McGuire, Seanan- Half -Off Ragnarok ( InCryptid #3) informal buddy read starts December 22, 2019

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This thread is open to discuss Half-Off Ragnarok by Seanan McGuire.



Synopsis
When Alex Price agreed to go to Ohio to oversee a basilisk breeding program and assist in the recovery of his psychic cousin, he didn't expect people to start dropping dead. But bodies are cropping up at the zoo where he works, and his girlfriend—Shelby Tanner, an Australian zoologist with a fondness for big cats—is starting to get suspicious.

Worse yet, the bodies have all been turned partially to stone...

The third book in the InCryptid series takes us to a new location and a new member of the family, as Alex tries to balance life, work, and the strong desire not to become a piece of garden statuary. Old friends and new are on the scene, and danger lurks around every corner.

Of course, so do the talking mice.

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[Cathy M.]

Are you ready to start yet? Or do you want to wait until after Christmas?

[Dev]

i might try to start tonight but if not i will try to start tomorrow since i don't actually have anything going ON christmas, just crazy work before lol

[Dev]

i went ahead and started this morning and since i can apparently listen at 2x speed since i've read it before i might just go ahead and breeze through the whole thing today. i've gotta say that 1. the australian accent the dude does is HILARIOUS at 2x speed and 2. my eye kind of twitches every time he pronounces gorgon as 'gore-GONE' it sounds so weird.

[Cathy M.]

Im starting this today! I'm going to see if I can get the audio to listen to while I'm cooking.

But this is supposed to be Verity's brother right? So why would they get a guy with an Australian accent to narrate? He's American...

[Cathy M.]

Ok never mind, his gfriend is Australian so makes sense. Just started the audio :)

[Claudia]

Sorry holidays have pushed everything back for me. I plan to start tomorrow.

[Cathy M.]

So far am thru Chpt 13 -

(view spoiler)[I'm enjoying this book in Alex's POV. He's a little geeky but I think that's what makes him so likable. Can't believe though the he snagged a hottie like Sheryl :P Was a little surprising that she put up with his evasiveness for so long, and figured he would introduce her to the incryptid world. Didn't expect her to already know about it. And thank god SM didn't make her Covenant! I think it would've been too soon to have another Covenant agent converted to the Prices' side. I'm hoping we see a more kick-ass side to Alex like with Verity & Dominic in the previous books because I'm sure there's bound to be more action-packed scenes.

I didn't expect Alex to have his own colony of Aeslin mice. They got on my nerves a little at first but boy do I love them now!

I hate what's come of Sarah, I miss her and hope she recovers soon though she does sort of alleviate the mood add some humor. I'm also loving the grandparents Martin & Angela. (hide spoiler)]

[Dev]

i did end up just listening to the whole thing yesterday and i definitely enjoyed it more this time. i think the first time i was just upset by the POV change because i get that way sometimes with series that jump around a lot lol

agree that i'm glad shelby (view spoiler)[wasn't covenant. that would have been a bit too 'been there done that' but probably good that she knew something about the cryptid world. i can't imagine watching one of them try to seriously date someone who has no idea lol (hide spoiler)]

[Claudia]

I’m late as usual but I finished. I enjoyed this book and I’m glad because I was worried I wouldn’t due to the POV change.

(view spoiler)[I totally guessed it was Lloyd when he had the weird reaction then left and the other guard died. I, however, did not guess he was a gorgon as well. I just thought he was involved somehow. He was really awful at being a bad guy he kept accidentally killing the wrong people.

I also was glad that Shelby was not covenant but another cryptozoologist. I agree with Devann that it would have been too soon to convert another agent. I also was happy she already knew about cryptids because I couldn’t see a relationship working with that many lies going on. Did anyone else laugh at how easily Alex fell in love and his spontaneous marriage proposal because of how Shelby felt sympathy for the lindworm’s pain after it tried to kill them?

I kind of like that we get the time frame reference of how long it’s been since the last book. I’m also really sad about Sarah and how slowly she is recovering. I am however happy that she is recovering. (hide spoiler)]

[Cathy M.]

Finished! I feel like there are times I listen to the audio and nothing really sticks out to me so I felt like it was a good book and it was really entertaining but nothing really stood out to me. Except the marriage proposals did make me laugh :) And I really liked the narrator.

(view spoiler)[I did not guess who the villain was in this. When it was discovered, I was like really, him? He just seemed like such an insignificant character when he was introduced, though that was probably the point. I didn't even realize that he left the scene until it was brought up later. You're right Claudia, total fail in being the bad guy though he still did kill several people even if they weren't the intended victims. Wouldn't have guessed he was Dee's half-brother, the reason behind his crimes, and the reason for the fringe gorgons to settle outside the main community. It's actually pretty sad the way they treated Lloyd for being different.

I need to find a picture of what Crow would look like because I am intrigued! It was a cross between a crow & cat right?

And I wished Verity made more of a cameo - a short phone call didn't cut it! Her story did feel pretty complete in the last book but I know there will be another book in her POV coming up so wonder where her story will go. But I'm looking forward to reading the next one with Alex & Shelby going to Australia :) (hide spoiler)]

[Dev]

i had literally read the book before and i still couldn't remember who the murderer was lol. although i really almost never figure out who the murderer is in anything because i guess my brain is just not trained to try? idk i'm just like ok but i could just keep listening and they will tell me soooo. then i never remember, like i've read various versions of hound of the baskervilles at least 4 times and if i started reading it right now i would have NO IDEA who the murderer was. idk why but it just never sticks.

alex's marriage proposal definitely made me laugh and i think the narrator did an especially good job with making little bits like that come across. also i mean ...i know they've been dating-ish for like 3 months but it was still a BIT insta-lovey to like congrats to seanan for making that work, both with them and with verity and dominic i guess.

she's got a whole cryptid guide on her website so i think crow looks like the one on the left if you scroll down on this page

[Cathy M.]

Hahah Devann, glad I'm not the only one. I guess I just don't always get the little clues but that's part of the fun -figuring out who it was. I think I've read Hound 2x and have watched it in one form or another and don't remember either :D i

Thanks for that link! Not exactly what I imagined but could you imagine that big fluffy tail on that bird?! It was so adorable how Crow would fly to Alex for cuddles and comfort.

[Dev]

idk if i asked you guys this before but i'm planning on reading The Weird: A Compendium of Strange and Dark Stories next year and since it's ridiculously long i was going to spread it out over the whole year or at least try to but would you be interested in a buddy read? there's like 110 stories so doing about 9 a month would get through the whole year

[Cathy M.]

I dled it for TT so I'll BR it with you. But will definitely be taking it in small doses! Forgot it had so many stories!

[Dev]

yeah i was going to try it for TT but i think it had like 800,000 words or something ridiculous like that and i was just like okay on second thought lol but i think it would be cool to do it over a very extended amount of time

[Claudia]

just looked at it and I'm in to read it as well

[Dev]

ok cool, i'll request a thread and hopefully other people will join in as well :) do we want to just read the next incryptid book in this thread as well? i probably won't start it til later in the week

[Claudia]

🎆 Happy New Year!!! 🎆

I totally compare the number of books I've read to others and mine is so small co0mpare to others.. lol.

Are we doing the next Incryptid book this week or starting on like Sunday or Monday?

[Dev]

i think it might be better to just start on sunday/monday. i'm gonna try to maybe do a story from the weird compendium this week [the thread is up] and then there's a buddy ready in another group that i should also start ...and of course i've literally just been sitting around watching tv and listening to podcasts for like 4 days so #superproductive obviously lol

[Cathy M.]

That's ok, I've been bingeing on Netflix shows!

[Dev]

started pocket apocalypse this morning! as usual i will either listen to the whole thing in one day or it will take me all week lol. i'll try not to get too far to give you guys a chance. and i'm going to try to read the first story in the weird compendium today so like *fingers crossed* for that. i'm being so sluggish this january.

anyway i remember really liking this book. seanan's take on the werewolf mythology is really interesting and definitely reminds me of her approach in her mira grant books [newsflesh and parasitology].

[Dev]

also totally random comment but i remember when i was first reading this years ago someone told me how awful the cover was and i was just like ??? maybe just because i read so much urban fantasy but i feel like it's a pretty standard cover and i guess the faces sometimes look weird but i think painting them helps elevate them above the standard stock photo covers at the very least

[Cathy M.]

I'm starting tonight! I started a little sluggish the end of December but have signed up for a couple new challenges to get me started again. You just need the proper motivation :)

I don't think these covers are completely horrible, there are a lot worse out there. Especially for this genre. I actually don't mind them too much - you're right, much better than the standard stock photos.

[Cathy M.]

Started last night and only got to chpt 5 but damn, so far Shelby's family are all assholes! You would think Shelby would've given Alex heads up about it. I mean, he's there tohelp! And cannot believe he brought some of the Aeslin mice with him :)

[Dev]

i listened through chapter 9 i think yesterday and yes they're all so awful! i mean at least shelby doesn't try to defend them so there's that. obviously she still loves them because they're her family and she knows they're really worried about her and in general but also she's like YOU'RE ALL A BIG BAG OF DICKS and i'm like 👍👍👍

but yeah i guess maybe they haven't always been this bad and she didn't think she would need to warn him? although there are passages about her dad not liking any of their boyfriends [loud sighing] and her like dating in secret and not telling him so i feel like she should have at least seen that coming. at least seanan writes it as the dad being absolutely out of line though.

but really it's like hey could you all maybe not constantly attack the one person who has any experience in the thing you are dealing with??? not the best survival instinct!

i love that they always bring the mice with them whenever they travel places and the mice never want to stay hidden or whatever.

[Cathy M.]

I was hoping they got better (and there's still time so fingers crossed!) but I was hoping they'd be as lovable/funny/endearing as the Price clan. Though I do find Raina's surliness sort of funny.

The mice raiding the minibar on the plane was hilarious! Hope they don't get eaten by an animal though out in the boonies as they are... Wait do they fight? That would be awesome!

[Dev]

i think the mice do fight at least a bit because they make weapons and obviously hunt things that they then eat but i'm sure there's a limit to how big of a thing they can take down especially since there's only a small number of them currently with alex. but i don't think there's actually a scene in any of the books of the mice fighting things on the page, at least not that i remember

[Cathy M.]

Got thru Chpt 14 last night & this might be one of my favorites yet (even with Shelby's family making me mad)!

(view spoiler)[Ok 1st off, I LOVE LOVE LOVE the Aeslin mice :D I know it's not possible since there are so many of them, and they are all so similar that they run together except for the priest/leader, but I wish they had names so I can refer specifically to individual ones. Like the one who sat on Alex's knee when Riley came to speak with him in the quarantine room. That was so freakin cute! And then the ones who Alex picked to help him with "quest".

Alex has grown on me even more, and it was about time Shelby stuck up for him to her dad. Like seriously! I know she was his favorite daughter and his little girl, but his behavior was seriously over the top. Almost karmic that he was the one to get bitten and infected. Though I did have a feeling that Gabby would get infected as well. And ok him and shelby being engaged was a little wonky. I mean, I wouldn't take Alex saying "marry me" in the woods after she killed the lindworm serious, would you?! I didn't think it was an actual proposal, and for Shelby to NOW say yes? Well then.

I didn't expect the "villain" to be Connor, especially after thinking he died so that was a bit of a surprise. I wonder how many others are infected... (hide spoiler)]

[Claudia]

Sorry I was really sick and so am behind on the reading. I am on chapter 8 and hopefully will finish this by tomorrow.

(view spoiler)[I agree that Shelby’s family is kind of annoying me with how rude they are. I think that her dad at least is worried that Shelby will permanently stay in America and he’ll lose another kid. Also I kind of get the feeling that the Thirty Six are kind of isolationist. As always I love the Aeslin mice and they are more badass than I thought they were. (hide spoiler)]

[Dev]

@Cathy (view spoiler)[i don't know if she REALLY took him 'proposing' seriously but i think it's more like 'ok we both know we're perfect for each other and you're literally flying to australia to save my family like we are pretty much engaged right' kind of thing. or like if she had said 'well you DID propose' and he had majorly backtracked then she would have played it off as her joking too maybe? i think it's more just them knowing even if they haven't said it out loud (hide spoiler)]

also i don't remember if this is discussed later in the book [i think i'm on chapter 11?] but i don't get why it's like 'well shelby HAS to take over the society after her father since her brother died'. like y'all aren't a monarchy are you? i mean if she really wanted the job it would be one thing but you'd think they'd have several people kind of 'in line' since it's a job with a high mortality rate anyway

i'll try to finish up tomorrow. i listened to a lot at first but then i got distracted again lol

[Dev]

i finally finished this one today. on the one hand i do really love it just because i think it's interesting what she did with the werewolf mythology in this universe and also i think it really makes me like shelby and alex more. but god shelby's family is just awful almost up to the very end really. i mean the second to last time we see shelby's mom (view spoiler)[she is once again yelling at alex for no goddamn reason and then because of this one of the mice gets killed :((( but then at the end it's like oh yeah we're all happy now have a great time time america you crazy kids! like y'all need help lol. i guess her sisters have shown potential for growth but they were still blaming alex for everything right up towards the end as well. (hide spoiler)]

[Cathy M.]

Finished & you gotta admit, Alex took it all pretty well. Especially being blamed for everything. And YES, OH MY GOD (view spoiler)[when that guy killed one of the mice I actually teared up it was so sad! I had a gut feeling something bad would happen to the mice but I was so not ready for it. And back to the blaming Alex thing, geez, he wasn't even around when it started so how could he be to blame?!?! I wanted to slap them it was so dumb. Loved Basil - he was actually smarter than I initially thought he was going to be. For some reason my mind went to the swamp monster in the park from the Leandros series who loved pretty things. Loved when he broke it down for Alex and Alex was like huh, you're right.

The ending came too soon but I loved seeing Alex in action and I was liking this new atmosphere so I'm a little bummed we're going to someone else's POV next. It's like I was just getting used to him! (hide spoiler)]

[Dev]

i know! (view spoiler)[and it's like every bad thing that happens they blame on alex since he's there and i'm like you realize you would probably just all be dead if he didn't show up right??? like the one sister blamed alex for the other sister getting bit and i'm like how bout you blame cooper since he's ...you know ...actually the one doing this shit???

haha maybe basil is some kind of distantly related australian boggle but for some reason that sub-species got all the brains ;) although really the boggles didn't seem stupid so much as just ...very focused on treasure and not particularly eloquent

i agree that at this point i would love to have more alex. i really like the next one because we're back to verity and her grandma is there too. the antimony ones started out really well for me but i didn't like the 3rd one so i'm interested to see if i was just in a mood last year or if i still feel the same (hide spoiler)]

[Dev]

idk if claudia ever finished this? but i figure we should wait until we hear from her before moving on lol. probably can just use this thread for the next random verity book then i'll request a new one for the 3 antimony books.

[Cathy M.]

Looks like Claudia finished it a couple days ago... She might be busy with school now that the holidays are over.

Should we pick a date to start the next one? Sunday/Monday?

[Dev]

yeah beginning of next week works fine for me

[Claudia]

I’m finished sorry I didn’t comment but I was sick and then school started and well ugh. Happily, though this is my last semester and I shall only be overworked and stressed for the next five months and then I’m free!!! Anyways am scheduling times in now for everything. I’ll be good to start the next book on Monday.

I did really enjoy this book and I’m sad we’re getting another POV change because I really grew to like Alex. He had some really snarky and sarcastic inner commentary going on that made me smile as we went through the book.

(view spoiler)[Not going to lie I really disliked Shelby’s family for being such assh*les and blaming Alex for everything. I especially got mad over the whole scene when Shelby’s mom got all in his face and distracted him from the Aeslin mice and made it so he was unable to stop the mouse from being killed.

Like that whole scene just pissed me of and I was like nope I’m done with these people. Then the whole way they viewed all of the cryptids that didn’t behave like humans. It was so speciest and I agreed with him that they really weren’t that much better than the Covenant. Like even now that Shelby was learning better she still saw them primarily as monsters and had not considered their feelings. I was super sad with how they treated Basil who they basically grew up with and still saw him as a monster.

Ok rant over. Apart from that I am kind of sad that that’s it for Alex. Like I know the next book is verity, then three for Antimony, and the upcoming one is about Sarah right? Does this mean we’ll finally really get to see Artie? Is the Sarah one going to have everyone in it do you think? (hide spoiler)]

[Dev]

i had forgotten how all the little details played out and that scene with shelby's mom i thought for a second that (view spoiler)[she was infected with the virus and that's why she was so completely irrationally angry at him because there was just no call for that! (hide spoiler)] her entire family are ridiculous.

maybe we will still get another random alex book in the future lol she doesn't really seem to have a rhyme or reason to who gets how many POVs. and verity and antimony both have 3 so far so it would only be fair for alex to get another POV in book 10 ;) i'm guessing the sarah one will mostly focus on her with maybe brief cameos or phone calls from other family members because that seems to be how all the other books have worked so far. agree that i'm hopeful we will actually get to know artie though!

[Cathy M.]

I'm getting ready to start this one. You both good to go?

[Dev]

yeah i'm gonna start either today or tomorrow hopefully. i have once again been getting distracted with podcasts. and children's tv shows lol apparently there were 2 new seasons of she-ra last year that i didn't know about -_-; but will definitely try to get on this!

[Dev]

are you listening to the audio? i forgot how much i hate the verity-narrator's dominic voice lol

[Cathy M.]

I usually read but I did listen to a little bit on audio. YES I don't really like how the narrator does Dominic either. It's like, he's Italian but I think grew up in Britain (?) so he should at least have a british accent, no? Or something more European? She does it really weird...

I didn't expect to get as sucked into this as quickly as I did but I'm really enjoying it. (view spoiler)[Haha I LOVE So You Think You Can Dance and this is SO similar to it, I can totally picture it. Go Valerie go :) But feel a little bad that Dominic is stuck sitting around with the Aeslin mice in that crappy motel. There are some pretty gross looking ones *shudders* That's love.

With each book, I fall more in love with those mice. I want a colony of my own!!

I can't tell if it's too obvious but it seems pretty obvious that Jessica is one of the snake cultists. (hide spoiler)]

[Dev]

yeah it's like she tried to combine them and just ended up in 'no one has ever talked like that ever' land. he probably should have a predominantly british accent since he grew up there ...and also it's just easier for most americans to do a british accent than italian i would say so like if it made it sound better i would sacrifice 'accuracy' lol

i only listened to the first few chapters tonight but i'll get into it more tomorrow. apparently this was the first one i rated 5 stars so i'm interested to see if it stands up to my memories

[Cathy M.]

You know, listening to a little more, it sounded more Irish to me. Like very slight. I didn't mind her doing Verity's voice, it was just Dominic (view spoiler)[but he didn't seem to be in a lot of the book! (hide spoiler)]

So I sped thru it and finished. Holy crap that end!!!!! (view spoiler)[But was that REALLY necessary??????

Backing up, as much as I love SYTYCD, I got a little tired of the show part of the story. In the 1st 2 books, she talked a lot about dance but I didn't feel like we really got to see a lot of her in that element so her inner conflict was more of an idea than being front and center. At least from what I remember. So here I felt like we got to see more of the conflict that Verity had about her dancing because it was such a huge part of the story. How much she loved it vs her cryptozoologist side dominating her time. Made me feel a little bad for her because she loved it so much. But then again, cryptozoology is in her blood.

Alice was a huge surprise! And a GREAT "new" character!!!!! We heard various tidbits about her in the previous books but she was not at all what I expected. She was super bad-ass so I hope we see more of her in the next books. Is she the only Price who doesn't carry around a colony of mice of her own? Oh the stories they would tell!

I know we had snake cultists before but this seemed totally different to me. But that could also be because it's been a while since we read the 1st book. Jessica I guessed early on. She was way too much of a diva. I thought maybe Clint, because I thought it couldn't be the head guy, but I didn't guess Anders even when he started acting all asshole-ish to Verity. I wanted Verity to punch the guy. But for him to grab Lyra & murder her like that? Awww it made me sad. Which leads to - I can NOT believe the network would air that, even if they were live. You would think the network would've cut the feed. And to write it off as "special effects"?????? I get that mundanes wouldn't believe it anyways, because they don't know about monsters in this world, but people actually died! How did they explain that??? I had to shake my head at that.

And then Verity. Oh geez. Did she REALLY have to announce who she really was and pretty much challenge the Covenant? I have no idea where it will go from here but I take it the Covenant becomes an even bigger "villain" or at least is more present in the next books? Oh no... But it has to happen sooner or later right?! (hide spoiler)]

Rant over :)

[Dev]

yeah, and it's been awhile since i listened to the first two books but it seems like she's changed it since then and somehow made it even weirder lol but yeah (view spoiler)[i'm only at the part where she's talking to the dragon princess in the car the first time but i think he has to spend a lot of time on the fringes so he won't be noticed possibly by the covenant which is a shame because i really do love him. (hide spoiler)]

gonna wait until i finish to read your other spoiler cut because it's actually been awhile since i've read this so i don't remember the details lol it might be a couple days but i'm making slow progress! on chapter 5 now but i can listen to these at 2x speed

[Cathy M.]

No worries, take your time! I just got sucked into it so had to finish it as soon as I started. I have other stuff, and some more of the short stories.

But gotta say I'm a little sad that we're leaving Verity's POV again. Of course that's what I said when we went to Alex but I ended up loving Alex. After getting into the groove with Verity again, wish we could stay with her longer. I feel like we don't really know that much about Antimony. Even in this one, she was only present in that 1 scene. Everything else is just little tidbits about her when they were growing up.

[Dev]

yeah i remember liking the first two antimony books but not so much on the third one so i'm interested to see if that stays the same on my reread. i think it's probably good she got her own pov though because she just seems really bratty in the glimpses we get here