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Fly Trap (Fly By Night #2)

4.29 of 5 stars 4.29 · rating details · 346 ratings · 87 reviews

Having barely escaped the revolution they had a huge (if accidental) part in causing, sharp-eyed orphan Mosca Mye; her guard goose, Saracen; and their sometimes-loyal companion, the con man Eponymous Clent, must start anew.

All too quickly, they find themselves embroiled in fresh schemes and twisting politics as they are trapped in Toll, an odd town that changes its entire...more

Hardcover, 592 pages

Published May 31st 2011 by HarperCollins (first published January 1st 2010)

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Mar 17, 2012 Daria rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: beloved-fantasy, i-d-take-writing-lessons

Mosca Mye, Eponymous Clent, and "winged warzone" Saracen are good at what they do. They're in the business of Stretching the Truth and Then Running Like Hell. Mosca and Clent, whose principal love is the spoken and written word, like to use one word too many. And we all know that using one word too many is dangerous; it makes quick the clamping of the shackle, it makes swift the dagger in the night. It causes cities to catch fire and to tumble into revolution.

Running from the trail of destructi...more

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Feb 28, 2011 John rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: children-ya

Sequel to FLY BY NIGHT, and that should be 'nuff said. Hardinge shows a real gift for crafting oddball but pointedly cogent societies, and here she does it again with the town of Toll---a strange double settlement of prosperous burghers who are only out after dawn, and impoverished, fear-ridden, despised residents allowed to come out after dusk. Her central characters are richly imagined too---but once again she doesn't give that wonderfully homicidal goose Saracen enough page time!

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Nov 12, 2011 April rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: middle-grade, fantasy, historical-fiction, library, cybils, highly-recommended

Homicidal pet goose is a magical phrase to me. It pretty much guarantees I will pick up a book, given my affinity for crotchety characters. Y’all Fly Trap (Twilight Robbery in the UK) by Frances Hardinge is a door stopper, clocking in at 584 pages but reads faster than books half it’s size. It’s the sequel to Fly By Night but you don’t need to have read that to appreciate Fly Trap. Personally, I did NOT read Fly By Night and got through Fly Trap just fine.

Read the rest of my review here

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Apr 24, 2012 David Hebblethwaite rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I keep hearing Frances Hardinge’s name mentioned as a YA fantasy writer whose work is of interest to adult readers; here’s my chance to judge for myself. Twilight Robbery is the standalone sequel to Hardinge’s debut, Fly By Night; it’s the continued adventures of an orphan girl named Mosca Mye, and her companions, Eponymous Clent (a thief and con artist) and Saracen (a goose whose default temperament is that of the Unseen University Librarian when the latter gets called a monkey). Travelling to...more

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Sep 09, 2011 Eva Mitnick rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy, children

In Fly Trap (sequel to Fly by Night), the town of Toll is really two towns in one - Toll-by-day and Toll-by-night. At dusk, the citizens of daytime Toll scurry into their homes and bolt their doors, not daring to come out until dawn. In fact, they couldn't even if they wanted to - their doors have been locked from the outside as well, and entire facades of buildings shifted so that the daylight doors are blocked while the night-time doors are revealed. Then it's time for the the nightlings to co...more In Fly Trap (sequel to Fly by Night), the town of Toll is really two towns in one - Toll-by-day and Toll-by-night. At dusk, the citizens of daytime Toll scurry into their homes and bolt their doors, not daring to come out until dawn. In fact, they couldn't even if they wanted to - their doors have been locked from the outside as well, and entire facades of buildings shifted so that the daylight doors are blocked while the night-time doors are revealed. Then it's time for the the nightlings to come out to conduct their business. The nightlings live in the cracks, hollows, and left-over spaces carved out from the daytime dwellings - and never do they see their own city by daylight.

Our 12-year-old heroine Mosca Mye, black-eyed and ferret-faced, is a true nighttime child, whether she likes it or not, thanks to the Beloved whose hour she was born in (Beloveds are like minor gods, and each has its sacred hours in the year). As such, she is uniquely able, with her companion Eponymous Clent, to scrabble in the nasty crevasses of Toll in order to unearth plots and save the world (or at least Toll - or okay, her own skin if nothing else).

Mosca doesn't have much comfort or security in her life. She's homeless and townless - though not friendless, as she's got Clent and of course her fearsome goose Saracen for companionship. And Mosca is quite fierce herself, a true survivor. But I just yearn for her to have a mama to hug her and love her and feed her warm meals.

The Dickensian elements (Eponymous Clent, from his name to his pompous manner of speech, reminds me of Mr. Micawber) make for a smoky, grimy atmosphere. As in Dickens, there are moments of true pathos (when a nightling mother gives up her baby so that it has a chance to live in Toll-by-day) and terror (the jingle of the Locksmiths), but also humor (as when not one but three faux Clatterhorses roam the streets of Toll-by-night, stumbling and clacking away).

Frances Hardinge is a wondrous writer. From Fly by Night to Well-Witched to The Lost Conspiracy, her books are full meals, aromatic and filling. And I do think that the next time I lope down a Venice street, I'll be imagining Mosca Mye headed down that same street, clogs clopping determinedly against the sidewalk and pipe clamped firmly between her teeth.

Highly recommended for ages 10 and up.(less)

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Jul 27, 2011 Shanshad Whelan rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: childrens, fantasy, adventure, series, mg, ya

There are few authors that can leave me with no idea what the story is going to be and how it will go. Most stories generally have a framework that takes me all of a chapter to recognize--not that I mind. But I can't do it with Hardinge's work beyond the most basic recognition of a con artist caper story. I never know what's going to happen or how the characters will react. Hardinge keeps me reading with no ground under me to expect: I'm running hard to keep up with Mosca and Clent as surprised...more

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Apr 04, 2011 Betsy rated it 5 of 5 stars

As I see it, reviewing a sequel is a peculiar enterprise. One can hardly review a book without suggesting to the reader that they read the previous novel as well. And in the rare case where the sequel is better than its predecessor, one’s positive review is sort of moot if it seems as though it’s recommending the first book in any way. This is my convoluted way of saying that I don’t like reviewing them. Heck, I don’t even like to even read sequels half the time. Usually when I do I simply get m...more

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Jun 16, 2012 Candy Wood added it · review of another edition

Shelves: children-s-ya, sf-fantasy

Twilight Robbery (much better than the US title) is one of those 500+-page children’s novels that moves along at a breathtaking clip, with plenty of wordplay and intriguingly grotesque characters to keep older readers interested too. Though it’s a sequel to Fly By Night, it isn’t necessary to have read that one to appreciate this outing of Mosca Mye, Eponymous Clent, and Mosca’s warrior goose, Saracen. This time they’re in a walled town that has two completely separate lives, Toll-by-Day and Tol...more

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Jul 20, 2012 TheBookSmugglers rated it 5 of 5 stars

Twilight Robbery/Fly Trap , the sequel to the excellent Fly By Night is a Shiny Beacon of Hope in the middle of a rather dreary week here at The Book Smugglers’ HQ.

A few months after leaving Mandelion, Mosca Mye and Eponymous Clent (as well as the murderous Goose Saracen) are on the run again. Unfortunately for the three amigos, Clent’s past shenanigans (lies!cons!theft!) prevent them from going anywhere near any of the towns nearby. Their chosen destination for the time being is a place called...more

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Feb 23, 2013 Christopher Taylor-Davies rated it 5 of 5 stars

I have just finished Fly Trap (Twilight Robbery in the UK) and it was every bit as good as Fly By Night. Very impressive. Despite a seemingly light tone, peppered with hilarious scenes and wonderful names, the story has bite. The idea that people are destined to be good or bad depending on the hour of their birth is obviously absurd, but played neatly so that it makes sense. And is a perfectly good allegory for the silly categorisations that we are fond of using to include or exclude people. It...more

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May 13, 2012 Khairul H. rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy

Very well written and with lots of twists and turns in what is essentially a 'rescue a kidnapped damsel' storyline. The world of Mosca Mye has been compared to Pratchett's Discworld and that's no bad thing. Both have created worlds that resemble pre-Industrial Revolution Britain and both authors have a way with words (although Pratchett leans more towards irreverent humour and puns).

This is the first time I've read anything by this author and though Twilight Robbery (called Fly Trap in the US) i...more

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Aug 02, 2011 Annie rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is an incredibly clever book. The world and characters are fanciful and creative: there's a lord who is in love with twin sisters and who has become obsessed with making everything in his kingdom double to try to win their love, a highway robber who becomes a local legend after a con man writes a ballad exaggerating his good deeds, a highly scheduled world of floating coffee houses, and a bizarrely intricate religious system that includes hundreds of demigods that correspond to different da...more

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Jun 30, 2012 Birgit rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Finding themselves in a town where everything is divided into day and night, and the wrong name can put you right into the dangerous nocturnal realms, orphan Mosca Mye and her friend Eponymous Clent once again find trouble ahead and trouble on their heels too. Little did I know that Twilight Robbery by Frances Hardinge is actually the second novel about the girl Mosca Mye, but rest assured it can easily be read as a stand alone novel.
Once again I need to put on my comparison hat and point out ho...more

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Dec 10, 2011 Kevin rated it 3 of 5 stars

I loved Fly By Night so when I saw this sequel I knew I needed to read it right away. And if you enjoyed the first book I think you will enjoy this one as well. It is full of the same dry humor, word play, imaginative characters and intricate plots.

This one has a serious idea below the surface as well: that treating people differently based on arbitrary standards warps and poisons society. Hardinge powerfully portrays how society becomes stratified with those in power using fear to divide and co...more

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Jun 29, 2011 Charlou Lunsford rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: j

Interesting when you can say you liked the sequel more than the first book, but the first book may have been better. I enjoy Hardinge, her unique stories and her way with words. This story was easier to read and understand than Fly By NIght, but the language a little less complicated, fewer interesting turn-of-phrase insights. This may make the book a little more accessible. It's possible to read this without reading the first book. Mosca, her goose Saracen, and the never sure if you can trust h...more

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Apr 20, 2013 Evelyn rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2013-spring, action-adventure, protagonist-club

Mosca jumped to my top ten favorite heroines. I did not realize just how much her character type resonates with me: the grouchy plain dark-haired little slip of a girl who never gets taken seriously even though she's much cleverer than most of the adults around her. I need to write stories with girls like that! I'd forgotten everything that had happened in Fly By Night and am contemplating rereading it. The plot was quite great, and the slow reveal of the mystery of Toll was done very well. Most...more

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Jan 22, 2013 Parinita rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

When I was growing up, I didn’t have stacks of unread books. Book shopping was a limited activity forcing me to reread the copies I owned to near tatters. This year, however, I’ve shopped for more books than I can possibly read in quick succession, giving me a delightfully large to-read pile. Much like an unread Harry Potter book, some of the books in the pile make me so delightfully excited about the fact that I’m yet to get lost in their pages. As much as I want to read them, I keep avoiding p...more When I was growing up, I didn’t have stacks of unread books. Book shopping was a limited activity forcing me to reread the copies I owned to near tatters. This year, however, I’ve shopped for more books than I can possibly read in quick succession, giving me a delightfully large to-read pile. Much like an unread Harry Potter book, some of the books in the pile make me so delightfully excited about the fact that I’m yet to get lost in their pages. As much as I want to read them, I keep avoiding picking up the book because I want something to look forward to. After reading the first in the series of Mosca Mye adventures, Twilight Robbery was one such book. Like an unread Harry Potter book, however, I had to read it sometime and now the only complaint I have is that the next book in the series isn’t out yet.

The book follows the further misadventures of Mosca and her partner-in-crime Eponymous Clent. Poverty-ridden and without a place to call home, both find themselves in a strange town called Toll that has its own way of keeping its citizens and visitors safe. People born under auspicious gods (or Goodman/Goodlady as they are called in this world) are allowed to ‘exist’ by day while nighttime sees them locked up in their houses and brings out those born under subjectively nefarious gods. Mosca and Eponymous can’t wait to hightail it out of Toll but their exit requires money, a luxury neither of them possesses. Add to this a plot to kidnap the mayor’s daughter and both protagonists are once again caught in the middle of important happenings they have little control over.

Just like its predecessor, the book is full of action-packed hijinks right from the first chapter where Mosca gets kidnapped. It also features strong new characters and a wonderfully detailed and intricate plot. Throughout the book, the pair just keeps falling from the frying pan to the fire and back again. Both have the tendency to lie, cheat and steal without batting an eyelash but they’re also in possession of an uncomfortable conscience and sense of loyalty. Hardinge also subtly peppers the narrative with situations and characters that don’t sit quite right with the reader and reveals red herrings and Macguffins right when you think the loose ends are all tied up. The book has its share of ludicrous situations (which I love) and clever subplots. Hardinge has a knack for creating highly imaginative worlds with its own absurd laws that somehow seem perfectly acceptable. Both books place Mosca and Clent in societies fraught with inequalities and ripe for revolution. Quick-witted Mosca is unafraid of danger and falls headlong into adventure and matters of grave importance.

The only thing I missed in the book is further details about their previous adventure. Mandelion, the city where they accidentally helped spark a revolution, is only mentioned in passing as a rebel city and its characters don’t make any appearance besides in Mosca’s head. I also have this completely useless talent of anticipating events and twists in films, TV shows and books which made a reappearance while reading this book. However, the amount of things I did guess right in the beginning were far outnumbered by the ones that I didn’t. Twilight Robbery packs in so much in a single book that there’s never a dull moment. The events of the last book never quite get resolved in this one which makes me impatiently eager for the next installment.

More people need to read and fall in love with both books.(less)

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Feb 01, 2013 Sonia rated it 5 of 5 stars

I love Frances Hardinge. I actually didn't know there was a sequel to Fly By Night until I found this book in the library. I almost fainted right then and there. This book in no way disappointed me. Hardinge has not lost her gift for writing. This is my absolute favorite book, and though it requires a rather specific personality to truly enjoy it, I really did enjoy it. It has all the good points of Fly By Night, and its quotability is incredible. I particularly loved the ending, and I thought t...more

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Aug 25, 2011 Kate rated it 2 of 5 stars

I wasn't that into the book. I liked the worldbuilding. It was snazzy. In fact, it was the reason I read the book (someone on Strange Horizons called it the children's version of The City and the City, which I really, really liked the worldbuilding of while not caring for the book). I didn't particularly care for the main character, Mosca, and somehow never really got into the book. The idea of a city divided into day (the "good" people) and night (the "bad" or unlucky people) was interesting, a...more

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Mar 19, 2012 Trinity rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is a follow-up book in Frances Hardinge's series involving a ferrety-featured girl named Mosca Mye. While reading the first book I was instantly thrown into Mosca Myes world of adventure and running into wrong people at the wrong time. At the ending, I desperately begged for more, so when I saw that there was a second book, I leaped for joy! The second book proved to be jsut as exciting and thrilling as the first one, I'm eagerly awaiting the third installment that the ending of the secnod...more

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Oct 07, 2011 Kate Forsyth rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: children-s-fantasy

Frances Hardinge is one of the most unusual and inventive writers of children’s fantasy today. I loved her first book, Fly by Night, which featured the adventures of the feisty, foul-mouthed Mosca Mye and her bad-tempered goose. Mosca and her goose, Saracen, are back in Twilight Robbery, this time getting themselves into trouble in the strange and perilous town of Toll-by-Day ... which is a very different place at night. A brilliant, fresh, funny and right-minded fantasy for reads 12+, this is p...more

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May 05, 2013 Cara M rated it 5 of 5 stars

It took me far too long to finish such an amazing book, but this morning I hit the fulcrum and couldn't stop. It is a perfect sequel to Fly-By-Night, and is so impossibly smart and hard and real and funny that I'm always bewildered that it ends up in the juvenile section when it's more mature and well-thought out than most books for adults.
As always it starts with small people with small problems that become not-quite-heroes, affecting the fates of cities. And there are no better not-quite-heroe...more

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Aug 25, 2012 Cassie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-in-2012

As always I love Mosca, Eponymous Clent and who could forget that "chirfugging" goose Sarcen?

I love Frances Hardinge's writing style. I don't always agree with her opinions but I do respect the fact that she believes them.

In this story Mosca and Mr Clent have stumbled, or rather run into the town of Toll. (I would like to note that I adore the unique names that fill the pages of this story.) I love the whole night-Toll vs daylight-Toll plot points. And many zany, soon to become infamous misadv...more

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Nov 01, 2011 Maureen E rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, middle-grade-and-younger, simply-superb

Opening: "'Read the paper for you, sir?' One small voice strove against the thunder of rain, the shuffle and huff of the passing mules, the damp flap of canvas as the last sodden stall holders gave up their fight against the dismal weather."

I have somewhat of an odd history with Frances Hardinge. If you asked me what I thought of her, I would wax very enthusiastic. And yet, every time I try to read one of her books, I start and stop and generally don't find it easy to get into. I tried to read T...more

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Jan 02, 2012 Chelsea rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: middle-grade-fiction

I adore Frances Hardinge's writing. The world she created in Fly by Night, and now, Fly Trap, is so rich, and the way she describes it is witty, vivid, and so much fun. You won't find better character names or insults. There are so few writers right now who really seem to enjoy language as much as Hardinge, and it makes for a delicious reading experience.

Mosca Mye and Eponymous Clent (and Saracen the Goose) are back on the road again after some unfortunate encounters. They find themselves trappe...more

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May 15, 2013 Pica rated it 5 of 5 stars

Read the full review at Pica Reads.

Fly Trap was a wonderful read, full of complexities, twists, and masterful wordsmithing, but it didn't enchant me the way Fly By Night did. (Click the link for my review.)

All the best elements of Fly By Night were present in Fly Trap. Great characters throughout the novel, far more than Mosca and Clent alone, breathed life into the story (although some of my favorite secondary characters, sadly, did not make an appearance). As for original settings, Hardinge's...more Read the full review at Pica Reads.

Fly Trap was a wonderful read, full of complexities, twists, and masterful wordsmithing, but it didn't enchant me the way Fly By Night did. (Click the link for my review.)

All the best elements of Fly By Night were present in Fly Trap. Great characters throughout the novel, far more than Mosca and Clent alone, breathed life into the story (although some of my favorite secondary characters, sadly, did not make an appearance). As for original settings, Hardinge's Fractured Realms are some of the most imaginative I've read, yet they are so well-written that it is no trouble at all to picture the wonders of Toll and Madelion as easily as it is to picture the typical setting of "once upon a time." The dialogue was lots of fun to read, and the story, as always, was phenomenal. But something seemed to be missing - that spark that transformed Fly By Night from an entertaining and original story into one of my favorite books.

One of the aspects of Fly Trap that I was not expecting when I opened the book was Hardinge's dive into the religious system of the Fractured Realm, with all the different Beloved, each belonging to a specific day or night of the year. (One of the things I was expecting was the expansion of the Fractured Realms, which was definitely there. World-building is one of Hardinge's strengths.) Each of the chapters is named after a Beloved, usually one that has something to do with the chapter, although it's often a bit of a puzzle to figure out how. Hardinge creates a rich religious system (which, if this statement is worrying, isn't overly religious. Mosca herself does not fully believe in the Beloved) full of Beloved that could easily fill up books with their mythology (and I would read them). Some examples: Goodman Jayblister, Master of entrances and salutations; Goodlady Evenax, Mistress of the twilight chimes; Goodman Snatchavoc, the voice in the gambler's ear; and Goodman Garotten, red-handed bringer of retribution. I could go on and on - there's an extensive list at the front of the book in the form of a table of contents. Read more...(less)

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Aug 07, 2011 Judy rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: kids and adults

Shelves: children-s-lit, fantasy

While reading Fly Trap, I was struck by how fantasy, in all its many forms and for any given age group, just might be the most fun one can have as a reader. Who can ever forget their first reading of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe or The Children of the Amulet? Portals to other worlds, strange creatures, and odd twists of time are such lovely flights of imagination in which not everything has to make sense. Always there is the delicious thrill of evil lurking, and always a hero or heroine...more

While reading Fly Trap, I was struck by how fantasy, in all its many forms and for any given age group, just might be the most fun one can have as a reader. Who can ever forget their first reading of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe or The Children of the Amulet? Portals to other worlds, strange creatures, and odd twists of time are such lovely flights of imagination in which not everything has to make sense. Always there is the delicious thrill of evil lurking, and always a hero or heroine equal to overcoming that evil.

So while Fly Trap is intended for readers age 11-13, I would recommend it to any reader who is still willing to be transported into another world. Mosca Mye is a fabulous heroine, equal to Harry Potter or Philip Pullman's Lyra Belaqua, and yet is uniquely herself. "Drips fell from the tip of a pointed nose. Beneath a drooping bonnet with a frayed brim, hair spiked and straggled like a tempest-tossed blackbird's nest. An olive green dress two sizes too big was hitched at the waist and daubed knee-high in thick yellow mud. And behind the clinging strands of damp hair, two large black eyes glistened like coal and gave the marketplace a look that spoke of coal's grit, griminess, and hidden fire." That is Mosca - orphan, scrapper, nearly always hungry and cold, careening through life righting wrongs and dreaming of warmth, food and a soft bed.

Her animal companion is an equally hungry goose, Saracen, who also acts as bodyguard. Her human companion and partner in crime is the poet and grifter Eponymous Clent, a man with a quick wit and a horror of a day's work, who is usually talking his way out of the latest disaster he created. The three arrive in Toll hoping to make their way to warmer, more prosperous lands for the winter. Naturally Toll is not what it seems, and they are instantly entangled in both their own deep troubles as well as the twisted circumstances of the town. It is the role of Eponymous to come up with plans, which Mosca carries out despite any amount of hardship and danger.

Toll is a town that serves as the sole gateway from one area to another; it is as two sided as a coin, with daytime and nighttime set simultaneously in the same streets, markets and alleys, though never can the two meet or interact. In this world, a person's place and name is determined by his or her hour of birth. Every house has a patron saint, a little god called a Beloved, and Mosca's Beloved is Palpitattle - He Who Keeps Flies Out of Jams and Butter Churns - explaining Mosca's name, which means housefly. In this town, all are subject to their names and Beloveds, except the Locksmiths who play day against night in an effort to control everything.

In a story of non-stop action and incident, Frances Hardinge magically manages to fill in the back-story from the first volume in the series, Fly By Night, and explain the religion of the Beloveds, the politics of Toll, and the dastardly goal of the evil Locksmiths. Her description of how Toll-by-Day becomes Toll-by-Night rivals the writing of Neil Gaiman and China Mieville. Possibly because I am an adult, I got weary of reading what started to seem an endless tale and thought Hardinge could have left off about 100 pages without harm. However, I remember being of a reading age where the longer the book the better, so I doubt that younger readers would have the same problem.

No matter your age, I highly recommend Fly Trap to those who like the fantasy genre. It would make a great read for a middle-school book group as well.

Note: This review can also be found, along with added features, at http://bookbrowse.com (less)

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Jul 01, 2011 Leslie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: juvenile, lit-with-a-big-l, middle-school-11-14, most-all-ages-really, part-of-a-series, fantasy, dystopian, chapter-book-8-11, author-of-another-country, a-boy-s-shelf

“Just between you and me,” Mosca whispered, “radicalism is all about walkin’ on the grass.” (Fly Trap, 337)

Reading Frances Hardinge’s books are a dangerous proposition. I recommend them to everyone aged 10 and up. In Lost Conspiracy there is colonialism, cannibalism, and genocide. In Fly By Night there is religious/political terrorism, atheism, and book burning. In Fly By Night’s sequel Fly Trap there is more oppression, at least one decapitation, a lot of theft and lying, and the return of “the...more

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Jul 17, 2011 Krishna rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011, fiction, children-s-lit

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Dec 31, 2011 Alexandra rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2011

Reading Frances Hardinge is all about Saracen, for me. Saracen the evil-eyed bully-boy goose.

Of course, there is also Mosca, his owner. This is a world where so many little gods - the Beloved - are worshipped that rather than having their own day, the Beloved have certain hours of a day devoted to them; being born in a Beloved's time determines your name and, in people's eyes, your very nature. Mosca was born at the time of Palpitattle, He Who Keeps Flies out of Jam and Butterchurns - Lord of th...more Reading Frances Hardinge is all about Saracen, for me. Saracen the evil-eyed bully-boy goose.

Of course, there is also Mosca, his owner. This is a world where so many little gods - the Beloved - are worshipped that rather than having their own day, the Beloved have certain hours of a day devoted to them; being born in a Beloved's time determines your name and, in people's eyes, your very nature. Mosca was born at the time of Palpitattle, He Who Keeps Flies out of Jam and Butterchurns - Lord of the Flies, if you will. It is an inauspicious name, to say the least, and Mosca's fierce black eyes and equally fierce temper, and occasional propensity for playing fast and loose with the strict letter of the law, do not help her case. Nor does her ownership and protectiveness of a certain winged warrior. She is wonderful.

There's also Eponymous Clent, Mosca's... well. Friend? Protector? She wouldn't like either of those terms. Co-conspirator, perhaps; ally, usually. Swindler, con-man, runner-away-from-debts and hater of Saracen, Eponymous can usually be relied on to talk his and Mosca's way out of the trouble that he or she has managed to talk them into. Except at the beginning of this story, where he is in a debtor's prison and for some reason the town doesn't seem willing to accept poetry in lieu of actual currency.

Saracen plays a small, though vital, part in the story, just as he did in the preceding novel, Fly By Night - one of my favourite YA books. This time, despite the important role Mosca and Eponymous played in Mandelion, they find themselves once again on the road with little coin for bread or board. Deciding to head for the other side of the river, they find themselves in Toll, a town which prides itself on having the only real bridge across the Langfeather. As with many towns with such a precious commodity and monopoly, Toll is pretty smug. It's also really, really weird, with some serious discrepancies between Toll-by-Day and Toll-by-Night, which of course Mosca and Eponymous and Saracen end up finding out all about. They just can't seem to help themselves; start off with a good con or maybe a chance at a reward, ending up uncovering all sorts of interesting things that all sorts of interesting people would prefer to keep covered, thanks all the same, and can I roast your goose?

Hardinge has a wonderful way with words, and is a deft hand at descriptive prose; she's created a really interesting world here. It's a fantasy insofar as it's not our she's writing about; but at the same time there it's not magical, nor steampunk. It's just a world maybe on the cusp of the Industrial Revolution, quite comfortable in itself as a rule even if most cities and provinces aren't entirely sure who should be ruling them. I really hope there is more Mosca Mye to come. (less)

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About Frances Hardinge

Frances Hardinge spent her childhood in a huge, isolated old house in a small, strange village, and the two things inspired her to write strange, magical stories from an early age. She studied English at Oxford University and now lives in Oxford, England.

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The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 2007: Twentieth Annual Collection

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Quotes from Fly Trap

“Revenge is a dish best served unexpectedly and from a distance - like a thrown trifle.” — 16 people liked it

“I generally find,' Clent murmured after a pause, 'that it is best to treat borrowed time the same way as borrowed money. Spend it with panache, and try to be somewhere else when it runs out.'

'And when we get found, Mr. Clent, when the creditors and bailiffs come after us and it's payment time...'

'...then we borrow more, madam, at a higher interest. We embark on a wilder gamble, make a bigger promise, tell a braver story, devise a more intricate lie, sell the hides of imaginary dragons to desperate men, climb to even higher and more precarious ground...and later, of course, our fall and catastrophe will be all the worse, but later will be our watchword, Mosca. We have nothing else - but we can at least make later later.” — 9 people liked it

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Fly Trap (Fly By Night #2)

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