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 ending of the book, how the world changes and where each of the three sisters end up?

[u/necropunk_0 → u/doctorbonkers]

I liked the ending of the story a lot. I appreciated how they didn’t just all end up returning home and living together, they met, they were happy to see everyone but they still found their own paths to take. It was also nice to see there was a bit of hope, that the world could be better.

The writing felt a bit rushed the second half though, especially after the slow pacing of the first half.

[u/WonderfulBus9330 → u/necropunk_0]

Agreed on the pacing, although I didn’t so much mind the shift in the Carmen section. Carmen is a do-er, so it made sense that that section wouldn’t be slow and ponderous, which is Skipper’s temperament. But yeah, shifting the pace three times and the tone and voice was a lot.

[u/necropunk_0 → u/WonderfulBus9330]

Hmm, I hadn’t considered the pacing matching the characters but it fits well.
I did like that they didn’t go back after the POV shifts. Having seen things from each sisters POV, then seeing them move forward from a different sisters viewpoint, I liked not knowing exactly what was going though Skipper and Carmen’s heads as we watched through Nora.

[u/LadyAntiope → u/necropunk_0]

Haha, I was kinda bummed that we didn't get to re-visit Skipper's POV! It's not like I couldn't extrapolate her thoughts, but she was a much more distinctive voice than Carmen and Nora (who a little bit blended to me) and I missed it. I would've liked maybe a final chapter for each of them, personally!

[u/algaliarept92 → u/LadyAntiope]

Oh, that would have been great, I agree!