(Uhh... I'm not sure if this is supposed to be posted here or not. The book is available on the Silver Empire website but is not up on Amazon yet. If it disappears, just know that someone asked me to take it down. Better to beg forgiveness than ask permission though, right?)
Have you even been hardcore convinced of something in a series of books and had the author break your assumption into little bits and then feed it to you? Okay, right. That happens a lot. But have you ever been HAPPY about it? Yeah. That's me on reading the latest by Daniel Humphreys: Come, Seeling Night. I found out that I was not anywhere near as knowledgeable about this series as I thought I was. I love it.
See, Come Seeling Night opens up a much wider universe. I had assumed that this would be a series of stories about Paxton Locke versus his mother. Don't get me wrong. She is a major villain in the book. I'm just saying that by the time it's over you get the feeling that there is much more out there. This is not just a story about one dude and one enemy. Paxton Locke, our hero, finds himself surprised as well.
That's good. As he discovers things so do we. It's been that way this whole series but I had thought that most of the worldbuilding surprises were over. Apparently, so did Paxton. His eyes are much more open now and he knows that more is coming. It's kind of ironic. As the world opens further, I find myself expecting it to get even bigger. I'm excited to see where this goes.
Something else I like about Come, Seeling Night is the question it asks. (I'm not vouching that Humphreys actually had this in mind when he wrote it, but work with me here.) When is it too late to seek redemption? One of Paxton's major allies this time around is someone you wouldn't expect in a situation you wouldn't expect and, while they don't seem to be focused on redemption as a goal, they go a long way toward improving themselves at a point where you'd think they'd be done trying. I don't want to go any further than that, but I found that fascinating.
The other conundrum presented by Come, Seeling Night is this: How far is too far? If you thought you could save the entire world, what would you be willing to sacrifice? How far would you go? Is it okay to go that far? Is it NOT okay to go that far if it's the entire world in the balance? Do right and wrong even apply in that type of situation? This is complicated and it's probably a question that should be answered by someone with a much more philosophical bent than I have but it's a valid question.
Please do no misunderstand my intentions here: This is not a philosophical treatise. I haven't had the chance to talk Platonic perfection with Paxton Locke, but I have a feeling that he'd probably kick me in the pickle if I did. Dude is a man of action who is not afraid to take risks or a beating. If you haven't read the first two then trust me. Locke takes a bigger beating than anyone this side of Harry Dresden. I mean, I haven't seen Paxton cut a deal with a faerie queen yet, as a matter of fact I'm not even sure if the Fae even exist in the world of Paxton Locke, but I could see him doing it.
At the end of the day though, Paxton isn't the only character in the book who matters. His supporting cast is back, especially his girlfriend Cassie. There is a lot going on at multiple locations and we find ourselves hopping back and forth a bit. I like this technique because it brings things together in a way that forcing the story to go through one point of view character would not.
As an interesting (hopefully) aside, I hadn't heard of ley lines or nexuses until I got into the Rifts RPG as a teenager. I had always thought that the team at Palladium had invented the concept (they also used it in their Beyond the Supernatural RPG) but I'm seeing more and more stuff related to the concept and I'm guessing that not all of it came from one small RPG company. I've got some reading to do. *HORRORS* (Or sumfin')
I will say that Humphreys does a good job of introducing the concept and leading his characters to the appropriate conclusions. I'm not going to tell you what those are, but they make sense in the context of the universe and the books and add a lot to the story. I had a lot of fun with this.
As a matter of fact, Humphreys has a working knowledge of a lot of tropes, including another one he used in a manner that I hadn't seen before. And, if he mentioned a theory that has always driven me crazy and then gave it short shrift then good for him! I've always thought that one particular theory was a bit nutty anyway given that the square root of Pi divided by zero...
Ah, nevermind...
At any rate, it worked.
Oh, and kudos to Humphreys for not falling prey to J.K. Rowling Disease. I don't want to take this too far because I'm a HUGE Harry Potter fan, but it kind of bothers me sometimes when you get the whole "hidden world" fiction and the author forgets the implications of magic existing in the twenty-first century, or when the characters in the book who have been raised outside of the magical society...
HARRY *COUGH* HERMIONE *COUGH*
I gotta get that looked at.
... seem to forget that not every tool is a magical tool and that sometimes you can solve problems without using cheap parlor tricks. Humphreys and Locke BOTH get that. I mean, I guess I'd be alright with flying someplace on a broom or in a Ford Anglia, but there are perfectly mundane ways to get things done as well and they, quite frankly, work better in a setting where the characters are trying to keep the hidden world hidden. It just makes sense.
Anyway, I gotta run. Duty calls. But buy the book. Read the book. Then come back and tell me I'm right.
Bottom Line: 4.75 out of 5 Lost Companions
Come, Seeling Night
Daniel Humphreys
Silver Empire, 2019
Come, Seeling Night is available for purchase at the following link:
https://silverempire.org/product/come-seeling-night/
The first two books are available at the following links:
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