CHAOS CHOREOGRAPHY open thread!

[seanan_mcguire]

To celebrate the release of Chaos Choreography, 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.

Comments

[clothsprogs.livejournal.com]

My copy arrived today!!!

As soon as I finish the current on-the-go-book I'm starting to read.

Teddy

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!

[bree-ramsey314.livejournal.com]

Wow, and I mean WOW! I loved it, every single word of it. Alice was everything I hoped for, and so much of Fran shone through in her. Malena is a wonderful new character, and I hope that she and Verity will get together again. The ending just blew me away. Talk about letting the cat out of the bag! If the Covenant has any sense of self preservation, they'll heed Verity's warning. If they have any delusions that going after the Price family is a good idea, they need to watch that last episode of Dance or Die again. The message is crystal clear -- you do not want to screw with us!

[geekhyena.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the Covenant might just write off the continent like they did Australia. Here's hoping! But wow, Alice....she's amazing. And I want to know more about Fran and the Chupacabras now, too. And other dragon subspecies.

[reedrover]

That was a hell of a good ending. Boom. I can even picture the last fight scene from the camera's point of view. Thank you very much!!!

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

You're so welcome!

Just finished..

[needlegrrl]

Just finished, and it was amazing. I think this was the best book yet - so glad that Verity got to be Valerie again, and that we got to see inside that world.

Thank you for writing this series & this book - I'm looking forward to the next one (& the potential reread of the series before it comes out! :) ).

RE: Just finished..

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

Glee. :)

Thank you so much.

[17catherines.livejournal.com]

Oh, wow! That was fantastic - I devoured it in one sitting last night. Loved the dancing, and Verity finally really getting to show how good she could be. Loved the new characters, and seeing Alice as an adult (though possibly not entirely as a grown-up), and I can NEVER have too much of Dominic (the line about pizza omelette being a punishment for bad behaviour was gorgeous).

The bit with Lyra made me gasp out loud. I'd thought the writing was on the wall for her, but I didn't expect it to go like that, and I had momentarily thought she was out of the woods.

And the ending, oh my. You did say this series was going to get darker - something tells me this is where it really starts...

[tylik.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I feel like *I* need time to mourn Lyra. That was so sudden, and then so nothing.

[beccastareyes]

I have to wonder is Verity's stage name is an X-men reference*. Especially since Ms. Pryor is a redhead.

I really liked seeing the mice again. Which sounds silly, but they seem to be getting more real as we learn about their culture and how it works. Like, the mice could easily turn into a punchline (look as they interrupt Verity and Dominic!) or a plot device, but it feels like their religion has underlying structure beyond the 'what would be funny for the mice to say here'. Like the bit about how the mouse that attended Verity the last time she was in LA for Dance or Die was now a senior priestess of the Arboreal Priestess, and couldn't travel again because her congregation needed her, so she sent younger members. Or how the mice justify that human senses (particularly of the Gods and Priestesses) were less keen than mouse senses, because of course divinity doesn't need the things worshippers might.

(Also the sense that the Prices do get a skewed view into the world of the Aeslin mice, because the priests have forms for interacting with the Prices. Which makes me imagine all sorts of other tasks a worshipper might perform -- still a devout participant in their religion but less likely to interact with divinity directly because maybe their calling is to craft clothing, vestments and ritual gear, or care for children.)

Also, man I want to reread to see how many clues are there and how many are red herrings.

ETA: And the first chapter! I nearly forgot it, but I love how we continue to see how the Price family functions in terms of having connections that let them deal with a problem like 'underfed and growing plesiosaur too close to human settlements'. Because there's a gap between wanting to rehome an animal that doesn't understand that pets and humans are not safe foods and being able to do it. One thing I appreciate is that the family (including various Uncles and Aunts by adoption) is present.

* Maybe not an in-universe one, unless Sarah or Artie were involved.

[jenfullmoon.livejournal.com]

I want to see the mouse dance classes.

I'm starting to wonder: do mice have individual names? Do the Price/Healy/Harringtons just not bother keeping track of all the mice names over the years? Or do they really only get to interact with whoever's higher up in the hierarchy/priests anyway? It's just a bit odd when she has to be all, "So-and-so, this is a mouse." Makes you wonder.

Ukupani

[acf151.livejournal.com]

Ukupani are my new favorite cryptid. I've been a shark nut ever since I was five and watched Jaws. Sapient therioanthrope sharks with sapient great white females is awesome, and i need to find out if this is new or based in legends.
This book is worth the wait. More Valerie and adult Alice (I feel better about my family's big events now that I've heard of Price weddings- no wonder Alex was worried). Great Dominic scenes and bonding with Aeslin. I missed Alex and I'm excited about Antimony, but it was great to spend more time with Verity and Dominic.
But can they go back to Portland now? I hope Kevin doesn't have to burn down the compound.

RE: Ukupani

[geekhyena.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm with you on the sharks. I still remember the time I saw a tiger shark in the wild as a kid! (it swam under a glass bottomed boat I was on) SO COOL. I wonder what their culture is like. Are poly quartets the norm? Are they viviparous? What's their approach to child rearing? Preferred prey? Size dimorphism (if any) in full-shark form? Cooperative hunting? I wanna know it ALL.

Possible continuity error?

[celticdragonfly.livejournal.com]

I'm still partway through the first read. I'm wondering about this bit:

"Anders has been a little touchy-feely lately. He had a crush on me the first time we danced together. He could be testing the waters to see how serious I am about 'Daniel.'"

But - Domenic's alias was "David", not "Daniel".

(I'm really enjoying the book, but proofreading is part of what I'm doing for my not-quite-a-career these days...)

SO happy to be spending more time with the Aeslin Mice.

RE: Possible continuity error?

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

I'd say typo, rather than continuity error; good catch.

[celticdragonfly.livejournal.com]

Malena was the first to speak: “Lady, you need better hobbies.” “I knit,” said Alice.

McGuire, Seanan (2016-03-01). Chaos Choreography: An InCryptid Novel (p. 277). DAW. Kindle Edition.


BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA

[jenfullmoon.livejournal.com]

When on earth does she have the time? Plus where's the room for yarn with all of those weapons?

[ironed_orchid]

ALICE!!!!!

I would like to make an Alice appreciation thread. I'm so happy for her to finally make an appearance in the novels with the current generation, and she is everything I hoped and more.

Baking, tattoos, motorbikes. She's the perfect somewhat disturbingly youthful grandmother.

[jenfullmoon.livejournal.com]

And she gets into brawls at weddings.

Wow, Alice. Good to meet you too.

That was pretty damn wonderful

[arachne jericho (from livejournal.com)]

Awesome. Spectacular. House brought down with STYLE.

Love the book. Love the stories. Love the series.

Love Alice. Love Verity. Love Dominic.

Want to know more about everybody in the family and also family friends. I know this will happen and I look forwards to it coming over the years.

I cannot leave more stuff because I am still very sick and the world is made up of strange geometries at the moment and time is not working correctly. My particular brand of spoon outage.

Sincerely
AJ

Narrative causality?

[listicath.livejournal.com]

It makes perfect sense that Verity would be in a competition called "Dance or Die" I'm only surprised that it took until the sixth season for someone to actually die!

Broadcasting a Snake God slaying live on TV, and Verity outing herself to the Covenant was somewhat of a shock. I'm eagerly looking forward to how this will play out in the next book(s).

RE: Narrative causality?

[bree-ramsey314.livejournal.com]

Verity potentially came out to a lot more than just the Covenant. At the moment, we don't know just how much of what happened actually aired. The cameras were still running -- because their operators very wisely chose not to waste time shutting them off before they ran away when the giant snake appeared -- but was the signal still being transmitted? Exactly how much was broadcast live is a bit ambiguous at the end.

[lazzchan.livejournal.com]

I am absolutely staggered and blown away by this. What an ending! Talk about letting the cat out of the bag, major-style. I just imagine Antimony at home, watching this and going "Damn it, Verity". This was such a fantastic read and Alice. I love Grandma Alice so much, from the moment she first appeared to what she's been doing and how she gets around and handles things. She is an A-class troll and I adore her forevermore and now I see why you go "but Alice!" for people being sad over the loss of other characters. Alice is amazing and I know now that I shall cry even more over Alice and Thomas.

All the characters were amazing and getting that 'behind the scenes' of how these type of shows work was enlightening. It's something I never really thought about before, but it makes sense. I'm glad I'm not so far off my game of being the cynical girl I am, that those I suspected were who I thought they were, all except the partner. Nicely done with that. <3 Grandma Alice shares my cynical view of the world.

There are so many good quotes, but the one that sticks out in my mind is Disney and demons, and the "I didn't expect you to pull a harpoon out of your crotch" is another. Fantastic all around, I have so much more glee in me over this one (including Dominic! Marriage! Part of the family and not being led into a pit trap by crafty sis) but alas, I am working around an anemic headache and my thoughts are a little more scattered.

Thank you so much, Seanan for writing such a fabulous world and characters and letting us enjoy your kingdom. <3

[tylik.livejournal.com]

That was truly excellent.

I am very struck by the image of Covenant analysts (I assume the Covenant has analysts) going over all of "Valerie's" video's, but especially those of that last show... and there she is, doing a dance routine that in her mind is enacting at least one aspect of her and Dominic's courtship, and in their mind has got to be confirming every preconception the Covenant has about Healy women. I mean, damn. (I also one how good the audio pick ups were - because as charmed as I was by Dominic's exhortations for Verity not to die, I'm not so thrilled with them being broadly shared.)

Alice. Put me down for the Alice appreciation club, though I found myself less struck by her charming and quirky persona than by all the negative space it framed. There isn't a lot of use being impatient for more story, but... (tries not to fidget) I knew I was going to like Thomas, and now, having gotten a glimpse of adult Alice (if rather from the other side of things...) argh. That is a whole lot of shit ahead. And I have absolutely no idea how much Early Life we will see before we see Alice's Book.

[jenfullmoon.livejournal.com]

It's probably not likely, but it'd be a really interesting story if after all of these years, Alice does find Thomas. What condition would he be in, is he 107 while she's 22, is he sane, can he be brought back to the bosom of the family or does he quietly have to be shot in the head....who knows?

[eleri.livejournal.com]

I'm firmly a mice fan (HAIL!), and I love that we're seeing them in action. Yes, they're freaking *hilarious*, but they're also amazingly talented and useful and complex.

[jenfullmoon.livejournal.com]

HAIL THE LACK OF STABBING, SHOOTING, AND FLAME!

[shiyiya.livejournal.com]

I thought I had picked out the 'bad guy' (Clint), and then Anders revealed himself and I went "oh, damn, I was wrong?" and then it turned out I was right after all! (I did think it was Adrian for a bit, too.)

(It is deeply disconcerting to see the name Anders used in other franchises when my entire previous mental association with it is Dragon Age. I have no idea what InCryptid!Anders is supposed to look like, because all I've got in my head is a haggard blond guy with a half ponytail and stubble and glowing blue eyes. Which makes an... interesting mental image alongside the tap dancing.)

(I'm so happy for the dragons.)

(I'm also really pleased that chupacabras apparently look like Gila monsters in coloration, as a girl raised in the Southwestern desert.)

I love Alice so much. I've loved her since I read Martin's Passage, and I'm so glad to get to see more of her.

[jenfullmoon.livejournal.com]

I did wonder about Adrian, what with his connections to interestingly constructed buildings.

Prophecy

[wendyzski.livejournal.com]

Do we know what Laura's prophecy about Antimony is/was?
I haven't read all the short fic in collections yet, so I don't know if it's a "I didn't know about that" or a "Look, Seanan's laying breadcrumbs again"

RE: Prophecy

[geekhyena.livejournal.com]

It's been mentioned a few times but iirc no details yet. Except Elsie is involved.

[lilisonna.livejournal.com]

You took up my entire lunch today. I had to hide in a conference room so that people in the breakroom would stop interrupting me with work-related questions while I was *clearly reading!* I finished with five minutes to spare before my next meeting.

Squee! Verity!

[lylassandra.livejournal.com]

Noooooooo Lyra! =(

Seriously though, that climax was a total gut punch from start to finish. Well done.

[rymenhild.livejournal.com]

....Well, that went from "fluffy dance show with mass murder and evil snake cult" to "prepare for intercontinental war" in about four sentences, didn't it?

I love that the dimension's equivalent of Cat Deeley is a dragon princess. Of course she is.

I should have noticed that our hostess does not name shows "Dance or Die" unless someone is actually going to die. Probably lots of someones.

Poor Lyra. I did like her. Anders, on the other hand, was no loss whatsoever.

Alice Price-Healy must have one hell of a story we haven't seen yet. Probably several hells, some purgatories, and a decent number of demonic dimensions of stories, maybe. I look forward to them, and also to the apocalypse bearing down on assorted Prices and cryptids. (Okay, I look forward to that part with some degree of anxiety, but anyway.)

Thank you for another delightful book!

[laurenthemself]

I thought Verity getting to dance again was going to be a calm before the storm thing. And then as I was reading the stabbity-splodey death of the snake, I kind of thought 'hmmm, not as amped up as some scenes...' (like, it was still PLENTY of action, but I felt like there was another shoe to drop).

And then the other shoe did drop and I went 'YOU DID NOT JUST' at the book and flailed a lot.

I am so delighted to have met Alice here, and I loved Malena and Lyra (LYA *sobs*). Also I was really impressed with myself for picking Clint out as being trouble, since I am usually dreadful at that in your books as you weave such tangled webs.

Thank you for another awesome book! One that is going to be very re-readable, too. I'm a sucker for books with reality TV shows, gods only know why.

[kyrielle]

Ohmigod ohmigod ohmigod. Just got to the end. Poor Lyra!

Stupid confusion charms. I'm betting Verity would have pegged Clint and Jessica faster without them. I was unsure whether I was just picking on Jessica because I wanted the obvious bad guy to be a bad guy; I was pretty sure Clint was in after he danced her 'round the stage. Anders...I wondered after their fights near the end, but only then, and poor Verity had almost no time to reflect on it.

What a colossal mess. And I also wonder how much actually got broadcast vs. stopped, but even if it got stopped, the censors with the switches saw it and clearly -enough- made it out to make for ratings and issues and all hell breaking loose.

If Verity's declaration of war got out, Antimony has to be furious.

[corucia.livejournal.com]

I loved the whole thing. Great to see some more of the Price family - Alice was all that I expected from prior comments. More Aeslin mouse info is always appreciated, too.

Two thoughts:

1) I wish that Alice had been the person who addressed the camera at the end. She's devious enough that she might have blamed the giant snake on the Covenant: "Hey Covenant of St. George! Nice try, but you snake-lovers better not try this again! This is our continent! Stay the hell off it!", or words to that effect. Might have been nice to have the whole world thinking the Covenant was a terrorist organization behind everything. Their name helps that impression, too. And there's none of the cultists left to refute the charge.

2) Verity cut her fingers on the snake's skin, very soon after it'd been thrust through the dimensional wall. We'd previously been told, near the end of chapter 11, that such intrusions bring parts of the dimensional membrane with them that can be used - "raw possibility... luck and lies and all the tricks you could wish for...". It will be interesting to see if there's any consequences to Verity of that close connection!

[crewgrrl.livejournal.com]

I want to leave an intelligible comment, but I'm freakishly exhausted for reasons beyond even my comprehension.

HAIL THE APPEARANCE OF THE NOISY PRIESTESS!

[yellowblackhaze.livejournal.com]

Finished it last night and throughly enjoyed the ride. Malena's reaction to first meeting the mice was absolutely priceless, as was the mouse parodying the Bible while riding Verity's shoulder. Loved the Verity Domenic relationship, it's very cute and believable. Domenic has grown so much from the character we first met back in Discount Armageddon. I also noticed that his name with the mice had changed. Do they often do that? The big shock was Lyra, I think I actually dropped the book in sheer stunned amazement when that happened. I so wanted her to have a happy ending. Sigh.