Spiral Dancer
In Transit
In which a course is charted.
I think this is the first time Cantra’s surname has been mentioned. Jela has doubts about its authenticity, seeing as “Phelium” bore an interesting similarity to the Rim-cant word for “pilot”. And “yos'” was the Inworld’s prefix for denoting a courier or delivery person, which is interesting, and since I first read this book I’ve occasionally idled time away trying to guess what other Liaden prefixes might have denoted in the Inworlds. dea’ might have signified a person who minds the business of another, given the examples of dea’Gauss, whose family business is handling the financial and legal affairs of other families, and dea’Judan, whose family business is storekeeping (but not owning the stores they keep). And I have a feeling, without having done a deliberate survey, that pel’ has a tendency to appear in the names of butlers and other such domestic servants.
We also get our first mention of the Uncle, and straight out of the gate the doubt about whether he’s (a) still around and (b) still the same man who used to be the Uncle in the old days, which is going to become something of a recurring motif.
Intriguing ideas about the prefixes. Makes sense to me, and fun to ponder. In Lois Bujold’s fabulous Vorkosigan series, the prefix Vor- (Vorpatril, Vorbarra, Vorkosigan) is attached to surnames to denote something like “warrior-ruler.”
Another fun event in this book occurs in this chapter, describing how Jela got back into the locked Spiral Dance. Surprise!
He gave Cantra a cool lecture on Shereikas-made tech, and tries to persuade her to stand and fight. “I’ve been fighting my whole life, and the war is going against us. There’s a chance, not much of a chance…”
Cantra thinks, “The war had been a fact of her entire life…” and finds it “laughable” that she could influence the course of events. This, I think, is a flaw in the plot premise. World eaters abound, but we all go about our business?
Business as usual?
We spent twenty years going about our business with the imminent nuclear extinction of the entire human race hanging over our heads, most of us certain that there was nothing we could do to affect it. It’s astonishing what a person can get used to if he has to.
Hmmm. In this book, I get the sense that people are not even concerned about this worlds-ending reality (not a threat, a reality). There is even a hint of true ignorance, as if people don’t know the universe is ending. That is absurd. In my childhood, we were concerned about nuclear threat. We talked about it, prepared for it — stocked up, had drills in school, blaring “emergency” drills in town, etc. Newspapers, TV, books, radio, song lyrics and the cinema reflected the threat. In this duology, it feels like the Shereika reality is occurring in a vacuum of ignorance or unconcern.
RE: comments from Jelala Alone in Sept 2013:
In addition to other comments here, I will add that I get the impression that this world-ending reality is not generally known. If the High Command is pulling Inside, as if they can defend the inner worlds, then which people would even know that their leaders were acting in deception? Except for the Consolidated Commanders, who Jela is representing.
Chiming in. I guess people actively ignoring the ENEMY threat does seem odd to me, but I can see how it would/could happen as described in the book, at least to a point. But honestly— whole systems disappearing!? High level of head-in-sandness, but conceivable.
EARC now available at Baen books for ACCEPTING THE LANCE. Cost is $15 dollars
Ooooo . . . Oooooo . . . I may just break down and take advantage of that. Although it would interrupt my re-read. Hmmm . . . can’t decide.
Paul? Will you be commenting ahead of the publication date? Or do you usually wait? I haven’t really been around long enough to know (although I suppose I could make comparisons between release dates and dates of your posts).
Sorry for the late reply — I got caught up in other things and haven’t been checking comments for a while.
I never read eARCs, so I won’t be posting a response to Accepting the Lance until the proper ebook edition is published in December.
Yup. That’s what I had assumed. I’ll still be posting re-reread comments until then, I’m sure. Although…confession…I did read the eARC, but just so I could offer help with tyops (as Sharon styled it).