MIDNIGHT BLUE-LIGHT SPECIAL open thread!

This book is WIN. I preordered the Kindle and got it when it arrived, but didn't have time to read until yesterday. And I proceeded to not eat and not sleep until I finished it later that night (morning). I loved Discount Armageddon, and I loved this one too. And thank you for featuring a manananggal right at the start, it just made me really, really happy. ("THAT'S OUR CRYTPID RIGHT THERE OMG YAY GO MANANANGGAL!" which is safe to say as long as there is no actual manananggal in the area.)

I've always loved the Dominic/Verity interaction, and I'm such a sucker for Dominic hero types, so I just love love love them. Part of me is sad we won't be seeing much of them in the later books (I assume, since I read above the next ones are in Alex's POV) but it will make encountering them in cameos and short stories even better; and I'm keen to hear about Alex and the other Healy-Price folks.

SARAH, OH SARAH. I don't know how to be more coherent about her, she is absolutely amazing. I loved it that in the end, it was Verity who was able to understand the feelings Sarah was projecting. It's just right. Sarah is badass and geeky and I love her for that.

Also Istas. And Ryan. And the Aeslin mice, the Aeslin mice are AMAZING. I'm sad the current Head Priest seems almost about ready to retire, but his last "audience" was dignified and amazing and just perfect.

There are too many feelingsthoughtsandemotionsin my head it is hard to put them down into words, but AMAZING BOOK. Really, really fabulous book. I loved it. So much.

I finished it last night, so I just read this thread, and want to add a few random thoughts.

To lapse into Aeslin-speak for a moment, it occurs to me that you have Developed a Reputation, and that this is A Good Thing. When I felt my pulse quicken during Verity's escape attempt, I realized that you are the High Priestess of No Character Is Safe, No, Not Even the Narrator. I couldn't be sure Verity would survive to the end of the book, and that's really, really cool and all too rare.

The wringer though which characters are put? You has it, and you wields it expertly.

I think the real-life avatar of the High Priest of Eat Something, Goddammit got his money's worth. :)

I hope someday to read the short story explaining why Verity won't drive in one particular town in Indiana.

I also hope to read the story of the family's move from Michigan to Oregon. We miss them, dammit!

The resolution was the very best kind. I didn't see it coming, but it didn't come out of left field. It was a natural extension of Sarah's abilities.

Why do I keep visualizing Lizzie as Istas? (Sorry, folks, reference to a mutual friend.)

As always, expert worldbuilding, varied, colorful, and involving characters, a genuine sense of peril, and some of the snappiest dialog in sf/fantasy combine into a great read. Yay!

"I realized that you are the High Priestess of No Character Is Safe, No, Not Even the Narrator."

Scarred a but by FEED as well, were you?

Can we have Istas on the cover of a future book? I want to see Verity, looking more or less like she does on this cover, side-by-side with Istas in full Gothic Lolita mode.

I pulled an impromptu stop when we drove past a bookstore the other day, and overcame my social anxiety sufficiently to ask at the customer service desk when my search failed to obtain it.

Worth it.

Dominic's way of speaking makes me sort of giddy-happy and tingly. The line, "You are a fabulous, insane, infuriating creature . . ." is just the perfect endearment---it says so much about both of them and how well they fit together, it's perfect.

Istas is amazing. I love how matter-of-fact her love of carnage and vengeance and playing with innards is. She's like a cheerful Sith Lord in lace petticoats, and pulls it off perfectly.

Margaret is striking me as a cross between Delores Umbridge and Cordelia Ransom, and I can't think of any higher praise to give a can't-stand-her villain. Plus that sort of woe-is-me-because-YOU thing where someone latches onto a scapegoat and obsessively blames it for anything and everything about their life doesn't turn out perfectly, to the point where it becomes an excuse to avoid actually dealing with one's own imperfections (I laughed out loud when it was mentioned that the Covenant thought she was obsessed with the "traitor" Healys and they were testing her to see if she could handle North America, and then I laughed again when Sarah's solution got explained, because she's so going to catch the worst of it for that one. (As someone who's highly squicked by both needles and blood-pressure compression, I'm very pleased to see her get that comeuppance.)

The torture scenes and the pure fear-inducing creepiness of the True Believer talk of the Covenant members do their job perfectly. I spent most of the first book scoffing a bit at the security arrangements of not doing any "visible" sports as over-paranoia, and after actually meeting more Covenant members than Dominic, I have very solidly changed my mind.

I also love the little details. Asian dragons being a separate species. The mice going hunting and coming back with a winged snake. The distinction between sexual orientation and the demands of mating season. All the titles the mice come up with. The almost-getting-hit-by-the-train thing that got thrown in there---of course they're not going to die by train when the Covenant's just showed up, but the threat is still there because of course it is, this is what happens when you play Subway Roulette.

Can I ask a dumb question that I really, really should have had occur to me when the "hey, ask me questions about InCryptid" post came out? Except at the time, it didn't?

What do the names of the books have to do with the plot, exactly? I....just kind of wonder/am confused. Like, they sound cool and all, I just...wonder.

Loved this book! It took me two days....and only because I went to a concert last night. I love how different Verity's world is from Toby's, but that there are still little linguistic similarities that feel like a shout-out to us for following over to this series.

Sorry to interrupt the squee-fest, but I wanted to talk about a few things that didn't work for me. And since Seanan has repeatedly said that she doesn't mind honest and constructive criticism...

Yes, there were a number of good parts. But unlike the books with Toby and Velveteen and Rose, both of the Verity books have left me feeling, well, off-balance. Not in the good "Oh, what a plot twist, didn't see that coming" way, but rather in the "Huh?!?" way.

In MBS, the biggest thing in this department was the big build-up and then the almost total disappearance of The Rescuers. Once Sarah has taken over the narrative, there is a lot of effort put into getting the various people (I include both humans and cryptids in that term) that like Verity into being a rescue team. The mice would scout, Uncle Mike could take care of the traps they found, Istas could provide carnage and so on. They would set aside their differences and all help. This had the feeling of a Very Important, Never-Seen-Before Alliance of many disparate types. And then... nothing.

Oh, I realize that it's Verity's book. I expected her to get more than half of the action in getting her out of her captivity. But after the buildup I expected The Rescuers to have a much larger part than they did. Maybe 70% Verity fighting her way out and 30% The Rescuers fighting their way in (perhaps Providing A Significant Offstage Distraction At A Crucial Moment for Verity to take advantage of). But having Verity fight hard and lose and then The Rescuers Are Suddenly Right There To Save Everything just left me off-balance. It felt like there were a couple of chapters that just went missing.

Now, maybe I'm just projecting about what I'd like to have seen. With the repeated mention of how well the Aeslin Mice could (and WOULD) scout, I have to admit that I was really anticipating that something would be done with that. Maybe another POV shift to the scouting team, or maybe have Sarah get Attuned to one of the Mice (more disparate-cryptids-cooperation!) and stay with her POV - but instead, there was nothing.

Then there's Uncle Mike, introduced early on as A Powerful Ally - he pretty much doesn't do anything in the whole book. Again, feeling off-balance. All the references to Istas on the carnage front (love for it and capability for it)? No carnage from her. Sarah and Istas Getting Help From The Dragons? A big build-up, but the payoff was what - a single line when they're in the aftermath? Something like that. Margaret showing up at Sarah's hotel while having an anti-telepath device? It works OK if Dominic DID tip off The Covenant - but since we later find out he DIDN'T, how does that work? Do we just assign both of those things to Margaret's "Healy Luck"? Verity's Big Decision about Dancing vs The Family Business? Well, DA was awash with how Dancing Was Such An Integral Part Of Her Life. MBS, however, had just the barest of mentions in a couple of places. It just didn't seem like Her Love Of Dancing was really a part of this book.

So - lots of good individual moments, but the book as a whole left me feeling off-balance.

I loved the book, but yeah, I wouldn't argue with any of this either. Maybe I missed something as to what they were doing while Verity was trying to escape, though. (I'm rereading it again and haven't returned to that bit yet.) I kind of think the mice did the scouting off-screen though?

As for Verity's Big Decision...you know, I think it wasn't even a contest from the getgo. The girl has been RAISED to be a cryptozoologist since birth. You can't really get out of that, you can't stick your head in the sand and pretend you don't know who's a cryptid and who needs help when shit comes up. There's so few people that can be called on when the baby-eating monsters come. Plus there's the part where she'd still have to spend her life under a false identity hoping the Covenant doesn't watch reality television if her Healy cheekbones are that distinctive. (I assume they don't watch Dance Or Die in Europe.)

They say we have free will and can choose, but I actually suspect there's a fair chunk of situations out there where TECHNICALLY you have free will....but not really*. The decks are so stacked for you making one decision and against you making the opposite decision, that it would be a near-impossibility to choose the other side. Even if Verity did give up cryptozoology and her family and her cryptid friends and family, could she really? Is she going to send home her mice? How many days or weeks (I won't say months) could "Valerie Pryor" try to live a dance-only life before Verity is needed again? Once you're in the superhero life, there''s no "normal life" option available for you, really. Maybe if "Valerie" tried to have a dance career in Australia where she knows nobody and isn't down with the local wildlife, she might have a shot...but it's a long shot and not going to stick anyway.

I think the point was that Verity could try to do both and see how it goes, but in the end, like every other cryptozoologist, she can't really juggle them both as two serious jobs. That was the point in that conversation with Mike. So while it was a debate for Verity, in reality....dance wasn't going to win. It couldn't.

* I have been trying to find a vocabulary word for this for years and have been failing. I still think we need one.

Nobody else has mentioned the nice graphic element at the heading of each chapter that indicates the narrator POV. Everyone who didn't notice, pull out your copy and check it out. It's not just cool graphic design; it's a little cue for you.

The book was hard to put down. I should probably have waited until the kids were in bed...

I didn't really figure out what that was until the Sarah math squiggles came in. Then was all, "I thought that was decorative ink blots...I guess that's supposed to be dance steps?"

Also in "Jen is slow" moments: I read through the whole book thinking, "Arboreal princess? But Verity doesn't seem to ever plant anything...."

I've been trying to come up with a coherent review since I finished it last night, but it still keeps coming out as OMG SARAH! ISTAS! THE MICE! ROAD TRIP!

I loved Discount Armageddon to bits, but I loved this more. And that's saying something. And yay for Alex books next!

Though I have to say, I kind of want an Aeslin mice-centric short story or something. The High Priest and his kitten bone (!) were definitely favorites of mine.

Read it tonight. Love Istas, love the mice, OMGLOVE getting Sarah pov chapters. Love when the narrative switched back to Verity just in time to draw out the climax. Very pleased with where Dominic and Verity end up romantically. Also with how Verity realizes where her priorities are.

TL;DR = LOVE

I reread Discount Armageddon first, so I'm a little late to the party, but that was perfect. Just perfect. And while I love Very, Sarah and Dominic and Kitty (OMG Kitty) and Istas and the mice stole the show, and that was perfect. (About the time Dominic was all "I sat at your bedside for 3 days" I started incoherently flailing.) And we got to see Sunil and Rochak again, and they'd made friends with Very and Dominic. And we got to meet Grandma Baker. And and...

Ahem. See? Incoherent flailing, don't mind me.

I especially like how you let us know what had been going on in between books without spelling out every little detail, and let the characters have lives outside the chaos. Too many books it's one crazy set of events after another, and believe it or not, that's what blows my disbelief faster than anything else. Everyone gets a date night with Chinese sometimes, even Verity. :)

Sarah, oh, poor dear. She's so brave and so scared.

It's an excellent book, which I just finished this morning, and I'm going to reread it in a few days. Also and too, I loved seeing the mice take a more active role, and meeting more of Verity's extended family, and Dominic and Verity making major life choices (not to mention Sarah *sniffles*), and well, everything about the story.

Did you name Uncle Mike after Technical Sargent Mike Gucciard from Tanya Huff's Confederation Series or have i just skipped a grove? (The one with the prison, but the titles are similar so I'm blanking on which is that one).

I am late to the comment show and I've just read all 117 comments. I hope you are basking in adoration. I re-read DA right before this came out so my brain would be in mode. I liked it and enjoyed it more the second time. I LOVED MBS. It is a fabulous novel all by itself and a perfect partner to DA.

Sarah.. Yeah, me and everyone else.
So glad I got to hear you read the Istas/Mice scene at the Snake Handling show - I heard your voice the whole time I was reading the chapter and that's just cool and i laughed throughout. The mice are wonderful.
Kitty surprised me in such a good way.
What Sarah did left me reeling even as I realized what was going on and, to quote someone, Feed left me a little scarred - wasn't sure you weren't just going to kill everyone.


Really, this is just a really, really good book and I'm looking forward to more.

Thanks for being fab!

Halfway through and loving every minute!

I just got through chapter 17 -- which ends with Sarah reading Dominic and recognizing whose side he's ultimately on -- and I am all asquee!

<3 <3 <3

I am LOVING this book.

Hail the Completion of the Newest Volume!

I did so love that the mice took forever to decide what Dominic was the God of until his true nature was revealed. And Uncle Mike's title makes me want to spit my drink across the room every time I read it.

Istas's dialogue was wonderful - it really showed that just because a Cryptid is shaped like a person, it doesn't make them a homo sapiens human.

Finished, loved it loved it loved it.

You know, in the last book I really didn't GET that the Covenant was scary. They just seemed like Buffy characters, sorta. But this book REALLY upped the 'oh hell' level of them.

We need a Istas book. Or at least keep her as a regular.

A thought occurred to me: are the St. Georges actually making Cryptids more deadly? They're eliminating any weaker ones, but the stronger/cleverer/luckier ones escape and breed. Stronger next generation.....

Besides the giggle-a-minute snark and humor provided courtesy of Verity, Istas and the Aeslin, I particularly loved your portrayals of Sarah and Kitty. Sarah, because she is a character living with instinct-vs-morality conflicts (literally a case of nature against nurture) and the poor girl essentially BREAKS herself in trying to walk that razor's edge. Then to see Grandma Angela coping with the aftermath... I could literally hear the poor woman wondering if how she'd raised Sarah was the right thing to do.

I also found it refreshing to see Kitty, who is such a practical, down-to-earth shift away from her uncle. Proving, as I'm sure was your point, that just because two people are part of the same species, or even the same family, does not mean that they are the exact same. (We are all individuals... I'm not!) I love Kitty's no-nonsense approach to the coming purge, and how understandable she is of the notion that, for example, just because Istas, Ryan, and Verity aren't at Freakshow, doesn't mean they aren't serving a useful purpose to the Cryptid population. Having read your Bogeyman sociology post, here on LJ, before delving into the book, seeing Kitty put the "everything has a value" mentality into practice was particularly meaningful for me, proving that "knowing something's price" does not necessarily translate to "greedy and/or cheap."

All in all, I was simply thrilled to come back into a world that is so shiny and fluffy on the surface, but so dark, if one just peers past the cracks... Thank you!

Bought it the first week, but one of my sons got married and reading time has been limited. Loved it!
Now, what is that equation that starts each chapter?
Hail, author of inscrutable chapter headings!

Just read the books, a little late to the party, but trying to learn everything I can about the setting :)

I had a question about Margaret (which I understand may be a possible spoiler for a future story, so you might not answer): Dominic says that Margaret is Verity's third cousin, but I'm not sure how exact/correct he is. I see three primary possibilities:

1. Margaret is indeed Verity's straight-up third cousin, which makes her the descendant of Alexander Healy's missing older child who survived to adulthood (as referenced in http://seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com/45846.html ). This makes sense of her statement about growing up knowing she's descended from traitors. But it's a little bit of an odd whole in the conversation if she's really descendant of a back-defector and no one brings it up.
2. Margaret is Verity's third cousin once removed, and Dominic is understandably glossing over the complication. This makes Margaret a generation above Verity in the Healy family tree, which I can put together a justifying story for.
3. Margaret is actually Verity's fourth cousin, and Dominic lost track counting the generations (again understandably :-p)

Care to comment? :)

Edit:
Wait, wait. In "First Fall" Alexander Healy "knew [...] how it felt to lose a child [...] by watching them stay behind while you moved into a new life." And I keep feeling like there's a passage about where Margaret's ancestor was when Alexander and Enid left the Covenant that may fit together with that, but I just keep not being able to find it :-/

Edit #2:
Okay, I found http://seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com/420303.html . Sounds like #1 is correct, and so is Dominic.