Monthly Archives: March 2015

Saltation – Chapter 34

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Primadonna
Out from Alanzia

In which Mayko Ikari explains her presence.

So, now we have some idea of when this is in relation to the rest of what’s going on: it’s after the Yxtrang invasion of Lytaxin was defeated. The question now: how much after? Not a great deal, perhaps, if the effects are only just becoming apparent — and Mayko’s remark that nobody is quite sure what Korval is up to suggests that it’s before Korval’s very public standoff with the Department.

It’s interesting, getting a bit of a look at how all that stuff appears from the outside; a reminder that the universe is wide enough to contain people to whom all that life-and-death struggle is a distant event that carries opportunity in its wake.

Saltation – Chapter 33

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Primadonna
Alanzia Port

In which an expected package comes in an unexpected shape.

It’s been two years since Theo left Eylot to start working with Rig Tranza, and in that time she’s visited nineteen planets, which might mean that they’re averaging one-and-a-quarter months between planets, or more likely that they’ve got a regular patch of space and have visited some of those planets more than once. Or else the wording “set foot on” is significant, and they’ve visited additional planets that Theo’s foot didn’t get to meet.

Two years is significant, too, because Eylot said that after two years they might possibly consider letting her back into Anlingdin Academy if she grovelled enough. She doesn’t seem to be in any particular hurry to go and find out if that was true.

Misfits

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In which Ichliad Brunner’s family finds him embarrassing.

At no point in the story does anybody get around to correcting Tech Brunner’s mistaken impression of who Miri is and what she’s doing; on the contrary, it’s apparently confirmed when she shows up again speaking Liaden like a native. This is amusing for those of us who have read the novels and know Miri’s story, but I wonder how it would look to a reader who hadn’t and didn’t. Would the lack of any explanation of Miri’s behaviour appear as a gap in the story, like the lack of any explanation of what Korval’s up to?

(I also see that Skel’s fate is not mentioned, but I think in that case a reader familiar with the shapes stories take can probably figure it out.)

Neither of the dates at the beginning and end matches up neatly with the dates given in I Dare. The date given for the attack on Solcintra at the beginning is the day after the date given in the novel (though I suppose the attack might have lasted long enough to carry over into a new date, according to the Standard Calendar, and the novel neglected to mention it in the excitement). The final scene, which clearly takes place after Korval is ordered off Liad and decides to migrate to Surebleak, is given a date two whole days before the date on which those things occur in the novel.

(And now it probably sounds like I don’t like this story. I do, really, I’m just not finding words to talk much about the things I like.)

Tomorrow: We return to Theo Waitley – and, at last, to sensible chapter numbers – with Saltation chapter 33.

I Dare – Chapter 57

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Day 59
Standard Year 1393

Solcintra
Liad

In which the Council of Clans throws Korval into the briar patch.

The Delm Hedrede who delivers the Council’s judgment here is not the same Delm Hedrede who clashed with Korval thirty years ago in Scout’s Progress – different pronouns – but it does make me wonder if Hedrede has a personal investment in Korval getting booted off the planet.

There’s a neat bit of narrative sleight of hand with the problem of what to do with the dies: the problem is carefully laid out, then just as Val Con is about to suggest a solution, the conversation is interrupted. The reader is left to assume that a solution is found without the authors having to actually come up with one.

Tomorrow and tomorrow: Revisiting old friends and seeing how they’re affected by recent events, in “Misfits” and then the remainder of Saltation.

I Dare – Chapter 56

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Day 56
Standard Year 1393

Solcintra
Liad

In which Pat Rin faces the judgment of his delm.

I’m not sure what to make of the bit about Val Con looking enough like Pat Rin to be “a younger edition of himself”. That seems too specific to be just family resemblance, particularly since Cheever’s met enough of Pat Rin’s relatives to have some range on the family resemblance already, although those were second cousins, and Val Con is a first cousin. A side effect of Line yos’Phelium gene-selecting for delm traits, maybe? Val Con was bred to be delm, and Pat Rin is descended from those bred to be delms even if he wasn’t himself (and he might have been, despite his mother, if the old delm had hope of getting the bloodline back on track). Or maybe the resemblance is not only genetic but also increased by a similarity of expression or attitude arising from a similarity of melant’i: Val Con, the delm of Korval, and Pat Rin, who might have been delm of Korval and has certainly been the something-very-like-a-delm of Surebleak. Anyway, it explains why people are going to mistake them for brothers when they start being seen in the same places.

After all the worry Pat Rin spent on showing up in front of the delm wearing a pilot jacket he doesn’t feel entitled to, Val Con doesn’t give it a second look until Pat Rin draws attention to it. Apparently, he doesn’t find anything implausible in the idea of Pat Rin having qualified as a pilot since they last met.

I Dare – Chapter 55

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Solcintra
Liad

In which the Captain acts for the safety of the passengers.

The mode of Ultimate Authority, which is referred to twice in this chapter, has, perhaps unsurprisingly, not come up much before: three times in the series up to this point. Priscilla adopts it briefly when putting Sav Rid Olanek in his place at the end of Conflict of Honors; Commander of Agents is said in Carpe Diem to use it when dealing with his underlings; and Val Con, greeting the Tree in Plan B, places the Tree in the position of ultimate authority.

The fact that it’s used twice in this chapter, and by whom, is the central conflict in a nutshell: the first is Commander of Agents again, and the second is Miri when she takes on the melant’i of Liad’s Captain. And I think it says something that, whereas Miri adopts the mode temporarily and in a situation where she is in fact the duly-appointed ultimate authority until the emergency is resolved, the Commander is not only self-appointed but apparently expects to be regarded as the ultimate authority all the time.

There’s a leap near the end of the chapter that I’ve never been able to follow. After the doomsday weapons are activated, ter’Fendil says he can deactivate them if Val Con gives him the control device, and Val Con does. Then it cuts to another scene, and when it cuts back everybody’s running for their lives and talking about the urgent need to do something before the weapons break out and start killing everybody. Is there something missing, or is it just me missing something?

I Dare – Chapter 54

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Day 54
Standard Year 1393

Solcintra
Liad

In which the counter-attack on the Department begins.

Dramatic revelation: Commander of Agents has a name! Presumably it was Val Con who provided that detail; I wonder if that means he had a habit of sticking his nose where it wasn’t wanted even as a loyal Agent of the Department, because somehow I can’t imagine the Commander making a habit of introducing himself to his subordinates.

And now that name has been broadcast over Solcintra on an open wavelength, along with the information that his Department exists and claims to speak for Liad. Likely the attitude that this is an absurdity produced by an addled Terran will be a common one, but even so it’s a crack in the Department’s veil of secrecy. And it serves notice to the Department, because they’ll know who must have put Higdon’s Howlers up to this. (Even more so, if I’m right about the Commander’s name being a secret kept even from his own agents.)

Once again, the day matches the chapter number. I don’t expect that to continue any further, though; things have started moving fast, and I doubt events are going to wait a whole day to find out what happens next.

I Dare – Chapter 53

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Day 53
Standard Year 1393

Surebleak

In which Pat Rin prepares to take the fight to the enemy.

I was surprised at first that Natesa wasn’t going with Pat Rin, but of course it’s the same principle as only one portmaster going on the shopping trip. Somebody’s got to stay and mind the store, the more so if there’s a risk that anyone who goes won’t be coming back.

Here’s a small amusing thing: For once, the number at the head of the chapter matches the chapter number; it’s Day 53 and Chapter 53.

I Dare – Chapter 52

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Clutch Homeworld

In which the Elders decide.

A very short chapter, this; normally, I would have grouped a chapter this short with one of the chapters on either side, but in this case neither seemed a good fit.

Speaking of very short things… This chapter has no date at the top, which implies that it’s the same day as the previous chapter: Day 54. The earlier chapter in which Daav and Aelliana went in to speak to the Elders did have a date at the top: Day 54. So Daav and Aelliana’s testimony, and the Elders’ deliberations, have altogether taken less than a day. The Clutch must really be taking this urgency thing seriously.

Or, of course, I’ve completely misread the implication of the absent date stamp. The chapter does say that Daav and Aelliana have lost track of how much time has passed; maybe the implication is instead: It’s later, but who knows how much?

I Dare – Chapter 51

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Day 54
Standard Year 1393

Dutiful Passage
Jump

In which various people spend time in transit.

I haven’t been noting it every time a relevant detail has come up, but I think by now we have to acknowledge that in the Liaden universe cats are sapient and capable of dramliz-type abilities. Some cats, anyway. Merlin, at least. (Come to that, I wonder if Val Con knew how appropriate the name was when he chose it…)

I feel like I should say something about the scene with Hazenthull and Nelirikk, but nothing particular is coming to me.

It’s good to see Trilla again.