R&R: Series Thread

[Malaraa]

Series discussion for those who've read farther already: Be aware there will be broad scope discussion of the whole series here. Please consider still using spoiler tags for specifics in major developments, since there will be differing levels of farther. Best judgement and all that. :D

So, there are two things I have really been impressed with in this series when taken as a whole. One is the character developement arc we see with Toby. She starts a severely depressed, damaged person who is not only struggling to find her way back to living instead of existing, but also trying to regain her thinking skills. (Not much room in a fish brain for a human's higher functions.) We get to watch her re-learn to pay attention, then to make reasonable conclusions, to see options and to work within her group, letting each person do what they do best. She starts (re?)learning to see people's multiple roles, and to distinguish between actions taken as (for example) a public figure vs. a private person. Which, honestly, she just can't seem to do very well yet in book one. It happens at a pace that works for me at least, as a reader, without dragging. But it feels slow enough to let us recognize that this is a very hard process for her.

The second would be the far reaching fore-shadowing. I don't know how much the author pre-planned from the start vs. how much she went back to and worked into the later books to make it work. Either way, excellent use/re-use of small details. Things that seemed shallow and obvious in book one have whole new layers later in the series, and I loved that.

Ok, I guess 3 things, because duh, Tybalt. Trying to get my hands on the first of the 3 short stories about him is the next challenge!

[Melani]

Honestly the biggest draw for me is the many and varied other female characters in the novel. It's been a while since I've read Rosemary and Rue, so I don't know who was added where, but Toby has such an amazing group of people around her. And a diverse group. One of my biggest complaints about urban fantasy and the romance stuff is that so many of them have a lone female problem. Sure that one female is awesome and definitely a draw, but if she's the only female or the only female the author portrays as sympathetic, it becomes a huge problem for me. McGuire is one of the better authors I've read at including such a wide variety of minor female characters, good and evil.

[Malaraa]

Yeah she does a great job with filling out the crew around Toby with interesting people, and it's nice to get a better balance of male and female supporting characters and villains.

I don't usually read the notes before the book, just in case they get spoiler-y, but I was looking at them after the fact and got an answer to the foreshadowing thing with The Winter Long, the eighth book. She says that was the story she started plotting when the idea for the series first started, and the others have been about what happened in order to reach that point. That was really interesting and explains a lot about the foreshadowing in the previous books. I think it also answers why people sometimes feel like book one picks up in the middle of a story - at some point, you have to stop working backward and pick something as a starting point.

She does a lot of short story sides, maybe someday we'll get the tale of how Toby got to be a knight, or how Tybalt ended up in San Francisco. It'd be fun to get something about Dianda too. I'd definitely say to anyone who liked Tybalt or Luidaeg, check out the short stories. Some can be read for free on her website, others are in anthologies. The first 2 Tybalt stories (Rat-catcher and Forbid the Sea) come before Rosemary & Rue, time-wise. In Sea-Salt Tears is a Luidaeg story that also comes before. None of these will spoil the main series (I read Tears before I even read R&R and it was still really good) The Fixed Stars is also a Luidaeg story, but I haven't gotten hold of Shattered Shields yet to read it.

[Melani]

I've been meaning to check out the short stories. I'm honestly not quite sure why I haven't before.

[Malaraa]

Oh, and we also someday need a story that shows us more about a Queen of Cats! How their domains might be similar or different from a King's. (view spoiler)[ lets have one that's still alive please! (hide spoiler)]

[Melani]

YES! that would be awesome. And have I mentioned how much I love the diversity of female characters in McGuire's worlds? Because I really do. And a Queen of Cats NEEDS TO HAPPEN.