Midnight Never Come (Onyx Court 1)

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I could not understand at first why the story needed to keep jumping between the Great Fire and the preceding history, but eventually the reason became clear. The excitement of the fire raging through the old city of London broke up much of the rather tedious parliamentary shenanigans! As I got further into the book its pace increased and I enjoyed it very much. The very existence of the hidden faerie kingdom under London is inextricably linked to that of the city above ground, unbeknown to all but a very few humans with the future of life above and below ground depending on the bravery and joint actions of the key characters. Set a hundred years after Midnight Never Come in seventeenth century England, book two follows Lune, now queen of the Onyx Court, and Antony Ware, the human who rules at her side as Prince of the Stone. Plausible Deniability: The fae are generally very careful to stay hidden from most mortal eyes, and the author put a ton of work into getting all the historical details right, ensuring that for all the readers know, this could have happened in our world. Until the end of Fate, that is, when the masquerade gets broken in spectacular fashion. A Star Shall Fall: Takes place in the mid-18th century and concerns the Enlightenment in general and Halley's Comet in particular. Lune was a more appealing character to me, in part I think because her stakes were higher. Whereas Deven starts out trying to secure a position in Elizabeth's court, Lune serves a more temperamental and dangerous ruler in a court that makes human politics look as simplistic and straightforward as the squabbling of preschoolers. Watching Lune navigate that court, seeing her fall and struggle to rise again, leaves Deven feeling a little bland by comparison.

With her latest book, Brennan has moved from more traditional sword & sorcery to intricate historical fantasy. Anyone wanting or expecting more of the same might be disappointed. I was not. We meet some new characters and see the return of others. Lune is immortal but Deven is mortal and can not live forever. Instead Lune has chosen a new Prince of Stone, a mortal to help rule at her side. Anthony’s role is more than ceremonial. He’s Lune’s connection with the mortal world and it’s a connection that works both ways. He needs the fae in the real world as well. Brennan’s mastery of mixing history with her faerie world was tested in Midnight Never Come. But as important as the history was Brennan was free their to build a love story around the events without the being tied too strongly to fixed dates and events. Second, I'm unfairly suspicious of novels involving fairies, because I'm always afraid they'll be twee. These fairies are about as un-twee as you can get, while still being very definitely magical. I particularly liked that these fairies are multicultural (a Greek centaur and an Arab djinn feature in the book), that they have internal politics, and that their interaction with the mortal world is a bit more complicated than them just having fun messing with mortals' heads. (Don't worry - they definitely have fun messing with mortals' heads. But there's more to it than that.) Marie Brennan is the pseudonym of Bryn Neuenschwander, an American fantasy author. Her works include the Doppelganger duology ( Doppelganger and its sequel Warrior and Witch, respectively retitled Warrior and Witch on later printings); the Onyx Court series; the Memoirs of Lady Trent series; and numerous short stories. The first of the Onyx Court novels, Midnight Never Come, published on 1 May 2008 in the United Kingdom, and 1 June 2008 in the United States, received a four star-review from SFX Magazine. [1] The Lady Trent series was a finalist for the Hugo Best Series award in 2018. [2]

The Onyx Court series contains examples of:

So, there were actually a couple of reasons why I almost didn't read this book. First, I hadn't actually read the first two volumes in the series, Midnight Never Come and In Ashes Lie. I intend to remedy this inexplicable omission quite soon, but it didn't actually harm my enjoyment of this book at all. While I'm sure there were sequences that would have had more richness if I'd read the previous volumes, everything you need to know to grasp what's going on in this book is explained in the text. 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. As is always the case with Brennan's writing, her historical research is solid. As a retired computer engineer, I especially enjoyed the minor but significant part the works of Jacquard, Charles Babbage and Ada, Countess of Lovelace and Byron's daughter - yes THAT Byron - played in being adapted into a steampunk version of the Difference Engine, called here, The Ephemeral Engine. It's another of Brennan's genre-blending novels about the fairies under London. To illustrate that, let's consider the plight of the protagonist. Galen St. Clair is a young man with many problems. For one, there's a dragon hiding on Halley's comet that might destroy the city when it arrives in 1759. For another, Galen's family is running out of money and he has to find a rich heiress to marry, or else. Midnight Never Come: Takes place during the late Elizbethan period and tells the story of Michael Deven, courtier to Queen Elizabeth, and Lune, courtier to Invidiana, faerie queen of the Onyx Court and Elizabeth's dark shadow. Deven and Lune must come together to free England and Elizabeth from Invidiana's hold over them.

Midnight Never Come", part one in "The Onyx Court" series is Marie Brennan's imaginary interpretation of the court politics in 15th century England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth. In this enthralling historical/urban fantasy novel, the mortal court is shadowed by its mysterious and slightly ominous counterpart led by the cruel faerie queen of Britain Invidiana.Probably my favorite part of the book was the exploration of the theme of sovereignty--what does it mean, if one's right to rule is genuinely divinely appointed? What does it mean if it isn't? And does that make any difference in one's responsibilities and rights? I would have liked more philosophical discussion and argument on the point, which also might have been an opportunity to give more characterization to Lune's somewhat dimensionless faerie courtiers.

Marie Brennan has fast become one of my favorite fantasy authors. This particular novel, A Star Shall Fall, is the third segment of her Onyx court series, which revolves around the notion that a Fae (fairie) court exists beneath the city of London. The Fae court mirrors the mortal court above and the intermingling of the two has profound effects on the great junctures in British history. This specific novel is nowhere near as fraught as its immediate predecessor, which dealt with the period of history during which parliament struggled to seize power from King Charles and the great fire. In Marie Brennan’s construct, the great fire was not a tragic accident, but rather the actions of a malevolent fire dragon…Without giving much of the conclusion away, In Ashes Lie culminates with the defeat and banishment of the Dragon to a passing Haley’s Comet.The Onyx Court is intrinsically tied to the monarchy in London and tries to protect England and its people, but Fae courts in Ireland and Scotland (and their human leadership) contend for control. It's a political mess (sound familiar?). In the mid 1600s England stands in peril. Above ground King Charles and Parliament fight for power. Below ground the faerie queen, Lune, struggles against dangerous adversaries. Together with Anthony, her human consort and The Prince of Stone, both hope to find peace for both the human and faerie England. But what will both sides be able to do when London is is suddenly set ablaze by a deadly and magical fire that consumes the city?

It begins with a conversation between two would-be queens. Thirty years later, Devan finds himself in the services of Queen Elizabeth (the first) and, more directly, her spymaster Walsingham. Beneath London, in the secret realm of the Onyx Court, Lune seeks to regain the favour of the dark Faerie Queen, Indiviana. Naturally, the path of the mortal man and disgraced fae lady are destined to cross. The historical detail in these books is mind-blowing, resulting in a London that feels real down to every last detail. Learning actual history as entertainment--accompanied by the fantasy of faeries, sprites, and goblins --is a truly phenomenal, even aspirational idea. It's akin to a spoonful of sugar to help the medicine go down, as touted by fictional nanny Mary Poppins.I liked this one quite a bit; it was at least as good as either of its predecessors. I liked the genre-blending, I liked the characters, and I liked the setting. Brennan has learned the art of alluding to things the reader has heard of, without getting hung up on them. Early in the book, Galen goes to a salon with Samuel Johnson, who is not a major character, but does get in some good lines. Later, Galen goes to a Royal Society meeting and we hear, in one sentence, that there's somebody from the colonies there to talk about electricity -- a Mr. Franklin. Lune is also once again facing more battles - the London Wall is being chipped away in London Above, and as it disappears, so does the size of her court. And the Onyx Court has grown to increasingly distrust her ability to hold her court together in the face of this loss, with the danger of the dragon, and her own physical power waning. To make matters worse, her new Prince of Stone in young and untested. There were too many plans which didn't work--at least seven--and while they were all used effectively in some form by the end of the book, that didn't lessen the fact that I had to force myself to keep reading yet another failure.