One Salt Sea by Seanan McGuire

I’ve reviewed the October Daye Series, confessing that it is a guilty pleasure of mine to follow the series.  This most recent book, the fifth in the series, was very enjoyable.  In One Salt Sea Toby Daye has to solve the kidnapping of the princes of the Undersea Duchy of Saltmist.  There has been bad blood between the land and the sea kingdoms, including death threats, so the Land Duchy of Saltmist is the first suspect.  Which will mean war between the Land and Sea, and frankly, the Land armies are not up to challenge.   

I can’t really talk about this book without giving away the ending.  So, if you haven’t read it yet and want it to be a surprise, here’s a quick review: if you’ve enjoyed the other books in the series, you’ll love One Salt Sea.  You get more details about the world, the rules of faerie, the special abilities and complex histories of the different races.  Toby’s family also makes another appearance.  There are things about the “changeling’s choice” that I find a little odd, but they are dealt with well in this book.  I have yet to understood why a faery would choose to be in a relationship with a human in this world, since half-blooded children are scorned by seemingly all purebloods, including their parents, and if the children choose to be human then they are killed.  It’s like a lose-lose situation for everyone.  But for Toby’s family, it comes to an acceptable resolution. 

Spoiler Alert --  

I’ve wondered for a while how the love triangle between Toby, Tybalt, and Connor was going to be resolved.  Toby seems by turns amused and irritated by Tybalt and Connor being jealous of one another, posturing, and then teaming up to save her.  Connor’s death was really unsettling, but isn’t death supposed to be that way?  At first I wished that there had been more to it, that he hadn’t simply died because of negligence.  If only Toby or anyone had been more aware of the situation, then he could have lived.  He would have been asleep for the next hundred years, still effectively separating him and Toby (unless she changed the balance of her blood again).  But as the story continued and we are finally given the history behind the Selkies, and why the Sea Witch despises them so, I could see a certain elegance in Connor’s death.  It was integral to setting up future works.  A point that I brought up in my earlier review of the series was that Seanan McGuire seemed to hold the lives of her characters very cheap.  People died at an alarming rate, often without really providing more beyond a higher body count and a couple of people to irrationally blame October for their troubles.  I think that her view on death has changed a little, or she has at least learned to handle it better.  Even one of the villains of the piece gets a shot at redemption. 

This was a satisfying read, finally, and I look forward to the next book.