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October Daye / Inheritance - Essay Series Part Five: Long Series and How to Read Them

Hello Patrons and general audience members! Welcome to another Books That Burn essay by Robin. Thank you to Case Aiken, who receives a monthly Patron shoutout. [Full Audio Available Here] This is the fifth and final entry in a five-part essay series discussing two long-running book series by queer authors: October Daye by Seanan McGuire, and Inheritance by A.K. Faulkner. I chose these series because I love them both, they were intended from the start to be long series, neither of them are finished yet, and the authors have different structural approaches to developing each series across so many volumes. Purely coincidentally, they are both long-running contemporary fantasy series mainly set in California in or near the 2010's, with major characters named Quentin, and whose fast-healing protagonists have a tendency to quasi-adopt a gaggle of magical teenagers. After a brief moment in the 1990's, October Daye begins in earnest in 2009 and has reached 2015 as of the eighteenth boo...
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The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #1)

The Lightning Thief shows kids trying to be better people than their parents and learning from their mistakes, plus swordfighting and quests. I love the sidestepping of classic portrayals of the greco-roman gods in a way that feels true, but modern.

I'm a sucker for modern interpretations of Medusa, in particular, so I really liked this one. Ares was particularly good as a modern update, and the way that the villainous plan was just hurt, but not stopped, was a good choice for book one. There's more to do, and a lot more to this world, but this is a great intro.

The pen/sword weapon is a nice touch, both useful to Percy and a great play on words. I like how the Mist is established, it's enough of a hand-wave to let the action keep going but the story doesn't rely on it too heavily. Something that pervasive and powerful needs to be consistent in its effects but not consistently helpful nor harmful, and I think this landed that balance.

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A boy (Percy) stands in water during a storm in front of a city skyline, holding a sword and a horn

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