Monthly Archives: October 2014

Carpe Diem – Chapter 15

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Vandar
Springbreeze Farm

In which Miri gets the milk confused with the pickles.

Or maybe this would have been the best chapter to reiterate my inability to word good when it comes to the emotional stuff.

Miri mentions that the image on the obverse of the cantra coin is “linked stars”. That might be a non-specific allusion to interstellar navigation, or, depending on the pattern in which they’re linked and remembering that Cantra herself presumably had a hand in the design, be a specific allusion to Tor An’s lost home, the Ring Stars. (I wonder what the image on the reverse of the coin is.)

Personal story to pad out the word count: The closest I came to learning a second language was in high school; I did German for three years before I had to give it up for tertiary-entrance maths (very few people at my school wanted to do both, so the school scheduled them against one another). That meant I missed out on the senior year immersion trip, which might have given it a solid foundation, and I haven’t found myself using it much in the years since, so much of what I learned has slipped away. My usual joke is that I can remember enough to say hello, goodbye, yes, no, and “I’ll have a slice of the black forest cake, please”.

Carpe Diem – Chapter 14

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Liad
Trealla Fantrol

In which Pat Rin acquires a new pilot.

Speaking of first mentions, I seem to have missed noting the point at which Val Con was revealed to be the next Delm Korval, and not merely a young man whose sister made him Second Speaker in order that she might have an excuse to complain that he was never home.

Korval obviously doesn’t intend to just send Cheever McFarland away now that he’s made his delivery, but it’s not clear yet whether they’re simply thanking him for his service by ensuring him a steady employment until his ship’s renovations are complete, or keeping him under Korval’s wing in case there are any unfortunate consequences to him as a result of becoming involved in Val Con’s recent adventures. The fact that he’s being entrusted to the member of the Clan whom we know from the prequels to be particularly skilled with firearms is certainly suggestive. On the other hand, maybe they’re just hoping Cheever will be an improving influence.

Carpe Diem – Chapter 13

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Liad
Solcintra Port

In which Cheever McFarland has a delivery for the First Speaker of Clan Korval.

I have a feeling I’m going to be spending a lot of this tetralogy marking off occasions where something appeared for the first time in the Liaden Universe. Here’s one: first published appearance of the Tree.

Among several other firsts, of course, including the first appearance (in order of publication or of internal chronology) of Cheever McFarland.

If Shan says that Nova is in a meeting with Mr dea’Gauss then I’m sure it’s true, but I wonder if they wouldn’t have arranged some such thing in any case, so that Shan might have an excuse to talk to Cheever first. He’s definitely taking the opportunity to try and get an idea of who Cheever McFarland is and how he came to be involved in the present situation.

Cheever is undeniably very struck by Nova’s appearance, but it’s difficult to say whether that’s significant. Maybe he’s in a particularly susceptible frame of mind because he’s so tired. Maybe she just has that effect on everybody. (We already know that she’s accounted a beauty among Liadens. What impression she usually makes on Terrans, we don’t have enough data to say.)

Carpe Diem – Chapter 12

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Vandar
Springbreeze Farm

In which Meri and Corvill stay for the night.

Sometimes it seems like every time I choose to make a general observation not specifically inspired by the particular chapter at hand, it turns out I’d have done better to wait until the next chapter, either because it invalidates the observation or because it turns out to be an even better occasion to have made it.

(In other words, no eloquence will be forthcoming regarding the emotional and character aspects of this chapter either.)

And now it’s time for another general observation that hopefully I won’t regret when I get to the next chapter:

Because this is a re-read, I know already that it will eventually be established that the so-called Department of the Interior is a rogue organization with friends in high places but no official standing. So it’s been interesting, re-reading Agent of Change and now Carpe Diem, that so far there’s been no indication that the Department is not an office of the Liaden government, carrying out that government’s policies. (The one hint in that direction, perhaps, is Shan mentioning that he’s never heard of the Department — but then, to be unheard of is only what one might expect from a covert organization.) Val Con’s recollection here, in particular, definitely gives the impression that the Department was an authority that could require obedience — or at least that it had succeeded in convincing Val Con that that was what it was.

Carpe Diem – Chapter 11

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Vandar
Springbreeze Farm

In which Zhena Trelu has guests for dinner.

This seems like a good time to mention again that I do appreciate the emotional and character aspects of the Liaden stories, and in fact they’re a big part of why these are some of my favourite things to read, but I’m not very good at appreciating them verbally. So instead you get observations like these:

In the local calendar, the year is somewhat after 1475, which indicates that local civilization’s been going for a while. Whether it’s actually been going longer than the Standard Calendar, which is only up to Year 1392, depends on how long the years are.

The technique of illuminating a word’s pronunciation by describing the efforts of someone unfamiliar with it gets an extensive workout in this chapter, both for words new to our protagonists, like “Borril”, and words long familiar, like “Korval”. It’s largely thanks to this chapter that I got a strong grip on the correct pronunciation of “Korval” — but I’ve just realised on this re-reading that I’ve been mispronouncing “Borril” for years.

Carpe Diem – Chapter 10

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Orbit
Interdicted World I-2796-893-44

In which Miri and Val Con make landfall.

The “Dictionary of Phrase and Fable” Miri recalls is likely to be a descendant of the one published in the 19th century by E. Cobham Brewer, which has been a friend to many an author since. The 1896 edition, the last on which Brewer himself worked, is available online: here is the front page and here is the entry on “carpe diem”.

Although some details will be forthcoming later, we never have got the full story of how Val Con came to converse with an Yxtrang, though the authors have made a number of attempts at setting it out. On Splinter Universe, the website where the authors talk about paths not taken and stories never completed, there’s a post about that, but the link might be better saved for the next time the topic arises.

Carpe Diem – Chapter 9

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Liad
Trealla Fantrol

In which Val Con is missed.

Shan observed that Angela Lizardi is a commander who takes an interest in her soldiers, after reading that she helped Miri get her bank loan, but he hadn’t seen the full picture yet: it’s not until later that he gets to the point in Miri’s employment history that reveals the loan was taken a full year after the Lunatics were deactivated and Miri ceased to be one of Angela Lizardi’s soldiers in any official sense. Which shows that Liz had a particular interest in Miri, which we knew already but Shan didn’t.

Another thing we know about that Shan doesn’t yet is Miri’s reminiscence last chapter about having to go into rehab after Klamath, which doubtless explains at least part of the two-year gap between leaving the Lunatics and joining the Gyrfalks, and probably also has a bearing on her sudden need for a large bank loan.

I wonder if Scandal Arbuckle had any relatives named Roscoe.

Carpe Diem – Chapter 8

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Orbit
Interdicted World I-2796-893-44

In which Miri and Val Con plan an invasion.

Ooh, foreshadowing.

Val Con’s concern that Miri might find his scar repellant is another of those moments that has extra resonance if you know things that haven’t been said in this novel. Injuries that mark the face are particularly distressing to Liadens, as we’ve seen in “Phoenix” (and as we’ll see in future when Val Con is among Liadens again).

Carpe Diem – Chapter 7

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Liad
Trealla Fantrol

In which Val Con’s siblings receive news of his doings.

The mention of “children, cats, and dogs” as potential hazards to navigation is, I think, the first mention of there being dogs in Korval’s Valley, or indeed on Liad. In fact, I’m not sure it isn’t the only mention of dogs at all in the series (outside of Necessity’s Child, which has a major character with a dog). Characters in the Liaden Universe are much more likely to be cat people, like their creators.

Speaking of children, we get a run-down of the youngest generation of yos’Galans: Shan’s daughter Padi has been mentioned before, as has his foster-son Gordy (who would be about 18 Standards old now), but this is the first mention of Nova’s son Syl Vor and of Anthora’s twins, Shindi and Mik. Unsurprisingly, in the latter case, since they’re “brand new” — which is a reminder that just as Val Con’s relatives are unaware of what he’s been up to lately, so is he unaware of their latest news.

Carpe Diem – Chapter 6

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Liad
Solcintra

In which Val Con’s eldest brother sends news.

I wonder if Shan’s joke about someone wanting to sell him a cloak is an indication that he’s still getting fallout from the skimmer cloak incident after seven years. Or maybe it’s a joke between friends that has survived even after the incident that started it is long over. Or maybe I’m reading too much into it and it’s nothing to do with the skimmer cloak at all.

The uncertainty with which Priscilla introduces the idea of crying lifemates implies that it’s the first time she’s put forward the idea as a serious suggestion. Shan doesn’t seem surprised, though; it’s a possibility that must have been on both their minds since Priscilla came to live on Liad, and I think by now they know each other well enough to know what they both think of the prospect, even without discussing it explicitly. If they haven’t seriously discussed it before now it’s perhaps because they’ve been comfortable continuing as they are, and perhaps because, as Shan says, the timing is not good.