Once Broken Faith by Seanan McGuire

Once Broken Faith
by Seanan McGuire
Pages: 418
Date: September 6 2016
Publisher: DAW
Series: October Daye (10)

Review
Rating: 4.83
Read: October 13 to 14 2016

I was long down the road to marking this 5 stars, maybe even 5+ stars, but it is hard to do so now. Though it would be somewhat unfair to not do so for the specific reasons that are currently blocking me: the book ended abruptly. No, I do not mean that it ended on a cliff-hanger, or that there wasn't an ending, but that it ended at 84% of the Kindle file. I think I was at something like 80% when I decided to call it a night last night. Woke up this morning for a good long read and . . . 3 pages after I ended (more or less) and the book was over.

Right, so, this is the 10th book in a series - there's no way someone can come in and read this as a stand-alone. There's way too much back story a person needs to know to be able to enjoy this book (I was going to say 'fully enjoy', but just 'enjoy' works). As for those who have been keeping up with the main books (as in not having read the short stories, like me) there's enough 'there' to both bring you back up to speed and not be annoying about it (as in hints dropped here and there about who and what has gone before; enough for someone who has read the prior books, not enough for someone who hasn't - hence both the 'can't read this as a first book in the series read' and the 'not heavy-handed backstory info drops' way).

So - as people know - . . . bloody hell. I can't say anything really about this book without spoiling prior books. Right so - there's this conclave going on, bunch of kings/queens/other assorted higher ups are all meeting to decide how to deal with an issue that has popped up that is something of a 'game-changer' to how the current system operates. While this conclave is going on, someone starts killing and/or 'putting to sleep' various conclave members - and October Daye investigates.

I was being purposely vague as that's about as deep as I can be without spoiling everything. So . . ..

Enjoyed the book. Enjoyable book. Still vaguely annoyed to have the book end at 84% of the kindle file (or, if I'd read the physical copy, end with a massive wad of pages still sitting there unread). To be fair - there is 'something there'. A whole other story. Not a snippet, but a story. I think. That's the impression I got. Don't particularly wish to read it at the moment, though. And no, I do not mean that at 84% of the book the POV changed and I feel like the book ended, it actually is a situation wherein the book I had been reading ended, and there's this 'bonus' other story there. I purposely did not look at the cover of the book, book description here or on amazon, because I already knew I wanted to read this book and did not wish to be spoiled by a book description (as so many seem to do; or, if not that, then present things in a way completely unrelated to the actual book). Looked at those things just now. Nothing in the book description (on Goodreads), but the cover does have 'Includes a brand new map (I do not recall seeing a map, what map? there's no map; *looks* oh, there's a map (I can't really tell, but I think there's a guy doing inappropriate things to a goat on the map; no wait, he's sitting on a rock next to a seal. hmm. My eyes don't work.)) and an original Arden Windermere novella!' (of note: Arden Windermere is not the main character of this series, no that would be October Daye). So if I had looked at the cover I'd have seen that note. And maybe be less annoyed now about the book ending at 84%.

Right, whatever. Book read. Rating just the book I thought I was reading and not including the 'bonus novella', I rate this 4.83 stars.

October 14 2016