In which Val Con and Miri are not getting much sleep tonight.
Chapter 20 is shaping up to be a long chapter, to the point that I’m almost wondering if I need to subdivide the sections even further. Makes sense, though, since this is the chapter where a whole bunch of plot strands come together, not just from this book but from the four books preceding it.
The detail about Seignur Veeoni carrying the Uncle’s memories in her smartstrands reminds me of the way the light keepers at Tinsori Light carry their memories in their hair decorations, which in turn makes me wonder if the former is being used to foreshadow something significant happening with the latter.
I have mixed feelings about the revelation that the Tinsori Light was originally created as part of the defence against the Great Enemy, who then captured and subverted it. In itself, it’s an interesting idea, and adds some new wrinkles to both the history of the Enemy’s Great Works and the history of the Uncle. But it also reduces the complexity of the mentors’ task by establishing that there is a friendly version of the Light buried underneath the hostile core directives, and pulling a move that simplifies the protagonists’ task at this stage in the novel feels a bit like cheating.
It turns out that Seignur Veeoni’s assistant, the “broad brown person” who goes by the name of Emtraven Kvar, is actually M Traven, one of several Ms in Seignur Veeoni’s service, which suggests that the fractins are not the only thing from the old universe she’s created new editions of. In this universe, creating more M Series personnel is almost certainly in violation of the Free Gene and Manumitted Human Act, but a little detail like being completely illegal has never stopped one of the Uncle’s kin from doing a thing. This offers another possibility for an interesting interaction, if Chernak and Stost should happen to learn that there’s an M on-planet.
Ten thousand days is between 27 and 28 years.
Chernak’s casual statement that serving a civilian authority under oath is what “soldiers were made to do” presumably startles Nelirikk because it’s a viewpoint that has been lost to the Yxtrang he grew up among and was trained by, who serve nobody but themselves.
I like Stost’s reaction to seeing the Tree for the first time: that it would be a good idea to get the seedling off Bechimo before it grows that large.
The way it’s worded, I’m not sure whether Chernak’s question about Nelirikk’s mention of Jela is that she hasn’t heard of Jela before, or that she has heard of Jela but is wondering what Nelirikk’s connection to him is.
We get a few words of Chernak and Stost’s language when they salute the Tree. “Yxtrang” means “soldier” (of course it does), and “arak ek zenorth” means “honor and glory”. (Arak ek zenorth was also the name of the Yxtrang Ambassador’s ship, which wasn’t translated at the time. Given the realities of the Ambassador’s position, I suspect whoever named the ship was employing Irony.)
Judging by his reply to Theo, Val Con is of Daav’s mind regarding the wisdom of not telling Daav’s family he’s back until they know if he’ll be staying. Though, while he made a point of not telling Theo her father was staying in the same house, I didn’t notice him taking any precautions against them casually running into each other at breakfast…
Well, I may be all wet, but I seem to recall from an earlier book that we already knew the Light had been built by humans and subverted by the Enemy. It was probably either in The Gathering Edge (told to Theo by the Pathfinders) or in the short story, Light at Tinsori Space.
You could be right, though I don’t recall it.
What Chernak says in The Gathering Edge is that the Tinsori Light appeared at a location where there had once been a human space station, that was destroyed by the Enemy in the First Phase of the War. She doesn’t, as I read it, appear to be in any doubt that the Light itself was created by the Enemy.
I don’t have time at the moment to go through “The Space at Tinsori Light” and see what it says.
Oh, maybe that’s what I was thinking of then. My lamentable memory!
I scanned Tinsori Light and didn’t see the text I was thinking of.
On the question of Chernak’s relationship with Jela, there was a scene in The Gathering Edge where Hevelin, Chernak/Stost and Theo are sharing acquaintances where Chernak/Stost identify someone as a random M they had seen once, who seems unlikely to have been Jela, but is matched against Daav. If they had known Jela, he would presumably have been a better match, and we’d have had him instead.
I had always assumed that Yxtrang was a corruption of X strain. I agree that it’s much more satisfying that it means soldier.
If Tinsory Light was originally created by the Uncle and was the same station (it went back to the same place and identified by the same name) –> that would make the Uncle very old indead. A product of the first phase – and the Uncle some manufactured human or Clone.
That might make the Bedel origion also quite a lot earlier – and opens up the possibility for Euletherius to have happend after the first phase too.
I wonder if the Bedel purpose is connected to places with timonium?
The Uncle played a notable role in the two pre-migration books, Crystal Soldier and Crystal Dragon. Dulsey, too!
@ Skip
I seem to have to clarify. With 1st phase I meant the time ca. 800 years befor Crystal Soldier.
Dulsey clearly is a product of the Time of the Crystal books.
PA: there is a friendly version of the Light buried underneath the hostile core directives
Had I recalled that you were discussing the history of Tinsori Light in this chapter, I might have waited to address the concerns I’ve posted in depth at chapter 19, pt II. As it is, I’ll just comment that I’m not yet entirely convinced that there was a “friendly version” of this Tinsori Light.