I picked up a copy of Seanan McGuire's first published novel, Rosemary and Rue
(Disclosure: Seanan is a dear friend of several of my good friends and a friendly acquaintance of mine; she was among my roommates at worldcon this year. That wouldn't make me praise her book if I didn't actually like it. Especially since she wouldn't give me her author copy and made me wait to finish it!)
Rosemary and Rue is an urban fantasy that I'm actually comfortable calling that. It isn't a paranormal romance in disguise, which is a nice change of pace. We're back to where urban fantasy more-or-less started: faerie lands and denizens coexisting with a human city -- in this case, San Francisco. There are enough different types of faeries to make me happy that a glossary was included and to send me off to do a few searches after reading the book to find out more. But it's pretty much just faeries. No werewolves or vampires or random magic-using people. It's pleasant not to have every possible supernatural being thrown into the setting. And did I mention it's not a disguised romance? So it's not full of Hot! Vampire! Sex! or even Hot! Faerie! Sex!
(Why yes, I've been burned by an excess of Laurell K. Hamilton. How did you guess?)
It also happens to be well-written, with a convincing depiction of the half-fae changelings who inhabit the borders between faerie and humanity. October (Toby) Daye is one of those changelings, daughter of a faerie woman and a mortal man. Her work as a private investigator has taken her down some nasty paths -- and the story pulls no punches about just how horrible her losses have been -- and she is now trying to completely sever her connections with the faerie world. But when a faerie countess who has been her supporter is brutally murdered, Toby, bound by magic and honor to solve the mystery, is forced back into the world of faerie and the border culture of the changelings that she thought she had left behind.
I really don't want to say any more than that; the story deserves to unfold unspoiled. It's a good mystery, with some nifty supporting characters. I especially liked Tybalt, the King of Cats, and the endearing rose goblin. There's some romantic tension, possibly a setup for future books, but not so much that it becomes the main point of the story. The changelings' world is gritty and unforgiving; this is not a warm, fuzzy sort of book. And I like it that way.
I have only minor nit-picks, and they're fairly specific to me. As an occasional SCA member, I found it disconcerting to read about the Kingdom of the Mists, since the Principality of the Mists is the Bay area SCA entity. The weirdness doubled when a local Duchess was called Luna, which happens to be the name of a local SCA Duchess out here where I live. I kept having flashbacks to Pennsic. The Luna thing is entirely my problem, but I can't help thinking that while naming any Bay area entity something mist-like makes perfect sense (I've been there, and misty it is), the similarity of names with the local SCA group is unfortunate.
Other than that, the only quibble I had was the aforementioned variety of faerie races, which was perhaps a little excessive. But really, that was it. This is a very good book which I highly recommend, especially for anyone who wants an urban fantasy in the older sense of the term, before it became synonymous with paranormal romance and Hot! Vampire! Sex! It's the first of at least three; the other two are coming out in March and September of 2010. I will have them on pre-order.
Interestingly, the promotion for the group includes a short YouTube author video, which may be found here. The author's website is here, though there's not much on the book itself other than some good review quotes.
Shopping link for your convenience:
That sounds right up my alley. I'll have to look for it.
back to where urban fantasy more-or-less started: faerie lands and denizens coexisting with a human city
It is a quirk of my personal lexicon that this is the only thing I'm comfortable calling 'urban fantasy'; everything else is 'contemporary fantasy' (or, if it has vampires and things, 'horror'). Because of this, I even call Mercedes Lackey's "elves and racecars in the rural Southeast" series 'urban fantasy', although it's actually, um, rural.
Posted by: Mary Aileen | October 15, 2009 at 07:22 PM
Books that I used to think of as paranormal romance or supernatural romance are now being categorized as urban fantasy, and they seem to me to be a poor fit with the classic style, epitomized by Emma Bull's War for the Oaks. If you look at some of my book blogging, you'll see that I'm having trouble figuring out what to call them to distinguish them from what I think of as urban fantasy.
Publishers seem to me to be using urban fantasy for both classic style novels and ones that if not actually romances are direct descendants thereof. That doesn't mean I don't like them (I'm obviously fond of Kelley Armstrong), but I don't like this categorization.
But I'm hardly an expert.
Posted by: Susan de Guardiola | October 15, 2009 at 07:36 PM
it's not full of Hot! Vampire! Sex! or even Hot! Faerie! Sex!
And I suppose that not one single tattooed bare midriff is seen throughout the story.
This sounds more like my kind of urban/rural fantasy. You know, like de Lint's Moonheart. Meanwhile, I wonder how the troll under the Bay Bridge feels about the span that will be taken down once the new one is connected to Yerba Buena Island.
That being said, thanks for the recommendation.
I'll look for it next time I go to the bookstore.
Posted by: Serge | October 16, 2009 at 10:27 AM
The only Urban Fantasy I've read in a while is John M. Ford's (Mike Ford) The Last Hot Time. Ah, they think you should buy two Emma Bull books with it, including War for the Oaks.
Posted by: Marilee J. Layman | October 16, 2009 at 06:09 PM
I definitely have to pick this book up next time I'm at B&N. I love a good urban faerie story, especially when it's not bogged down by Hot!Faerie!Sex! Not that I mind some sexy times in my books, I just mind when they take up so much room that the author forgot to put a story in, too.
Posted by: AJ | October 16, 2009 at 07:46 PM
Paul A gave me a link to a Kim Newman story about what if the 1950s McCarthy witch hunts had been literally that. I'm looking forward to reading it. Link is here.
That reminds me I still have to read Newman's stories of the Diogenes Club.
Posted by: Serge | October 16, 2009 at 08:26 PM
Marilee:
I think everyone should buy War for the Oaks. Absolute classic.
AJ:
Yeah, that's exactly it. The sex can't be the whole story.
It's a running joke in Kelley Armstrong's books that her werewolf couple can't ever manage to complete an escape from the bad guys without stopping for sex. But her characters offer ironic self-analysis, so it's amusing rather than irritating.
Serge:
I did not like the Diogenes Club book I read as much as I expected to from reading Anno Dracula, which I really loved.
Posted by: Susan de Guardiola | October 25, 2009 at 11:32 PM
Susan... I remember your saying that about Newman's Diogenes stories. I don't remember what it was that didn't click, for you, though. Oh,and speaking of the subject of this post, I bought the book last week, to treat myself because I deserved it after that grueling Project I had worked on, but I haven't read it yet. Today, I treated myself again and bought "Queen Victoria's Bomb".
Posted by: Serge | October 30, 2009 at 12:14 AM
Cool, I'm selling books. :)
(I actually made all of $13.00 off Rixo in its first 18 months of existence via the Amazon links. That is about 1/10 of what it's costing me per year for the Typepad subscription. Guess I shouldn't quite my day job.)
Posted by: Susan de Guardiola | October 30, 2009 at 06:43 AM
You do, Susan? I'll have to go see. There might be something that I must have. Besides, I'd be glad to add even just one brick to your I-am-quitting-my-day-job edifice.
Posted by: Serge | October 30, 2009 at 09:20 AM
Guess I shouldn't quite my day job.
Quite.
(Sorry, I'm unable to pass that particular mispelling by; my 4 standby conversational phrases are "quite" "just so" "indeed" and (borrowed from a friend) "I see")
Posted by: Neil Willcox | October 30, 2009 at 08:00 PM
I'm trying and failing to work up a joke around "unrequited." Help?
Posted by: Susan de Guardiola | October 30, 2009 at 08:36 PM
With $13 dollars income from her blogging Susan decided to quite her job.
Unfortunately her letter of resignation went missing requiring her to re-quite in person.
As she left the building she suddenly realised what a poor idea this was and rushed back in declaring to her boss how much she adored her job. For some reason she adopted a midlands dialect and said "Can you un-re-quite me, love?"
(Clearly time for me to go to bed)
Posted by: Neil Willcox | October 30, 2009 at 09:36 PM
Susan, I already own War for the Oaks, but it's definitely a good read for everybody.
Posted by: Marilee J. Layman | October 31, 2009 at 05:35 PM
I just noticed that Emma Bull and Will Shetterly are the guests at Darkovercon this year. I've never interacted with her, though I've twice been at cons she was a guest at. Perhaps Darkover will be an opportunity. I am a bit skittish about Will, though; he's been a jerk online a few times too many.
Posted by: Susan de Guardiola | October 31, 2009 at 06:28 PM
He's usually better in person. There's something about a keyboard that changes his words.
Posted by: Marilee J. Layman | November 01, 2009 at 05:49 PM
Susan... I heard the same thing that Marilee did about Will. He's probably one of those people who can't function well without sight & sound-based social cues.
Posted by: Serge | November 01, 2009 at 06:22 PM
Oh, they come to Minicon every so often, depending on their income, and I've seen him being much better in person.
Posted by: Marilee J. Layman | November 02, 2009 at 05:45 PM
Marilee,
I'm not a big believer in the idea that people are somehow qualitatively different in person than they are online. That merely makes me think that their in-person character/attitude is a facade covering something ugly and nasty underneath. And I'm trying to stop being surprised by people who act like assholes online turning out to actually be assholes, even if it isn't obvious in person during superficial interactions.
Posted by: Susan de Guardiola | November 02, 2009 at 06:50 PM
It's been quite interesting for me to meet people in the real world after mostly knowing them thru the blogosphere. When there's many of us in one spot, those who talked the least online can be the most voluble in the real world, and those who gab the most can be the quietest when physically near the ohers.
Posted by: Serge | November 02, 2009 at 08:22 PM
As for the case that was being discussed here... It reminds me of my own work situation. Everybody I work with is at least one thousand miles away. Some have been quite rude to me on occation, either thru emails or thru phone conferences, but they never act that way when I am actually there. Either it's because they can actually see the effects of their words, or they worry I could be quite visual in my reaction to rudeness.
Posted by: Serge | November 02, 2009 at 08:27 PM
I just thought I'd pop over to this thread and say that I'm currently reading Rosemary and Rue. I bought it a couple weeks ago and it's been sitting around while I was supposed to read a book that was boring me... so yesterday when I had to go to the mechanic, I left Boring Book at home and took this instead. I'm hooked so far :)
Posted by: AJ | December 01, 2009 at 10:17 PM
When I'm not nodding off from an overall sleep shortage, I'm reading Jack Vance's Tales of the Dying Earth. It looks like it finally clicked between Vance and me. By the way, one writer that I think was even better is Leigh Brackett.
Posted by: Serge | December 01, 2009 at 11:10 PM
Hey, look, AJ reviewed this one AND the sequel here. Since the latter isn't out yet, I think that's cheating. But I'm glad to know the quality holds up.
(AJ, is that link going to last? It seems awfully generic. Is there a permalink?)
Posted by: Susan de Guardiola | February 12, 2010 at 03:28 PM
Susan, Seanan specifically asked me to review my ARC, so it's not cheating ;)
The link will only last until the end of the month, and then it will go into the archives. I'll post the permalink in March!
Posted by: AJ | February 12, 2010 at 06:09 PM
AJ... I won an advanced reader copy
You gloating, young lady?
I'll probably read Rosemary and Rue once I'm done with Pamela Sargent's Women of Wonder.
Posted by: Serge | February 13, 2010 at 11:35 AM
So how did you get an ARC?
Posted by: Susan de Guardiola | February 14, 2010 at 07:34 AM
Serge, I have been known to gloat!
Susan, she's been running little contests on Twitter and I think on LJ to win ARCs. I entered one where you had to say why you deserved one (My reason, because I was too impatient to wait for it to come out in March) and then she randomly drew one entrant's name. I was the lucky entrant! I read it straight through on Christmas Eve while I was dogsitting.
Posted by: AJ | February 14, 2010 at 11:50 AM