#one salt sea

[yojfull]

I just did a reread of the entire October Daye series to look for breadcrumbs and hints in the earlier books towards some of the big reveals. The following contains spoilers for all books through An Innocent Sleep, so I’m hiding it all under a cut.

As of Book 18, we have found both Oberon and Titania hiding out in relatively minor characters in the San Francisco area, as well as Janet, and it’s clearly hinted that Maeve is also in the neighborhood. Janet was a housewife in Berkeley, Oberon was a cop in San Francisco, and Titania was October’s changeling friend Stacy. Upon rereading, there were more clues for Titania than Oberon or Janet, but there was also more time building that story. Accordingly, I think Maeve will have more breadcrumbs as well. The following is a list of potential candidates, and the arguments for and against them through the whole series.

There are clues scattered throughout, but especially in the last 3 books. From Be The Serpent - “[find] Mom lurking under a rock somewhere. Or maybe a pier. She always did like the water.” When we get to Sleep No More and An Innocent Sleep, the question is who has been shoved outside the main bubble, or is back when they should be gone?

Here is my list of candidates, in no particular order:

Lily

She’s a very rare type of fae, but her powers are extremely restricted by location. She’s strongly tied to water, and has been keeping an eye on Amandine and October for many years. Her court is one of the oldest independents in the region, but she stays out of politics. She also knows about Luna and her ties to Blind Michael. On the other hand, we’re pretty sure she died in Late Eclipses, which might be a problem.

Marcia

There’s a reason this seems to be the most popular fan theory. She’s a weak unspecified changeling who has been there from the very beginning, present at many critical moments, with often inexplicable immunity or reactions. She steps up to be seneschal of Goldengreen, she has no fear of the night haunts, she loves pixies, and resists transformation by Simon (One Salt Sea is a big book for Marcia). In Chimes at Midnight, she reacts to King Giliad discussions as if she remembers him. She is unphased by meeting multiple Firstborn (Ludiaeg and Amphitrite and Eira). Eira also fails to transform her, or she escapes the transformation somehow. We also never see a description of the smell of her magic. She does not appear in Titania’s mirror universe, but we don’t ever go to Goldengreen, so she may still be there. The only real argument against Marcia is she’s too obvious.

Marianne

We haven't met her directly in the novels, but the Windermere’s nursemaid comes up a number of times, saving Arden and Nolan from Oleander and death in the earthquake, helping hide them for years after. While she is missing, Nolan is convinced she is still alive, and brings Marcia to the Duchy of Ships to help him search for her. The biggest arguments come from the novella, Once Broken Faith, where Marianne tells a story with the sentence “because she was happy then, my sweet girl” in reference to Luidaeg, strongly implying Marianne has a sense of ownership. Titania is called “her father's other wife”, which again hints at Marianne being her mother.

Melly

Hob in Shadowed Hills, Kerry's mother. She fits the pattern of background characters close to October, but her inclusion in Titania's illusions makes it less likely.

Mary the Roane

Another background character with significant impact, but her level of contact with the Luidaeg as her mother makes her unlikely.

Julie

Another background character with strong ties to October, and changeling status, plus a transformation type. She does mysteriously vanish in the fight with Titania, but Seanan indicated in a Tumblr post that was an editing hiccup (or was that a false trail?) Her desire to kill October at various points is probably the biggest argument against her as Maeve.

January

One of the people Titania shoves out of the way in her illusion, but also, January *creates* things. She made the first cyberdryad. She died and was resurrected. October says “There had probably been some reason she needed Jan’s existence to keep her reality from crumbling, but i couldn’t think of what it might be”

Minna

Offhand mention in Sleep No More, she deposited servants at Dreaming Glass and vanished. Too offhand for such a major player.

Helmi

Maeve is a creature of the water and the deep, and the most maternal of the three - her presence in Saltmist still gives her visibility to the land, but keeps her safe in the depths, away from Titania’s purview. She's more background than some of the other candidates, with no real unexpected capabilities. Like Marianne, some of the strongest evidence is in the novellas.

My slightly more complicated hypothesis: much like Titania had multiple pasts, Maeve too has gone through multiple identities, in 1906, she was Marianne, the Windemere’s nursemaid, and she sacrificed that version of herself for their survival, becoming Marcia. This explains both why Marcia recalls Giliad, as well as some of the signs pointing to Marianne.

[haaaaaaaaaaaave-you-met-ted]

"Please hold while your party is reached. You may press the pound sign to return to this menu at any time. To be assassinated by a tribe of warrior grasshoppers, press three." - The fae phone exchange has some odd options (One Salt Sea by Seanan McGuire)

[geraniums-red]

Seanan McGuire - One Salt Sea

Book 5 of the October Daye series

Moderate spoiler warning because a character dies and I want to talk about it

Toby Daye spends this book finding and rescuing missing children again. In this case they are the princes of the sea kingdom and if she doesn't find them, there's going to be a war which has a high chance of killing Toby and all her friends. Happy fun times - and that's before her daughter gets kidnapped.

At the end of the last book, I was concerned that Toby's new fancy heritage could mean she's now over-powered. It look like I needn't have worried. She's got faster reflexes, but that just brings up up to standard for the world she lives in, and her magic allows her to do a few things that other people can't, but there's plenty of magic that other people can do that she can't.

I am amused by the way that pretty much all the fairie kids she meet decide she looks like a good role model and they want to hang out and possibly be trained by her. She's going to end up like Batman if she keeps collecting them like this.

Toby is in a relationship with Connor for most of the book, and he dies to save her at the end of the book, and it's heart-breaking for Toby and I didn't really care. Connor was never my favourite - he is good looking, and willing to sacrifice himself for Toby, but I have very little sense of his character or why she actually liked him. And I was a little bit glad that he dies because these are the sort of books where somebody dies, and because it was Connor it didn't have to be someone I cared about more. And then I felt a bit mean about that, even if everyone involved is fictional.

An enjoyable book, but mid series, so don't start from here.

[sebeth]

I was getting tired of being in an endless succession of things called "the fight of a lifetime". Just once, I'd like to have the fight of a Tuesday afternoon.

October Daye, One Salt Sea by Seanan McGuire

[book-quotes-and-moodboards]

I was getting tired of being in an endless succession of things called “the fight of a lifetime.” Just once, I’d like to have the fight of a Tuesday afternoon.

One Salt Sea (by Seanan McGuire)

[owlbear33]

the end of One Salt Sea has always brought tears, and this time was no different

Absolutely amazing book

[dude1818]

Finished two books this week thanks to another seven hour flight 😩

Starter Villain by John Scalzi

This one was goofy. Charlie is a down-on-his-luck ex-journalist. His estranged billionaire uncle dies, and bequeaths him his empire: not just the parking lot one he has on paper, but also the volcanic lair, space lasers, genetically engineered talking cats, and the rest of his supervillain works. Charlie is then invited to the cabal of villains that manipulate global politics, to either hand over what his uncle used to keep them in check, or take them down the rest of the way

It was a fun romp. There was a level of intelligence there that was hidden behind the smoke-and-mirrors of silly Bond villain gadgets and talking animals, and Charlie had the occasional clever deduction, but mostly he had no idea what was going on. I wasn't expecting anything too brilliant from an obvious pastiche of a well-aged trope (it's as blunt as a character saying out loud "unions are good and billionaires are bad"), but the ride was enjoyable. I look forward to reading more by him

One Salt Sea by Seanan McGuire

Once again, Toby has to avert a kingdom-wide threat that no one really wants her to. What these books do well is pretty similar, so I'm not going to repeat myself there. It did make me feel pretty good to spot the connection between night-haunts and fetches, and between selkies and roane, as soon as it was pointed out there was a connection. Although, that does keep emphasizing that Toby never figures these puzzles out. (Her figuring out who told Rayseline about her daughter felt completely out of left field; I don't think the audience had the info to figure that out, which cheapens the reveal)

Keeping count, we're down to 2/4 where the villain is killed, but up to 2/4 involving children being kidnapped (2.5 if you include the incident in the prologue). I hope the series mixes it up a little more

It seems like named secondary characters are getting killed off faster than they're introduced. Not sure how the series will last for 18 books at this rate. I had been interesting in seeing how the love triangle was handled, and Connor's death felt like a particularly ham-fisted way of doing that. Pretty disappointed

I was kind of hoping Gillian would take the other option in the changeling's choice. It would take the series in a totally different direction, and I admit it wasn't earned yet, but I wanted to see a b-plot of her and Toby reconciling at some point. This felt like a pretty final nail in the coffin for that, which is disappointing

[voo-yu]

Harry and Kim on their last day - on one of martinaise’s hazardous piers - overlooking the war-torn town they’ve begrudgingly become familiar with.

[sapphicseasapphire]

What??? I make content for my Cyptid au that isn’t Sky centric??? Crazy.

This will be a series for sure! A good Legend and Wind centric comic series because their relationship is very interesting. Please, Legend fans, don’t hate me! I’m doing my best!

Legend has a bit of a complicated relationship with music. I promise Twilight wasn’t trying to stereotype or anything, he just noticed that Legend was the only person not participating in the group (and was looking unhappy) and wanted to include him. Poor guy got exploded at for no reason.

1/2/3

[isabilightwood]

I think Dianda should be allowed to punch the Queen

[xiiiwayfinders]

Tag urself I'm anxiety goblin

[majimasleftasscheek]

2 new sitting plushies out, UFO catcher dealio again - gotta get via proxy 👏

[kingthedumb]

this was supposed to be a doodle after a long day whomp

[the-ardent-dilettante]

Elaboration is encouraged!

[kondietorei]

alas the classic outfit swap

bonus doodle underneath ^^

drew this after realizing i only drew one sea salt ice cream orz

[rhythmmortis]