Monthly Archives: October 2014

Carpe Diem – Chapter 25

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Liad
Envolima City

In which Tyl Von sig’Alda comes to a satisfactory conclusion.

There’s a notable omission from Tyl Von sig’Alda’s analysis of Val Con and Miri’s motives for joining forces: no mention of Miri’s trouble with the Juntavas which was, at least initially, the actual reason they stuck together.

One apparent possibility is that Agent sig’Alda doesn’t have knowledge of the Juntavas’ doings; they seem to be a Terran-only organisation, and they’re no doubt pretty short with strangers found sticking their nose into their business. But that doesn’t hold up; we’ve seen that the Department have ways of getting information they shouldn’t have access to, and in particular we’ve seen sig’Alda himself obtain information on this subject from a Juntava. It’s highly unlikely that Jefferson spent all that time talking about how they captured and stranded Miri and Val Con without ever mentioning why.

So the explanation seems to be that sig’Alda does have access to the information about the Juntavas’ interest in Miri, but has dismissed it as an insignificant Terran squabble irrelevant to the doings of Liadens.

(The other reason Val Con and Miri stuck together seems to be so far off sig’Alda’s radar as to not even occur to him as a possibility. Which is perhaps a bit shortsighted, given that there’s the example of Val Con’s uncle and aunt to show that it is possible that such a thing might befall one of Korval. But then, short-sightedness has ever been one of the characteristics of bigotry.)

I wonder how much of sig’Alda’s disdain for Terrans is original to him, and how much is a result of his Department training.

Carpe Diem – Chapter 24

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Liad
Trealla Fantrol

In which Nova Remembers.

We haven’t heard of Lady yo’Lanna since back before Nova was born; I wonder if this is still the same Lady yo’Lanna as it was then. It might well be; plenty of other people of the same generation are still around (as witness Mr dea’Gauss, mentioned in the same paragraph, or indeed Lady yo’Lanna’s kinsman, Ken Rik), and yo’Lanna is not as prone to potentially-life-shortening excitement as yos’Phelium or yos’Galan.

Another thing we haven’t seen recently, though more recently than that, is Nova in the throes of a Memory; we haven’t seen it happen since the very first time, back in “Heirloom”. It appears that, with the Healers’ help, she has gained some measure of control over the manifestation, though only enough to ride it out safely, not enough to prevent it. (I suspect that the Healers wouldn’t teach her to suppress it even if they knew how; it seems like the kind of thing where the only way is through, and pushing it down would only make it pop up harder at a later time.) They don’t seem to have been able to teach her to like her talent, either, which isn’t surprising if all her Memories are of high emotion, disaster, and death.

The message of this particular Memory is perhaps that sometimes the best thing one can do is to wait and see how events unfold, and not push too hard to see them ahead of time. Or it might, considering the description of the material Nova was reading when the Memory arrived, be a specific warning about trying to arrange some matters while missing important information, with particular relevance to her attempt to force a certain future on Shan.

Carpe Diem – Chapter 23

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Liad
Trealla Fantrol

In which Nova learns more about the Department of the Interior.

With Miri and Val Con’s adventure in Gylles over for now, it’s back to see what Val Con’s relatives are doing on Liad. Or have been doing, or will be doing: I’m still not sure how the timelines of the various plot strands line up.

One thing I have realised is that as well as Val Con saying it’s been slightly over a month since their night on the town in Econsey, we have Miri — the previous day — saying that they’ve known each other for less than a month. Maybe Miri is rounding down and Val Con is rounding up, or maybe they’re using different months… in which case, it’s anyone’s guess how long it’s actually been.

That realisation led me to go back over the chapters covering the disputed period, looking for date markers, and here’s what I’ve discovered: if one figures on Miri and Val Con being in the hands of the Juntavas for about four days, and then another four days between that and their landfall on Zhena Trelu’s world (a much more likely period to survive on bread, water, and salmon than two weeks!), that not only fits all the available hints, but it can then be plausibly asserted that (with a single exception) the chapters of the novel up to this point are after all in their correct chronological order.

Imagine that: the authors knowing what they’re doing!

Carpe Diem – Chapter 22

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Vandar
Gylles

In which Val Con and Miri make some new friends.

Hakan may be physically short-sighted, but he sees better than some: he’s one of very few people in this novel or the last not to mistake Miri’s lack of stature for a lack of years. (He also gets her name right, even though he’s presumably grown up with the same phonemes as Zhena Trelu, which may be a testament to a musician’s ear and understanding of the importance that can be attached to almost-inaudible differences.)

This chapter includes some descriptions of what Terran sounds like to speakers of Benish, “a weird, chopping language” that “jarred on the ears”. Which implies something about what Benish itself sounds like. (I wonder what Hakan and Kem would make of Liaden, which is generally described as being smoother and more flowing.)

Carpe Diem – Chapter 21

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Vandar
Gylles

In which Cory and Meri get some new clothes.

I notice that Zhena Trelu neglects to mention to Salissa the shop assistant that Miri is married, and I wonder if that’s a factor in Salissa’s insistence on “looking pretty” as the primary factor in her clothing choices. On the other hand, Zhena Trelu does quite clearly specify “proper work clothes” and “warm”, without any measurable effect, so maybe she’d have taken the same tack anyway.

It hadn’t occurred to me before this re-read, but Zhena Trelu’s inclusion of the library on the day’s itinerary is presumably a response to Val Con’s request for books to help Miri with the language.

Carpe Diem – Chapter 20

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Vandar
Springbreeze Farm and Environs

In which Borril is not pretty.

The language lesson in this chapter is one of my favourite parts of the novel.

It is apparently just over a month since Val Con gave Miri the stick-knife in Econsey, which occurred a day or two before they left Lufkit on the 242nd day of the year, so this is somewhere in the vicinity of day 270 (and Edger’s interlude on Kago, instead of happening a week after they landed on this world, as the placement of the chapter suggests, happened a week before). That leaves, between their captivity with the Juntavas and their landfall on Zhena Trelu’s world, about two weeks for trying to get the derelict yacht working, Jump, and scouting from orbit. It didn’t feel like that long when it was happening, but I suppose it’s not impossible, though it is an awfully long time to be living on pretzel-bread, water, and salmon.

Miri, arranging the breakfast things, is described moving with surprising swiftness, an attribute which in this series is usually a sign of a pilot, or at least one with pilot potential. Miri isn’t a pilot, and has never mentioned having the potential or the interest, but given the life she’s led it’s not unlikely that the possibility has never occurred to her.

Carpe Diem – Chapter 19

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Liad
Envolima City

In which Tyl Von sig’Alda seeks that which is lost.

The tour of the plot strands continues.

This is the only time I can recall Envolima City being mentioned. Most things that happen on Liad happen either in Solcintra or Chonselta.

The description of Korval as pursuing its own interests to the incidental benefit of Liad makes an interesting contrast to the Department of the Interior, which as will become apparent considers itself as working for the good of Liad but when it comes down to it defines “the good of Liad” as that which is good for the Department.

Carpe Diem – Chapter 18

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Starship Clarion,
Allied to Captain Robert Chen-Jacobs
Taking orbit around the world named Kago

In which Edger perceives a need for haste.

It seems we’re getting a quick tour of the other plot strands before we return to find out how Val Con and Miri’s shopping trip progresses.

This event has a specific date attached to it: it’s four days since Edger and Sheather left Lufkit, which they did on day 255 of the year, and thus a day or two after the scenes a few chapters ago of Edger’s messages arriving on Liad. How that lines up with Miri and Val Con’s plot strand is not obvious, because that has been proceeding in imprecise intervals of “a few days” and “a week” — but one thing that is clear is that the plot strands cannot be proceeding strictly in step. We’ve had Miri and Val Con’s first week on the new world in the interval between Edger’s message arriving on Liad and Edger himself arriving at Kago, an interval that as has already been mentioned is no more than four days. There has to have been some shuffling for the benefit of the dramatic flow.

The story of Captain Rolanni and the reason she is bound for a planet where respectable ships do not ordinarily go is told in the short story “Quiet Knives”. Speaking of shuffling for the benefit of the dramatic flow, I couldn’t find a good break in the novel to squeeze the short story into, so I’ve scheduled it in between the end of Carpe Diem and the beginning of Plan B.

Carpe Diem – Chapter 17

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Dutiful Passage
Liad Orbit

In which Priscilla seeks that which is lost.

The obvious implication of having this chapter here is that it happens not long after Miri and Val Con go to sleep, but I’m not sure I believe that. Priscilla reports that Val Con is “protected within deep meditation”, when we’ve just finished hearing that Val Con no longer believes himself to have access to the protection offered by the deepest level of the Rainbow, and that he is perhaps engrossed in playing music, which he hasn’t been doing any of lately either. So I think perhaps this scene takes place somewhat in advance of the main plot strand, and foreshadows an event we’ve yet to see from Val Con’s side.

Carpe Diem – Chapter 16

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Vandar
Springbreeze Farm

In which Val Con shows Miri the Rainbow.

This the first we’ve heard of Clonak ter’Meulen in a while — indeed, since before Val Con’s father left to pursue his Balance, and that was a very long time ago. It won’t be nearly so long until we hear of him again.

Val Con’s thought implies that he hasn’t been into his own mental safe-space at the end of the Rainbow in a long time, perhaps since he fell into the hands of the Department; it seems like the the kind of thing the Department would want to keep a person from having access to. When he tried to run the Rainbow in Agent of Change, he got diverted into one of the programs the Department bolted onto his brain before he got to the point where the stairway and the door appear.

I mentioned, back when Justin Hostro was showing off his wealth by having a Belansium planetscape, that I’d never before managed to make the connection between that and the Belansium planetscapes in “Phoenix”. I’d also never managed to make the connection between either of those and Miri here discovering that her mental safe-space includes a Belansium. (And consequently, I’d never quite understood why she was worried, which is presumably that she knows she lacks the means to have acquired a Belansium legally.) I’m pretty bad at names generally, unless they’re repeated several times in a context which says to pay attention to them, so it’s totally normal for me to have forgotten a name that was mentioned in passing many chapters ago even if I’m reading a series all at once. Or perhaps especially if I’m reading a series all at once, when each new name is quickly followed by others demanding attention. I’m doing a lot better at connecting names during this re-read partly because I’m spacing the chapters out (which gives each set of names a chance to settle into memory before the next lot arrive), partly because I’m specifically looking for connections, and perhaps mostly because I’m taking extensive notes.