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

avhn

June 6 2011, 06:33:56 UTC 6 years ago

ladyaraia and I read the book aloud to each other. It was wonderful. Right up until we were driving north on I-5, 5 hours ahead of daylight, trying to beat the clock on our way to see Brooke. When she suggested we go visit a rest stop, I nearly screamed. At least there wasn't a storm?

The book was amazing. My immediate reaction to the cloning was "Impossible! I mean, Seanan does good science, so I *know* she'll explain it, but... arrrrgh!" Also, the idea of a post-mortem neural download just doesn't work with our current understanding of neuroscience. I'm guessing that the neural imprint was made when George was first brought into the CDC in Feed, and maybe they cobbled the rest together somehow.

Loved all the cameos so much.

So glad the puppies don't die.

I keep freaking out when I get out of my car, thinking that the mosquitoes will get me.

Dr. Abbey seems awfully convenient, it makes me worry about her health.

avhn

June 6 2011, 06:42:54 UTC 6 years ago

Also! I'm anticipating that somebody will get the clever idea to load a testing unit with live KA and use this as an assassination method. It seems like it'd be a bit more subtle/hide-able/controllable than poisoned darts.

Also, I was wondering about the security measures at airports. That is, why would you need it on the arrivals side? It seems that planes should have a self-destruct mode that can be used *before* landing if all the passengers don't check out clean. (The pilot would be in a sealed area and would just have to go down with the plane if there was an outbreak.

seanan_mcguire

June 6 2011, 19:28:46 UTC 6 years ago

The arrivals security measures are largely there because the TSA, by 2040, has gotten even more crazy-paranoid than they are today. There was an incident with an amplified jet landing in Melbourne. It wasn't pretty. So now they have ALL the security.

avhn

June 6 2011, 19:36:13 UTC 6 years ago

Fair enough. I don't know why I thought the TSA would have gotten *less* crazy and paranoid.

hasufin

June 6 2011, 20:33:27 UTC 6 years ago

Honestly, I think many of the testing measures for KA have more to do with paranoia than effectiveness (my! what a shocking concept!).

I'm thinking of how Dr. Abbey, who is clearly a competent albeit arrogant researcher and knows a bit about KA, handled Shaun's party. She didn't need testing units to figure out if they had amplified. It's not rocket science.

Now, should everyone be as lackadaisical about it as her? No. But do they need to be tested eight times just to get into an apartment building? Absolutely not.

Frankly, I can think of a lot of better, safer, and more effective ways to prevent outbreaks in populated areas. But... it's like in 1984. The point is not to Win the War. The point is to waste resources and retain the siege mentality.

celticdragonfly

June 6 2011, 22:56:40 UTC 6 years ago

Agreed.

My overall reaction to the books is that she is writing something of an allegory on our current culture of fear and terror, and how much that's changed through time. And yeah - I don't want to live that way. We don't need to live that way.

jenfullmoon

June 11 2011, 02:40:34 UTC 6 years ago

Yeah, between the blood tests to get into and out an elevator, and the airplane bathroom, you do think, "Isn't there any point where you can assume you're safe for five minutes?"

Then when you remember that random amplification out of nowhere can happen... yeah. They have reasons.

hasufin

June 13 2011, 02:20:31 UTC 6 years ago

Well, I can think of a few hypothetical "better" ways to handle random amplification. But I think the risk of random amplification is seriously overstated and suspect that the CDC is way inflating those numbers. I mean, when was the last time you saw someone randomly keel over and die on the way to the bathroom?

I suspect that their reasons have a great deal more to do with control and maintaining a culture of fear, rather than preventing an outbreak.

seanan_mcguire

June 13 2011, 14:11:33 UTC 6 years ago

Ding!

jenfullmoon

June 13 2011, 17:54:03 UTC 6 years ago

That too. I'm just also thinking that there is some (slight?) justification for the policy in addition to fear-mongering. It's like why we get searched for certain shit at the airport every time: because it happened once, we should assume it could and will happen again, even though it's not likely. So there's less bitching than there could be because it did happen once, rather than "So far nobody's smuggled a bomb in their uterus, so all women need a gyno exam before getting on a plane." (Though that day is probably coming soon.)

Not that I like that at the airport either.

sageautumn

June 14 2011, 15:26:08 UTC 6 years ago

Welllll ... I realize their reasons have way more to do with control/etc... BUT...

When's the last time I _saw_ someone randomly keel over? Never. When's the last time it happened? Every single day, without even the slightest doubt.

I was honestly really surprised the CDC bathroom didn't have a test kit to get out, because dying going to the bathroom isn't anywhere near out of the question. (It's kinda common-ish... bathroom stuff lowers your blood pressure and if it's already weird/low... BAM.)

hasufin

June 14 2011, 15:47:38 UTC 6 years ago

It's not that these things can Never Ever happen. They... could. (I'm not so sure about people dying on the toilet every day; if that were the case, it wouldn't get in "News of the Weird". OTOH, I know that older people "vagal out" and knock themselves unconscious all the freaking time - oh, the things you hear from EMTs).

The thing is, I strongly suspect that they could handle these issues better. The level of protection they have now could be equally provided by low-tech means, with far less fanfare, or using the level of technology shown, they could be at the point where it would be pretty inconceivable for someone to encounter a zombie. But they're offering neither. What we're seeing is high intrusiveness with low value.