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
  • Post a new comment

    Error

    Anonymous comments are disabled in this journal

    switch
    default userpic

    Your reply will be screened

    Your IP address will be recorded 

    Help
  • 336 comments
...go 3 levels up... Expand

arya

September 4 2014, 11:30:57 UTC 2 years ago Edited:  September 4 2014, 11:32:11 UTC

Not very brave - at this point I've done so much speculating that I don't think Seanan will surprise me :) She's laid a lot of clues out along the way, and I've re-read them all three times now, and I've speculated ALL OVER THE PLACE.

Having finished it now, I'm taking my pet theories a bit further. I think the Dochas Sidhe abilities will allow the Roane to be restored but that it would require a ritual to kill Eira. Amandine may have some kind of Firstborn prohibition against hurting Eira, and thus be unable to do it herself. I think August fought with her mother about this very thing - August would have wanted to help Auntie Annie, but Amandine wouldn't want her to risk herself.

I wonder if August has been elf-shot. Did it occur to anyone else that she's been gone right around 100 years? So if her disappearance was due to elf-shot, she would be waking up any day now.

I also wonder whether the Luidaeg is the one holding August's slumbering body, and if she's been doing some kind of experimentation on her magic while she's been asleep, to figure out how August and/or October can save her children.

arya

September 4 2014, 11:38:49 UTC 2 years ago

Oh-- and I also think that whatever it would take to restore the Roane would come with massive risk to the Dochas Sidhe who performs it... and that the Dread Pirate Luidaeg's threats are very, very real. She WILL kill Toby one day (or at least, push her to the very limits of her life-force).

The thing the Luidaeg said to Toby after waking up, though, that's interesting. "I owe you a debt I may never be able to repay / say you understand." I have a feeling that once Toby kills herself saving the Roane, the Luidaeg will use blood magic to borrow Toby's powers and bring her back to life.

Also, since Amandine woke Toby up from elfshot by rebalancing her blood, and Toby woke up / revived Gillian from elfshot by rebalancing hers, I am curious why Toby rebalancing Raysel didn't wake her up, too. I wonder if it has to do with Gillian and Toby's mortality - that elfshot was fatal to them, and the Dochas Sidhe rebalancing was actually bringing the dead mortals back to life... that it didn't wake up Raysel because she's not mortal. But then, Toby brought the Luidaeg back from the dead, and the Luidaeg certainly has no mortality in her. Hmm. Curious.

dornbeast

September 5 2014, 04:34:42 UTC 2 years ago

That wasn't standard-issue elfshot, though. It had Dugan's little bonus poison thrown in.