot points from the earlier books coming into play here.

The fact that the plot doesn't grab me and that Toby is too reactive is a big issue for me. While I liked the way McGuire builds on elements from the previous books, I'm not sure that I'm going to read on.

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