Seppo

Here's the book that totally turned my mind around about Steampunk. It even had zombies and for once they did not make me yawn.

But in contrast to many other stories this one does not rely on witty comments about stiff Victorian gentlemen or basic romantic plot. Its about family or rather about a mother and her son with a long unspoken history lurking somewhere in the past.

The world, characters and nuances feel very real and plausible. People are actual persons and the absence of absolute good and evil feels very good for a change.

When in the first book an outsider discovered that she possessed witch powers and thus was introduced along with the reader to the world of witchcraft, the second book handles about finding the unknown and dismissed (unintentionally, but still) within your own family and how to deal with it. The resentment and the fear of unknown and overcoming of both.

What I love about in this series is the absence of good vs. evil setting. Simply put it's about setting a scene where emerges a problem or better yet a mystery. And the rest is about getting it solved one step at the time (with plenty of cookies, tomato sauce, pasta and TLC in between).

I would not call these books too literate, more like therapy since I find myself reading them all over again first from my electric reading device and now in audio format. In the dark of winter it's the best thing along with the light treatment.

What I really like in October Daye series is that the heroine has to learn things and it takes time. The aspect is present in the other series also but in this it is actually a bit more that just mentioning "I've learned this and that".

The story is not as strong as in the last book where the author made a brave move and ended few storylines that she had been carrying along since the beginning of the series.

Ashes of Honor starts with this feeling of being sore and builds up from there. I cannot really put my finger to it but the book lacks some of the previous one's magic but the creepiness of Ah-noon makes up a plenty.