Tag Archives: a landmass that looks like a wine bottle

Carpe Diem – Chapter 45

Orbit
Interdicted World I-2796-893-44

In which Tyl Von sig’Alda plans an invasion.

Somehow, the “invading Vandar” joke is less amusing applied to Agent of Change sig’Alda than it was with Val Con and Miri back at the beginning of the novel.

With all the information at his disposal, sig’Alda’s best guess at Val Con’s choice of landing place is wrong. It’s unlikely to be because of Val Con being in no hurry to get back to the Department, because that’s a possibility sig’Alda is keeping very much in mind. A more likely factor is Miri: one of the reasons Val Con chose to land somewhere remote and pick up the local customs gradually before striking out for the big city and the big radios was because Miri doesn’t have his training and he didn’t want to throw her in the deep end. That’s a consideration that sig’Alda is unlikely to have given due weight in his analysis; he’ll have noticed that Miri doesn’t have the training, but the idea that Val Con might defer to her inexperience is the kind of thing he doesn’t think of. In fact, with all the assessing of Val Con’s actions he does, he doesn’t think of Miri even once this chapter.

sig’Alda’s comparison between the local language and Liaden, which finds Liaden a superior language for establishing precedence and for insulting people in, tells us something about the Liaden language. That he considers this a sign that the local language is faulty and its speakers primitive and ignorant tells us something about sig’Alda.

Carpe Diem – Chapter 8

Orbit
Interdicted World I-2796-893-44

In which Miri and Val Con plan an invasion.

Ooh, foreshadowing.

Val Con’s concern that Miri might find his scar repellant is another of those moments that has extra resonance if you know things that haven’t been said in this novel. Injuries that mark the face are particularly distressing to Liadens, as we’ve seen in “Phoenix” (and as we’ll see in future when Val Con is among Liadens again).

Agent of Change – Chapter 26 & Epilogue

In which the Yxtrang lose their prey and much else besides.

I’m not sure why Commander Khaliiz punishes his underlings for failing to ensure that the ship was empty after he’s accused Val Con of stealing their prize, which suggests that he’s aware of the possibility that Val Con and Miri arrived after the ship was emptied. Maybe he’s just making sure to cover all the bases, but it seems to me that an organization that can get away with harshly punishing people just in case they might have done something wrong is an organization that’s seriously flawed.

One thousandth of a light second, the safe radius for going into Jump, is approximately the distance between New York and Baltimore.