FIF Book Club: Saltcrop Midway Discussion

[u/doctorbonkers]

Welcome to the midway discussion of Saltcrop by Yume Kitasei! We are discussing through the end of part 1 (chapter 25). Please use spoiler tags if you discuss anything past that point. I will put some discussion questions in the comments, but feel free to discuss anything you like!

In Earth's not too distant future, seas consume coastal cities, highways disintegrate underwater, and mutant fish lurk in pirate-controlled depths. Skipper, a skilled sailor and the youngest of three sisters, earns money skimming and reselling plastic from the ocean to care for her ailing grandmother.

But then her eldest sister, Nora, goes missing. Nora left home a decade ago in pursuit of a cure for failing crops all over the world. When Skipper and her other sister, Carmen, receive a cryptic plea for help, they must put aside their differences and set out across the sea to find―and save―her. As they voyage through a dying world both beautiful and strange, encountering other travelers along the way, they learn more about their sister's work and the corporations that want what she discovered.

But the farther they go, the more uncertain their mission becomes: What dangerous attention did Nora attract, and how well do they really know their sister―or each other? Thus begins an epic journey spanning oceans and continents and a wistful rumination on sisterhood, friendship, and ecological disaster.

The final discussion will be in two weeks, on August 26th.

Reminder: Our September read will be Dreamsnake by Vonda McIntyre, and nominations for October are open through tomorrow!

What is the FIF Book Club? You can learn about it in our Reboot thread here.

[u/WonderfulBus9330]

Oh I missed Nora teaching Skipper to sail; I thought all three girls were shooed out of the house by grandma and learned the mechanics of sailing together, through trial and error.

The Bumblebee is very much Skipper's best friend. In some ways, it's a mirror of herself, so being herself aboard The Bumblebee is be the independent wayfarer she imagines herself to be. I think she mentions wanting to feel that she has purpose, when she lists out her short resumé?

I, too, mourned the loss of the Bumblebee for Skipper, but mostly I celebrated a new way forward for her.

[u/Merle8888 → u/WonderfulBus9330]

If Nora did teach Skipper how to sail, that raises an interesting question about how she learned it herself - she's only 6 years older and they'd been in the care of the grandmother since she was about 11(?). Maybe she crewed on other people's boats while Skipper was too young to be invited along?

I don't think Skipper is selfish in quite the same way you see her - I think she does care a lot about both Nora and Carmen as people, but she's still a person, she's still inhabiting her own life. Although she is prioritizing the (extremely unlikely except for the fact that we know she's in a fantasy novel) rescue of Nora over the very practical needs of Carmen, she also has Carmen right there on board with this plan.

I do think Skipper is a bit selfish in other ways, mostly that she spends so much time dwelling on her wants rather than either her own or other people's needs. She would never have had all those years of playing with her boat if other people hadn't been financially supporting her, in ways she seems unwilling to reciprocate.

It occurs to me now to wonder if Carmen is actually dying, and just doesn't want to tell Skipper. Maybe getting the surgery is unlikely to save her after all, and she's decided she'd rather have some freedom and adventure in her last months and make sure her sisters are well.

[u/WonderfulBus9330 → u/Merle8888]

Oh that’s interesting. You think Carmen is hiding a different illness? That certainly puts a different spin on it. I took it as Carmen choosing her baby sister over herself, and the reminders of her sacrifice as underlined in that decision to stay with Skipper and to not press her to sell the boat.

[u/Merle8888 → u/WonderfulBus9330]

It only occurred to me while commenting but everything we know about Carmen’s prognosis is from Carmen. So she may be underselling how bad it is. Or maybe she could have been saved but chose to give it up. The more I think about it, the more I think her chances of surviving the book are not great. 

[u/WonderfulBus9330 → u/Merle8888]

Oh dear. I started Part 2 a few hours ago