Butterfly Effects by Seanan McGuireMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is the latest entry in the long-running InCryptid series, about a family who studies and protects "cryptids" (mythical animals/monsters and sapient beings, such as the Sasquatch, that exist in the hidden underbelly of human society). This is the 15th book in the series. This one focuses on Sarah Zellaby, a "cuckoo" or Johrlac: basically a giant telepathic ambush predator wasp in a human suit. This is the third book in the series to focus on Sarah, and while I missed her previous two books, the author does a pretty good job of bringing the reader up to speed. The backstory is fairly complicated, but the explanation is interwoven between this book's plot without too much infodumping, I thought.
This series has always leaned more towards the SF end of the urban fantasy spectrum, with the cryptids and the family that protects them, and this book expands that even further. I liked this book mainly because of its worldbuilding: Sarah, as a cuckoo "queen," a fully mature Johrlac with powerful psychic abilities, is hauled off to the species' home planet to answer for her sins from the previous books. There's not much time spent on Earth in this one--we see the Johrlac world and culture, and watch as Sarah fights not to be forced into the telepathic "collective" that rules the planet. (That ends up happening anyway, and Sarah's adoptive family rides to her rescue. The emphasis on found family bonds is strong in this book.)
The family featured in this series rotates among several different narrators and their stories, which serves as a nice contrast to the author's other long-running series, the October Daye novels. That series concentrates on one protagonist, October "Toby" Daye, knight of Faerie. Toby has gone through a lot of changes and upheavals over the course of the series, which doesn't happen so much in the InCryptid series with its rotating protagonists (although this one definitely deals with the consequences of the earlier books). For me, the worldbuilding is the main component of this series. There's not too many urban fantasy series around anymore, and Seanan McGuire (along with Jim Butcher and Patricia Briggs) seem to be the main standard carriers nowadays. But I quite enjoy these books, and will read them as long as the author keeps putting them out.
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