Skip to main content

Featured

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...

Son by Lois Lowry (The Giver Quartet, #4)

"Son" depicts sacrifice and longing in the context of a mother and son separated by the community from The Giver. Languid and urgent in turns, it brings the quartet together in a very satisfying way, giving the feeling that everyone will continue after.

The mixed feelings I'd had about the second installment (Gathering Blue) are completely wiped away with this one. I wanted more from that book and here I got a whole lot more. The characters grow and change through time in ways that feel consistent with how we met them, while also allowing for change that feels genuine.

Claire's story is very well handled. I'm someone who has never had the desire to have kids, but the emotional beats felt genuine and still made sense to someone with my perspective on this issue.

Overall I've enjoyed the whole quartet and would recommend them as a gentle introduction to dystopian fiction, or as a very good entry in that genre for those who have delved a bit more.


Comments

Popular Posts