Today is week one of a three week readalong of Seanan McGuire’s The Winter Long (October Daye #8).  Today Lisa at Over the Effing Rainbow is hosting the questions.  The Goodreads page link is here.  Feel free to join in or just jump into the discussion in the comments and be aware that spoilers will be lurking below for not only this book but for the previous books in the series.  If you haven’t started reading the Toby Daye series and you like urban fantasy then I strongly recommend this series to you.

1. Simon is back, and unsurprisingly no one is happy. And he seems to be convinced that what he did to Toby saved her life… Do you think he’s telling the truth about that or is Team Toby absolutely right not to trust him?

I’m not sure to be honest.  The fact is, Simon was running around with Oleander – and she was all kinds of crazy and he seems a little unhinged himself.  That being said, he did seem to believe what he was saying – but that could just be delusional I suppose?  I don’t think you can trust him though – I think the real point for me with Simon is the way that his magic seems to smell rotten to Toby.  From the sound of what Sylvester said his magic didn’t always smell that way so that makes me think that the tarnished smell of his magic is a reflection of his own corruption somehow.  However, even though I think there is something off about him I can’t help thinking he seemed sincere – and conversely, although not the best solution maybe, turning Toby into a fish did keep her out of harms way didn’t it.  Just who is it that intends her harm??

2. Once again, Sylvester was keeping secrets – but this time he’s stepping up to the vengeful plate! Do you think Sylvester has what it takes to bring his brother down? And will he ever tell Toby the whole truth?

I’m beginning to think that nobody in the land of the fae will every completely spill the beans – it does of course make for a much more intriguing read that way.  I’m not sure if Sylvester has what it takes – in one respect I think he is very angry with his brother, but then in another do I really believe he could harm his brother if it came to that?  I’m not even sure I want Sylvester to turn into that person.  The other thing is it depends who is really at the root of all this – clearly somebody incredibly powerful?  Was Simon acting in fear – he seems to have been in hiding for a long time.  And I wonder what the incentive is for him showing up now?  Is he still working for the same person and is this all some sort of trap to lure Toby out somehow?

3. Never thought we’d see the day, but this time around the Luidaeg seems to be in trouble and it might well be up to Toby to get her out of it. So now we know that the villain behind all of this is someone Toby knew … Any guesses about who?

I’m not sure I completely understand how the Luidaeg got into trouble with the whole geas ‘thing’.  If she was able to give Toby an answer then surely it wasn’t going against the restrictions of the geas?  But, yeah, I’m not really sure what happened there. As to who this could be – I really don’t know.  I’ve been hazarding all sorts of daft guesses but can’t really come up with anything sound – like I said above, surely to have placed such restrictions even on the Luidaeg then this person must be somebody formidable?  The first thing I came up with was either Titania or Oberon – but that’s just really not a possibility and I can’t think of any reason why they would be involved.  Blind Michael is no longer in the picture and given his demise the geas wouldn’t still hold if it had been him.  Wasn’t there mention of another sister of Amandine and the Luidaeg?  That’s the only other person I can think of.

4. That’s it for questions but as always, feel free to highlight anything else of interest for you this week!

And Toby has a sister – August!  Who seems to have been missing for a very long time – and a similar number of years to the whole shenanigans with King Gilad.  I can’t quite put it all together.  I wonder if August was elf shot and has been sleeping??  And where is Armandine!!  So many questions that my head hurts as much as Toby’s.

It also occurs to me that the rather insane previous Queen of the Mists is still missing in action – is she working for the same person as Simon – was she involved?