Seanan McGuire (seanan_mcguire) wrote,
Seanan McGuire
seanan_mcguire
  • Mood: busy
  • Music: Ookla the Mok, "Super Secret."

MIDNIGHT BLUE-LIGHT SPECIAL open thread!

To celebrate the release of Midnight Blue-Light Special, here. Have an open thread to discuss the book. Judging by the comments I'm seeing, you've had time.

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. (I will not reply to every comment; I call partial comment amnesty. But I may well join some of the discussion, or answer questions or whatnot.) I will be DELETING all comments containing spoilers which have been left on other posts. No one gets to spoil people here without a label.

You can also start a 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, since I always wind up getting involved in these things.

Have fun, and try not to bleed on the carpet.
Tags: incryptid, midnight bluelight special, open thread
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  • 142 comments

professor

March 6 2013, 09:32:05 UTC 4 years ago

I have been sitting on my comments because I had the privilege of winning one of the ARCs.

*deep breath*

OH MY GOD CAN WE TALK ABOUT HOW MADHURA UNDER CERTAIN CIRCUMSTANCES ARE IMMUNE TO CUCKOOS. LET ME REPEAT THAT. IMMUNE TO CUCKOOS. THE DEADLIEST PREDATOR (CURRENTLY RESIDING) ON EARTH.

MIND = BLOWN

(Although, not presumably, immune to the cuckoo simply ordering anyone not immune in the vicinity to tear the Madhura apart if the cuckoo feels threatened. Still, RESPECT.)

I am really hoping that we see more Madhura in future books, and their connection to cuckoos is explored. Between the comments in the book about Madhura "molts", and the comments on the field guide about how Madhura do not lactate and feed their young a honey-like substance, I am thinking the field guide entry is going to get updated from "could be insects maybe?" to "probably are insects, and may not originate from this dimension."

bzarcher

March 6 2013, 14:24:49 UTC 4 years ago

At the least, I'm thinking a case of protective evolution. They may have been a native species that started to encounter the Johrlac and began to develop defenses. For all we know the original cuckoo population started in East Asia and worked their way around the world.

hasufin

March 7 2013, 05:36:02 UTC 4 years ago

That's what I'm wondering about. So many questions, so few answers.

but. Johrlac hives. I'm a little, teensy, tiny bit scared. Like "so.... how many nukes can we get ahold of?"

bzarcher

March 7 2013, 10:57:41 UTC 4 years ago

Heh.

On the one hand, yeah, OTOH it may be shorthand for where that particular cuckoo has 'nested'.

hasufin

March 7 2013, 14:12:34 UTC 4 years ago

I don't think so. i reread the passage, and to me it clearly implies a community of Johrlac - Rochak says "If you hurt my brother, I will destroy you. Then I will find the rest of your hive, and destroy them as well." He wouldn't do that, I think, if by "hive" he meant "innocent human victims of a Johrlac."

This also suggests that Johrlac have something to fear from Madhura. Which is, at least, kind of promising.

bzarcher

March 7 2013, 14:55:05 UTC 4 years ago

Hmm! Yeah, you've got a point.

Threat, or threat display to dissuade the predator? Either way, that's really interesting.

hasufin

March 7 2013, 15:11:52 UTC 4 years ago

Well, modern technology throws the entire ecosystem out of whack. Madhura and Johrlac both apparently have an equal level of physical defenses (none) and are equally capable of wielding a gun. So, when Rochak said he'd destroy the hive, that wasn't an empty threat, even if he thought it was. And in some ways he'd have an advantage - the Johrlac would doubtless try a psychic whammy first, fully expecting it would work, and be confused when it utterly failed. Of course, as implied above, that doesn't cover anyone under their control....

It does make me wonder how many cryptid apex predators are at risk of extinction now because their preferred prey has begun to pack automatic weapons?

dornbeast

March 7 2013, 20:06:28 UTC 4 years ago

the Johrlac would doubtless try a psychic whammy first, fully expecting it would work

...assuming they see the attack coming. Since mature Madhura are effectively invisible to a Johrlac's primary sense, it's entirely possible for a hive to be destroyed one by one, with no sign of an intruder except the minds dropping out and the bodies cropping up.

If Johrlac watched horror movies, Night of the Madhura would be a major hit.

hasufin

March 7 2013, 20:15:06 UTC 4 years ago

Actually, I don't think that's the case. Sarah's reaction to Rochak was totally different from her reaction to Margaret Healy - the latter, if you recall, caused Sarah to all but panic: from her perspective, she was being addressed by someone who wasn't there at all. Rochak didn't cause that kind of reaction in her, and she didn't even realize there was anything unusual about Sunil. For a Johrlac, it seems, a Madhura doesn't "look" different from a human. The reverse is, of course, clearly not true at all.

dornbeast

March 8 2013, 09:52:02 UTC 4 years ago

"I couldn't feel his brother at all. If I hadn't been looking at the table, I would have assumed that only two people were there." (Page 205)

hasufin

March 9 2013, 14:53:39 UTC 4 years ago

Oh, good catch! I didn't notice that.

So, yeah. I'm not sure which would be more dangerous to a Johrlac - someone that just doesn't show up on the telepathic radar, but who if they notice is obviously a threat, or someone who seems totally normal but is immune to their primary defense? In terms of taking out a hive, though, I guess the former is worse - Rochak could be in the hive and they wouldn't notice until someone died.