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kathydavie's review
4.0
A free short story, 0.3 in the chronological order of the October Daye paranormal fantasy series (7.2 in publishing order), normally revolving around Sir October Daye, but the focus in this story is of Tybalt back in 1676 in London, where he reigns as a young and lonely king.
My Take
A fascinating reveal of Rand's transition to Tybalt, from prince to king, in first person protagonist point-of-view from Tybalt's perspective where we finally learn how Rand became king and why.
In "Forbid the Sea", we meet that Rand/Tybalt and discover how lonely he's been, a meeting that leads to Tybalt and Dylan having a romantic fling, that ends too soon.
It's a sweet tale that will make you cry...
The Story
It's been ten years since the plague destroyed Londinium, and the Divided Courts are finally returning to the city they fled. Rand hoping to see the return of his ladylove...until he realized a truth.
It's an unscheduled trip down river that finds a friend and a lover for whom Tybalt would go to war.
The Characters
The theatre-loving Rand, er, Tybalt now, is the only Cait Sidhe in Londinium in his lonely Court of Fogbound Cats where all things lost eventually find their way. Jill and Colleen had been his sisters.
Dylan, a.k.a. Bradwr, is a newly created Selkie from Cambria. Murtagh is king of the Undersea.
The Divided Courts are...
...led by King Heydon and Queen Lettice, who have only just returned. September Torquill gets a mention.
Russell is an old sailor. Molly is a serving maid at a coastal inn.
The Cover and Title
The cover looks like a bomb went off with the ruined stone walls, a Roman road up which a cat walks. In the rocky background are two seals, resting with a watery coastline stretching off in the distance, a low range of hills behind the body of water. It's all in oranges, grays, and muddy yellows. At the very top is an info blurb in white with the author's name immediately below it. At the bottom is a distressed title in a deep yellow with another info blurb informing us that it's a story about Tybalt.
The title, to "Forbid the Sea", is a reflection of Tybalt's grief.
My Take
A fascinating reveal of Rand's transition to Tybalt, from prince to king, in first person protagonist point-of-view from Tybalt's perspective where we finally learn how Rand became king and why.
In "Forbid the Sea", we meet that Rand/Tybalt and discover how lonely he's been, a meeting that leads to Tybalt and Dylan having a romantic fling, that ends too soon.
It's a sweet tale that will make you cry...
The Story
It's been ten years since the plague destroyed Londinium, and the Divided Courts are finally returning to the city they fled. Rand hoping to see the return of his ladylove...until he realized a truth.
It's an unscheduled trip down river that finds a friend and a lover for whom Tybalt would go to war.
The Characters
The theatre-loving Rand, er, Tybalt now, is the only Cait Sidhe in Londinium in his lonely Court of Fogbound Cats where all things lost eventually find their way. Jill and Colleen had been his sisters.
Dylan, a.k.a. Bradwr, is a newly created Selkie from Cambria. Murtagh is king of the Undersea.
The Divided Courts are...
...led by King Heydon and Queen Lettice, who have only just returned. September Torquill gets a mention.
Russell is an old sailor. Molly is a serving maid at a coastal inn.
The Cover and Title
The cover looks like a bomb went off with the ruined stone walls, a Roman road up which a cat walks. In the rocky background are two seals, resting with a watery coastline stretching off in the distance, a low range of hills behind the body of water. It's all in oranges, grays, and muddy yellows. At the very top is an info blurb in white with the author's name immediately below it. At the bottom is a distressed title in a deep yellow with another info blurb informing us that it's a story about Tybalt.
The title, to "Forbid the Sea", is a reflection of Tybalt's grief.
blodeuedd's review
3.0
A short, under 30 pages, story about how Tybalt meets Dylan. They become friends and we get to see how lonely poor Tybalt was in London during those years.
A nice little story that showed another story of Tybalt.
A nice little story that showed another story of Tybalt.
tzurky's review
2.0
I really wanted to like this but I just couldn’t because it fails at what it was supposed to do in my view which is provide more detail about the main characters of the novels. Sure it’s a love story involving one of them and it’s tragic and all but what does this tell me about the character that I didn’t know beforehand? Nothing. Well, something about their sexuality but I don’t give a rat’s ass about that. No, I wanted instead the story of the time immediately before this and how they got to where they were. And sure, there are hints dropped here and there about what they did and they process their feelings on that but it would have been so much more impactful to get this information first-hand.
So nope, this is an almost total miss for me. Not a total miss, because the love story is nice and all, but there’s not much to get out of it either since it re-treads the themes of a previous one.
So nope, this is an almost total miss for me. Not a total miss, because the love story is nice and all, but there’s not much to get out of it either since it re-treads the themes of a previous one.
atsumeri's review
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
rclz's review
4.0
This was good but a little heartbreaking. I love the king of Cats. Tybalt is one of my very favorite characters.