Monthly Archives: November 2014

Carpe Diem – Chapter 46

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Dutiful Passage

In which Priscilla and Shan open Miri’s package.

There are a lot of little character details in this chapter that I like, which help to make Priscilla, Shan and Miri seem like real people.

I understand, from past conversations, that the wording of Miri’s message is not the same in all editions of Carpe Diem. For the record, then, this is the wording in the copies I own, published by Meisha Merlin:

We’re okay. Clan Korval in danger. Don’t talk to Interior Department. Go to Edger if things get bad. Ship coil-blown — world restricted. Tell Shan: Access Grid seven-aught-three \Trimex:Veldrad. Repeat: Access Grid 703 \Trimex:Veldrad. Love to all.

Carpe Diem – Chapter 45

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Orbit
Interdicted World I-2796-893-44

In which Tyl Von sig’Alda plans an invasion.

Somehow, the “invading Vandar” joke is less amusing applied to Agent of Change sig’Alda than it was with Val Con and Miri back at the beginning of the novel.

With all the information at his disposal, sig’Alda’s best guess at Val Con’s choice of landing place is wrong. It’s unlikely to be because of Val Con being in no hurry to get back to the Department, because that’s a possibility sig’Alda is keeping very much in mind. A more likely factor is Miri: one of the reasons Val Con chose to land somewhere remote and pick up the local customs gradually before striking out for the big city and the big radios was because Miri doesn’t have his training and he didn’t want to throw her in the deep end. That’s a consideration that sig’Alda is unlikely to have given due weight in his analysis; he’ll have noticed that Miri doesn’t have the training, but the idea that Val Con might defer to her inexperience is the kind of thing he doesn’t think of. In fact, with all the assessing of Val Con’s actions he does, he doesn’t think of Miri even once this chapter.

sig’Alda’s comparison between the local language and Liaden, which finds Liaden a superior language for establishing precedence and for insulting people in, tells us something about the Liaden language. That he considers this a sign that the local language is faulty and its speakers primitive and ignorant tells us something about sig’Alda.

Carpe Diem – Chapter 44

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Dutiful Passage

In which Priscilla takes delivery of a package.

Another question answered: the metaphorical citadel that prevents Priscilla from contacting Val Con is of his own construction, presumably to keep the Department from capturing his inmost self. Which seems right, on reflection; it feels like a set of psychic walls imposed from without, however well constructed, would have some kind of metaphorical chink that Priscilla would be able to take advantage of.

Carpe Diem – Chapter 43

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Vandar
Springbreeze Farm

In which Miri and Val Con are reunited.

Ah, you can tell Val Con’s recovered: they’re bantering again. I love the banter in this series.

And after all this time we get an answer to the question of who gets which coloured napkin, though no indication of whether it’s a definite or a contingent answer. Is the blue napkin always for Val Con, or only under some circumstances, or does anybody get whichever colour they want?

This is a fairly significant chapter for the series, in that it contains the first-published detailed description of the lifemate’s bond or wizard’s match. (Which I still think is a consequence rather than a cause of people getting together, even though Val Con here recalls hearing stories about intended lifemates finding each other through their bond. Stories may be made up or distorted, especially so in a context that encourages a romantic spin on the material.)

Carpe Diem – Chapter 42

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The Garbage Run

In which Shadia Ne’Zame’s garbage run is enlivened with a mystery.

Several circumstances converged to produce this event. If the Bassilan rebels had not attacked and inspired the militia to go searching the hills, the yacht would still be resting on the ground, and there would have been nothing in orbit to tell Shadia that anything interesting had occurred.

I wonder if Val Con has thought about the possibility of the yacht being spotted by a Scout patrol. I don’t get the impression he has, though as a Scout he presumably knows the patrols exist; perhaps he’s had his mind on more immediate concerns. Or perhaps he’s thought about it, but realised that even if a Scout did find the yacht, they would do as Shadia did here, and he and Miri would be no closer to rescue. He might have done something about that, if the relaunching of the yacht hadn’t been so hurried; perhaps he could have left a message in the yacht before sending it up, explaining the situation. But then, the situation being what it is, he could well have been reluctant to send a message out into the universe without being sure who would find it or what response it would have.

For that matter, the situation being what it is, it’s not yet clear what response Shadia’s report back to base will have…

Carpe Diem – Chapter 41

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Vandar
Fornem’s Gap

In which Miri launches and Val Con dances.

In Miri’s scene, we get a bit more detail about the last days of Klamath. This is the first time she’s mentioned Skel.

In Val Con’s scene, there’s a glimpse of one of the reasons the Clutch have such long names. Each part of the name identifies an aspect of the self; together, they serve as a reminder of who one is.

It’s interesting that the aspect of Val Con’s self connected to his newest name has nothing to do with the actual words which make up the name. The name “Tough Guy” isn’t about him being a tough guy; it’s a marker for the change in Val Con’s life and self that came about as a consequence of meeting Miri, the person who bestowed the name. And in that respect, it’s like the stick-knife which Val Con bestowed on Miri; though Edger and his brothers may have been mistaken about the spirit of the specific gesture, seeing in it a significance not intended by the giver, they were basically correct that underneath it something significant was taking place.

Carpe Diem – Chapter 40

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Vandar
Hellin’s Surcease

In which Porlint is not much like Surebleak.

Miri’s comment to Hakan and Kem, that when they are together long enough they will know when something is not right with the other, has got me trying to remember how much has been established at this point in the series about the nature of the link she shares with Val Con, and whether it is something that she might expect Hakan and Kem to share too. Already this re-read we’ve had a lot of detailed backstory about the wizard’s match and nature of the connection, but I think all of that was published later, and when this novel was first published Miri and Val Con’s link was the first of its kind in the series and as yet lacking in a wider context.

Even given the context later established, it’s not impossible that Miri might suppose the link to be more common than it is, since her upbringing wouldn’t have included any relevant information and she, knowing her education has many gaps in it, might assume that the thing she has with Val Con is a common thing that nobody bothers to mention. (Val Con, having a more complete education, might not have made the same remark.)

This is not related to anything in this chapter, but it’s just occurred to me that the gossipy Athna Brigsbee’s name is an irony: the Earth name it most closely resembles is “Athena”, a name associated with wisdom and justice. I can’t think of a similar association for Estra Trelu, unless “Astra”, which means “star”.

Carpe Diem – Chapter 39

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Vandar
Hellin’s Surcease

In which Val Con is not the only one who can sense danger and come to the rescue.

It’s not just the Loop, then, or if it is, it’s using Val Con’s own insecurities against him. The mission he let the genie out of the bottle for is to ensure Miri’s safety, and on some level he still believes that she’ll never be safe as long as she’s around him. Though Miri’s working on that, and has made significant progress by the end of the chapter.

Val Con’s hope that Miri would not be able to hear him the way he hears her is, it seems, to be disappointed, except in the narrow sense that she, being more visually-oriented, doesn’t hear music but sees a pattern. Which may be why he missed it when she alluded to the fact; he doesn’t have the right metaphor in place to immediately catch what she was talking about. Or it may well just have been that he had other things on his mind at that precise moment.

Carpe Diem – Chapter 38

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The Wide Universe

In which it is lovely to have a Clutch Turtle with one’s interests at heart.

I wonder: is the fact that Nev’lorn is included in the Juntavas message run a sign that the Juntavas have established interests there, under the noses of the Scouts, or are they just splashing the message around to make sure anyone it might apply to will hear it? Or, for a possibility somewhere between those two, perhaps they’re also targetting places where Scouts congregate, so that if Val Con has gone to ground in one of those places he may learn of their change of policy.

Shan seems uncertain that this is good news, and well he might, for several reasons. There might still be Juntavas who try to take advantage of the situation to Val Con and Miri’s detriment, despite the clearness of the message. Even if the Juntavas behave, the fact that they’ve so clearly and publicly expressed approval of Miri and Val Con might result in them being disapproved of in more law-abiding places. And then of course there’s the fact that, with the Department after Val Con and Miri, even surrounded by helpful Juntavas they might not be considered safe.

Carpe Diem – Chapter 37

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Vandar
Hellin’s Surcease

In which Val Con and Hakan discuss heroism.

Zhena Trelu, Zhena Brigsbee and Miri stuck in a house together for three days? One shudders to think what the outcome might be. If Zhena Brigsbee has taken Zhena Trelu and Miri in while the farm’s being sorted out, does that mean that they are actually friends, despite all the complaining Zhena Trelu does, or was there some other motivation involved?

Val Con’s having trouble: he’s stuck in the agent of change headspace, and his attempts to get out of it are running up against the same emergency response, the “if you continue on this path you’re doomed” message from the Loop, that hit him when he first got out of it back on Edger’s ship. Miri’s presence helped then, but he seems to be avoiding Miri — is that the Loop’s doing too, because it’s learned that she could help him?

I wonder who Hellin was.