THE WINTER LONG open thread!: seanan

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.

marziek

September 9 2014, 00:06:51 UTC 2 years ago Edited: September 9 2014, 00:18:21 UTC

New comment

So now I'm listening to the audiobook, since I'm not getting steady time for the reread, and I have shown up here to say that one of things I have loved most about this book is that I feel that Toby is finally really learning how to use her magic. Not just for her detective work, not just to ride the blood, or escape a dungeon, but defensively, protectively and in a way that shows she's owning who she is like never before in the series. She's strong for those she loves and finally for herself, too. And I love the family she's built for herself, with her sister Fetch, with Tybalt, Jazz, Quentin, Raj and the Luidaeg (still worried about Selkie debt and whatever Toby unleashed by waking the dead- Evening's geas might still have been there but it's clear something else changed). With Arden, Quentin, Tybalt and the Luidaeg in her corner, who needs the cold, crazy Torquill Duchy, slumbering Simon and crazy mama, Amandine, anyway?

Of course, undying curiosity about Amandine's parentage (did she even have a mother? was her mother a tree or a stone or a *gasp* human! I wonder? I have vague worries about a GRRM scenario in which her grandmother is also her aunt, but nevermind...) and where is August? With Acacia? Lost back in Blind Michael's realm? Wouldn't she be powerful, being half Dóchas Sidhe and half Daoine Sidhe? Oh, the anticipation! I want it to be fall 2015!

Real questions, if they aren't spoilers:

BTW, is September Torquill in Rat-Catcher actually Simon and Sylvester's sister?

Oh, and in your world, is Black Annis a whole different person from Gentle Annie?

hevia

September 9 2014, 02:24:11 UTC 2 years ago

Yes, September was their sister.

September 9 2014, 02:53:08 UTC 2 years ago

Thought so, but wanted to be sure, so thanks. And I seriously wonder how she died, because she was kind to Tybalt and seemed a reasonable Torquill. I'm sure time will tell, though.

acelightning

September 10 2014, 03:41:15 UTC 2 years ago

If I remember Rat-Catcher correctly, the Fae of London refused to believe the warnings (possibly because the Black Death didn't affect them?), and stayed in the Fae equivalent of London, which was just as devastated by the Great Fire as human London was. September was one of the many Fae who died then.

September 11 2014, 03:12:00 UTC 2 years ago

I thought she left? I'm pretty sure that's what sent him back to his final battle with his King. I know she intended to leave.

September 11 2014, 06:25:54 UTC 2 years ago

I dug out the book, and you're right and I'm wrong. September Torquill, she of the fiery hair and cat-yellow eyes, was married to someone named Malcolm, although she appears to have been carrying on something of a dalliance with young Rand. But Rand didn't return to finish the battle with his "father" because September and Malcolm left (September just walked away to go talk to Malcolm); he did it because it had to be done, for the sake of his remaining siblings, and more importantly, for the sake of the kingdom - he managed to convince most of the Cait Sidhe of London to leave before the fire. (Now what were September and Malcolm up to all the time between the Great Fire of London and Toby's exploits in contemporary San Francisco?

jenk

September 15 2014, 00:56:47 UTC 2 years ago

I'm also remembering the story from "Home Improvement", where Goldengreen was opened by Amandine and a red-haired woman? http://smile.amazon.com/dp/0441020356/

September 15 2014, 07:08:53 UTC 2 years ago

Yes, thank you for reminding me! There sure are a lot of Torquills around Toby. (Although, as Torquills go, September seems to be the least reprehensible of the lot, at least from what little we know so far.)

September 9 2014, 03:36:19 UTC 2 years ago Edited: September 9 2014, 03:46:15 UTC

My mind has just exploded reading an old post of Seanan's about naming and finding that Amandine and Septemper were close friends and that's why Amandine named October after (literally) September. And then there's August.

And also that Amandine and a Lily had a relationship? Puts a whole different spin on what happened to Toby and what happened to Lily.

professor

September 9 2014, 04:32:04 UTC 2 years ago

Where did you read the bit about Amandine and Lily having a relationship? I went back through all the old background posts I could find and I don't recall reading anything like that. Link please?

September 9 2014, 13:55:46 UTC 2 years ago Edited: September 9 2014, 13:58:13 UTC

Professor, it's here, in a really fabulous post about not-pigeon-holing who people love when they live long enough:

http://seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com/435156.html

"I knew about Amandine's relationship with Lily, the Luidaeg's long-term Selkie lover, and lots of others. No one else did. What was on the page was heteronormative male/female love, over and over again, in all its good and bad forms."

And sorry it took so long to reply. I was asleep like I'd been elfshot!

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