Title: Silver and Lead
Series: October Daye, #19
Author: Seanan McGuire
Publisher: Tor Books
Publication date: September 30, 2025
Print length: 400 pages
Genre: Urban fantasy
Source: Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley
Rating:

Seanan McGuire’s New York Times bestselling and Hugo Award-nominated October Daye series continues as Toby Daye is thrust once again into danger… and this time she has more than ever to protect.

Something is rotten in Faerie. In the aftermath of Titania’s reality-warping enchantment, things are returning to what passes for normal in the Kingdom in the Mists―until it’s discovered that the royal vaults have been looted, and several powerful magical artifacts are missing. None are things that can be safely left unsecured, and some have the potential to do almost as much damage as Titania did, and having them in the wrong hands could prove just as disastrous

At least the theft means that Sir October “Toby” Daye, Knight errant and Hero of the Realm, finally has an excuse to get out of the house. Sure, she’s eight and a half months pregnant, but that doesn’t mean she can’t take care of herself. But with the sea witch offering to stand godmother to Toby’s child, maybe there are greater dangers ahead for Toby and her family than it appears….

Old enemies will resurface, new enemies will disguise themselves as friends, and Queen Windermere must try to keep her Hero on the case without getting herself gutted by the increasingly irritated local King of Cats. Sometimes, what’s been lost can be the most dangerous threat of all.

What can you say about a series that’s now 19 books long… and going strong? Quite a lot actually… but the short version is: The October Daye series remains sharp, exciting, and as immersive as ever — and it’s never too late to jump in! (But start at the beginning, of course.)

In 2023, author Seanan McGuire published TWO new volumes in the series (Sleep No More and The Innocent Sleep), focusing on the same set of cataclysmic events, but told first through the POV of our usual narrator, Toby (October) herself, and then through the POV of Toby’s husband, Tybalt. Both were excellent… and I suppose it’s understandable that we had a two-year wait for another book in the series. (Understandable — hey, get some rest, Seanan McGuire! — but painful as a reader to have to wait to see what happens next!!).

But now, Toby is back! The ripple effects of the disasters from the previous books are still being felt by our beloved characters, in all sorts of distressing ways. Quick recap: Toby is a changeling (part fae, part human), a knight and hero of the realm, and both daughter and niece of First Borns, the most powerful fae other than the big three (Oberon, Titania, and Maeve) themselves. When Titania reemerged into the world and decided to recraft it as she wished, Toby and all those around her were trapped in an illusion that transformed their lives and relationships. Now that Titania’s illusions have been broken, they’re all still recovering from what that experience did to them.

Further complicating Toby’s life, as the book opens, is the fact that she’s in her final month of pregnancy, and her already traumatized family won’t let her do anything — not even get off the couch to grab her own snacks. For a woman who lives her life carrying out dangerous quests, being coddled and confined is beyond frustrating, and while she knows her family is acting from a place of love, she still can’t stand it.

“I’ve got another few weeks of this, you know,” I said. “You don’t want to use up all your fretting on me before the baby even gets here.”

“I promise, I have more fretting in me than you can imagine,” he said.

The action in Silver and Lead kicks off when Toby is summoned to Queen Arden’s court to give testimony against one of the more evil people in the series, the false Queen. Once there, Arden tells Toby that many dangerous artifacts were looted from the royal treasury while Titania’s illusions were in place, and while she’d love to wait until after Toby has the baby to send her back into action, these items could be disastrous in the wrong hands. There’s no time to lose in getting them back. Before Toby can commit one way or the other to this new quest, she discovers that the false Queen is actually someone enchanted to appear to be the false Queen, and that the actual false Queen herself is nowhere to be found.

From here, Toby sets out to gather evidence… cautiously. She won’t endanger herself or the baby; she’s just going to do a bit of detective work on behalf of the realm. Of course, nothing goes according to plan, and she and her household end up in mortal peril, facing unexpected adversaries with truly evil intentions.

The action in Silver and Lead escalates dramatically, and the sense of menace and danger go higher and higher with each chapter. I was on the edge of my seat and practically screaming by the time I got past the first third or so of the book and simply could not put it down. I was terrified for the characters, enthralled by each new development, and scared to death that this was finally something that Toby couldn’t get out of. (Well, I assumed she’d get out of it, as the series isn’t over… but it’s all definitely very tense and frightening!)

At the same time, Silver and Lead is actually very funny at times!

“Look. My hormones are all over the place. Yesterday I burnt a piece of toast and I started crying because what if I’d hurt the bread’s feelings.

Having Toby — eight and a half months pregnant — waddling off on a quest, needing to pee every few minutes, complaining about her aching knees, and in general suffering all the indignities and physical impacts of a late pregnancy is just so incredibly entertaining. This is a woman who’s practically indestructible, and yet people have to help her up the stairs. Good stuff.

The ending of Silver and Lead is quite satisfying, but leaves the door open for yet more drama — because in the world of October Daye, no one gets to just sit and be happy for very long. This book’s main plot is tied up well, but the final pages let us know that bad things — potentially, very bad things — are just around the corner.

As always, I’m left dying to see what’s next… and dreading a year of waiting for the next book.

Silver and Lead is an excellent edition to a can’t-miss fantasy series. I’ll give the same push I give every time I talk about these books: Go pick up a copy of Rosemary and Rue. I’m betting that once you get a taste of October’s world, you won’t want to stop.

As is the custom throughout this series, Silver and Lead includes a novella at the end. This one, Seas and Shores, focuses on Simon, Toby’s father figure — a man with whom Toby has one of the most complicated relationships in the series. The novella is narrated by Simon, and takes place at the same time as the events of Silver and Lead, as Simon heads back to his new home in the Undersea. Seas and Shores is a relatively quiet story, and it’s quite lovely. Simon is a man who’s been through a lot of trauma, and this novella shows the next stage in his attempts to build a good life for himself and those he loves. After the extreme dangers in Silver and Lead, it’s nice to finish on a sweet, happy note.

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Title: The Innocent Sleep
Series: October Daye, #18
Author: Seanan McGuire
Publisher: DAW
Publication date: October 24, 2023
Print length: 368 pages
Genre: Urban fantasy
Source: Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley
Rating:

For one bright, shining moment, Tybalt, King of Cats, had everything he had ever wanted. He was soon to set his crown aside; he had married the woman he loved; he was going to be a father. After centuries of searching for a family of his own, he had finally found a way to construct the life of his dreams, and was looking forward to a period of peace—or at least as much peace as is ever in the offing for the husband of a hero.

Alas for Tybalt and his domestic aspirations, fate—and Titania—had other ideas. His perfect world had been complete for only a moment when it was ripped away, to be replaced by hers. Titania, Faerie’s Summer Queen, Mother of Illusions and enemy of so many he holds dear, has seized control of the Kingdom, remaking it in her own image. An image which does not include meddlesome shapeshifters getting in her way. Tybalt quickly finds himself banished from her reality, along with the Undersea and the rest of the Court of Cats.

To protect his people and his future, Tybalt must find the woman he loves in a world designed to keep her from him, convince her that he’s not a stranger trying to ruin her life for no apparent reason, and get her to unmake the illusion she’s been firmly enmeshed in. And he’ll have to do it all while she doesn’t know him, and every unrecognizing look is a knife to his heart.

For Tybalt, King of Cats, the happily ever after was just the beginning.

Buckle up! The 18th book in the excellent October Daye fantasy series is unusual, powerful, and a one hell of a ride.

The Innocent Sleep is a big departure from the norms of the series, in two significant ways: 1) It’s releasing only a month and a half after the previous book, Sleep No More, rather than the usual one-year gap between installments, and 2) for the first time in the series, the book’s POV character is not Toby herself, but her husband Tybalt, King of Cats.

As we saw in book #17, Titania has worked her malevolent magic to create a new version of reality — a version where changelings like Toby exist to serve their pureblood families, and those of magical lines that don’t fit Titania’s ideals, such as shapeshifters and other inconveniences, are locked away in skerries or sealed-off courts, dead or non-existent to the rest of Faerie.

For October and Tybalt, this is a problem. Tybalt’s magic allows him to see through illusions quickly, so he knows the truth and that Titania’s world is a lie — but as the King of the local Cait Sidh court, his first duty is keeping his trapped people alive and cared for, an exhausting task leaving him no time to try to rescue Toby.

In Sleep No More, the construct of this false reality leaves Toby and Tybalt separated for much of the book, and here in The Innocent Sleep we get to find out more about what he’s been up to during this forced separation. As we’d expect, he does not take it at all well, and spends much of his time absolutely furious, as well as deathly afraid for his beloved. After receiving dire prophecies from a Seer, Tybalt is forced to do something he’s not at all good at — waiting. The time isn’t right yet for him to intervene, and while everything in him is frantically urging him to rescue Toby NOW, he’s been told in no uncertain terms that doing so will doom them all.

Tybalt’s mind is an interesting place to spend a book. We know he’s madly, passionately in love with Toby — but as a hero of the realm, she’s not a safe or easy person to care for. Through Tybalt’s narrative, we learn just what he experiences every time she goes off to fight or undertake a dangerous quest. It’s fascinating to see this man, who’s a King and defers to no one, show again and again how much he supports Toby’s path in life, even while desperately afraid that one day she’ll meet something or someone she can’t survive.

Tybalt is haughty, is often accused of speaking like someone in a Shakespearean play (which is true), and is fabulously entertaining.

“I am a cat, sir. I always look my very best, even when I don’t, and to so much as imply otherwise is to run the risk of treason.”

I looked back to Simon, summoning every ounce of haughty disdain I could find. I had quite a bit.

That woman can hold a grudge like a cat, and I have very few higher compliments that I can give.

The Innocent Sleep has an interesting problem at its core, which is that the plot itself isn’t moving the overall series story forward. This book covers the same time period and events as the previous one, and it ends at the same point as well. This means that we already know the outcome of the central crisis, which lessens the dramatic impact. On the other hand, it is fascinating to see how Tybalt experiences these events, and to learn more about what he’s been doing all the time he’s off-page in Sleep No More. The author does a great job of weaving the books together whenever Toby and Tybalt are in the same scene, so that the dialogue and stage-direction matches completely — but now we understand how all of this looks and feels to Tybalt, which is really fun.

I truly can’t wait to see what happens next in the series. Alas, I’m afraid we’re now back to waiting a year for a new book!

The Innocent Sleep includes a novella at the end, as is typical for the October Daye series. This one, Doubtless and Secure, is about Dianda and her life as ruler of Saltmist in the Undersea. It’s good, but very long. It’s always interesting to get these side-stories filling in the blanks of other characters’ lives — someday, I’d love to see a whole collection of Toby-verse stories!