In Late Eclipses, we went back to the bad guys of the first book, and read as October Daye dealt directly with the insane Rayseline and the never-seen Oleander. This time, Toby was framed for [attempted] murder of two people she valued. As we know from the beginning of the series, Seanan McGuire does not mind killing off beloved characters, and the deaths that are built into this story are both traumatic and deliberately puzzling to Toby. In a typical plot trope, Toby is both framed for murder and carrying the burden of solving the murder before "time runs out." In this case, time ran out more than once, and the consequences were both painful and revealing.

Late Eclipses did not do for me what An Artificial Night did. While I empathized plenty with Toby all through this book, the emotions were not ones that I wanted or enjoyed nearly as much. I was stuck in a flip-flop of frustration and pain heightened with confusion, rather than in the cycle of resignation and determination highlighted with love. So while Late Eclipses had more of a linear plot line, and far more explicable plot twists, it did not leave me wrung out with satisfied exhaustion of a plot well-run and well-read. It did not fail me, though. It provided plenty of new questions for next time.

Notes to self - I have pre-ordered One Salt Sea (book 5) for September, and Magic Slays drops today. Whee!


-- New-to-me books read in 2011 (as opposed to re-reads) --

January
Little Dee vol 2
Little Dee vol 3
Unusual Suspects
Harvest Moon
The Black Stallion (yes, I know, I should have read it with Black Beauty)
Ravens in the Library: Magic in the Bard's Name, with a pre-finished commentary here
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms
Fang Bangers: An Erotic Anthology of Fangs, Claws, Sex and Love
Must Love Hellhounds
Truthseeker

February
Dark and Stormy Knights
Tortall and Other Lands
River Marked (2/28 - it arrived a day early)

March
Questionable Content, vol 1
How to Flirt with a Naked Werewolf
Lifeblood
Magic Bites
Skinwalker, A Jane Yellowrock Novel
Running with the Pack
Magic Burns
Blood Cross

April
"Skyblaze" Adventures in the Liaden Universe #17
Kings of the North
Goblin Tales
Do Not Sniff the Bees, Two Lumps book 6
Magic Strikes
Magic Bleeds
Mercy Blade
The Initiate Brother

May
Angelology
City of Pearl
An Artificial Night
Late Eclipses


-- Books abandoned rather than completed in 2011 --

February
Sing the Four Quarters, by Tanya Huff

-- Books Still in Progress --
These are books that I haven't totally given up on, I've just... put them aside... for now. And gee, look at how many of them are non-fiction!
The Brand Within
Gamestorming
If You Don't Have Big Breasts, Put Ribbons on Your Pigtails
Swords and Dark Magic
Battlestations
Wise Man's Fear