Good book with lots of heart. ( )

An entertaining and dark tale of how a young woman with no future destined to hang makes a deal with someone who is definitely Fae and most certainly underhanded to change her life radically. incredibly written and gorgeous imagery tell this fictional account of how Queen Elizabeth the first ascended the throne. ( )

The Onyx Court is literally falling apart. It is 1884 and London is full of iron railways and steam engines. The Underground is almost complete and when the last rail is laid the Hall will be destroyed. As always, the Court reflects what is happening in the human world above it. The wealthy of London live side-by-side with the poverty-stricken. In the Faery court the realm is divided into two parts, The Galenic Academy, a mirror image of The Royal Society, and The Goblin Market where everything is for sale including stolen humans.

In the world above Eliza, an Irish refugee, struggles to survive in the mean streets of Whitechapel. She is haunted by the memory of her friend Owen who disappeared when they were young. It’s been seven years since she has seen him, but she knows the faeries took him. At the same time Dead Rick, a death omen that can take both human and dog form, has lost his memories. He is forced to serve Nadrett, the leader of The Goblin Market. Nadrett has come up with a plan to save The Onyx Court, but it involves taking human souls. It is up to Eliza and Dead Rick to stop him.

Again, Lune is only briefly in this novel, though she is very important. Her spirit is literally holding the Onyx Hall together. When an iron rail is laid she feels the pain as though the spike was entering her flesh and the Hall shakes. By this installment in the series I have gotten used to her not being a main character in the story.

The emphasis of this novel is the Industrial Age in Britain and the gap between the rich and the poor. It was depressing at times and I felt like the only reason I was reading it was to finish the series, then I got to the end of the book. The final few chapters are great and they bring the whole series together. The conclusion makes this book worth reading. ( )

As much as I love the middle books of the Onyx Court series, I don’t think I’ve had as much fun while reading an installment since I originally picked up Midnight Never Come. When I first read the premise for With Fate Conspire, I was a little apprehensive. While the Victorian aspect (and technology) appealed to me, there was only so much that could be done after the first three books.

What grabbed me right from the beginning is that Brennan throws us right into the middle of the plot, and the first thing that’s spelled out is that this is not the Onyx Hall of the past three centuries. One of the big plot points in A Star Shall Fall is that the widespread use of iron in London, as well as Lune’s own injuries are contributing to the unknowing destruction of Onyx Hall, and as this book opens up, we see how far it’s really fallen. There’s a few mentions of courtiers and former court members who still put on the masquerade of the former days of decadence, but most of the focus of the book lies with the grim, dirty, back-stabbing setting of the Goblin Market. It’s a definitely dark side to the faeries that hasn’t been seen since the first book. Even our two focus characters, Dead Rick and Eliza, aren’t members of the upper class. Dead Rick (a minor character up until this point) is literally someone else’s dog; he’s doing as much as he can to get himself out of Nadrett’s grasp. Even though he steals humans and kills others, there’s this sense of nobility about him as he tries to set things right.

Eliza is a much different character than any other main mortals from the previous books. (I don’t mean just the fact that she’s a girl.) She knows what she’s looking for—evidence of faeries and who stole her childhood sweetheart, Owen—and will do almost anything short of murdering another human to achieve it. She’s coarse and to-the-point. I like that while Eliza knows a lot about faerie lore, she doesn’t know everything, and recognizes the fact that if she admitted the truth behind her actions to anyone, they would lock her away.

I also liked that the plot didn’t solely revolve around the Prince of the Stone. The second and third books had the position—namely, someone fulfilling that role—as a major plot point, and the fact that it’s not the sole focus of the book made it a lot more enjoyable. Don’t get me wrong, I loved Hodge (again, someone who’s not from the upper class. Yay!), but it was nice to get out of the inner circle of Lune’s court and see the events from the lower faerie and human classes and how things affect them.

At the end of A Star Shall Fall, there was a glimpse into the future of the Galenic Society, and I liked seeing how it progressed up to the present point; specifically, how the faerie and mortal scientists came together to use technology to save the Onyx Court. (Case in point: my complete squee-fest when you learn that the faeries want to build a computer, based on Charles Babbage’s designs and help from Ada Lovelace. And when it’s put in action, it’s essentially a magical, steampunk 3-D printer. I have no words about how awesome that is.) However, I do have a nitpick that there really isn’t much more done with Galenic Society, nor does it feel like it’s as influential and widespread as the characters comment. There’s only two new faeries who’ve joined outside of London (Ch’ien Mu and Yvoir), and I really wanted to see more of how both sides were working together.

The one thing Brennan does brilliantly in this is her set-up of the reveals. There’s at least three or four major plot points throughout the course of the book, and the lead up is handled really well. She manages to fake out the reader once or twice, and while there’s no real “CALLED IT!” moments, there’s a much stronger growing realization of “OMG, this is what’s happening.” It’s handled well, and doesn’t treat the reader like they’re idiots.

My major compliant with the book is the reveal of Nadrett’s plans and his backstory. While it makes sense that we don’t know what’s going on, because Dead Rick doesn’t remember anything from his previous life, there’s still no set-up or mention about what Nadrett is. It comes out of left-field and feels like a convenient way to get rid of him. Also, I wasn’t a fan of the epilogue to this book. Knowing that it’s officially the last book (Marie Brennan has said she may have a few short pieces in mind), there’s still a sense of the series not being finished in the epilogue. It’s a double-edged sword, as I want to know what next for the Onyx Hall and it’s residents, but part of me doesn’t really want to keep following the series up until the modern day.

Despite the ending, the rest of the book is utterly FANTASTIC. It brings a whole new level to the Onyx Court canon while drawing back on its roots and previous events without overshadowing the present story. There were several points when I just didn’t want to put the book down, and the writing kept me on my toes and guessing at every development. Highly recommended to fans of the series.
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It is 1884, and the Onyx Court beneath London is under grave threat from the Underground railway's central line, now nearing completion. Life is grim for the remaining fae, especially the denizen's of the Goblin Market. Dead Rick, whose memories have been torn from him by his goblin master, finds renewed hope from a secret ally. Meanwhile, London-born Irishwoman Eliza O'Malley continues her quest for her childhood sweetheart Owen, stolen by the fairies seven years ago. And the imminent ruin of the Onyx Court hangs over their heads, unless someone can find a way out.

A worthy end to this absorbing series. ( )