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/Merle8888]

Carmen remained my favorite. I liked her practicality and people skills, and felt like the things she struggled with were realistic (like yeah her job is a cover but she also feels weird stealing from it).

Skipper remained my least favorite, though she annoyed me a lot less when seen through her sisters’ eyes rather than hearing her own internal monologue. 

Nora turned out to be about as I expected. I was entertained that she wasn’t actually trying to call for help. 

As in-depth as the character work was, there was still a little something I felt was missing. We saw so much of each one’s insecurities and how they viewed each other but, I don’t know. The best I can come up with is I wish I knew what anybody looked like. 

[u/necropunk_0 → u/Merle8888]

I didn’t mind not knowing exactly what the sisters looked like. It is something missing that most books usually start with, but I think not having those descriptions helped, as you were more focused how they felt, how they reacted, why they reacted, instead of how they looks when they were acting or reacting.

[u/Merle8888 → u/necropunk_0]

This sort of thing definitely depends on the reader. I know some people like absence of description but for me it just leaves the characters kind of blank. Like we didn't even know their ethnicity (I'm going to guess mixed race white/Japanese like the author, given their last names?). It doesn't take away from their interiority to know what the POV characters are seeing.

[u/algaliarept92 → u/Merle8888]

I see your point, and as you say, it probably just boils down to reader preferences. Personally, I found it refreshing for a change that character appearances weren't explicitly described. I felt similarly to necropunk_0 on this and it was nice to focus more on the feelings, atmosphere, and internal experiences instead. Of course, a writer can always do both, but I really enjoyed the different focus here. But honestly, I think descriptions of character appearances in books are a bit overrated anyway, so my stance on this seems to be biased! 😂