BoatGirl’s #CBR4 Review #09: One Salt Sea by Seanan McGuire
Book number five in the October Daye series, One Salt Sea continues the story of a fae changeling in San Francisco. In previous books, October has returned from the dead or survived nearly disastrous events, such as living as a koi for over a decade in the Japanese Gardens in Golden Gate Park. She returned from that to become a Countess, earning the wrath of the local fairy queen, who is a bit psychotic.
In the 5th book, the story heads underwater as Toby must find the kidnapped sons of the Duchess of Saltmist, an oceanic territory with an entrance to the human world offshore of San Francisco. If she fails, it means war between Saltmist and the landfae, a war the landfae will surely lose. Coincidentally, Saltmist is also where Toby’s boyfriend is originally from, so he is torn between the two sides.
As this is the fifth book, I feel it can only be considered by comparison with the others. By this time, the politics of the fae have been established. This book isn’t as petrifying as the third book or as groundbreaking as the fourth (electronic fairies???), but I really enjoyed it due to the seagoing aspects (go figure!). It’s definitely a series, and I wouldn’t recommend reading it out of order. Unlike some series where books can stand alone, this really can’t. However, for fans of modern fairy-genre, this is really fun, and set in the most beautiful city on the planet (yes, I’m biased).
For me, it was a really satisfying book in that it tied up some long dangling loose ends, such as when was Toby going to deal with her daughter and how was the author going to handle what appeared to be an extraneous love interest in Tybalt.
