Spiral Dance
Transition
In which Jela and Cantra nail their colours to the mast.
I once encountered, somewhere online, a very disgruntled review of this novel written by someone who’d picked it as their introduction to the Liaden Universe. Looking at the amount of assumed knowledge in this chapter alone, I can see where they were coming from. (And in fairness I’ve gotta say the cover doesn’t really do much of a job of warning you that this is part two of a two-volume novel.)
Though it does at least find plot-appropriate excuses to recap the tree’s history (I like the description of the trees holding the enemy at bay by will “and by won’t”) and the appearances of our principals.
We get the first explicit statement of Jela’s built-in time limit, and something approaching an explanation. “Safer that way,” says Jela, though I notice he doesn’t say for whom.
Re: The “safer that way” comment. You get to bring your own explanation for that one — it doesn’t contradict any of the explanations we thought of earlier.
I like comments like “giving a good imitation of a woman with a sensible decision on deck.” Aren’t we all making it up as we go along and hoping for the best?
It is only since I began my own re-read that it has finally registered how strong the will (and the won’t…as in “won’t yield to you, won’t side with you, won’t serve you”) of the ssussdriad is, *almost* stronger than the sheriekas themselves.
In reference to my comments for the Prologue…doesn’t it seem as if the word sheriekas refers to a legion composed of beings who serve the Enemy? Or is “the Iloheen” itself the sheriekas?
I always thought they were the same thing. Rool said so — who you call the Sheriekas– when he meets Jela and Cantra, at the end of Crystal Soldier. Some such words.
True. And yet we never see (that I recall) the sheriekas referred to with a capital “S,” which leaves an entirely different impression than the Iloheen.
I always found that odd, too.
When Jela accuses Rool Tiazan and his lady of being sheriekas at the end of Crystal Soldier, Rool Tiazan’s denial makes it clear that, as he understands the term, it refers specifically to the beings that call themselves the Iloheen. The sheriekas are the beings that created the dramliz, and that seek to make themselves the sole inhabitants of the universe.
The way I see it, “Iloheen” is a title, but “sheriekas” is a descriptive term, like “plague rat”. (The comparison that just came to mind is the antagonists in Janet Kagan’s Hellspark, who call themselves The Inheritors of God, but who are mostly referred to by other characters as the “wasters”, with a lower-case w.)
Well said. So you see shereikas as the derogatory term the lesser beings (humans) gave them. Yes? It makes sense, and especially since Jela says they were human once.
Ps. I will rustle up Hellspark. It keeps coming up on various Liaden sites.
Good point, Paul. And helpful analogy.
Just an additional note about “the Iloheen“: it seems to be used both singulary and collectively, i.e., there is more than one Iloheen but even one is referred to as “the Iloheen.”
RE: plot-appropriate excuses to recap the tree’s history . . . and the appearances of our principals.
Agreed. This chapter is packed with recap exposition, but handled quite neatly, I thought.
Re: the term sheriekas
Do we ever get a sense of the etymology? (I.e. Terrans = people from Terra; Liadens = people from Liad). Are sheriekas people from a system called sheriek, or is there another definition? Personally, I’m struck by the resemblance to the word shriek, which the Iloheen certainly make people do.