A Review of Silver and Lead
by Seanan McGuire

This is the nineteenth entry in a long-running urban fantasy series, one which I thoroughly enjoy, so for more measured objectivity you may want to seek out additional reviews. Also, this novel may not be the ideal starting point for the series, though author McGuire is a pro and provides sufficient background for any reader to orient themselves.

That being said, to catch you up: in this world, the classic Celtic fae inhabit a hidden magical society within our world. October Daye is a human-fae hybrid and a formal "hero of the realm." Her specialty is resolving important magical crises, and with her unique powers of near-instant healing and blood-based lie detection, she is ideally suited for the role. She is married to Tybalt, the shape-changing King of Cats, and the two are expecting their first child. She is, simply put, a wise-cracking, intelligent hero who bleeds all over the place while saving the day.

In some ways this latest entry improves upon its predecessors. It’s leaner and more direct, featuring just one chapter of setup before launching into action that runs until almost the last page. Queen Arden tasks October with recovering missing royal artifacts—ones that possess serious magic capable of doing major harm in the wrong hands. Despite being heavily pregnant and close to delivery, October accepts the task.

It's difficult to review the plot without giving away too much, as the surprises are crucial to enjoying the book. Suffice it to say that familiar enemies return to threaten October and her found family. As always, she's up to the challenge and prevails in stylish fashion—well, stylish if bloody conflict is your jam.

The flaws here are too minor to mention, except this: the directness and pace come at the cost of character growth. In the October Daye novels, year by year, people evolved. October and Tybalt began as mildly adversarial colleagues and eventually wound up married; secondary characters who started as the children of nobility now hold noble offices themselves. This slow, evolutionary formation of October’s found family is one of the series’ virtues. In this entry the characters are static. They deal with the urgent escalating emergencies right in front of them, and while that’s entertaining, it would be more so if we could also see them learn, mature, and change, as we have before.

Nevertheless I do recommend it because these characters are good people to spend time with, even if here they are out of breath most of the time.