Day 284
Standard Year 1392
Departing McGee
In which Cheever offers a lesson in piloting.
Cheever is clearly of a mind to keep poking at the boundaries of Pat Rin’s Not-A-Pilot-ness. Pat Rin doesn’t expect anything to come of it, since the best pilots in Korval (which are among the best pilots anywhere) haven’t been able to make anything of him, but it seems to me that Cheever might have a chance precisely because he’s not of Korval, and therefore not family, and their interactions are not weighed down by shared history: different approach, maybe leading to different results.
(Pat Rin is in his early forties now, which means he’s had a lot of time to get used to being Not A Pilot. Indeed, it means he’s been Not A Pilot for more than half his life.)
I hadn’t really thought about this before, but thinking back, and comparing Pat Rin’s childhood and adolescence to Kareen’s childhood, Pat Rin shows none of the signs of not being a pilot that Kareen shows in her flashbacks in Daughter of Dragons. In fact, we also see those signs of a child not being a pilot in Changeling, where Ren Zel’s cousin isn’t able to handle the spinball (another word for bowli ball? I hope it’s a less-aggressive version, given that even pilot-children shouldn’t be playing with a bowli ball. Then again, maybe that’s just another example of the follies of Clan Jabun). We don’t really see any positive indicators that Pat Rin should be a pilot either to my recollection, but the negative signals certainly aren’t there. We just know that he’s not a pilot because he failed the piloting test multiple times.
I also think that Er Thom knew that Pat Rin could be a pilot, but I think he didn’t know how to break through to Pat Rin. I wish we had a short story or two told from Er Thom’s perspective set after Daav’s departure from the clan but before Anne’s death. I’d like to see more of how the yos’Galan children (plus Val Con) grew into the adults they are.
@Sami: I wish we had a short story or two told from Er Thom’s perspective set after Daav’s departure from the clan but before Anne’s death. I’d like to see more of how the yos’Galan children (plus Val Con) grew into the adults they are..
Yes! Maybe we should write and ask. I believe Sharon has said something about filling in details requested by fans.
the spinball (another word for bowli ball? I hope it’s a less-aggressive version, given that even pilot-children shouldn’t be playing with a bowli ball
I believe that spinball refers to a method of throwing the ball, rather than to the nature of the ball itself. Ren Zel uses it again later in the story when he’s fending off his attackers by throwing pool balls at them.