This is the third of Marie Brennan’s Onyx Court books, and possibly my favorite. Lady knight! Courtly love! Bluestockings platonically seduced by the promise of getting to read whatever they want! All the women in a man’s life who would normally be pitted against each other or jealous being just fine with each other!
Set in the 1750s and centering around the coming of Halley’s comet, A Star Shall Fall spins more directly out of the events of In Ashes Lie than that one does from Midnight Never Come, as the comet means that the disaster temporarily averted before is returning. Much of the plot revolves around solving that problem, with both fae and humans working together and trying to make magic and science work together to solve the problem. (Uhm…I much prefer “magic and science” to “magic vs. science.”) The secondary plotline (and, admittedly one I prefer) revolves and a subversive rebel faction in Lune’s court and the fact that, the further the Onyx Court moves from it’s original era, the more difficult it becomes for Lune to find a consort to maintain the pact.
Though I thought parts of the first two books were bogged down a bit by the extent of the political set up (though, I doubt I’d even notice now as I’ve read a fair bit of utterly tedious and sometimes completely unneeded political setup and info dumping, and even when the ADD part of my brain is all “get on with it” at least Brennan does it well and it’s all pertinent to what’s going on) I basically uncritically adore these books, especially since, after the first, they’re set in time periods that aren’t covered as much in fiction, and even the Elizabethan book avoided a lot of the most common paths there, with nary a Marlowe or Shakespeare or Dudley or Essex in sight. Though, the next book should be set in the 1800s, which seems to be the most common setting for historical fiction these days. Like, it seems about 90% of English language historical fiction (maybe a bit less so in fantasy historical/historical era based fiction) is set in the 19th century, and I…am not burned out on it, exactly, but am finding myself glancing past things set in the 19th century more often in favor of possibly-more-questionable things that are more likely to involve flintlocks and/or people thwapping each other with swords. (In particular, there should be more stuff set in the English Civil War and Restoration, which is rife for my fictional desires for “we were friends/lovers who are on opposite sides and may be friends/lovers again once we finish staringly meaningfully at each other over our weapons.”)
But, back to the point! If you like historical fantasy and/or don’t run away screaming at the idea of fae plots these days, you should read these books!
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