Seanan McGuire (seanan_mcguire) wrote,
Seanan McGuire
seanan_mcguire
  • Mood: awake
  • Music: Glee, "Run, Joey, Run."

ONE SALT SEA open thread!

To celebrate the release of One Salt Sea, 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.

Have fun!
Tags: one salt sea, toby daye
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  • 242 comments

brightlotusmoon

September 7 2011, 19:24:06 UTC 5 years ago

Sooo... Rayseline. I... well, I think I hate her. She terrifies me. She's creepy and unrelenting and truly insane. I kind of wish her dead, or at least Somewhere Else Forever.

What are your thoughts on Raysel, Seanan?

Also, I think I'm in love with both May and Jazz.

wendyzski

September 7 2011, 19:31:22 UTC 5 years ago

I was glad, in a very sad way, to see her rooms and that line "Sometimes I miss the dark" made me cry.

Not enough to forgive her, by any means. But just to know how deeply broken she really is, and how she'll never be fixed.

brightlotusmoon

September 7 2011, 19:38:42 UTC 5 years ago

Yeah... *sad* I just cannot control my reaction to her, that fear and worry about how she will snap...

tiferet

September 7 2011, 19:47:39 UTC 5 years ago

I do not think it's wrong to be afraid of someone who can snap and hurt you badly and is proven to be dangerous to those who have done them no harm, regardless of the reasons why they're broken.

From Raysel's POV there are reasons to hate Toby but omg, those Lorden kids had never done a thing to her. Rayseline is dangerous and being afraid of her is not a sign that you are unforgiving and cold but rather a sign that you have a functioning survival instinct. When animals get broken to the point where they're dangerous and uncontrollable and in pain all the time we put them down, and Raysel is the kind of person that makes me think the death penalty might sometimes be a kindness.

brightlotusmoon

September 7 2011, 20:01:31 UTC 5 years ago

Thank you; that makes me feel better.

I just feel like Raysel needs to go someplace where she cannot hurt anymore.

tereshkova2001

September 7 2011, 21:55:18 UTC 5 years ago

They've got a hundred years to figure out what that place is, at least.

jenk

September 14 2011, 21:42:41 UTC 5 years ago

Assuming she doesn't die in the meantime.

wendyzski

September 7 2011, 20:31:55 UTC 5 years ago

This.

Just because I can feel sorry for her doesn't mean I don't think she needs to be taken down before she can hurt anyone else. But I can be sad for the necessity of it.

tiferet

September 7 2011, 19:42:36 UTC 5 years ago

I don't think she wants to be fixed, and I think that's why she keeps doing things they really have to kill her for.

dulcinbradbury

September 13 2011, 13:12:15 UTC 5 years ago

I think this is probably a very true thing.

tiferet

September 13 2011, 16:15:47 UTC 5 years ago

Otherwise it just makes no sense, sadly.

seanan_mcguire

September 7 2011, 19:45:40 UTC 5 years ago

I feel bad for her. She got broken, and it wasn't because of anything she did. It was because of who her mother was, and who her father loved, and it wasn't fair.

She never had a chance.

brightlotusmoon

September 7 2011, 20:00:14 UTC 5 years ago

*nods* I don't want to hate her, but every time I see her, I feel the urge to run, because I know she can't be fixed. Poor girl. I hope she can get maybe a litter better...

drakos_inferno

September 8 2011, 03:44:57 UTC 5 years ago

who'd her father love?

seanan_mcguire

September 8 2011, 17:58:06 UTC 5 years ago

Toby.

jhyanmar

September 8 2011, 15:48:25 UTC 5 years ago

I think that one of the challenges that heroes ultimately have to face, if they are to grow and not simply become engines of destruction, fate, divine will or whatever, is this: there are monsters, thinking and unthinking, who have no 'fault'. Whether it's a dragon that's a nonsapient creature whose feeding grounds have been disturbed, or a dangerous solpsist/sociopath who was abused-- the word is too light, in Rayseline's case-- and now only views the world in terms of her fantasies and urges, there will be dangers which have no choices, none at all.

The heroes' challenge, then, is to act with pity and conscience but not to let protection for those who are innocent, for those who can and have made choices for righteousness or at least no major harm, and for those who may yet be redeemed (the hardest edge case, depending on the deeds and the doer). Toby's social circle, including poor Sylvester and Luna, are going to have to make heroic choices.

The possibility of Toby's bloodshifting as a solution here, as with the Selkies and Roane, just means that what you might get out the other end is someone who can be made to be sane, if a large part of it is the really, seriously mixed blood. I'm not sure that sanity is a mercy there, though.

bloolark

September 7 2011, 19:59:20 UTC 5 years ago

I don't hate Raysel. She makes me so sad though. She's crazy, but it's not her fault, it's a terrible combination of abuse and bad blood and I honestly just pity her. Which doesn't make her killing people any more cheerful, but.

brightlotusmoon

September 7 2011, 20:10:05 UTC 5 years ago

I understand. I feel for her. It's upsetting. But I give mad props to Seanan for creating such a character!

yoneit

September 8 2011, 03:34:46 UTC 5 years ago

I'm afraid of Raysel and I feel so sorry for her. Toby thinks at the end of OSS that she may be able to change Raysel's blood enough that the weird mix she currently has which is making her crazy might become more stable, making her less crazy. It will be interesting to see if Toby can indeed do that and what then happens to Raysel.