ONE SALT SEA open thread!

Oh my god. Oh dear god. I half-guessed the very ending bit, but not much before it.

You...he...they....

Ow.

I'm in awe, and ow.

I cried when we found out that May was the Dare night haunt and actually I am tearing up thinking about it again. I don't know why the night haunts keep affecting me so much, but Toby's scenes with them are really stand-out parts of the books.

Finished the book and it was awesome!!! Like everyone else I'm sad for Connor, but there was so much fun beside this. Luidaeg, coffee, Danny's promise to a rock, Raj and Quentin acting as Toby's squires, training with a sword under Sylvester, the truth about May. And the Undersea! And that's a given but, Tybalt ! And plenty more.
Now, Sylvester spoke about a squire ceremony for Quentin, will we 'see' it?
Also, it's curious : the next book comes in one year and Luidaeg's deadline to the Selkies is one year too. (Gibbs' Rule #39: There is no such thing as coincidence).
Thank you for writing books that I love!

Just finished it - cannot wait for the audiobook (sadface about November - but I'm sure it will be completely awesome. Just imagining Mary Robinette Kowal reading some of this stuff is amazing).

I hope it's not bad, but I'm actually happy to have Tybalt uncontested :-) Not that I disliked Connor, but I really, really like Tybalt.

And the world was amazing.

One weird thing - the clip at the end of Late Eclipses was from the middle - I was waiting for it for a long time :-)

I bought my paper copy of OSS at Dark Carnival yesterday (yea payday!), and I called first to make sure he still had copies, and confused the poor man by accidentally asking for an autographed copy of Ashes of Honor (I had just read a tweet about it before I made the call). He said his whole day had been going that way.

This was amazing.

I feel like the scenes with Gilly weren't long enough. It felt like it was over very quickly with her. I loved Toby seeing the full fae and full human versions of her, and also getting to smell what her magic would have been.

I thought I saw Toby's magic being described as only copper-smelling now, and then suddenly it was cut grass and copper again. I may have misunderstood.

Will we ever find out who Amandine's mother is?

As soon as we knew that a) Roanes and Selkies could both be seals, b) that the Roane were mostly extinct, and c) that the Luidaeg's doors were not welcoming to Selkies, I guessed that their skins were stolen. That was a marvelous bit of arrangement there. Painful, and marvelous. I am eager to see where that is going.

How many Firstborn have lived an one point or another?

I adored Danny's talking to the rocks. Raysel's "diary" was also one of my favorite parts.

Why would Luna taking the kitsune shape affect the balance of her child's blood?

I just had a thought... if Toby and Tybalt had a child together...I'm curious how a human/Dochas Sidhe/Cait Sidhe changeling would turn out.

More cohesive thoughts may occur later. All I can say is "...wow. That was amazing."

To the last question, we have limited info, but I would think not well. When Tybalt takes Toby into the Kingdom of Cats in Late Eclipses he states it's the first time a "child of Oberon" has been there since he became King. So unless Amandine's mother turns out to be a common progenitor with the Caith Sidhe, it'd be mixed blood and all the yuck that often goes with it.

Yeah, that was one of the first things I thought about too :) It's too bad, because I think Toby would like more children at some point. Then again, she might well be able to "fix" that problem, particularly in her own offspring.

George RR Martin called. His message: "You bastard." :-)

Just finished my first read of it -- and there will be more, I can guarantee that ;)

I am always impressed by your continuity and worldbuilding -- it's obvious you've figured a lot of stuff out way in advance and have carefully dropped breadcrumbs for us that build. You don't make me feel like you're toying with me either -- I feel like you'll get to more when it's *time* to get to more, not that you're intentionally trying to cliffhanger/hype/taunt me unlike some people (Alan Ball with this last awful-in-my-opinion season of True Blood, George R. R. Martin with his uber-expanding POV nightmare and wanton destruction of major characters {I like that he can go there, but does he have to KEEP going there? Jeez}, and so on).

The hints of Arden are great, though I'm not sure why Toby thinks it's a person and not a place. Maybe it's just me, but I always think old magic and magical places when I think of Arden (Forest of Arden, Amber, etc).

I loved the talking to rocks bit. Danny is a great side-character.

I was okay with Connor dying. He was a good character, and I have no issues with him wanting to cheat on Raysel other than the fact that it was a stupid move from a diplomatic, political point-of-view.

Raysel breaks my heart and freaks me out all at the same time.

The roane stuff - very cool. Can't wait to see more.

I could go on and on, but I'm almost late for a meeting! Great job again, Seanan, I've not been disappointed yet!

Read One Salt Sea over the weekend and immediately had to check for FAQ for the currently projected number of books in the series. Here's hoping DAW keeps buying them as long as you are happy to keep writing them.

Do selkie skins change hands along gender lines? Margie had Elaine's and Connor had Owain's. Family lines? A combination? Some other way entirely? (I imagine well learn more in coming books.)

You know, I just realized -- May+Jazz is fulfilling at least 3 functions.

1: Fetch may look like Toby (...because that's the DNA that she drank!!!) and have Tobymemories, but is not Toby.

2: Non-het fae exist.

3: The "Oh, it's okay, there's one for Connor and one for Tybalt!" shippers are/were cut off at the knees. (And while I can sympathize with that "everyone can be happy, yay!" viewpoint, it's a little too simple-pat of an answer for me.) Aside from the whole "elf shot won't kill a fae, but a crossbow through the heart will" issue, of course.

Anyway. One relationship, three uses. [fake british accent] Good show, madam! [/fake british accent]

I really enjoyed your book. In truth, thus far I have really enjoyed all of your books.

That said...
Is there any chance in the upcoming books to have either a cast of characters--or even just a recap of fae races/figures? with generic ability/function descriptions? I wouldn't be/am not looking for spoilers, if something were as yet unknown (unknown) certainly works. I have to admit to being continually pulled out of the story trying to remember "Oh, okay so they're a _______ and that means I should already know they can do x,y,z..."

I don't have a great recall for things like that, but I think I have a normal-range recall for it... ...and as more info and races are added, I admit to it becoming more of an issue for me.

Part of me does realize that not having a great prior and interalized knowledge of fae (in general) is a major disadvantage in reading this series, and I do realize from/of the commenters here... I am likely in the very small minority. I'm less certain I'm in the minority of the general reading population, though?

I don't even know if this comment makes sense, or if it just sounds like a complaint--and it's not intended to sound like that. More, "Um, this is an issue for me, it may? be an issue for others, I wonder if you have thought of this option as a possible solution?"

That would be really handy, I agree.

I reread the first four books in anticipation of _One Salt Sea_, which means that what particularly struck me (aside from all the wonderful bits cited by everyone before me) was the truly masterful weaving together of the various threads that had been laid down since the beginning. Obviously this book isn't the last, so not all the loose ends can be tied up, but the way various themes keeps returning in a building spiral is very "literary," in the good sense of the word. It's amazing how often an apparently climactic moment is revisited later with even more drama and intent (one example being the way Amandine puts Toby through her second Changeling's Choice, and then Toby is forced to do it for her own daughter, both times to save a life and both times using the Dochas Sidhe blood magic).

It has meant that every time a loophole is exploited, it feels not at all like a cheat, and more like a combination of Toby's innate refusal to follow the rules and brilliant foreshadowing. :)

In short, I loved it. I know I'm about the 500th person to say so by now, but I figure the least you deserve after that gorgeous book would be every single one of your fans coming out to tell you about it!

I sobbed Poor Gilly. Poor Toby. Poor Connor, but he made less of an impression on me there. And poor Raysel. Every time she turns up all I can think is 'a little girl who braided dandelions in her hair was missing'. And her diary...

It took me two nights to read One Salt Sea only because I had to get some form of sleep for work the next day.

And I've found I have a tendency to break down in tears at the end of any book with Toby when Sylvester shows up and gives her comfort. I am so scared he will die and I will be completely brokenhearted over it.

Toby lost so much this book, I feel terrible for her. I suppose it's of little comfort, but at least she got to hug her daughter properly one last time. But there are so many questions at the end!

It's also taken me until now to have the proper pronunciations of the races locked into my head and now I can't undo it, haha.

It was a wonderful, albeit sad read, and I'm very happy you had a chance to share it with us. Looking forward to the next book in 2012!