McGuire, Seanan--Imaginary Number ( InCryptid #9) informal buddy read starts February 26, 2020

[Moderators of NBRC, Challenger-in-Chief]

This thread is open to discuss Imaginary Numbers by Seanan McGuire.



Synopsis
The ninth book in the fast-paced InCryptid urban fantasy series returns to the mishaps of the Price family, eccentric cryptozoologists who safeguard the world of magical creatures living in secret among humans.

Sarah Zellaby has always been in an interesting position. Adopted into the Price family at a young age, she’s never been able to escape the biological reality of her origins: she’s a cuckoo, a telepathic ambush predator closer akin to a parasitic wasp than a human being. Friend, cousin, mathematician; it’s never been enough to dispel the fear that one day, nature will win out over nurture, and everything will change.

Maybe that time has finally come.

After spending the last several years recuperating in Ohio with her adoptive parents, Sarah is ready to return to the world–and most importantly, to her cousin Artie, with whom she has been head-over-heels in love since childhood. But there are cuckoos everywhere, and when the question of her own survival is weighed against the survival of her family, Sarah’s choices all add up to one inescapable conclusion.

This is war. Cuckoo vs. Price, human vs. cryptid…and not all of them are going to walk away.

[Moderators of NBRC, Challenger-in-Chief]

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[Moderators of NBRC, Challenger-in-Chief]

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[Claudia]

I will probably start Imaginary Numbers tomorrow. Have you guys started yet?

[Dev]

no i doubt i will be able to start until sunday

[Cathy M.]

Oh ha, I was thinking we would start around the weekend. I have to read 1 other one for a different challenge and then can start on this one. Probably Friday or Saturday at latest. Which should be ok since you're the speedy one Devann :)

[Dev]

haha well it depends on whether i like it or not. i mean i'm sure i will bc it's seanan but this year i have not been reading all that much

[Dev]

ok i lied im gonna start it lol i was planning on reading a middle grade book but i wasn't feeling it so gonna give this a try

[Cathy M.]

Nothing like reading a Seanan McGuire book to get you out of your funk! At least hoping!

[Claudia]

I started today and am about 40% in but putting it down to do school work. I'm gonna be honest may read a bit more tomorrow then probably won't pick it up again until Monday or Tuesday as I got some school stuff to work on over the weekend. So feel free to take your time guys

[Dev]

i got about halfway through ch 5 yesterday. enjoying it so far but i feel like maybe she should have set up the series differently with how she switches protagonists and done like a rotating line up of all of them and having it switching every book because when she drops things like 'alex is (view spoiler)[having a baby! (hide spoiler)]' i'm like whaaaat because we haven't really heard from him in so long. i mean she probably mentioned him a few times in the antimony novels but i don't remember that being mentioned although it's been awhile since i read them obviously.

[Dev]

also y'all need to remind me who james is because i think i just blocked out the entire mess that was largely book 8 and now i'm like james whomst?? was he just a random dude that showed up?

[Cathy M.]

I sort of like how she did it now that I’ve read them, except for yea, that little tidbit about Alex was in the short story at the end of the last book. Though looking at the series as a whole I don’t think Alex’s adventure quite “fits” in the whole Covenant series arc. Just barely.

James was the guy they met in Maine in the last book. His mom was, and now he is, an ice sorceress. But just like Annie has no one to teach him what that means. He has a POS father and his mother died as part of a family crossroads curse when he was 12 so Annie pretty much took him under her wing and “adopted” him into the family during the CR drama (wanting her to kill him because he was trying to find a way to destroy it).

[Dev]

yeah alex's adventure really is way out in left field. i guess it was just to show a third group of humans who know about cryptids and were kind of somewhere between the covenant the price family? but i do wish he was a bit more centrally involved overall.

ah okay, i vaguely remember him now. it was just like 'and then james came out of the door' and i was like ummmmm lol

[Cathy M.]

I figured it was just included because he was a Price, but it was an opportunity to show another country who fought against the Covenant. It want to see him more with his fam though.

I’m starting tonight!

[Claudia]

I think the thing that has me the most confused is that this book takes place 5 years after the 3rd book. I hadn’t thought that much time had passed.

[Dev]

i think technically five years after the second book? but yeah i have no concept of timeline in this series lol

[Cathy M.]

Didn't Alex's book start 2 years after the events of NY? I remember in one of the books it said something like that when talking about Sarah's recuperation. But yea, it surprised me too that it had been 5 years. But I'm SOOOO glad that she's more the Sarah we met in NY rather than the timid stranger that we've seen since.

I'm thru Chpt 12 already. Had to stop my bingeing of The Stranger on Netflix which has sucked me in.

(view spoiler)[1st off, I'm so happy that we have the Aeslin mice again!!!! YAY!!!!! And how sweet/cute was that scene with Sarah?!?! She's officially a priestess to them now. So does that mean a colony will want to follow her around?

Too much cute in this one. Her & Artie. I get why they would think the other wasn't really interested but come on! They've been best friends forever. And their family kept trying to tell them and push them together. So FINALLY! But they really are adorable.

This other group of cuckoos. Oh boy. That Ingrid is a piece of work. If this is what cuckoos are supposed to be, I don't like them. And the whole instar thing was weird. Like how could Sarah have undergone these "transformations", even if slowly, without realizing it? From the memory, it sounds like the 1st one usually ended with the kid killing its foster parents. Something really violent. Or maybe I'm just not really getting those instar things. Well, whatever it is, why does it seem like they are pushing Sarah to the 4th instar as a type of sacrifice or something? And what about the bangs comment... like is one of the females going to pretend to be Sarah?

So far I'm loving this one in Sarah's POV. And I love the family interactions. James is fitting right in! But you know they are not ones to sit at the sidelines so they have to come into play soon. I have no idea what is going to happen or where the story is going to go but I'm excited to read on! (hide spoiler)]

[Cathy M.]

Made it thru Chpt 22 last night & it has gotten so hard to put down! But it was 3am & I was too tired to finish. Tried to read slower but I want to know what happens!!!!

(view spoiler)[Oh my god, Sarah's metamorphosis!!!!

It threw me at first that it switched POVs in the middle but can understand why. It's the same thing that happened in the 2nd book with Verity & Sarah so it's not anything new. Awww Artie.

I cannot believe they went into that swarm/hive to get Sarah. It must've been a little like hundreds of pod people all standing in the street veering off into space. It was funny how Mark kept saying how the Prices were such horrible people :D I felt bad for Mark - he was a true cuckoo with all the memories and conditioning but fought that nature and actually felt love for his parents and sister.

So back to Sarah. Holy crap! What is she going to do????? (hide spoiler)]

[Dev]

i did chapters 1-6 on friday i think. i will try to read some more today but i don't see myself finishing until wednesday maybe, not unless i just get really into it

[Claudia]

@Cathy I’m through chapter 22 as well and will be finishing it tonight.

For now (view spoiler)[I love how they Aeslin mice finally accepted Sarah but this is ruined by you know her evolving and in the words of Antimony going all Dark Phoenix on them. That scene where she woke up and attacked everyone I was like “No Sarah”. It looks like Artie got through to her a bit and hopefully he will be able to get her back. I will be really disappointed if she ends up dying.

I loved the point of view of Mark who was all like “how are you guys the good guys your all so terrible?” And Mark is not a good guy but he’s a realistic character. I liked his POV on how he doesn’t care about saving anyone else except his family. It’s selfish but truthful especially when he pointed out they had the same view point on their own family.

The whole scene where Artie basically tortured the cuckoo (Helewise?) that went to infiltrate them was my favorite. Like I know it’s a horrible thing to do but she went there to fake being Sarah and kill them so whatever she had it coming. (hide spoiler)]

[Cathy M.]

I agree Claudia about Mark - (view spoiler)[he was a nice addition and you are so right in that he wanted what the Prices wanted - to save his family which is exactly what they were doing for Sarah. And I didn't really think Artie had it in him to torture Heloise like that. Not that she didn't deserve it! I was surprised that he actually went there. But the whole bug spray thing also had me laughing pretty hard :D (hide spoiler)]

I finished yesterday & oh boy, that end!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(view spoiler)[WHAT?!?!?! I got a little lost here and there with the equation/numbers and the processing of it (which makes me believe that Seanan McGuire is WAY smarter than me) but I thought Sarah was just trying to offload some of the data so it wouldn't overwhelm her, and that would be the end of it (with nothing happening). But then she ended up solving the equation and what, did she just open a hole in the world so that other dimensions were coming thru to Earth, or did they get transported to another world? At first I thought the latter because Annie asked "Where" they were, but they could still be in Iowa because that showdown took place at the University of Iowa... Hey, maybe if they are in a different dimension, they could run into her grandpa Thomas or grandma Alice? Maybe too soon for Thomas. But maybe even Sally?

I know in the end that Sarah will fix this but getting there is going to be crazy. I'm dreading the wait!! But it looks like Mark has joined their merry band, at least I hope so. I like his snark :) (hide spoiler)]

[Claudia]

@ Cathy. That ending!! OMG!!! (view spoiler)[ The cliff hanger of it is going to drive me crazy until the next book. They get moved to another dimension and everyone forgets who Sarah is. I just can’t wait to see where the next book goes. Do you think the mice went with them and can clear things up? (hide spoiler)]

[Cathy M.]

Claudia wrote: "@ Cathy. That ending!! OMG!!! [spoilers removed]"

(view spoiler)[What? They forgot Sarah??? I did not catch that, probably because of the shock of that ending. I thought they were just angry. Could it have been caused by Sarah was using their brains to calculate that final equation?

You know I was hoping that at the end Sarah could move all the cuckoos to another dimension just so they wouldn't be threats in the future. She just wasn't supposed to take the gang along!

There was one of Artie's Aeslin mouse that tagged along so I would assume it was still with them. That mouse will be a legend :D (hide spoiler)]

[Dev]

im about to start chapter 9 right now so i guess stuff has happened but still not a lot yet. i think it's interesting to see how she can go into people's mind and see stuff from her perspective though. i should get through more today depending on how busy work is. lately i only really read at work most of the time bc i don't want to be doing work lol

[Dev]

probably shouldn't be so amused but the end of ch 14 killed me a little bit

"Oh, and did you know my dad’s bi?”
“I did not know that and I did not want to know that and why do you know that?”
She shrugged. “He made a pass at your dad when he started bleeding. Now come on. We need to figure out what we’re going to do next.”

between that and alex bleeding on james i feel like y'all are gonna have a lot to discuss lol

[Claudia]

Devann wrote: "probably shouldn't be so amused but the end of ch 14 killed me a little bit

"Oh, and did you know my dad’s bi?”
“I did not know that and I did not want to know that and why do you know that?”
She ..."

Yeah that was hilarious. I also wonder about James now since he was affected by Artie's blood and had to go take a shower.

[Claudia]

@Cathy About the ending (view spoiler)[ Yeah I had to go reread the ending because I caught that they all got amnesia and forgot Sarah but missed that they ended up in another dimension until you mentioned it. On the Aeslin mice I love the name they gave Sarah as “The Calculating Priestess”. I kind of wonder if the next book while they try to find their way home they end up finding Grandpa Thomas or intersecting with Alice trying to find him? (hide spoiler)]

[Cathy M.]

Devann wrote: "im about to start chapter 9 right now so i guess stuff has happened but still not a lot yet. i think it's interesting to see how she can go into people's mind and see stuff from her perspective tho..."

Oh wow, just realized notifications aren't working again :/

Oh hahaha yes, that was hilarious Devann!

[Cathy M.]

Claudia wrote: "Devann wrote: "probably shouldn't be so amused but the end of ch 14 killed me a little bit

"Oh, and did you know my dad’s bi?”
“I did not know that and I did not want to know that and why do you k..."

ooooh good point! Poor James.

[Cathy M.]

Claudia wrote: "@Cathy About the ending [spoilers removed]"

(view spoiler)[I'm thinking more that their paths might intersect with Alice's. I think it's too soon for Thomas, unless that's just me hoping for a book on Alice & Thomas. Maybe they'll find Sally and that will give them more hope that they will eventually find Thomas too. (hide spoiler)]

[Claudia]

Cathy M. wrote: "Claudia wrote: "@Cathy About the ending [spoilers removed]"

[spoilers removed]"

Oh you bring up a good point (view spoiler)[it makes more sense for them to find Sally than Thomas. I actually hope they do find Sally because I really like James and I want him to get a happy ending. Especially after all the crap he went through both in the last book and in this book. (hide spoiler)]

[Claudia]

So I preordered the next October Daye book that comes out in September. We are going to BR that right? Is it weird that I wanna reread the series already?

[Dev]

i still can't click on any of your spoilers bc im only on chapter 20 womp womp lol but yeah i wasn't sure if that meant that james was bi or just maybe that it affects you no matter what if the blood is directly on you? i'm just going to choose to think he's bi though and yes we will totally read the new october daye book when it comes out! not sure what else she is doing this year. so far we've had incryptid and wayward children and then october daye is usually in september but she usually writes standalone stuff too

[Cathy M.]

Claudia wrote: "Cathy M. wrote: "Claudia wrote: "@Cathy About the ending [spoilers removed]"

[spoilers removed]"

Oh you bring up a good point [spoilers removed]"

Yea he really does deserve it!

[Cathy M.]

There has to be an attraction for them to have a response, so James & Kevin having responses to Ted & Artie's blood makes it seem more likely. Though we haven't gotten to know them THAT well/on that level!

Oh yes will definitely be here for the next October book! In the meantime, I will catch up on The Weird this weekend, I promise!!!! Any other good series out now?

[Dev]

i have no idea, i have not been reading much at all this year. i was trying to figure out what we could read after this that i wouldn't flake out on and i've not come up with anything yet lol i guess i read the first skulduggery pleasant book a few months ago so if you guys were interested in that series then i could just wait for you guys to read the first book before moving on? but i'll try to take a look at my tbr later tonight. and i should finish this book today hopefully!

[Dev]

ok finally finished the actual book but not the short story. i've gotta say i'm not super happy with the ending because i don't think i have ever seen her end a book on such a cliffhanger and it's not something i particularly enjoy. i mostly see cliffhangers as something that not very good writers do to 'trick' you into buying more of their mediocre books and seanan is way better than that.

i also didn't catch that they forgot who sarah was but i guess it makes sense since she was kind of scrambling their brains a bit. i definitely like the addition of mark to the gang [hopefully lol] and i think i liked james a lot more in this book than i remember liking him in the previous one. also i'm so glad we got the split pov with artie here because when sarah got kidnapped i was like oh god if i have to spend page time with all these assholes im gonna flip lol

[Claudia]

Devann wrote: "ok finally finished the actual book but not the short story. i've gotta say i'm not super happy with the ending because i don't think i have ever seen her end a book on such a cliffhanger and it's ..."

Yeah, I wasn't happy with the cliffhanger ending though more cause i hate cliffhangers. They usually make me angry. I agree that the split POV in this book made it more interesting to read as we got to see from both Sarah and Artie's view on what was going on. The two of them were so cute and I love how they both seem to think the other is manipulating the other into liking the other.

I think the obvious tell on how they have forgotten her is when Sarah thinks about how odd it is for Artie to sound so cold and indifferent when talking about her. As I read it I thought it was weird too and wondered if they were talking about Ingrid then Sarah woke and was tied to a chair.

[Claudia]

On books to read

My goal now is to try and catch up on the weird and actually comment on it. I think I've read like only 3 stories from the January before I put it down. I hope to get caught up in the next week. I don't have any other series in mind to read and am currently doing backlog of books from my kindle which I've bought but never read. Not gonna lie these are basically romance novels that I can skim through and set down without any real investment. I also have a list of books from other series I was reading but then didn't read the last books from. Like I'm two books behind on the Guild Hunter Series by Nalini Singh, Grave Destiny by Kalayna Price. I also read the first two book of the Cassie Palmer series last year by Karen Chance and have been meaning to go read the rest of the books in that series.

Oh are you guys interested in the Nightside series by Simon R Green? I read the first book Something from the Nightside a few years ago and have been meaning to go a reread it and then rest of the series.

[Cathy M.]

I didn't get how they were so cold the 1st time around, just thinking that they were angry. But it made more sense the 2nd time around. And it wasn't just Artie, it was all of them!

James had gone thru a lot in the previous book, and when he was 1st introduced, he was a stranger and didn't trust in the gang yet. In this one he seemed a lot more comfortable with himself and with everyone else, and really did feel like part of the gang.

I just hate the fact that we're going to have to wait, probably for ONE YEAR until we get some sort of resolution to this cliffhanger. They are so annoying!

I've read the 1st couple Cassie Palmer books, and was trying to do a re-read (only got to #3), but other games/challenges kept getting in the way. With the new Pritkin book that just came out (technically part of the Dorina Basarab series), I really want to get to it again. I looked at the Nightside series before & wouldn't mind trying it out but it does sound a little similar to Dresden Files (not that I mind!). Have you heard of the Eric Carter series? 1st book is Dead Things. It sounds interesting and there are 4 books out now with the 5th out next month.

[Claudia]

lol I went to go look at the book you linked for the Eric Carter series and found it checked as want to read so obviously at one point I thought about reading it. It sound interesting so would definitely try it

[Cathy M.]

Oh ha! Didn't even notice that :) I hadn't heard about this series before but it was at the top of the page of another book I was looking at. Can't say if it's any good or not though.

I'm not too picky, I'm willing to try just about any series. I'm trying to think of other potential ones too...

[Dev]

i think i had nightside on the tbr at some point and took it off bc the cover/description look very familiar but it is not actually marked to read and eric carter is not really grabbing me either. tbh i think i am pretty burnt out on adult fantasy at this point unless it has something REALLY unique about it because otherwise i'm just like 'why am i reading this is literally like 10 other books i have read or tried to read'

[Dev]

here's some stuff i found on my tbr but i'm open to other suggestions just please not Generic Urban Fantasy Book #1902834. i know we started out reading mostly urban fantasy stuff but i just can't at this point lol there's a huge block in my brain where it's concerned rn

Equal Rites [discworld, witches book 1]

Splashdance Silver [read another book by this author that was a queer genderswapped sci-fi musketeers retelling so it should be interesting at any rate]

The Dystopia Spell [read another series by this author that was a queer sci-fi time travel thing where they were fighting a sentient evil corporation so again ...definitely some unique ideas]

some other random ones that i found on my tbr that look vaguely interesting to me now:
Amberlough
A Study in Brimstone
The Murders of Molly Southbourne

Genuine Fraud [and a random standalone if it catches anyone's eye and we don't want to commit to a series]

Alice Isn't Dead [and another standalone although idk if it's good to read it without listening to the podcast. it's supposed to just kind of be a retelling that is a standalone but i know sometimes they say that and i'm like mmm no people should have really read/listened to the other thing]

or i was actually thinking about reading some of the goosebumps books bc i never read them as a kid but idk how into middle grade you guys are.

[Claudia]

Equal Rites and A Study in Brimstone sounds interesting. I tried reading Alice isn't dead last year and got bored about halfway through before skim reading the rest.

How do you guys feel about science fiction?

I've been considering the following. All are stand alones.

Space Opera --- As title suggests it's a space opera. Story about A one-hit-wonder band having to compete in a music battle of the bands to save Earth from annihilation.

Empress of Forever --- Yet another a space opera. Per the description sort of a feminist Guardians of the Galaxy

More Fanatsy-- but not urban

Magic for Liars --- Magicless sister goes to help estrange magical twin with solving a murder.

All the Stars and Teeth - Magic and pirates

The Rules of Supervillainy -- Anti-hero story. Character gets a magical cloak and decides rather be rich instead of the hero and decides to be a villian

The Shadows Between Us -Main character has plan to woo shadow king, marry him then kill him and take over. Instead, as the story goes seems to fall for him while working to keep him alive long enough to marry him.

I've also been wanting to read the Ruby Red trilogy.

[Dev]

im starting to think catherynne valente is more miss than hit for me so i doubt me BRing space opera would be a good idea. and i already read magic for liars it was very good.

empress of forever SOUNDS good but i just tried to read the first craft sequence book by that author last month and it was so mind numbingly boring i had to DNF it so i'm not sure lol i'm like sounds cool but also it's long and i don't trust him now

all the stars and teeth, ruby red, and shadows between us sounds like they're gonna hit all the ya tropes that i hate so sorry i'm a picky bitch but i just can't do straight teen romance with ~mysterious kind of asshole dude~ as the love interest lol

rules of supervillainy looks like it would either be really hilarious or like the most cringey thing ever. i would probably read a kindle sample to check it out first but could be an option

[Dev]

also i've actually got a fair amount of stuff on my scifi shelf that i havent read

https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...

if you scroll down to the middle of that page it starts w/ the stuff i havent read then there's a few more on the next page as well

[Dev]

also would be up for artemis fowl been meaning to get to that. again don't know how y'all feel about middle grade but i'm liking it more and more lol

[Claudia]

Devann wrote: "also would be up for artemis fowl been meaning to get to that. again don't know how y'all feel about middle grade but i'm liking it more and more lol"

I've been wanting to read Artemis Fowl so I would be interested in that.

Speaking of middle school books. Have either of you read the Alex rider series? The first book is Stormbreaker. I read the first book years ago and always meant to finish the series. Especially now that they are doing the tv show which looks pretty cool. It got me all excited and wanting to read the book series.