Dutiful Passage
In which Padi makes connections and Shan receives news from home.
The looper families Shan mentions are among those who have appeared or been mentioned in the Jethri-era stories: the Smiths were the first family to have norbears travelling with them, the Tragers were friendly with Jethri’s family, and the Wildes did that ill-fated bit of experimenting with Old Tech.
Continue reading
Langlastport
In which the results of recent efforts are considered.
Well, I was right about the Terran expert. I like the little bits with Admiral Bunter applying his lessons in how to express his feelings through how he speaks. I’m not surprised Inki set a core mandate — in the circumstances, it’s a reasonable precaution for her to take — but it’s going to make Tolly’s task harder (which is of course why it’s a reasonable precaution for her to take).
I am still finding the repeated reassurances regarding Padi’s situation to be the opposite of reassuring. We’re about due for a dramatic climax, and a big bust-out would provide that nicely. I assume something’s going to come up that pushes things over the edge; my money’s currently on Broker Plishet upgrading himself from ‘nuisance’ to ‘threat’ (though I still don’t know what his deal is), with a side bet on the customs inspection turning out to have some sinister connection after all.
I notice we haven’t heard much from Daav and Aelliana lately. Are they actually going to get involved in either of the main plots at any point? Well, the best way to find out is to read on, so I’ll do that.
Surebleak Port
Surebleak
In which Theo has luncheon with the Reform Boss of Surebleak.
Theo makes a good point well when she asks if Bechimo is really a starship. A certain amount of caution is understandable given Bechimo‘s history, but a pilot’s life is never exactly going to be safe. There are always risks, and you need to engage with them sensibly, but above all if you want to get anywhere you need to engage with them. It’s a big part of what pilots are saying when they say “the usual rules apply”. (For all the rules the Builders gave Bechimo, he doesn’t seem to have gotten that one. Maybe that was something he was expected to pick up from his captain and crew.)
Another data point for the question of whether Pat Rin looks like Val Con, supporting the idea that the resemblance is most striking if one is not expecting it.
Runig’s Rock
In which the treasures of the Clan are brought home.
The youngsters of the clan start to become involved in events, and show individual personalities. (Some of them, anyway. Though Shindi and Mik can probably be excused, considering their age.)
The obvious question is: what was that other ship waiting for? My guess is, it was waiting for Natesa. That is, not for her specifically, but for whoever might come to bring news of Korval’s situation, thereby increasing the number of Korval’s children who could be captured in one swoop.
(Another possibility is that there was some reason why they needed to watch someone actually pass through the outer defences before they made their attack; perhaps to check that they’d identified the number and location of all the defences. Against that is the fact that they apparently didn’t hang around to watch Natesa pass through the outer defences, but left to avoid being caught hanging around – which is interesting in itself, because it suggests they had some way of knowing she was coming.)
Another question is: If they hadn’t waited, and had attacked the Rock before Natesa arrived, would they have had any better success? I’m not sure they would; Luken is no Natesa, but it wouldn’t do to underestimate him.
Tomorrow: “Kin Ties”
Jelaza Kazone
Liad
In which Theo is introduced to her father’s family, and vice versa.
It is a tricky situation that Daav’s got himself in, regarding explaining himself to Kamele. The basic principle that he had kin in need of assistance is straightforward enough, but necessarily leads to questions like “Who are these kin?” and “Why have you never mentioned them before?” and, sooner or later, “But if your name is actually Daav yos’Phelium…”
Also, while I think Kamele would take the news that her onagrata had been married before at least as clear-headedly as Theo, things might get very awkward if she asked how the marriage had ended and where Aelliana is now and Daav felt obliged to answer honestly.
It’s interesting to compare Theo’s situation to Shan’s when the clan first became aware of him. Shan was rapidly enfolded in the clan, but that was because his mother had already declared him to be part of the clan by naming him yos’Galan; everything that followed was just sorting out the details. Theo is a Waitley, born under an arrangement that’s comparable in the relevant areas to a Liaden contract marriage with the offspring going to the mother’s clan, and her father has been making a point of not claiming any connection to Korval for himself let alone for her. It’s possible she could join Clan Korval at some future point, if it seemed like a good idea for all concerned (a collection of people including not only herself, her father and Delm Korval, but also her mother – which would entail the aftorementioned tricky explanations), but it’s not going to happen automatically just because her father has returned to his clan.
I like the detail that Merlin, who is usually referred to with male pronouns by those who know him best, gets female pronouns in the scene told from Theo’s viewpoint, because Theo’s from Delgado where female is the default gender.
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.
Nev’lorn Headquarters
In which Shadia is all joy to see Clonak.
I’ve been puzzling over the sequence of events leading up to this, because the main thing I remembered about Nev’lorn from earlier readings of this chapter was the Department trying to get hold of Shadia, which had left me with the impression that the Department had somehow decided to siphon her off to Nev’lorn and recruit her even before she crossed Val Con’s trail. I think I’ve got it straight now, though: Her transfer to Nev’lorn was authentic Scout business, possibly due to Clonak wanting to keep her away from the Department or perhaps to recruit her in the Scouts’ resistance against it, and it was only after she filed her report from Vandar that the Department decided to take an interest in her.
(Another trick my memory played on me was that I remembered Shadia’s reunion with Clonak playing out in a corridor. I suppose I must have been confusing it with Val Con’s account of how the Department got hold of him.)
According to a series of blog posts Sharon Lee did back in 2009 about the authors’ collaboration process, the closest they ever got to a major deadlock was on the question of whether Shadia and Clonak survived the end of this chapter. (Neither of them actually wanted Shadia and Clonak to die, but one of them was convinced it was the inevitable consequence of events up to this point.) The blog posts, which all make fascinating reading, are here: Part 0, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3. The story about this chapter is in the last part (but do be aware, if you’re in a position where it matters, that it does give away what decision they eventually reached).
Shipyear 65
Tripday 287
Third Shift
16.00 hours
In which Shan and Priscilla consider the future.
I haven’t enjoyed re-reading Conflict of Honors quite so very much as I did some of the earlier novels in the re-read, but I think a large part of that may be that I’ve re-read it so many times already; the pleasure it gives me now comes from familiarity rather than the joy of discovery, which can be a bit of a problem when I’m using discovery to power the blog entries. There’s also the way it’s divided into so many little chapters, which can get a bit wearing at one chapter per day.
Tomorrow is the novella “Changeling”, and then we return to a distant, hitherto briefly-glimpsed part of the universe for the novel Fledgling.
Shipyear 65
Tripday 143
Fourth Shift
18.00 hours
In which Lina consults with a colleague.
A lot happens in a very little space in this chapter, but I don’t have much to say about it. Some of it is like Lina’s attempt to explain melant’i and her more successful word-picture of Lady Kareen, which I think are each respectively the first such published in the series, but both of which have in this chronological re-read been well and truly pre-empted by the prequels. Some of it is like Lina and Shan’s discussion of where he stands with regard to Priscilla, which falls into the area of things I’m just not good at talking about generally.
I do like the warmth and attention to detail in the depictions of Lina’s conversations with each of her friends in this chapter.
The mention of Lina’s interactions with Shan when his mother died and again when his father died suggest to me that he was on the Passage both times. Not that I believe he would shun her company when they were home on Liad, in the normal course of events, but a death in the family is not in the normal course of events, and the ones we’ve seen have generally been accompanied by withdrawing from social contact for the period of mourning.
Shipyear 65
Tripday 143
Third Shift
16.00 hours
In which Shan has some explanations.
This is a significant turning point for Shan and Priscilla, with Shan finally explaining what’s going on and the two of them agreeing on a future course of action.
We get another mention of that elusive person, Anne’s brother Richard, and perhaps the most extensive account of him, in Shan’s description of his conflation of Liadens with elves. Shan doesn’t say why Richard picked on Val Con for the role of “king of Elfland”, but presumably it’s because he had heard some account of the Contract which once prompted Anne to accuse Val Con’s father of being King of Liad. In which case, I’m pretty sure this is the first intimation, in published order, of the existence of the Contract.