Seanan McGuire (seanan_mcguire) wrote,
Seanan McGuire
seanan_mcguire
  • Mood: awake
  • Music: Thomas wandering around the room, chirping.

A RED-ROSE CHAIN open thread!

To celebrate the release of A Red-Rose Chain, 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: a red-rose chain, discussion post, toby daye
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  • 172 comments
...go 3 levels up... Expand

tylik

September 1 2015, 21:16:57 UTC 1 year ago

And those are just the short term consequences. Though really, enough things might be changing that the longer term consequences might be less germaine. I mean, putting Eira's bullshit aside, the idea of elfshot, in pureblood society, might be a sound one - there might be a stabilizing effect to having a weapon that puts people in the penalty box for a hundred years. I don't know. Taking that option away, especially in the situation of prolonged absence of Oberon and his Queens, might make for a more brutal society.

Of course, even if elfshot didn't kill changelings, it was always going to be a higher stakes weapon for a society with a substantial mortal component - the time you lose with loved ones is guaranteed to be finite. (Which seems more and more to the point.)

hasufin

September 21 2015, 06:09:56 UTC 1 year ago

That's the thing I've been thinking about.

Oberon felt the need for such a weapon. I'm thinking maybe he was a pretty wise dude and was onto something.

From his perspective, it elf-shot means that a particularly troublesome individual can be put on ice for a century or so - time to figure out what to do, and make sure that you don't have All the Crises happening at 3:00 pm on a Tuesday.

But in fey society in general, elf-shot is a handy safety valve. It's a nice, unequivocal way of expressing, um, very strong dislike. Doubtless political alliances and regime changes have long relied on the notion that certain parties would be indisposed for a while - even if they don't keep getting jabbed, many changes can be rendered fait accompli in a century, even with immortal lifespans.

I can't really work out in my head all the implications, but Walter's cure is going to have enormous consequences.

(And gods forbid he manages to use Toby's blood to make a regeneration potion)