Monday, December 23, 2024

The October Daye Reread: The Unkindest Tide

Welcome back, dear readers. Today we’re going to revisit the thirteenth novel in Seanan McGuire’s October Daye series: The Unkindest Tide. I’ve been waiting for this one for some time, at least in its concept. I’ve mentioned several times throughout this re-read that I’ve had a difficult time remembering when certain events happened. This is one of them. For at least 2-3 books, if not more, I would absolutely have assumed *that* was the book where Toby helps the Luidaeg bring back the Roane. But it’s not.

This is.

Also, it’s worth noting that I probably won’t quite keep up the same pace as the last couple of months of pushing through the re-read, but at least at the moment: Thirteen down, only five to go.

It should go without saying that I have every intention of spoiling absolutely everything that crosses my mind about the series, both past books and future, but I’m going to say it. It’s going to happen. I’m also going to wildly speculate, which is going to tie into the two biggest events of the thus far published series.

Let’s do this.
“This doesn’t bring back the ones who were lost. This doesn’t make things *right*. But it makes things better than they’ve been, and maybe that can be enough to let us move forward, you know? Maybe this is where some of the broken bits get fixed.” - Marcia
It’s time.


There are no straight lines in an October Daye novel. Here’s the path: The Luidaeg puts out the call to the Selkies that it is time for them to face the the consequences of their ancestors and they need to meet at the Duchy of Ships where Toby will assist in transforming the Selkies into the Roane. Unfortunately, that’s probably not a full novel. It’s a novella at best and more likely a short story. Murder and kidnapping will ensue. There is sidetracking. Before we get to that, I should probably, briefly, explain the Selkies / Roane - though I’m not sure the necessity of this given that The Unkindest Tide is really not a good entrance point to the series and if you’re here you probably already know.

Okay - so The Luidaeg is Firstborn (meaning, a child of Oberon and Maeve in this instance) and any children of Firstborn develop as the distinct races of Faerie. The Roane was the descendant race of the Luidaeg and they had the gift of prophecy, for which (amongst other cruelties) they were eventually slaughtered almost to full extinction. In the cruelty of that slaughter, the skins of the Roane were flensed from their bodies - but the result of that is, through her grief and rage, the Luidaeg used her magic to bind those skins of her dead children to the children of the killers (the killers of the Roane having been killed by *their* children to potentially appease the Luidaeg) and thus create the Selkies as a separate race in Faerie. The Luidaeg promised that one day there would be a reckoning.

The actual action of the core of the A plot of The Unkindest Tide is very straight forward. Once it is time near the end of the novel, The Luidaeg and Toby combine magic and transform the selkies into Roane and while they are not the same as what was lost, the Luidaeg sort of has her children back. Not *her* children, but her children. It’s almost anticlimactic.

There is also a minor grace when it is discovered how to make more selkie skins and provide an opportunity for the selkies to have seven more years to truly end their culture when the remaining skins will be bound as Roane - which depending on the timeline of future novels may or may not occur on page. This whole thing is traumatic for the selkies because they are being judged for their ancestors horrible actions and being held to account for it. They know what was done, but they didn’t do it and the selkies have their own society and culture and it is tied to their identify as selkies and it’s being taken away.
“I know you don’t have a choice about this. I’m still grateful. I’m glad to know you, October.” - the Luidaeg
Okay. I think that’s enough about the actual book, which was lovely. I want to speculate a little.

The series is about to get into finding Oberon, Maeve, and Titania - and the big question is asked here. The Firstborn are able to tamp down their Firstbornness so strongly that they are just viewed as powerful fae but not anything more, and they are so substantially *more* than their descendant races. The question is “how much more can the Three do? Can they disappear so that no one can follow them? Can they ever be found?”

Spoilers, but the answer is yes and here’s where it gets a little complicated. When October was given the task to bring her (thus far unknown) sister August home it was because August was lost on a quest to find Oberon. She was unable to find her way home or remember her family until she found Oberon and brought him back to Faerie. She failed.

She failed, but when October found August it was with the help of August’s father, Simon Torquill (the villain Simon Torquill as I often think of him). Simon was working on gradually redeeming himself from his awfulness that he did on behalf of Eira Rosynhwyr (Firstborn, major antagonist), which was deeply uncomfortable for me as a reader - and Simon took on August’s debts to bring her home - which means that *Simon* lost all his progress and all of his humanity and was functionally reset to Villain Simon until *he* can bring Oberon home. Just before he villains out, Simon tells Toby that he believes in her ability to save him. This is all The Brightest Fell

Well - as part of a new deal with the Luidaeg (don’t ask) Toby is tasked to bring Simon home again, which means to bring Oberon home. The king of Faerie who hasn’t been seen in five hundred years.

Spoilers, but we’ve already met Oberon. He’s a very minor character (Officer Thornton, who followed Toby to deep faerie and is now in a fugue state with the Luidaeg’s home). And Toby is going to bring back Oberon, we’re also going to get the returns of Titania and Maeve. In the published series so far - Titania returned as a murdering force of nature after slowly breaking Oberson’s geas on her. Titania was living as Toby’s best friend Stacy. Much more on that in the coming books as Be the Serpent is the heartbreaking return of Titania.

Maeve, though. Maeve is still hidden and I have a theory that seems to also be the common one in October Daye fandom. I had seen it mentioned online in the past but it felt more immediate reading The Unkindest Tide.
“No,” said Marcia. She met the Luidaeg’s eyes and didn’t flinch. “I have other paths to walk, and other roads to run.”
Maeve may well be Marcia and unlike Oberon / Officer Thornton and Titania / Stacy, I think Maeve knows much more about who she is than the the other two. Oberon deliberately buried his true self so deep that he couldn’t awaken himself. Titania was forced into other forms until she learned how to be a better person (spoilers, she doesn’t).

Something is not right with Marcia, a changeling with so little Fae blood in her that she needs faerie ointment to even be able to see Faerie. And yet, Marcia is not affected by the spells on the ship taking them to the Duchy, the spell that almost floors Toby and is worse the more human blood one has.

There are lots of little moments.
“Your name is Marcia, and you travled with the Count of Goldengreen. They *said* all that. But I don’t know you. Something about you isn’t right. Who are you?” -Captain Pete

“I’m nobody,” said Marcia, taking a half-step backwards, like she was getting ready to run.
I’m not sure that Marcia was scared, even in the face of a Firstborn’s full attention which would be enough to cow anyone. She just doesn’t want to be revealed for whoever she actually is. I think she’s Maeve.

There have been little touches of Maeve throughout the series, suggesting that she isn’t buried nearly as deep as Oberon and Titania. We’ll see, I suppose.

Random Notes and Random Quotes:

*I love all of the speechifying in this series. Folks are ready to spout off and declaim at a moment’s notice and I am absolutely here for it.

*I still don’t remember, but what does the Luidaeg know about Officer Thornton? Anything? I’ll find out in the next novel, so I don’t have long to wait.

*“Sometimes I *really* miss the old forms,” muttered the Luidaeg. “You should have come to me with a raw salmon in your hands, its gills still heaving, and been apologizing before you were even close enough to look at me. You might as well stand up. You’ve already insulted me as much as you’re going to.”

*“You won’t call Arden by her name, because her title is more important, but you’ll back-talk the Luidaeg? I just want to be clear on where your sense of self-preservation.” - Toby to Quentin.

*“I’m the motherfucking sea witch. I don’t have to answer your question.”


Next up on the reread will be A Killing Frost, in which a wedding request turns into a quest, the father of them all returns, Amandine make an appearance, there’s a divorce, and surprise transformations.


Open roads and kind fires, my friends.

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