Day 108
Standard Year 1118
Tilene Docks
In which Jethri tries his hand at cargo.
We are reminded that Jethri is most comfortable on board ship, or failing that somewhere with a solid roof over his head, a fact which is going to become salient in another chapter or two.
I had completely forgotten the detailed description of Tilene’s city, possibly because it doesn’t end up being relevant to anything later on (unless I’ve forgotten that, too). Nice bit of worldbuilding, though.
This was one of my least favourite chapters on my first reading of this novel; I have a tendency to feel it very strongly when a sympathetic character makes a mistake. I had forgotten, or it hadn’t sunk in, that his teachers judge him to have done well, all things considered. And surely this is the best kind of mistake: one that can be learned from and will not be repeated on some future occasion where the consequences of a mistake might be much worse.
I was reminded of this chapter recently, when in the course of events I found myself spending some time in the cargo dock of a classy hotel. Among the things to be found there was a sign, prominently displayed, informing all cargo handlers that food shipments must be transferred directly from vehicles onto cargo trolleys, and any such left sitting on the ground would be rejected out of hand even if there were no sign of dampness or contamination.
A RW connection!
My third time through, I still found myself surprised that Jethri was so unfamiliar with planetary weather. If he had been active with his family’s business, and had even loaded cargo—and had been at least exposed to the arguments/discussions between Arin and Grig over whether the little weather “predictor” was accurate—it seems like he’d be less jumpy about a bit of leftover rain.