Seasonal Fears

by Seanan McGuire

Ebook

Status

Available

Call number

Fic SF McGuire

Publication

Tom Doherty Associates

Description

From New York Times bestselling author Seanan McGuire, Seasonal Fears is the extraordinary companion novel to Middlegame. The king of winter and the queen of summer are dead. The fight for their crowns begins! Melanie has a destiny, though it isn't the one everyone assumes it to be. She's delicate; she's fragile; she's dying. Now, truly, is the winter of her soul. Harry doesn't want to believe in destiny, because that means accepting the loss of the one person who gives his life meaning, who brings summer to his world. So, when a new road is laid out in front of them--a road that will lead through untold dangers toward a possible lifetime together--walking down it seems to be the only option. But others are following behind, with violence in their hearts. It looks like Destiny has a plan for them, after all.... "One must maintain a little bit of summer even in the middle of winter." --Thoreau… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member NeedMoreShelves

I went into Middlegame thinking it was a standalone novel, so when I discovered that the Alchemical Journeys was going to be a series I was very excited.

While Middlegame felt more grounded in sci-fi, Seasonal Fears is purely fantasical. Middlegame dealt with space and time, while Seasonal Fears is

engaged with the Summer King and the Winter Queen, and the Jacks and Jennys that make up their court. Despite the differences, these two novels work brilliantly as companions together.

Seanan Maguire does some of the best character work in fiction today, and this was no different. I am continually impressed with the way she writes (across multiple series) protagonists that are young people without turning the books into YA. It's such a talent, and I love the way her characters worm into your heart.

Cannot wait for the next installment in this fantastic series!

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LibraryThing member Shrike58

Looking at my review of "Middlegame," the first book in this cycle, I can see a lot of hemming and hawing that probably wasn't justified, and the further I get from that book the more my opinion goes up. This being the case, I was looking forward to there being a follow-on novel. Having wrapped up

the said novel, I liked it, but it already feels as though McGuire might have burned through her ideas, as we follow the doings of characters seeking to be the new Summer King and Winter Queen, in an environment conditioned by the crack-up of organized alchemy in the previous story. There's a lot of expository writing here, and while I was happy to get new lore, one also gets a meandering quality. What saves the enterprise is that McGuire absolutely nails the climax of this particular story, and I hope she gets to write two more books.

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LibraryThing member rivkat

ove McGuire’s eye for a story, hate her verbal tics. This sequel follows potential incarnations of Summer and Winter as they try to survive teenagerhood, starting with an alchemist father who wants to control both seasons through his heart-damaged daughter (and her not-actually-stillborn,

serial-killer twin).

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LibraryThing member Glennis.LeBlanc

This is a sequel of sorts but for once you don’t need to read the first book to understand what is going on. The main characters are not even in the first book. So don’t worry that you will miss anything. The only thing is that it will spoil what happened in book one. Melanie and Harry have

been best friends since they first met. Melanie has a heart condition but that hasn’t stopped Harry from being her friend even when some of the other kids have hung back. But everything changes one day in high school when they both drop dead at the same time and yet rise as if nothing happened to them. Going to the Homecoming dance plans go out the window when a very young Jack Frost comes to Melanie to tell her she is a potential Queen of Winter, and she needs to leave now to head to the coronation. Harry picks her up for the dance and finds out he is a potential King of Summer, but no Corn Jenny has come to tell him this. Melanie finds out that her dad has been killing the Jack Frosts that have come in the past to try and teach her to be Queen and no one can figure out why Harry’s Corn Jenny has never met him but the two are on the run now and heading to the coronation. It seems the seasons need people to be personification of them and there are always lots of candidates to take the job but due to the wrong person having the job as King of Winter he stayed in his position for three hundred years. Now the two are on the run meeting other contenders for the crown and hopefully a few allies to get them where they are going.
I really liked the story and this universe, and I want to see more. It is nice to know that I’m not sure what I will see next in this story universe. The audio version of the book was great and I’m happy I listened to it as well as read it.

Digital review copy provided by the publisher through NetGally

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