Surebleak
In which it’s a new day.
It looks like we’re done with dramatic confrontations for now, and are into the part of the book where things are wound down and tied off. There were a couple more dramatic confrontations I was expecting, but maybe they’re being saved for next time.
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In which Tolly suggests a straightforward approach.
Tolly’s plan seems sensible and well-thought-out — as long as the universe obliges him to the extent of the outpost being occupied by the people he expects.
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Tarigan
In which Tolly and Haz clear the air.
Tolly seems to have accepted something he’s been fighting shy of for about a book and half. Things will hopefully go smoother when he’s not constantly trying to persuade Haz not to watch his back.
Haz seems to have accepted something she’s been struggling with, too, although perhaps it’s just that she’s become more comfortable talking about it. (Even then, that she finds in Tolly someone she’s comfortable talking about it with is promising.)
In which Tolly Jones gets a new assignment.
I wonder if Tolly’s ever going to learn that Haz isn’t as easy to manipulate as he keeps thinking she is. (I wonder if he’s not letting himself learn it, because the thing he keeps failing to take into account is her connection to him, and processing that would mean thinking about the implications.)
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Ahab-Esais
In which Tocohl and Inki meet the light keepers.
They’re not dead yet. That’s a good start.
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In which Inki and Tocohl take a first look at their destination.
The circumstance of Inki having information locked away inside her head, so that she doesn’t even know she knows it until the time is right, keeps things unpredictable. Where there’s one such packet, there might be another to come forth at any moment and change the state of play for better or worse.
(It reminds me a bit of the Tree’s seed pods, waiting until the time is ripe, although I don’t know if that’s a fair comparison.)
In which Inki sleeps.
Inki’s attitude reminds me of another SF series I’ve been reading lately, which features a planet where slavery has been practiced for many generations, and the slaves have their own secret culture and language, unknown to their masters. In the language of the slaves, the word for “death” and the word for “freedom” are the same.
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In which Inkirani Yo offers a trade, which is accepted, and another, which isn’t.
The fact that Dosavi Mikelsyn addresses Inkirani as “Translator Yo” suggests a few things about what she was up to when they first met, and specifically that she wasn’t working as a mentor in those days.
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Ahab-Esais
In which Inkirani Yo lays out the next move.
If there truly are multiple instances of the Uncle loose in the galaxy, each with their own interests and contacts, how do they decide which is the Uncle? I suppose the obvious answer is that at any given moment there is one who lives in Vivulonj Prosperu and hangs out with Dulsey, and that one gets to decide who his successor is, but it’s fun to speculate about less plausible options.
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In which the wise person accepts gracefully that which she cannot change.
It’s interesting that Continue reading