Midnight Never Come (Onyx Court 1)

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To me, reading it that way, the pacing was mostly really good, though some of Michael Deven’s sections were frustratingly disconnected from the main plot — partly by their mundanity, and partly because Michael isn’t a major player or even properly clued in for a lot of the book. Lune’s sections work better because she is more aware of the situation on a macro-level, and though her goal is personal advancement, at least her eyes are open to the wider implications of what she’s involved in. Lune was a more appealing character to me, in part I think because her stakes were higher. Whereas Deven starts out trying to secure a position in Elizabeth's court, Lune serves a more temperamental and dangerous ruler in a court that makes human politics look as simplistic and straightforward as the squabbling of preschoolers. Watching Lune navigate that court, seeing her fall and struggle to rise again, leaves Deven feeling a little bland by comparison.

There were too many characters, most of which seemed to given a name just so that they could be given a species, of which there were far too many--there really should have been a glossary. There was one completely unnecessary character, Galen's wife, Delphia, whose only apparent purpose was to continue Galen's plan of an Academy in the Onyx Court. He didn't love her, she didn't love him, and her role could as easily have been played by Galen's sister, Cynthia, who he supposedly loved but who he didn't seem to care much for--he couldn't even help her find a husband, as he promised, after she introduced him to Delphia. For me, the characters seemed a little weak early on, but in hindsight I think it's just because they were functioning on their own, towards solitary goals. Around the halfway mark we finally start to see the pieces beginning to move together and from then on I really enjoyed it. I do think it would have benefitted from stronger characterisation of the two leads, Devan and Lune, but by the end of the novel I had come to be rather invested in their goals. When I first discovered this book, I honestly believed it may have been the most perfect fantasy book ever created. Firstly, it takes place during Elizabethan England, one of my favorite periods in English history. Secondly, it is about the Fey, and I feel that too few authors write truly great books about faeries. I'm intrigued enough to suss out the sequel, but this felt like a complete enough story that I'm satisfied with it for now. I like that in a fantasy series. Language - Heavy. F*** used over ten times. D***, S***, H*** used less often but pop up throughout the book.I think that my main issue with this book it that it feels like a fairy tale. Now, I love fairy tales, don't get me wrong. They are beautiful stories and are amazing to retell! But they are always written slightly detached - you don't get right inside the characters, they aren't super well built and detailed. And that is really what this book was like. Everything was beautiful and lyrical and interesting and had so much potential, but I felt very distanced from the story. I could find much connection with the characters, because they were just instruments to tell the tale. They felt like the fairy tale characters that I described. I really wanted to relate to and love them, but there wasn't enough there for them to feel like real, likable people. Now I feel mislead in a big way. And, like many readers, I don’t really like that. I haven’t read the next book but my faith in the author is a little shaken so I’m not going to be going in with an open mind, to be perfectly frank. I’m going in because I feel that after 222 I’ve earned some more story since I do know that Deven is in the next book, the ebook, anyway. I’m just hoping that it doesn’t try to be more mysterious than it is. The Lune banishment explanation took WAY too long to be told, to the point that I didn���t even care, and I don’t see why it really really mattered. But that’s just me. The Onyx Court series is a set of four Historical Fantasy novels (plus one novella and a few short stories) by Marie Brennan. The stories surround the inhabitants of the underground faerie palace, the Onyx Hall, that exists secretly under the city of London, and span about 300 years of English history, from Queen Elizabeth I to the late Victorian period. Each book focuses on a different time period and features two protagonists, one mortal and one fae (except for In Ashes Lie, which takes place over a long enough time span that two mortals are needed to cover everything). The books are meticulously researched for historical accuracy. I really enjoyed this third installment of Marie Brennan's Onyx Court series. Though I love the eighteenth century enough to have wished for a bit more of the vocabulary of the time, I suspect I am pretty much alone in that (I have a weakness for the 'prodigious' idiom of the time) but the prose is clear and there are passages of real beauty.

As we get to the third in Marie’s Faerie series (Midnight Never Come, (2008; In Ashes Lie,(2009))we reach the Age of Enlightenment in England, the time when historically science superseded superstition and religion.

The Onyx Court series contains examples of:

I guess I will start with the title of the book series, “The Onyx Hall”. In the book we hear a lot about “The Onyx Hall”, which is basically an underground haven for faeries, goblins, sprites, and many other mythological creatures. The Hall protects them from the mortal world above them (London).

There were many more small things throughout the book that were a bit too trivial to put in my review. But witchcraft was very prominent throughout the entire book. To convince the reader that the Human and Faerie worlds go together in a logical, well-rounded way is not easy and yet here Marie has managed it supremely well. We not only see the growth and development of London above but the magnificence and other-worldliness of the Onyx Court below. Readers looking for romance will not find it here. If In Ashes Lie is a love story, it's a love story between Lune and her kingdom, and between her mortal friends and the city of London. It's a beautiful and touching story, too. It's just not what you may be expecting if you seek another Lune/Deven plotline. But this book is not about the court for once. It is about Eliza, who is looking for her love that was taken by fairies. Also, she is in trouble with the law cos of the Fenians. I liked her story, her struggles, and how she never gave up. She really wanted to find Owen again. The fae world itself was fascinating and contained a large variety of creatures I have never heard of, as well of some I have but can't picture. There's not a huge amount of detail in the world-building, though, with most of the effort going towards the scope of the fae/mortal divide, and the differences between the two worlds. I never got a particularly clear picture of the Onyx Court which was a little frustrating, but I also appreciate that this book forwent some of the details in favour of moving the plot along.As above, so below. There is a struggle above. King and Parliament vie for power. Below, there is rebellion in the faerie realm and the Onyx Court. And in a humble bakery in London’s Pudding Lane, a spark will ignite and force all, Roundhead and Cavalier, human and fae, to set aside their differences to save their homes from annihilation. Brennan does do an amazing job of weaving parallels between the real world events with the affects on the fae and vice versa. Probably the best of Onyx Court series yet, although my personal favorite will probably always be A Star Shall Fall just for its even greater emphasis on faerie science. A Star Shall Fall is the third book in Marie Brena's Onyx Court series, which follows a fairy queen's reign and how it impacts (and is impacted) by the history of England. Taking place in the mid 1700s, A Star Shall Fall is highly concerned with the dragon that was banished during In Ashes Lie. When faerie methods alone cannot stop the dragon, the court turns to the great thinkers of the Royal Society to try to find a solution.