Ursula Vernon (who usually writes for adults or even YA audiences as "T. Kingfisher") has been one of my favorite discoveries from my reading of Hugo Award finalists. Since I began in 2017, I think there hasn't been a single year where she hasn't been on the ballot in at least one category. I have very much come to appreciate her humor, her sensitivity, her focus on the forgotten and unseen. A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking is particularly excellent.
What Feasts at Night by T. Kingfisher |
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Originally published: 2024 Acquired: April 2025 Read: May 2025 |
But... did it need a sequel? Did the sequel need to be a Hugo finalist? I enjoyed going back to these characters, but unfortunately the story here is up to much less than in the first book. Someone is getting sick, and Alex very slowly investigates. It's a bit too obvious what's going on. While in the first book you might have some inkling, I think there that worked to generated dread—here it mostly drags on. What you think is going in is exactly what is going on, and unlike in What Moves the Dead, there's no clever explanation; it's just a mythical creature. I found it pretty disappointing.
But still! Kingfisher is engaging enough a writer that you still enjoy a lot of it. Lots of humor, and the narrator has a great voice, and the side characters are vivid, almost Dickensian sorts. I enjoyed most of the ride, even if I wasn't really sure why I was on it or if it was even going anywhere. I'm not really sure why this book exists, in that I think Kingfisher ought to have waited until she had a stronger premise for a second book in this sequence, and I'm really not sure why it's a Hugo finalist... but I certainly had a much less pleasant time reading some other inexplicable Hugo finalists.
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