This is a very beautiful book. I say that meaning the literal aesthetic. The cover is super pretty, and the idea just appeals to me so much. Faeries and Tudors! This book sounds like it was made for me. And the faeries themselves were pretty cool - twisty and magical and dark and interesting. I loved reading about them! I wanted to know more about the hidden courts and the faeries that lived far from the mortal world. I wanted there to be some more rich world building and for this to be a big, beautiful, sprawling fantasy novel. Unfortunately, we didn't quite get there. To the fae of the Onyx Court, living in a secret city below London, these scientific developments are less than welcome. Magic is losing its place in the world and science threatens to expose the court to hostile eyes.

A Star Shall Fall: Takes place in the mid-18th century and concerns the Enlightenment in general and Halley's Comet in particular.In hidden catacombs beneath London, a second Queen holds court: Invidiana, ruler of faerie England, and a dark mirror to the glory above. In the thirty years since Elizabeth ascended her throne, fae and mortal politics have become inextricably entwined, in secret alliances and ruthless betrayals whose existence is suspected only by a few. Learning actual history as entertainment--accompanied by the fantasy of faeries, sprites, and goblins --is a truly phenomenal, even aspirational idea. It's akin to a spoonful of sugar to help the medicine go down, as touted by fictional nanny Mary Poppins. For me, the characters seemed a little weak early on, but in hindsight I think it's just because they were functioning on their own, towards solitary goals. Around the halfway mark we finally start to see the pieces beginning to move together and from then on I really enjoyed it. I do think it would have benefitted from stronger characterisation of the two leads, Devan and Lune, but by the end of the novel I had come to be rather invested in their goals. I was also a bit distracted by the metaphysics in the book, as it doesn't make sense to me that faeries' souls and bodies are the same thing, and composed of aether. I don't think it makes logical sense, even within the world that Brennan has created. The middle of the 17th Century was not kind to England. Charles I Stuart was a poor king; Scotland was in turmoil; Ireland threatened to revolt; Civil War tore the country to shreds over (mostly) religious differences, leading to the execution of Charles and the fleeing of his son to the Continent; The Cromwellian Protectorate led the country further into ruin; the Plague killed thousands in 1665/6; wars with the Dutch waxed and waned; and then the Great Fire of 1666 destroyed 80% of "inner" London (that portion within the old Roman walls) as well as a large chunk to the west of the wall.

The real strength of this book is how deftly Brennan wove together the various scientific theories of the mid 1700s and the magic. I also loved how the fae and the humans who know of them strive (for the most part) to find a meeting point as the Onyx Hall begins to disintegrate and they cannot figure why. In short, I thoroughly enjoyed this book – court intrigue, just enough historical stress, characters that I love and a version of fairies that I can get behind. Now please let me see more of the weird creatures, Brennan. In fact the whole book was a solid 4/5 until part 3, where it started just... losing steam. It developed a bit of "last book syndrome," where it was trying to conclude the arcs of everything rather than just the arcs of its principle characters. There was no real solution to Owen and Eliza, Maggie Darragh, and even Lune, ostensibly the main character of this whole thing. Set during the reign of Elizabeth I, Midnight Never Come tells of two Englands: one a realm of mortals ruled by Elizabeth, and one a realm of fairies, ruled by the heartless and exceedingly ruthless Invidiana. The two realms and the two rulers are linked by a pact which brought both queens to their thrones. But while Elizabeth has no interest in interfering with Invidiana and her subjects, the fairy queen’s agenda leads her to both help and hinder Elizabeth. She has spies in the mortal court, and has manipulated events in such a way that Elizabeth has sometimes had no choice but to act as Invidiana chooses, not as she would choose herself.As is always the case with Brennan's writing, her historical research is solid. As a retired computer engineer, I especially enjoyed the minor but significant part the works of Jacquard, Charles Babbage and Ada, Countess of Lovelace and Byron's daughter - yes THAT Byron - played in being adapted into a steampunk version of the Difference Engine, called here, The Ephemeral Engine.

This is a book that invites you to slow down and savor. Broken into five acts, each act builds more tension, moving from a relatively leisurely introduction toward a much more focused struggle in the final act. By the end, I had a hard time closing the book, and lost quite a bit of sleep as things came to a climax. Brennan does do an amazing job of weaving parallels between the real world events with the affects on the fae and vice versa. I'm intrigued enough to suss out the sequel, but this felt like a complete enough story that I'm satisfied with it for now. I like that in a fantasy series. As this series has developed there has been change in both worlds, though it is perhaps the human world that has changed most. After the removal of four-fifths of London in the Great Fire, it is here that we begin to see the reconstruction and urbanisation that leads to the historic elements of London today. There is also the social reconstruction after the debacle of the English Civil War. London here is a growing, thriving centre of commerce as well as ideas.Though Ashes was a little disappointing in consequence, this one really works. An ambitious tale and a pleasing triumph. Wonderful. A Star Shall Fall is the third book in Marie Brena's Onyx Court series, which follows a fairy queen's reign and how it impacts (and is impacted) by the history of England. Taking place in the mid 1700s, A Star Shall Fall is highly concerned with the dragon that was banished during In Ashes Lie. When faerie methods alone cannot stop the dragon, the court turns to the great thinkers of the Royal Society to try to find a solution.