Monthly Archives: September 2015

Dragon in Exile – Interlude 1

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On Luminier Plain

In which Daav and Aelliana go through a different door.

This scene possibly suffers from extra-textual factors: it’s a big emotional moment for Daav, but for the reader (at least, if the reader is me) it’s an exercise in ticking off things we already knew from the last few books. Daav is dying, the door that speaks to him of home is the door to what the Bedel call the World Beyond, the force preventing him from entering it is the Uncle’s attempts to revive him, and the two glowing tunnels represent —

— something that, it occurs to me, I didn’t comment on at the time, because I thought it was obvious, but which should be said at some point. The Tree gave Daav two seed pods, one addressed to Aelliana, and that inspired the Uncle to prepare two rebirthing units. Two doors, as Aelliana says here, for two pilots. The implication is that the end of the process is not only the revivification of Daav, but also the revivification, in her own body, of Aelliana.

(Or will it be her own body? Daav’s a straightforward case, since he’s physically present, but unless there’s something to be got from the puzzle-ring after all these years the rebirthing unit has no physical template for Aelliana. Can it construct a body entirely from memories?)

I’m being somewhat unfair, I realise, and not every reader is going to have the same reaction as me. Not everybody who reads this novel will have just recently finished reading the previous books. For some readers, this is re-establishing details they haven’t thought about since Dragon Ship came out, three years ago. There are even likely to be readers, sooner or later, who picked this book up first, and for whom all of this needs to be explained for the first time.

I think it’s worth noting something that’s brought to mind by mentioning the Bedel’s idea of the World Beyond where a person is free from the injuries and troubles of life, and which the story itself has gestured to both in this chapter and in one of the chapters of the Uncle overseeing Daav’s resurrection: hauling Daav back to the land of the living serves necessity, but it may not be doing Daav a kindness.

Dragon in Exile – Chapter 14

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The Bedel

In which several projects are underway.

Silain-luthia demonstrates another Healer-type ability. It makes sense that the luthia would have such abilities, given her role looking after the wellbeing of the individuals that make up the kompani. It makes me wonder about her apprentice, though: I don’t recall Kezzi showing any obvious signs of potential in that direction. Except her vision of the future in Necessity’s Child, which isn’t strictly a Healer-type ability, and anyway happened under the influence of a dream the luthia gave her. And that raises the interesting possibility that the dreams of the Bedel can instil psychic abilities in people who might not otherwise have them.

Somehow it does not surprise me that Kareen’s landau has made the journey to Surebleak with her. I’m impressed by its apparent ability to handle Surebleak’s roads, though.

Kamele’s offer to assist Kareen’s research is significant, because it offers a path that might lead to her choosing to stay on Surebleak for the long term. She’s not the type to have thrown over her scholarly career to stay on Surebleak just because her family’s here – the less so because Theo’s mostly not here and Jen Sar may never be here again – but if there’s scholarship to be done here…

Dragon in Exile – Chapter 13

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Jelaza Kazone
Surebleak

In which everybody’s going to town.

The island Shan is interested in is presumably an outcome of his search for a site for the new yos’Galan house, so this chapter has references to both him and Kareen looking for new housing situations. There’s room for them at Jelaza Kazone, and they’d be safe there, but “safe and well provided for” has never been the overriding priority of the children of Korval.

I have sympathy for Kamele’s temptation to call it quits rather than face further uncertainty with no assurance that it won’t turn out to be quits anyway. I’ve had situations where I’ve felt similarly, though obviously none quite like this.

I still have a bad feeling about this upcoming meeting of the Bosses. Hearing that the delm will be there as well as Boss Conrad – in fact, with Kareen and Kamele’s excursion pretty much the entire household is going to be in town today – this is not making me any less concerned about the possibility that there will be Drama.

Dragon in Exile – Chapter 12

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Tantara Floor Coverings
Surebleak port

In which Quin has a date.

The shop’s name, “Tantara”, is a variety of rare and valuable carpet – specifically, the variety of which the bel’Tarda heirloom carpet, bestowed on Pat Rin by Luken in “Heirloom”, is an example.

I still consider Beslin vin’Tenzing’s idea of Balance unreasonable, but on reflection I think I see where a Liaden would say I went wrong. Proper behaviour for a Liaden is to look out for oneself, one’s kin and dependents, to lend a hand to an ally if asked, and otherwise to pay every other person in the universe the compliment of assuming them capable of taking care of themselves. The desire to find a solution that serves everybody harmed in the attack on Solcintra would not be admirable to a Liaden, but instead an unconscionable failure to mind one’s own business. vin’Tenzing’s duty is to do no more than find a solution that serves vin’Tenzing, and if in the process somebody else’s solution gets stepped on it’s up the other person to take it up with vin’Tenzing as a fresh matter requiring Balance.

Dragon in Exile – Chapter 11

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Jelaza Kazone
Surebleak

In which the carpet shop has a visitor who wants Pat Rin to pay.

The discussion of how the dream adapts itself to the dreamer (and is not, for one thing, just restricted to “do you kill this person who is important to you?”) is reassuring in regard to the question of whether every one of the captured agents will be able to be offered a choice. But now I have another concern: The fact that many of the Department’s agents were bound unwillingly to a course and a goal they wouldn’t have chosen in their right minds doesn’t necessarily imply that there are no agents who would support the Department’s aims if given a free choice.

Quin’s story is a reminder of how long we’ve been following Korval’s recent history; “great-grandmother” sounds like such a long time ago, and I thought at first of some unknown ancestor, but count it back and it’s Chi yos’Phelium, whom we already know. (And that’s the second mention of her in two chapters. I don’t know if that’s going to be significant, or is just a coincidence.)

A garnet trade ring is pretty good; not the Master Trader’s amethyst, but only a few rungs below it.

Beslin vin’Tenzing’s attack would be a useful illustration in a discussion about why “revenge” is not always an appropriate synonym for “Balance”. It’s not a well-considered Balancing, even if one accepts that Pat Rin bears full responsibility for the people killed when he fired on Solcintra (and I think a full account of the responsibility there would need to consider the role of the Department, who chose to use those people as a human shield). If nothing else, it’s an attempt to redress vin’Tenzing’s losses that leaves out all the other people who sustained losses in the attack. There is more than one family that lost a child, and there’s only one Quin; they can’t all settle it by shooting him.

…though that doesn’t mean vin’Tenzing is going to be the only one to give it a try.

Dragon in Exile – Chapter 10

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Jelaza Kazone
Surebleak

In which Kareen and Kamele have an informative conversation.

I was a bit glib and a lot unfair when I suggested that Kareen might view Kamele as a performing dog. A better way to characterise the situation might be that Kamele has a genuine interest in and enthusiasm for learning the intricacies of the Liaden language, which makes it easier for one to forgive any stumbles since she’s clearly doing her best and it’s not her fault she’s not fully fluent yet. One might be less forgiving of a Terran who seemed to have made only the effort required to get by, for instance.

Also, they seem to actually like each other, a fact of which I took some convincing if only because Kareen has generally not made friends easily and it seemed unlikely that she would find it any easier with a non-Liaden.

(It’s interesting that, after Kamele was worried she might miss nuances if the conversation about the portrait was in Liaden, Kareen makes what must have been a deliberate choice to step out of Liaden into Terran to tell her about it, perhaps specifically to spare her that worry.)

Kareen’s description of the circumstances of Er Thom’s birth didn’t quite make sense to me at first: I wasn’t sure why it would be necessary for yos’Galan to produce a back-up delm of certain piloting ability when there was already Sae Zar. I think, though, that the problem with Sae Zar as a back-up delm is that he didn’t have the training for it; we know that training for a delm’s heir begins when he or she is very young, as happened for Daav (and Er Thom, as the designated back-up heir, got the same training). Also, Sae Zar was already designated as the heir to yos’Galan’s Master Trader, and to add Delm’s Heir to his pile would have been a disservice to yos’Galan, to be avoided unless no other solution was available.

Of the delms Kareen mentions in passing, we have heard of Jeni yos’Phelium, who helped establish the Scout Academy, and Theonna yos’Phelium, who was responsible for the Tactical Defense Pods. Edil yos’Phelium and Var Ond ter’Asten are new names. (ter’Asten is itself also a new name, unless it’s an alternate transliteration of “ter’Astin” – Jethri’s friend the scout was named Jan Rek ter’Astin.)

The implication of Kamele’s remark about Aelliana also being delm is, as I understand it, that her death wasn’t as simple as Daav failing his duty as delm to protect the vulnerable and husband the clan’s resources; Aelliana was also acting as delm, with a different assessment of who was most vulnerable and which resources the clan could least afford to lose, and no time for the two halves of the delm to reach a consensus.

Dragon in Exile – Chapter 9

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Blair Road
Surebleak

In which Val Con reflects on his dream.

Though I chose other things to talk about last chapter, I was a bit surprised that Miri’s experience of the dream was of being sliced up and reshaped, when the dream is of being an established agent of the Department and doesn’t include the training that shapes a person into a living weapon. I think I get it, now, though: the Department’s training isn’t just about forcing a person into a new shape, it’s also about instilling processes that keep them in that shape, against whatever tendencies and defences might try to return them to themselves after the training is concluded. The trimming and burning and twisting is going on under the surface of every agent of the Department all the time.

On this chapter’s other plot strand, the thought suddenly strikes me: what if Mr Kipler is smart enough to conceal how smart he is, and getting arrested and hauled in front of the Bosses is part of the plan?

Dragon in Exile – Chapter 8

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Jelaza Kazone
Surebleak

In which Val Con dreams.

Rys’s dream will help, if it works, but it’s not going to be a cure-all: not every agent is going to have somebody in their life as important to them as Miri is to Val Con, or Kezzi to Rys. (It might not even have worked on Rys himself before his time with the Bedel; would his relationship with Jasin have been strong enough to do the job? We’ll never know, and that’s probably for the best.)

Wondering about the unidentified man that accompanies Miri in Val Con’s version of the dream. I thought at first maybe it was because it was Udari as well as Kezzi in the real incident the dream is based on, but enough other details have been tweaked to make that dubious. Currently thinking it’s most likely to be a designed feature to give the dream room to adjust to the dreamer: including both a male figure and a female figure in the scene means that the dreamer’s key person can be included whether they’re male or female.

Dragon in Exile – Chapter 7

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The Bedel

In which Val Con prepares to dream.

I had been wondering, after the revelation about the dreams, whether all the luthia‘s abilities were of a similar nature, but the way she reads Val Con seems to be inherent. Unless there’s another device the authors are choosing not to mention for the moment. I don’t think so, though; it’s described in similar terms to the abilities of Shan or another Healer.

The thing about how detail works in drama is that the more time is spent reiterating that Miri ought to be safely shielded, the less I believe it’s going to work out that way. If Val Con comes through this safely only to find that Miri hasn’t, there’s going to be Trouble, though for whom I am not certain.

Dragon in Exile – Chapter 6

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Jelaza Kazone
Surebleak

In which Rys offers his brother a gift.

The bit about the dreams of the Bedel is an answer to a question I never thought to ask, and it almost makes me want to immediately re-read Necessity’s Child just to look again with fresh eyes at all the times the luthia speaks of dreaming on a subject or Rys’s brothers dream on the design of his leg brace. (“Eleutherios”, too.) I have no doubt that when I do, I will find that they are all consistent with this newly-revealed information; I have a feeling the authors have known this about the Bedel all along, and chose not to mention it in Necessity’s Child to achieve a particular effect. Well played, authors.

(There’s also a suggestion that when he says he prayed with his brothers, that has a particular meaning to the Bedel. That one, I think we had a hint of in Necessity’s Child, the first time Rys himself heard one of the kompani use the word in context.)

I’m seeing an interesting bit of melant’i going on in the exchange between Pat Rin and Mr pel’Tolian. They’ve been together something like twenty years at this point, and Mr pel’Tolian chose to follow Pat Rin to Surebleak, so I think it’s safe to say they’ve got some degree of personal regard alongside the lord and manservant relationship; but it’s all being expressed through the forms appropriate to the lord and manservant relationship because to be otherwise would be, well, inappropriate.