Conflict of Honors – Chapter 6

Shipyear 65
Tripday 130
Fourth Shift
18.00 hours

In which Priscilla meets Shan yos’Galan.

Contrary to what I said last week, this must be where I first learned about Liadens and faces. It must be. Conflict of Honors was the first Liaden story I ever read, and certainly Gordy’s recital is the most detailed and explicit statement of the case to be found anywhere in the series. I don’t remember it, though. There is a difference, perhaps, between being told about a thing in the abstract and coming to comprehend it through being shown examples of it in action.

The dateline on this chapter is not consistent with a 28-hour day divided into four 7-hour shifts, in which 18.00 hours would be deep in Third Shift. It would, on the other hand, fit a 24-hour day divided into four shifts.

5 thoughts on “Conflict of Honors – Chapter 6

  1. Ed8r

    Since I have already read the other novels and quite a few of the short stories, I actually found Gordy’s recitation a bit awkward, too much exposition. More like what is called “fan service”…written into the story only because readers have asked questions about it.

  2. Sami Sillanpaa

    I think, given the publication order (Conflict of Honors was the second Liaden Universe novel to be released, after Agent of Change), that Gordy’s exposition was written that way partly because the authors were working it out for themselves, and partly because they probably weren’t sure they’d be able to demonstrate it more subtly across several more novels, since they didn’t think at the time that there would be any more novels, beyond maybe Carpe Diem.

  3. Ed8r

    Sami has articulated the explanation for all this information to be stuffed into Gordy’s recitation (had we needed it) but unfortunately the perceived need from that time leaves us with a very awkward and now unnecessary exposition.

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