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

judifilksign

June 1 2011, 20:10:06 UTC 6 years ago

I thought Shaun's responses throughout the book rang very true. I was surprised that I wasn't shocked at their relationship - I guess you planted the foreshadowing cues very well, then!

DEADLINE moved slower in a narrative sense than FEED did, although that didn't stop me from tearing through it.

I think George is smarter than Shaun, who spends a bit of time flailing about. And how annoying that he has to go back to the same people for more tidbits.

I find myself thinking that even if Shaun were to reveal what he suspects, it would get "lost" in the news of the Southern storm and aftermath.

The big reveal at the end? Made me simultaneously overjoyed and furious. I cried so hard at the end of FEED over her, that bringing her back made me angry, like I'd been suckered - except I'm so damn glad she's alive. The teasers about cloning and ethics throughout were quite well done, in that you well-established the tech, and prohibitions, and willingness of the CDC to break their own rules if the experiment looked good enough, yet those last pages were such a surprise!

The memory transfer will be an interesting explanation, I am sure. I am eagerly awaiting BLACKOUT.

And I still totally think this series should be optioned to be movies.

seanan_mcguire

June 1 2011, 20:55:08 UTC 6 years ago

The anger response is something I was concerned about, but couldn't avoid risking. Because this was just how it had to go. I promise, the grief was justified and real; having a clone isn't the same as having the original back (as the poor girl will have to learn).

mtfierce

June 3 2011, 06:30:39 UTC 6 years ago

Anger? Anger? And here I was describing it to people as, "It's like suddenly the best Christmas present, EVER. Only you know it's going to turn out to be a foot. In a stocking."

seanan_mcguire

June 14 2011, 15:49:01 UTC 6 years ago

HEE.

That's awesome.

drcpunk

June 17 2011, 21:54:14 UTC 6 years ago

Mm... I'm mildly annoyed that Georgia was one of the 2 in 10,000.

Correction: I'm provisionally mildly annoyed about that. I'm not at all sure there isn't more going on that will make me go "Right, that makes so much more sense." It happened with the original "she would have gotten better" line.

But, even if there isn't more, okay, everything else holds up, and this falls into the range of things I will accept because it makes the plot engine run. As long as there aren't too many of these, I'm good.

But the clone doesn't bother me. You planted that Chekhov's Gun on the mantel, very clearly:

1. The CDC does cloning
2. The CDC had Georgia's body
3. Therefore, it is at least possible...

QED.

seanan_mcguire

June 20 2011, 17:51:02 UTC 6 years ago

Keep in mind that a) the CDC had her body for testing, and could check her serroconversion behaviors to go "yeah, she'd have come out of it," and b) those figures assume people with reservoir conditions who have been allowed to go far enough into the conversion process to muster an immune response. The real figure is probably a hell of a lot higher.

drcpunk

June 20 2011, 18:09:30 UTC 6 years ago

a) makes sense. I'm not sure I follow b). That is, what other figures might one presume? I just don't understand the processes involved in figuring out the numbers.

seanan_mcguire

June 20 2011, 18:13:29 UTC 6 years ago

Inasmuch as I can explain without spoilering the third book...

2 in 10,000 is based on what has been observed in a world where someone gets bitten, you shoot them ASAP. So most people with reservoir conditions don't have time to get sick enough for their immune systems to go "whoa, fuck, FIX THAT SHIT" and start generating the necessary antibodies. If they do, you can test their blood afterward and tell whether they'd have recovered or not.

drcpunk

June 20 2011, 18:28:04 UTC 6 years ago

Okay, so the 2 in 10,000 figure is only looking at known cases where someone a) has a reservoir condition and b) has gone into amplification and either come out of it or not. Is that correct? No, wait, that's not it. b) gone far enough into amplification that, whether or not the person was shot, whether or not the person became a zombie, whether or not the person recovered, there were enough antibodies to test the blood, and the blood was, in fact, tested. Is that correct?

seanan_mcguire

June 20 2011, 18:28:57 UTC 6 years ago

Yes.