Silverblind

August 11, 2014
Dorie Rochart, the half-fey child from Connolly’s debut, Ironskin (2012), returns as a college graduate in cryptozoology, seeking employment in an alternate 1930s England prejudiced against both her non-human race and her sex. Disguising herself as a man, she becomes a hunter of wyvern eggs, teamed up with Annika, a Crown loyalist, and Tam, a cousin with whom Dorie shares an uncomfortable history. As Dorie’s stepmother, Jane, fights for female workers’ rights and Crown agents arrest dissenters, Dorie uncovers the reasons behind the fey’s disappearance and how the reappearance of basilisks, their mythic nemeses, can save them. Connolly offers some playful takes on gender and appearance and gently explores a variety of sexual orientations, placing subtle clues to the nature of her universe in her chapter headings. Her sympathies, however, remain more with the ecology of her magical setting than the tale of rag-tag bohemians fighting the rise of fascism.

September 15, 2014

It's been over 20 years since the end of the war between fey and humanity. Dorie Rochart desires nothing more than a job in the field researching the magical creatures still living in England's forests. But when Dorie's gender proves an impediment to being hired, she uses her shape-changing abilities as a half-fey, abilities that she has hidden all her life, to pass as a man and secure the position. She wants to help those afflicted by the fey like her stepmother Jane (the heroine of Ironskin, the first book of the series) and to protect the magical wyverns that the government are hunting to extinction. Dorie, a spoiled and troubled child in Ironskin, has grown into an appealing heroine who takes risks to help the disadvantaged, even at great danger to herself. VERDICT This alternate history/fantasy blend is rich in details, creating a vivid world intriguingly altered from our own history by contact with the fey.

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 15, 2014
A third book set in a world that humans share with the fey, dwarfs, wyverns, and more magical creatures. Not all of these creatures are benign, and this story is set about 20 years after the Great War between humans and the fey. Dorie Rochart is half fey but has been hiding it for years because of the societal stigma. She is a university graduate and is struggling to make ends meet. She can't seem to find a job because no one will hire a girl. She releases her fey side and shape-changes into a boy. This opens doors for her, and she finds herself drawn into a far deeper set of problems than she had bargained forshe discovers that the fey are dying. With the book set in an alternative history, in a Victorian-type society that rarely values women and where nonhumans are viewed with fear, suspicion, and sometimes outright hatred, Dorie's character is beautifully described. The relationships she has with her closest friend, the other women she interacts with, and the reconnecting with a childhood friend all serve to flesh out a fascinating and intriguing persona. No understanding of the previous books is required, as this story stands alone. Recommended for those who have enjoyed reading the Bront' sisters or Jane Austen.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)