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Summary
Summary
Having barely escaped the revolution they had a huge (if accidental) part in causing, sharp-eyed orphan Mosca Mye; her guard goose, Saracen; and their sometimes-loyal companion, the con man Eponymous Clent, must start anew.
All too quickly, they find themselves embroiled in fresh schemes and twisting politics as they are trapped in Toll, an odd town that changes its entire personality as day turns to night. Mosca and her friends attempt to fend off devious new foes, subvert old enemies, prevent the kidnapping of the mayor's daughter, steal the town's Luck, and somehow manage to escape with their lives--and hopefully a little money in their pockets.
In the eagerly awaited sequel to Fly by Night, acclaimed storyteller Frances Hardinge returns to a vivid world rich with humor, danger, and discovery.
Author Notes
Frances Hardinge was born in 1973 in the United Kingdom. Her first novel, Fly By Night, won the Bradford Boase Award in 2006. Her other books include Verdigris Deep / Well Witched, Twilight Robbery, and A Face Like Glass. Cuckoo Song won the Robert Holdstock Award for Best Novel at the British Fantasy Awards in 2015 and The Lie Tree won the 2015 Costa Book of the Year award.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 5-9-Independent orphan Mosca Mye; the con man Eponymous Clent; and Mosca's violent goose, Saracen, are back in this sequel to Fly by Night (HarperCollins, 2006). The trio is trying to find a new home after being forced to leave Mandelion at the end of their first adventure, and their travels bring them to Toll, where they need to raise funds to leave the city and cross its bridge. They quickly become involved in the local intrigue, which juxtaposes Toll's innocent daytime appearance with its alter ego, Toll-by-Night. Mosca's world features a variety of divinities, each ruling over a brief period of time each year, and Toll's residents are fated to be part of the day or night cities depending on when they were born. At the center of many plots is the beautiful daughter of Toll's mayor, and her kidnapping leads to danger and encounters with the threatening and dangerous Locksmiths. When Mosca is exiled to Toll-by-Night, she needs to find allies and put together the pieces to locate the missing Beamabeth, defeat the Locksmiths, and change the future of Toll itself. Hardinge has once again created an intricate world, and she uses the town's dual nature to focus on people's perceptions of others. Mosca's spirit and heart bring the story together and make her actions totally believable. Fly Trap's action and drama are balanced with humor, often presented through the flamboyant Clent and Saracen, as well as through the names and duties of the divinities. This is another high-quality, thought-provoking fantastic adventure that will keep readers' interest in spite of its length.-Beth L. Meister, Milwaukee Jewish Day School, WI (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
In this exciting sequel to Fly by Night (2006), Hardinge's feisty heroine, Mosca Mye; her con-man companion, Eponymous Clent; and her fierce goose, Saracen, are on the run from the city of Mandelion, where they've helped foment a revolution. They become trapped in the wealthy town of Toll, and Mosca is soon exiled to Toll-by-Night, the very different and dangerous place that the town transforms into after dark. Meanwhile, she and her companions must deal with a complex plot to kidnap the Mayor's universally loved daughter, Beamabeth, while avoiding the dangerous Goshawk, ruler of the deadly Locksmiths, who wants her dead for her activities in Mandelion. Crammed with eccentric, Dickensian characters, unexpected plot turns, and numerous very niche gods and goddesses (such as Goodlady Emberleather, She Who Prevents the Meat from Becoming Chewy and Unwholesome, or Goodman Belubble, He Who Snuffs the Last Candle Before Sleep), Hardinge's world is rich enough to fuel two or three fantasy novels. It's a beautifully written tale, by turns humorous and heartbreaking and a sheer pleasure to read. Ages 10-up. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
With prodigious talent and fertile imagination, Hardinge returns to the world of her first novel, Fly by Night, for a satisfying sequel. Three months have passed since the strange affairs in the city of Mandelion. With con-man companion Eponymous Clent now in debtor's prison, young Mosca Mye tries to finagle his release. Eventually, the duo find themselves in Toll, a curious town with separate societies -- one diurnal, the other nocturnal -- and a strategic location that provides the sole bridge across an otherwise uncrossable river. The labyrinthine plotting, a Hardinge trademark, includes a couple of old villains, several new ones, no less than four kidnappings, a handful of double crosses, and numerous reversals of fortune. The leisurely pacing allows Hardinge to plant various clues and red herrings, flesh out the elaborate cast of characters, revel in language and wordplay, and bring the setting (vaguely reminiscent of Europe during the early modern era) vividly to life -- all with a Dickensian flair. Hours of sustained pleasure reading await the patient reader. jonathan hunt (c) Copyright 2011. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
Another city unwittingly admits the forces of chaos and widespread panic through its gates in this doorstopper sequel to Fly by Night (2006). Those forces being young orphan Mosca Mye (a "clench-jawed scrap of damp doggedness"), silver-tongued poet/con man/ex-spy Eponymous Clent and Mosca's beloved but psychotic goose Saracen, readers are in for a rare treat. In full flight after having played a significant role in turning the port of Mandelion into an independent city governed by republic-minded "radicals" in the previous episode, the trio enters the aptly named town of Toll in hopes of escaping across the only bridge over the mighty Langfeather River. Escalating complications rapidly ensue as Mye and Clent discover to their horror that they're trapped within the secure walls of a town that's being taken over by the sinister Locksmith Guild. Toll is a thoroughly dysfunctional town, in which the streets are literally rearranged every dawn and dusk to underline a sharp separation between the smug and prosperous daytime population and the despised, fear-plagued nighttime one. Hardinge once again creates a strange original society that reflects our own in provocative ways. She also has a gift for well-turned prose and shows a sure hand in crafting suspenseful plots. Readers will be thrilled she again gives this winning trio a chance to show their better natures while surviving (often causing) trickery, betrayal, fires, riots and social upheaval. (Alternate world fantasy. 11-13)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Along with the smooth-tongued Eponymous Clent, 12-year-old Mosca Mye helped stir rebellion in Mandelion and inadvertently attracted the unwanted attention of Aramai Goshawk and his Locksmiths Guild. Now on the run, Mosca and Clent end up in the town of Toll-by-Day, where they have three days to raise sufficient funds to leave or else be turned over to the parallel town, Toll-by-Night, where people live in fear and the Locksmiths rule. When the mayor's daughter, Beamabeth, is kidnapped and taken to Toll-by-Night, it falls to these two, with their history of skirting the law, to make things right. A sequel to Fly by Night (2006), this stand-alone adventure has an even richer sense of place than the earlier novel. Hardinge once again delights in wordplay and language, and a strong cast of supporting characters throws Mosca and Clent into relief, making their evolving differences quietly apparent. Harrowing escapes and unexpected plot twists move along this fresh, appealing tale.--Moore, Melissa Copyright 2010 Booklist
