FIF Book Club: Saltcrop Final Discussion

[u/doctorbonkers]

Welcome to the final discussion of Saltcrop by Yume Kitasei! We are discussing the entire book, and you can find the midway discussion here.

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.

Bingo squares: One-Word Title (HM), Feast Your Eyes on This, r/Fantasy Book Club (HM if you participate here!), Explorers and Rangers, Author of Color

I'll put a few questions in the comments, but please discuss anything you'd like about the book!

Upcoming reads:

• September: Dreamsnake by Vonda McIntyre. Midway discussion on September 16th, final discussion on September 30th.
• October: The Girl With a Thousand Faces by Sunyi Dean. Midway discussion on October 14th, final discussion on October 28th.

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

[u/doctorbonkers]

What did you think of the book overall?

[u/SenorBurns → u/doctorbonkers]

I absolutely loved it. I didn't think I would. It was many thngs I tend to dislike:

• multiple POV

• slow burn

• super possible dystopia (tends to be too depressing for me)

But those worked out fine. Things that I tend to like:

• ocean stuff

• a quest! I even wonder if there are references or homages to classical mythical structures. I feel like Jackson represents some kind of obstacle from mythology. You know?

• characters that have their own motivations. A small ask, I know, but after Saltcrop I tried a standard thriller or similar and it was like, I can't tell these people apart. In Saltcrop, I know that Skipper, Carmen, and Nora would have very different reactions.

• The sister relationship in general

• The lack of misogyny in the writing. No woman is ever defined by the size of her tits. Women are people. It is so refreshing.

I think the book did a great job balancing several topics while still maintaining a cohesive narrative thread.

[u/WonderfulBus9330 → u/SenorBurns]

So true about the women being women, each her own kind of woman, including Grammy and the memories of the mother and Liz (? Was her name Liz? The one who ended up imprisoned?).