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The Onyx Court — (2008-2010) Publisher: England flourishes under the hand of its Virgin Queen: Elizabeth, Gloriana, last and most powerful of the Tudor monarchs.
But a great light casts a great shadow.
In hidden catacombs beneath London, a second Queen holds court: Invidiana, ruler of faerie England, and a dark mirror to the glory above. In the thirty years since Elizabeth ascended her throne, fae and mortal politics have become inextricably entwined, in secret alliances and ruthless betrayals whose existence is suspected only by a few.
Two courtiers, both struggling for royal favor, are about to uncover the secrets that lie behind these two thrones. When the faerie lady Lune is sent to monitor and manipulate Elizabeth's spymaster, Walsingham, her path crosses that of Michael Deven, a mortal gentleman and agent of Walsingham's. His discovery of the "hidden player" in English politics will test Lune's loyalty and Deven's courage alike. Will she betray her Queen for the sake of a world that is not hers? And can he survive in the alien and Machiavellian world of the fae? For only together will they be able to find the source of Invidiana's power — find it, and break it...
A breathtaking novel of intrigue and betrayal set in Elizabethan England; Midnight Never Come seamlessly weaves together history and the fantastic to dazzling effect.
   
 Midnight Never Come
Midnight Never Come is the story of two courts, and of two courtiers who must uncover a deadly secret that threatens both mortal and faerie England. Lune is a disgraced lady of the faerie court, trying to win her way back into the good graces of the cruel Queen Invidiana. Michael Deven is a young gentleman of Elizabeth I's retinue, working with Elizabeth's spymaster Walsingham to sniff out a "hidden player" in English politics. Neither is quite prepared for what they discover.
Marie Brennan has a lovely, elegant prose style that lends itself well to describing the glittering courts. There's a certain "iciness" to it, a certain emotional distance between reader and characters, at least at first. Later in the book, emotion does bleed through, unmistakable even when it's described with great restraint. And speaking of restraint, Midnight Never Come is unusually chaste when compared to many other recent faerie-themed novels. This is fantasy of manners, closer kin to Ellen Kushner's Swordspoint than to Laurell Hamilton's Meredith Gentry series.
The plot is tightly crafted. At the beginning it feels a little slow, but picks up as Lune and Deven get closer and closer to the secret at the heart of Invidiana's court. Brennan has done a great deal of research into faerie lore and Elizabethan history, and it shows. Brennan doesn't infodump, though; the folklore helps drive the plot and flows organically with it. There are layers upon layers of politics and curses and bargains and secrets here, and I loved discovering them along with the characters.
Brennan makes an unusual authorial decision toward the beginning of Midnight Never Come. I initially didn't like it but eventually decided it worked. [Highlight this spoiler if you want to know why] The early stages of Deven and Lune's courtship, when Deven first meets Lune in her guise as a mortal lady, are completely skipped over. By the time we realize Deven and Lune have met, they're discussing marriage, and trouble brews between them not long after. I felt cheated at first, but in retrospect, I don't think those early months actually matter much. The real development of their relationship begins later, outside the artifice of court. If Brennan had devoted a lot of page space to the romance in the early chapters, it might have resulted in the plot taking too long to get off the ground. [END SPOILER] So, I think this decision turned out well in the end.
Marie Brennan's treatment of London is delightful. She builds her story around real locations within the city, and the legends that have grown around those locations, creating a tangible sense of place. I only wish she had included a map of the city in Midnight Never Come, so that a reader unfamiliar with London could more easily visualize the places the characters visit. I ended up reading Midnight Never Come with Forever Amber open on the table next to me because it has an excellent map of London in it.)
Overall, a slowish start, but worth it. Brennan's prose and plotting are particularly good, and I can't wait to read In Ashes Lie. —Kelly Lasiter
In Ashes Lie
In Ashes Lie continues the story of the Onyx Court, a faerie city situated just below London, and the Court's dealings with London's mortals. Lune, who became queen of the Onyx Court in Midnight Never Come, reigns still. Her mortal consort, Michael Deven, is long dead. Lune has chosen another man to act as her official consort and liaison with the mortal world, but the role is political only.
In Ashes Lie follows Lune and her allies through the end of Charles I's troubled reign, Oliver Cromwell's rise to power, and the eventual restoration of the monarchy. Running alongside this mortal politicking, dangerous plots are afoot in the faerie court. As you might guess by the novel's title, the climactic events take place during the Great Fire of 1666, which threatens to destroy both London and the Onyx Court. Like Midnight Never Come, In Ashes Lie gets off to a slowish start. Marie Brennan takes her time moving all of her pieces into place. When all hell does break loose, though, it's as exciting as anyone could wish, and made all the more effective by the careful, deliberate buildup of events.
This is, first and foremost, a story about power: its uses and misuses. It becomes clear early in the novel that Lune has been changed by her years on the throne, by the tough decisions that a ruler must make. The events of In Ashes Lie test her further, and there are a few questions always on Lune's mind and the reader's: When should justice be tempered by mercy? Should the fae meddle in mortal affairs, and if so, how? Can Lune avoid becoming as ruthless as her predecessor, Invidiana?
Readers looking for romance will not find it here. If In Ashes Lie is a love story, it's a love story between Lune and her kingdom, and between her mortal friends and the city of London. It's a beautiful and touching story, too. It's just not what you may be expecting if you seek another Lune/Deven plotline.
I'd be remiss if I didn't also mention Brennan's prose, just as restrained and elegant as before. And the only real peeve I had in Midnight Never Come has been remedied here: there's a map of London in the front of the book, along with a Dramatis Personae for those moments when you can't remember who is lord of what.
Recommended, with the caveat that you'll probably want to read Midnight Never Come first. In Ashes Lie stands on its own plotwise, but there are many references to people and events past. The characters' history weighs heavily on them, and you'll get more out of the story if you are familiar with that history.
—Kelly Lasiter
 A Star Shall Fall
From the celestial heights the arbitrary acts of life seem patterned like a fairy-tale landscape, populated by charming and eccentric figures. The glittering observers require vital doses of joy and pain, sudden reversals of fortune, dire portents and untimely deaths. Life itself proceeds in its unpredictable infinite patterns — so unlike the measured dance of stars — until, for the satisfaction of their entertainment, the watchers choose a point at which to stop.
That’s a quote from Ellen Kushner’s Swordspoint, but I kept thinking of it while reading A Star Shall Fall. It’s part of the nature of the ONYX COURT series that the books are tightly focused on specific points in time. Marie Brennan zooms in on her characters as a pivotal period begins, follows them until that situation is resolved, and then zooms back out, leaving only tantalizing glimpses of what happens in the spaces between books. Inevitably, this leaves me wanting more of some of the characters: I still wish we’d seen more of Michael Deven, for example, and Lune the way she was with him (before he died and she closed off her heart forever); and in this volume we see some flashbacks of Jack Ellin of In Ashes Lie and wish we’d had more time to spend with him as well. There’s a new character introduced in A Star Shall Fall, too, who I really wish had more page time.
A Star Shall Fall takes place between the years of 1757 and 1759. At the end of In Ashes Lie, the fae of the Onyx Court imprisoned the Dragon who destroyed most of London by fire. A few years later, the Dragon’s prison began to weaken and the fae banished it to a comet. But as science advanced, it was discovered that this comet would approach Earth again and bring the vengeful Dragon with it. Lune and her court must now figure out a way to prevent the monster from destroying London and the Onyx Court when it returns. Meanwhile, dissension is brewing in the court; many disgruntled fae believe that their troubles are due to Lune no longer being “whole” because of her battle scars, and plots to overthrow her are hatching.
Brennan makes the wise decision of stepping a little away from Lune in terms of point-of-view. This enables Brennan to play a few cards close to her chest, plus there’s the fact that Lune has steadily become an emotionally remote character. These books already have a certain “coolness” or “distance” about them, and narrating this one through Lune’s eyes would probably exacerbate that. Instead, we focus primarily on the tomboyish sprite Dame Irrith and on the current Prince of the Stone, Galen St. Clair. Irrith snoops into the doings of the rebels against the Queen and starts to wonder whether some of their theories might be correct. Galen has an unrequited love for the Queen but is being pressured to marry by his father. The two of them eventually become allies and more.
As in the two previous installments, the plot of A Star Shall Fall builds slowly. The characters are racing against time, but their path to a solution involves many conversations, debates, spying missions, and so on. The prose is elegant, and I found it especially beautiful in the All Hallows’ Eve scene.
Marie Brennan does a good job of portraying the time period in which the novel is set. She works that time period’s science into the plot in clever ways; several theories that have since been debunked are presented as true, or partially true, or true-but-only-in-Faerie, in the world of the novel. The characters, too, are products of their time. Sometimes they express opinions that will sit uncomfortably with readers. Brennan doesn’t write modern characters dressed up in period costumes, and I appreciate this even when it leads to a few moments of unease.
The final scenes are moving; as always, Brennan drops the reserve at the climactic point and lets emotion shine through. The way everything works out is well-thought-out, unexpected, and affecting. Particularly haunting is the scene in which we finally find out what became of the man who was Prince of the Stone before Galen; talk about the stuff of nightmares!
A Star Shall Fall is a well-written novel and a good addition to the series. I recommend it to fans of historical fantasy. —Kelly Lasiter
With Fate Conspire
The Onyx Court is crumbling. The gradual demolition of the London Wall dealt the first blow to the faerie palace beneath the city. Now the Underground is hammering in the coffin nails, its iron rails ripping through the fabric of the palace. Queen Lune has not been seen in years. The elegant court is no more, and ruthless mob bosses rule in the sinister Goblin Market. Now, the Underground’s Inner Circle is nearing completion and may destroy what’s left of the Onyx Court forever.
The fate of the faerie city lies in the hands of three unlikely heroes, all of them from society’s lower classes. Eliza is a street vendor, later a maid, who faces anti-Irish prejudice in mortal London while searching for her lost sweetheart, Owen, who was taken by the faeries seven years ago. Dead Rick is a skriker (dog shapeshifter, death omen) who was once a loyal Queen’s man; now, his memories stolen, he’s been forced to serve as a minion for the brutal mob boss Nadrett. Benjamin Hodge is the Prince of the Stone, and the only man who knows where Lune really is and what she is doing. He’s no aristocrat, but the Prince must be a man born within the boundaries of the old Wall, and the rich have long since moved further into the suburbs. These characters have a different view of London than an upper-crust character might have — and this becomes important later. Supporting characters include some favorites (and some love-to-hate-‘ems) from previous books, such as Irrith, Valentin Aspell, and the Goodemeade sisters.
With Fate Conspire is not as steampunk-ish as the cover might suggest; if you’re into steam-powered gadgetry, there are other novels that use a lot more of it. But Marie Brennan does include several Victorian technologies in this novel. The Underground is the immediately obvious one, but developments such as photography, the difference engine, and the mechanical loom have their role to play. Brennan gives these technologies a magical twist and incorporates them into the story in interesting ways.
Like the previous Onyx Court books, With Fate Conspire started slowly for me, though I found the descriptions of the dying Onyx Court heartrending after having seen it in splendor in the past three installments. Then, when our heroes started to cautiously forge friendships and coalesce into a team, something just clicked. This is one of those books where you read a little here, read a little there, and then devour the last 150 pages in one day. You reach a point where every scene packs an emotional punch. My favorites include Dead Rick’s decision to become the good man his old friends remember; and the climax, which serves in part as a tribute to characters we’ve loved in the previous books. The ending is a fitting conclusion to the tales of the Onyx Court. There is room for further books in this world, but it will be a changed world.
If you’ve been following the Onyx Court series, you won’t want to miss this one. If you’re looking for a unique read about faeries in a richly detailed London through several centuries, give this series a try. I’ve very much enjoyed it. (And Dead Rick is awesome.) —Kelly Lasiter |
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