Number Twelve Leafydale Place
Greensward-by-Efraim
Delgado
In which Theo Waitley has to leave home.
A new novel, and a new character — and also some old ones, as Theo’s parents are Kamele Waitley and Jen Sar Kiladi, who we last saw newly-acquainted at the end of Mouse and Dragon.
Part of the interest of reading Fledgling the first time, for me, was seeing the way the authors expanded on hints about Kiladi’s life on Delgado that had been given in other stories written earlier but set later: Kiladi’s office; Theo; the family tradition about Delm Korval, which is rather different and somewhat more complicated than the first-published mention of it suggested… and Kamele Waitley, who was honestly a complete surprise to me (for reasons I think I’ll save for when she actually appears).
This chapter also contains the first mentions of several new details about Delgado that will continue to unfold over the course of the novel, including the Office of Safety, the Chapelia, and the matriarchal system in which Theo is her mother’s daughter and Jen Sar’s relationship with them both continues only so long as Kamele chooses to continue it.
With the benefit of knowing what’s coming, I can see and appreciate the clever dance the authors have done to distract the reader from the fact that we’re not shown where Coyster went at the end of the chapter.
Am I alone in really wanting to read those books on Theo’s shelf?
The question of where Coyster went had me most concerned. As a cat lover and cat…am I allowed to say “owner”?…I enjoy these feline characters in Sharon and Steve’s stories. The cats and the norbears probably cause me more concern than the people characters!
I started my reread of this book last night, and was close to ROFL at all the hints I did not catch the first time through. Here’s a list:
1) description of Kiladi’s “over-polite” voice
2) the blaze of galaxies projected in the floor: Theo is apparently not at all bothered by movement and/or depth of field that Theo’s mother says makes *her* dizzy
3) description of Jen Sar: one of his boneless, cat-like moves, flowing toward her…silent—
4) He says: This is not, I think something for Delm Korval.
5) He moved his shoulders in his familiar, supple shrug
Of course I had not forgotten the “Delm Korval” conceit. BUT I also had not registered until this time, after reading books and stories in order, that Delm Korval is actually Jen Sar himself, or as we also know him—Daav yos’Phelium. That’s when I shouted in laughter (startling only my cats).
Does anyone have a good idea of what this Liaden shrug looks like? I’ve read the descriptions, but I was trying to think if I’d seen something similar in our world…but I couldn’t place it. Did the authors invent it? Or is there a culture that uses this style of body language?
One last detail from this chapter: Theo stands looking at her room after it’s all “packed” and thinks it looks like a stay-over room on the station. But…how would she know what a “stay-over room on the station [what station?]” looks like?
There’s a space station in orbit around Delgado, which acts as a waypoint for people arriving or leaving. It’s mentioned a couple of times earlier in the chapter: once in the description of Theo’s mobile of Delgado’s solar system, and once when she’s packing up her photos and there’s one of Delgado taken from the station. (And of course it’s mentioned again in more detail later in the novel, and in “Breath’s Duty”.)
I don’t recall off the top of my head whether Theo has been as far as the station herself, but perhaps she’s seen photos of its stay-over rooms as well.