Review: Midnight Never Come

Midnight Never Come by Marie Brennan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

So when I started reading this it seemed a little bland, though I was getting through it fast enough. It felt a little lacking in feeling. But then around the halfway mark something clicked and I ended up really enjoying it!

It begins with a conversation between two would-be queens. Thirty years later, Devan finds himself in the services of Queen Elizabeth (the first) and, more directly, her spymaster Walsingham. Beneath London, in the secret realm of the Onyx Court, Lune seeks to regain the favour of the dark Faerie Queen, Indiviana. Naturally, the path of the mortal man and disgraced fae lady are destined to cross.

At first, it all seemed to be meandering along without much of a point. There's a tingle of mystery with the mostly-nonsense-but-sometimes-lucid babbling of Tiresias, the fae court's local mortal-turned-nutjob-from-overexposure, but aside from that, the plot itself wasn't particularly evident.

However I do really enjoy reading about this era of history, so I very much enjoyed the blend of historical fiction and fantasy. The way they threaded together was absolutely a highlight of this novel. There's definitely more of a focus on the fictional queen, but the morsels of history made the whole thing feel more real, and lent that serious tone that this slightly dark fantasy needed.

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.

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.

In the end, the plot took me along paths I definitely didn't expect, which was a bit of a strange feeling but also kind of refreshing. There are some interesting ideas and I feel like a lot only came into it towards the end, yet it still seemed to make sense so no real complaints here. It was odd, but not unwelcome.

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.

An interesting blend of fantasy and historical fiction, with intrigue that begins slowly but really amps up towards the end. If you can make it to the halfway point, the rest will be easy to devour.

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