An Artificial Night

An Artificial Night (2010) Seanan McGuire

How many miles to Babylon?
Three-score and ten.
Can I get there by candle-light?
Yes, there and back again.
If your heels are nimble and light,
You will get there by candle-light.

Things are not going well for Toby Daye. She sees an unpleasant harbinger, she’s getting calls from Connor, and to top it off, children are being kidnapped. Oh, and the Wild Hunt is making its presence known. Toby, being the hero she is, cannot sit by while children are in danger, so she agrees to take on unknown and perhaps insurmountable danger to save those children.

And then she’s told that children’s rhymes are necessary to the rescue; Faerie always works in mysterious ways.

I’m thoroughly enjoying this series.

Besides the Babylon rhyme, there is a whole lot more folklore sprinkled through the story, waiting for you to stumble over them and recognize them for what they are.

And then there’s Toby. She’s a hero–she’s finally willing to admit that now–but that doesn’t mean her life is easy. Instead it seems only to make things more complicated, and to worry those who love her.

If you have not read any other books in this series, you should be able to start here with minimal difficulty. However, I always recommend going back to the start of a series, just on general principles.
Rating: 8/10

Published by Daw

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