Vivulonj Prosperu
In which Aelliana returns.
Okay, so I wouldn’t have been left in the dark much longer about Tolly sharing a background with Inki. (This is far from the first time it’s happened that I’ve wondered about a thing in a blog entry and it’s been answered in the next chapter. That’s a good thing, I figure; it means the stories are well-paced and handing out information at an appropriate rate.)
Given the fact of their shared background, I think that that’s why Inki doesn’t want Haz telling Tolly about the confrontation with Stew. (I suspect the specific detail she doesn’t want Haz sharing is less the bit where she had to convince him with money, but the bit just before that where she frightened a man who wasn’t frightened by an Yxtrang. Or maybe it is the money thing, but because if she’s the legal owner of the ship the Admiral is installed in, that might give her leverage if she decides to run off with him.) She apparently hasn’t told Tolly she’s a Lyre graduate, which is an understandable precaution since he probably wouldn’t trust her if he knew — and so doesn’t help us tell whether she should be trusted, since she’d want to avoid that either way. She’s told Haz that they’re graduates of the same institute, but in a vague way that Haz will probably take to mean that they learned mentoring in the same place. And Tocohl knows Inki is a student of the Lyre Institute, but doesn’t know that Tolly is.
Meanwhile, over in the Daav-and-Aelliana plot line, we have a recap of the Tanjalyre Institute, for the benefit of readers who had forgotten or never knew about it. Among other things. (“could not help but overhear”, forsooth.) For the record, I’m very much enjoying the Daav-and-Aelliana side of the story, but I have less to say about it because its direction is less of a surprise.
PA: a recap of the Tanjalyre Institute.
I had thought of aelantaza during Tolly’s offhand comments about being likeable, but here the Uncle actually uses the specific term, and indeed, it does serve to recap and give us a connection to the Lyre Insitute, even though Daav’s attention is immediately diverted to his ripe pod. (To repeat myself, it is in the Glossary at the back of this book that we’re told straight out that the Lyre Institute is this universe’s iteration of the Tanjalyre Institute.)
PA: I’m very much enjoying the Daav-and-Aelliana side of the story.
This is my favorite part of this book! The Admiral Bunter plot is the ostensibly the central plot for this book, and the Padi felt almost too drawn out, as if some of it were merely filler. But I greatly enjoyed (in this book and the next two) all the details of Daav and Aelliana’s restoration.
Imho Padi in this book gives a lot of background info – like the details of Daibri’at and Menfri’at – time references like the attack on Pale Wing – descriptions of what traders and master traders – as well as a healers and dramliz do – as well as more direct and indirect info of Shan and Prescilla. Toward the end, both – Padi as well as Shan will have undergone a reshaping which prepares them for some future role.
One thing I enjoy about the books is that not only the acknowledged heroes – but also some of the up to now side characters – get their own story and grows. And in order to be Clan Korval – it is not only the Delm that is needed but each of Korvals members too. And they are each needed as much to bring Korval forward.
Othin: Padi in this book gives a lot of background info.
Oh, I don’t disagree with you about the background. In terms of the three plot strands of this book, I much prefer the Daav-Aelliana story, but that would not make much of a book, more like a short story if it were taken by itself. I do appreciate all the background information we gain through the Padi-Dutiful Passage plot strand.
A sentence that carries a lot more significance, re-reading this after Neogenesis, than it did the first time through: “I am pleased to have made her acquaintance, and I very much hope that she is every bit as wily as she is beautiful.”
In fact, I think there must be several subtexts here. One is that she’s already planning to subvert Tochol to herself. Another would be that she’s already hoping Tochol cannot be subverted, or can escape. Finally, she may be hoping that she’s found someone clever enough to defeat her (Inki) and destroy her so that she does not have to continue in this “life” in slavery to the directors.