★★★☆☆ Velveteen's Progress

Velveteen vs the Seasons

Seanan McGuire

Velveteen vs. The Seasons is the third book of Seanan McGuire's Velveteen vs series. Nowadays (01-Oct-2022) these books are only dubiously available as books. The first two, Velveteen vs. The Junior Super Patriots and Velveteen vs. The Multiverse are available as audiobooks from Audible, which counts. I have not been able to find Velveteen vs. The Seasons for sale anywhere in any form. It apparently was a real book at some point, published in hardcover by ISFiC Press in 2016, just before, apparently, they went belly-up. Audible doesn't have an audiobook of it. Although Amazon lists Velveteen vs. The Seasons, no copies are currently (01-Oct-2022) available for sale.

The good news, however, is that "The stories remain free to read online", as McGuire says on her website. They are found on her LiveJournal. Or you can just use the handy link list I have assembled below for Velveteen vs. The Seasons. (I have already assembled link lists for Junior Super-Patriots and Multiverse.) You're welcome!

1. Velveteen vs. Hypothermia
2. Velveteen vs. Santa Claus
3. Velveteen vs. Global Warming
4. Velveteen Presents The Princess vs. Public Relations
5. Velveteen vs. The Thaw
6. Velveteen vs. Balance
7. Velveteen vs. Spring Cleaning
8. Velveteen Presents Polychrome vs. The Court of Public Opinion and Not Punching Anyone
9. Velveteen vs. The Melancholy of Autumn
10. Velveteen vs. A Disturbing Number of Crows
11. Velveteen vs. Trick or Treat
12. Velveteen Presents Action Dude vs. Doing the Right Thing
13. Velveteen vs. The Consequences of Her Actions
14. Velveteen vs. Going Home Again
15. Velveteen vs. Everything You Ever Wanted
16. Velveteen vs. The Retroactive Continuity
17. Velveteen Presents Jacqueline Claus vs. The Lost and the Found
18. Velveteen vs. Recovery

I don't guarantee that this list is complete or that it won't succumb to linkrot, but if you find something that I'm missing, message me and I'll fix it!

In Velveteen's world, the four seasons exist as separate little universes. They are peopled by characters who are the personal embodiments of the seasons, or of its holidays. Many of these personified abstractions were once people in what they call the Calendar Country and what we call the Real World. Autumn, Winter, and Spring have long been interested in recruited Velveteen for one such role. In Multiverse she made a deal, in return for making use of some of the magic of the seasons to rescue her friends, that she would spend time in each of Autumn, Winter, and Spring and give them the chance to persuade her to join them.

The bulk of Seasons recounts Velveteen's experiences in Autumn, Winter, and Spring. These are pretty grim, because those three realms turn out to be dystopias. In each of them Velveteen undergoes some sort of torment. It is really, honestly, not that much fun to read. Also, I have never liked books whose characters are personifications of impersonal abstractions. One thinks of The Phantom Tollbooth or The Pilgrim's Progress or even McGuire's own Up and Under series. The problem is that these characters are not human (quite intentionally) and therefore difficult to make interesting.

There is also another story going on simultaneously (sort-of -- the time flow of Seasons is not linear) having to do with what happens to the world in Velveteen's absence and after her return. You may remember that in Multiverse Velveteen brought down The Super Patriots, Inc. That had consequences, which Velveteen and her friends and colleagues have to deal with.

In the end it is all rather muddled. Multiverse had a somewhat coherent plot. In Seasons the plot, while not entirely incoherent, doesn't make a great deal of sense.

Amazon review

Goodreads review

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