Seanan McGuire (seanan_mcguire) wrote,
Seanan McGuire
seanan_mcguire
  • Mood: chipper
  • Music: Vixy and Tony, "Anna."

DEADLINE open thread. Have a party.

To celebrate the release of Deadline [Amazon]|[Mysterious Galaxy], here. Have an open thread to discuss the book.

THERE WILL BE SPOILERS.

Seriously. If anyone comments here at all, THERE WILL BE SPOILERS. So please don't read and then yell at me because you encountered spoilers. You were warned.

You can also start a book discussion at my website forums, with less need to be concerned that I will see everything you say! In case you wanted, you know, discussion free of authorial influence. I will probably answer a great many comments. I may not answer all of them.

Have fun!
Tags: deadline, mira grant
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  • 842 comments

sparrowpunk

June 1 2011, 18:30:30 UTC 6 years ago

I got it today, after pestering a couple of book shops... The one I got it from were kind enough to reassure me that I wasn't the only person getting visibly excited, and that there'd been a girl in yesterday who reacted just like I did. I can only speculate on whether she bounced off, though.

Anyway. Feed felt like it had more punch to me, because it was the introduction, I guess? The last bit, with Georgia sort of bugs me (how does it _work_?), and I can't figure out how Shaun was immune, beyond an extremely half-baked theory about his intimate contact with Georgia and her reservoir condition being one of the keys to it, especially with the comment about it being necessary in Blackout... I wish I had someone in real life to speculate with, but I have to wait until I see my boyfriend next to hand Deadline over, and he's not only far busier but a far slower reader than me :(

seanan_mcguire

June 1 2011, 20:51:47 UTC 6 years ago

Contagious immunity actually happens in real life. It's a thing. It doesn't require sexual contact, but close physical contact over an extended period of time can transfer antibodies.

The thing with George will be explained. But yes, Shaun really did shoot the original in the head.

sparrowpunk

June 1 2011, 22:37:11 UTC 6 years ago

Interesting, thanks :) And knowing there'll be an explanation helps a lot, at least until or unless you do another countdown, which has had me calling bookshops and getting them to get in touch as soon as they have copies because I just can't wait for the ebook...

I'm sorry if my comment sounded negative, by the way- I think I just read it too fast in the needing to know what happens next, and I'm noticing more in the second reading :)

seanan_mcguire

June 2 2011, 19:24:01 UTC 6 years ago

It's okay! You get to be negative if you want to, although if you do it here in my blog, I also get to be sad. :)

sparrowpunk

June 2 2011, 19:35:02 UTC 6 years ago

I don't want to be negative or make people sad though! So I will try harder to phrase comments better. I did really enjoy Deadline, but now wish it was 2012...

seanan_mcguire

June 14 2011, 15:49:48 UTC 6 years ago

That's good phrasing.

sparrowpunk

June 14 2011, 16:50:33 UTC 6 years ago

I would have my copy of Discount Armageddon then :P I just saw it on Amazon today and got very excited...

celticdragonfly

June 3 2011, 02:39:00 UTC 6 years ago

Contagious immunity - reminds me of what was happening in the Countdown stories with Marlburg-Amberlee, that wasn't supposed to get passed around, but did end up getting passed to the patients' nearest and dearest.

seanan_mcguire

June 14 2011, 14:56:53 UTC 6 years ago

It happens!

jenrose1

June 3 2011, 20:40:12 UTC 6 years ago

If KA can make zombies function better in packs, I imagine it might explain a lot about... everything.

vixyish

June 3 2011, 22:36:58 UTC 6 years ago

Not long ago I came across an article describing that very pack behavior, the increased intelligence of an organism upon proximity to more of its own kind, in bacteria. It actually exists in the real world. (I just had to re-look-up the conversation; the phrase is "quorum sensing".)

I was all SEANAN SEANAN OMG I DIDN'T KNOW THAT WAS A REAL LIVE THING!!1!

She laaaaaaaaaaaaaughed. :)

jenrose1

June 3 2011, 22:52:27 UTC 6 years ago

lol! If you think about it too much, our brain cells *are* a quorum sensing operation... One neuron, not so much. Many neurons...

I just want to know if KA is acting like little teeny tiny wireless transmitters or what... functional telepathy is plausible, if you can figure out what makes the connection possible.

keristor

June 6 2011, 20:17:02 UTC 6 years ago

Well, there's a lot of non-verbal communication which isn't exactly telepathy but can cause 'mob' behaviour. Like the way birds will fly in formation and then all turn together (not one seeing the next actually start to turn), and in insects. The term 'telepathy' is usually thought of as meaning hearing thoughts, this is more of a gestalt or synergy, like the brain, still using things like sound and electricity and chemicals as transmission media.

(But you can have a functioning network using carrier pigeons, it's just a bit slow -- RFC 1149. OMG, we /have/ insectile carriers, who needs avian ones?)

sheistheweather

June 8 2011, 17:01:36 UTC 6 years ago

Maybe that's how Clone!George got into Shaun's head...

seanan_mcguire

June 14 2011, 02:59:47 UTC 6 years ago

I love you so.

azurelunatic

June 6 2011, 00:08:34 UTC 6 years ago

I was thinking this as well, yes.

drcpunk

June 17 2011, 21:40:05 UTC 6 years ago

Okay, so, if I understand correctly:

1. 2 in 10,000 with reservoir conditions will recover from infection.
2. Georgia happened to be one of the lucky ones.
3. But she really died. Shaun really shot her. All that.
4. Shaun's got contagious immunity, in all likelihood. If it isn't more complicated -- this possibility is going to have to occur to Dr. Abbey, who is not an idiot.
5. The Georgia who is alive is a clone, not the original. The original is the one who is dead.
6. Nevertheless, the clone seems to have all of the memories of the original and her personality, but not her retinal KA.
7. It still isn't June 2012. I can't read Blackout yet. Aaaaarrrggh!
8. Er, that was a scream of frustration, not a moan. I am not a zombie. Please do not shoot me.

seanan_mcguire

June 20 2011, 17:54:40 UTC 6 years ago

1. That is the current "official" figure. Different conditions have different recovery rates.
2. Yes.
3. Yes.
4. Yes.
5. Yes.
6. As Dr. Abbey noted, she can't control what form of reservoir condition Joe develops. It stands to reason that the CDC can't, either.
7. Correct.
8. Okay.

admnaismith

June 11 2011, 20:29:19 UTC 6 years ago

Theories:

Chap. 27 is at the Shady Cove lab, and George has completely replaced Shaun on the inside. So Becks and Mahir and the others will have to deal with "Shaun" telling them he's George. That was my first thought, and it didn't occur to me until hours later that there were other possibilities.

Chap. 27 is at a sinister lab run by CDC or a related group, and they've been tinkering with George's corpse and brought her back. (hard to see how her death could have been faked entirely since Shaun himself shot her). Even made her eyes better, because her reservoir condition plus having spectacular midichlorians made it possible only for her.

Or maybe they cloned her. You'd expect the clone to have not quite the same personality, though.

seanan_mcguire

June 13 2011, 15:25:44 UTC 6 years ago

Interesting theories!