October Daye / Inheritance - Essay Series Part Four: When a Villain Lives

Hello Patrons and general audience members! Welcome to another Books That Burn essay by Robin. Thank you to Case Aiken, who receives a monthly Patron shoutout.

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This is the fourth in a five-part essay series discussing two long-running book series by queer authors: October Daye by Seanan McGuire, and Inheritance by A.K. Faulkner. I chose these series because I love them both, they were intended from the start to be long series, neither of them are finished yet, and the authors have different structural approaches to developing each series across so many volumes. Purely coincidentally, they are both long-running contemporary fantasy series mainly set in California in or near the 2010's, with major characters named Quentin, and whose fast-healing protagonists have a tendency to quasi-adopt a gaggle of magical teenagers. After a brief moment in the 1990's, October Daye begins in earnest in 2009 and has reached 2015 as of the eighteenth book, while Inheritance is ambiguously set in the mid-to-late 2010's. Each of my essays focuses on a particular topic of importance to long series such as these two. They're designed to be intelligible on their own, and can theoretically be read in any order, but most readers will have the best experience if they start with the first essay and proceed linearly.

When a Villain Lives - Recurring Antagonists and Redemption Arcs

This essay spoils major elements of the first ten books of the Inheritance series by A.K. Faulkner, and of the first sixteen books in the October Daye series by Seanan McGuire. It discusses themes of murder and death, as well as fictional depictions of kidnapping, rape, torture, and abuse/murder of children. 

• Introduction (01:58)
• Still Terrible: Countess Evening Winterrose (04:41)
• Logistically Important: Hieronymus D'Arcy, Duke of Oxford (07:48)
• Staying in the Middle: Frederick D'Arcy (12:38)
• Stuck in the Middle: Simon Torquill (16:41)
• Redemption Arc: Simon Lorden (19:49)
• What's Next? (23:43)
• Coda: Freddy and Simon (24:37)