Seanan McGuire (seanan_mcguire) wrote,
Seanan McGuire
seanan_mcguire
  • Mood: awake
  • Music: Amal and Stuart making brekkie.

THE WINTER LONG open thread!

To celebrate the release of The Winter Long, here. Have an open thread to discuss the book. Judging by the comments I'm seeing, some of you have had time, and I'd really, really rather book discussion (sometimes including spoilers) didn't crop up on other posts.

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: discussion post, the winter long, toby daye
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notalwaysweak

September 10 2014, 06:54:12 UTC 2 years ago

I finally got my copy last night (delayed pre-order, so I'm crossing my fingers it counts as first week sales). I assume this will become a collector's edition because on the cover 'Daye' is spelt 'Day', and I should put it into a safety-deposit box as soon as possible. Also your name is now bigger that the title on the spine.

Good book. Gooood book. I read it cover to cover this afternoon in the company of Toby and Pippin. Pippin tried to eat the corners but of all the animals that could chew on a book I figured you'd mind a still-technically-a-kitten the least. I have questions, of course, but I'll just sit on them until the next book gets published (or possibly the one after that), because I know you have the answers and I'd rather you tell them to me your own way.

seanan_mcguire

September 12 2014, 06:32:27 UTC 2 years ago

Think about the book, Pippin!

susanblack

September 11 2014, 03:57:27 UTC 2 years ago

Please excuse the entirely empty LJ, I had to make a new one to comment because I haven't logged in for an age.

Just came to say I love all of your books I've been able to read so far, including The Winter Long which I read yesterday :D, and look forward to reading the rest as soon as I can lay my hands on them.

I shall definitely be rereading the Toby series :)





seanan_mcguire

September 12 2014, 06:32:38 UTC 2 years ago

I am so glad. :)

lejays17

September 11 2014, 10:25:44 UTC 2 years ago

Loved this! Loved all the revelations, and the new theories & questions that come out of the new revelations!

Very happy about the last page of the book, the wedding proposal just capped it off nicely.


Like a lot of others, I'm going to have to re-read Rosemary & Rue and see how it all fits tigether from the very start.

seanan_mcguire

September 12 2014, 06:32:52 UTC 2 years ago

Enjoy!

dragonsally

September 12 2014, 22:38:53 UTC 2 years ago

I have a theory which is growing more and more in my mind. Toby isn't actually a changeling at all. She is pure blood of incredible powers, and her mother shifted her blood to protect her until such time as Toby was able to deal with those powers. I suspect Simon actually IS her father.

marziek

September 13 2014, 01:53:44 UTC 2 years ago

I think a long time ago that Seanan said that Toby's father was really human? I'll see if I can find it.

seanan_mcguire

2 years ago

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dragonsally

2 years ago

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seanan_mcguire

2 years ago

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brightlotusmoon

September 13 2014, 00:35:25 UTC 2 years ago

So, everybody else has already said literally everything I could have gushed. My biggest favorite bit was wondering about Amandine's mother and daughter - and I agree with that theory that maybe, just maybe, the mother was mortal, and that maybe August IS October in a way.

But I really wanted to say that this has become one of my top favorite novels. Not simply of the series. Of ever. It's up there with Neil Gaiman's "American Gods" (which IS my top favorite) and Terry Prachett's "Hogfather," "Soul Music," "Thief Of Time". I don't know when the next book will happen, but I'll be honest, I am content and comfortable to wait that long, because of my deep love for this book. Maybe it's the incorporation of another interpretation of my favorite fairy tale (One of my nicknames was Snow White Rose Red), the leveling up of powers that makes complete sense rather than tired tropes, the mystery of Amandine, the revelations behind the Luidaeg, who I want to be friends with, the not-so-surprising ending between Tybalt and Toby, the soul-crushing reactions when Toby's beloved chosen family was harmed.

Also? Toby bleeds a lot. How does she keep going without transfusions? I'm in awe.

seanan_mcguire

September 13 2014, 16:54:36 UTC 2 years ago

She regenerates, it's a thing.

I'm so glad you liked it!

brightlotusmoon

2 years ago

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anna_en_route

September 13 2014, 20:59:10 UTC 2 years ago

thank you so much for this! around 5 chapters in I suddenly realised that I didn't think we had seen Evening among the NightHaunts and then had to go back through A Local Habitation to find the scene where they first appear.

Is it Oberon's line that evening is barred from raising a hand against, or is it changelings (which would explain why Devon was able to "kill" her and why Marcia was not affected)...

marziek

September 13 2014, 22:43:53 UTC 2 years ago

Devin and crew weren't able to kill Evevning because they didn't use the right tools. It takes iron and silver to kill a Firstborn, according to what the Luidaeg very carefully told Toby in order for her to kill Blind Michael. (AAN)

anna_en_route

2 years ago

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marziek

2 years ago

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seanan_mcguire

2 years ago

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anna_en_route

2 years ago

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marziek

September 14 2014, 14:20:56 UTC 2 years ago

Can I ask a hypothetical question about the scent of a person's magic? If you can't answer, I totally understand. (Just be gentle, please, because I am woefully under caffeinated, over cold-virused and smothered in Maine Coon. I can't take sharp words at present.)

If a Dòchas Sidhe changes the balance of someone's blood enough, does it change the scent of their magic? Because in some instances, like Etienne and Chealsea, their magic is somewhat similar. But in others, like with the twins Simon and Sylvester, their magic is, in our present story, very dissimilar. In my big reread/listen (I reread the series before AWL released, but clearly not well enough, right? :/) I keep getting struck by how some people's magic smells like their parent's or their sibling's and some doesn't. So then I realized Toby's magic doesn't smell anything like Amy's. At all. And Toby's blood was definitely messed with a lot by Amy. I understand why May's isn't like Toby's- she's a Fetch. But why would twins have totally different scents and why would a daughter's differ so radically from her sole Fae parent?

You should probably wear a mask and gloves when you reply. This cold is a vicious thing.

seanan_mcguire

September 14 2014, 16:48:51 UTC 2 years ago

This is not a question I can answer.

I hope you feel well soon.

anna_en_route

2 years ago

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angelamaria

2 years ago

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anna_en_route

2 years ago

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yoritomo_reiko

September 15 2014, 20:17:31 UTC 2 years ago

This was an incredibly awesome book and I loved it so much. So much of it felt like, "Yes, we should have seen this coming" because, as you said before, the clues were all there. We just needed to put them together.

I totally should have gotten the Evening/Eira thing. Might have done had I asked husband for a translation of Rosynhwyr. Or even just looked up the words on geiriadur.net. (Husband is a Welsh speaker. I can somewhat hold my own in general conversation and read and understand more than I speak.)

seanan_mcguire

November 10 2014, 17:26:32 UTC 2 years ago

All the pieces were there. :) I am still pleased to have surprised so many people.

thedragonweaver

September 16 2014, 16:41:42 UTC 2 years ago Edited:  September 16 2014, 16:43:10 UTC

I'd gotten that Simon had been married to Amandine, though I hadn't realized that they were still married. And I knew October couldn't be the first child of Amandine. But I'm kicking myself for missing all the hints about Evening. I have a friend who is very good at noticing those sorts of clues and *she* would have figured it out.

I love the Luidaeg so much. But then, I've always had a soft spot for cranky bitches who are actually very nice. And it cracks me up how she's embarrassing Toby with her comments about Tybalt. I'm kind of surprised she didn't use the line, "I'm old, not dead," especially in light of prior events. But then, the fae don't really get old the same way humans do...

seanan_mcguire

November 10 2014, 17:26:49 UTC 2 years ago

No, they don't.

kay_gmd

September 16 2014, 23:39:56 UTC 2 years ago

So amazing!!!!
Also wow, just wow.

seanan_mcguire

November 10 2014, 17:26:58 UTC 2 years ago

Yay!

azurelunatic

September 28 2014, 09:06:22 UTC 2 years ago

A disorganized array of general cheer:

* I love the Luidaeg so much.
* I am going to have to go back and re-read the entire series!
* But I have better make it snappy, because this book has ensured that I need to lend the series to my friend Purple next after he gets done with Parasite because I need to intermittently flail at someone over lunch about this
* Also I need to brush up on my Shakespeare
* SO MUCH BLOOD
* Also one of the BPAL scents this Halloween is fake blood, and that's awesome
* Yay medicinal chowder
* A WHOLE FLOCK OF GEAS

seanan_mcguire

November 10 2014, 17:27:11 UTC 2 years ago

Hee hee hee.

kitan

December 1 2014, 07:52:50 UTC 2 years ago

Extremely late to the party since I knew I'd need to binge-read it. Did so over a weekend after having dental surgery. Reading about Toby on prescription narcotics is surprisingly natural, although the sleeping bouts interrupted a bit. Can't wait for more!

Would it amuse you to know I just bought a pair of books with a specific request for copies that had been gnawed on by the author's kitten? Fandom is weird and excellent.

tsgeisel

January 1 2015, 01:38:31 UTC 2 years ago

So, the book just appeared in the library, so I just finished binge-reading it. The sudden return of the Evensong caught me by surprise, but I still have to wonder that Toby hasn't broken down with "Wait - I have a *sister*?" I was half-expecting this missing sister to be behind this, until the big plot twist.

I suspect there will be more about August in an upcoming book. I don't need to be an Oracle to make that prediction.

redrose92087

April 2 2015, 23:32:43 UTC 2 years ago

anxiously awaiting (and slowly dying in the absence of) the next book. I have so many questions: what happened to August (was it Blind Michael? Evening?), was Dawn really Evening's little sister (or Evening herself, since has a tendency to die and come back) and if so who was she first born of?, who is the mother of Amandine and what is the purpose of their bloodline (besides something to do with crossroads), who is Morgane, what is going to happen to the selkies and how does it involve Toby (I'm guessing the Luidaeg wants her to change their blood so they're Roane once again?), and so many more. Anyone have any thoughts? I've scoured this blog looking for clues but either there are none or I'm a horrible detective haha. The summary isn't up on seanan's site (or amazon) yet and no leaks of cover art...help! rereading the series and entertaining myself with the Incryptid series (which I managed to find general hints about books 5 and 6 in that series) and hopefully I won't wilt from the strain...

@>~^~
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