Silverblind

Dorie Rochart, the half-fey child from Connolly’s debut, Ironskin (2012), returns as a college graduate in cryptozoology, seeking employment in an alternate 1930s England prejudiced against both her non-human race and her sex. Disguising herself as a man, she becomes a hunter of wyvern eggs, teamed up with Annika, a Crown loyalist, and Tam, a cousin with whom Dorie shares an uncomfortable history. As Dorie’s stepmother, Jane, fights for female workers’ rights and Crown agents arrest dissenters, Dorie uncovers the reasons behind the fey’s disappearance and how the reappearance of basilisks, their mythic nemeses, can save them. Connolly offers some playful takes on gender and appearance and gently explores a variety of sexual orientations, placing subtle clues to the nature of her universe in her chapter headings. Her sympathies, however, remain more with the ecology of her magical setting than the tale of rag-tag bohemians fighting the rise of fascism. (Oct.)