Tag Archives: Angela Lizardi

Dragon in Exile – Chapter 27

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Office of the Road Boss
Surebleak Port

In which it’s time to be gone.

I expect we’ll get Tolly’s story in a chapter or two, but what’s the fun of reading a book for the first time if one can’t speculate? I had wondered, when it was established that Tolly’s former employer was a Liaden, if this was another aspect of the Department of the Interior, and the mental-control business with the whistles also points in that direction. (If so, I notice that Liaden servants of the Department get names, but Terrans, even if they’re valuable specialists, are tools with serial numbers.) On the other hand, indications so far have been that the Department doesn’t think enough of Terrans to use them even as anonymous tools. Maybe this is some kind of splinter operation; maybe it’s a completely unrelated bunch of unscrupulous Liadens. It might not even be a Liaden group entirely; the woman with the other whistle isn’t said to be Liaden, and although she is said to be small in stature, it’s Hazenthull’s viewpoint saying so, and there are maybe three people on Surebleak who don’t look small to Hazenthull.

I was worried that, with Hazenthull having to take off with Tolly, there’d be nobody left to explain matters to Commander Liz, but Tocohl will be in contact with the port tower during lift, and maybe she’ll get a chance to pass a message then. Or she probably has some way of communicating directly with Jeeves, and can dump the whole thing in his metaphorical lap. (There’s another thing to look forward to: Hazenthull’s reaction to Tocohl.)

Dragon in Exile – Chapter 24

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Surebleak

In which there are meetings and partings.

I’m still inclined to the idea that Tolly is the specialist Jeeves is sending with Tocohl. Conversely, this implies that Jeeves is the colleague who encouraged Tolly to settle on Surebleak, which raises the interesting question of what enterprise they might have been colleagues in.

I haven’t the faintest idea what High Judge Falish Meron (whose name is given here for the first time) might want with Val Con. Based on past performance, this probably means I haven’t been paying attention and it will be obvious as soon as it’s said.

Smealy’s meeting with Miri is sure to go badly for somebody, but I’m not confident in guessing who. Miri might send him out with his tail between his legs, the way Val Con did, but he’ll be more inclined to fight back this time, because he needs a success to show his colleagues. He might be tempted to do something foolish because Miri is small and female, in which case he’d be making a mistake in underestimating Miri – not just because she’s ex-merc and Korval, but because she grew up on Surebleak, and was pretty tough already before she was either of those other things. I suspect the Syndicate Bosses are similarly underestimating Surebleak’s population in thinking the campaign of examples will make them roll over.

Dragon in Exile – Chapter 20

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Surebleak Port

In which Val Con has a meeting, and Tolly avoids one.

I speculate that the crew who made an attempt on Yulie’s growing rooms are connected to the group Rys encountered near the gate of the Bedel. Nothing really solid to go on, just a sense that they were both sniffing around places that they ought not to even know about.

I don’t believe we’ve heard the name of Tan Ort before. I note that the description Val Con gives, as far as it goes, matches Herb’s description of the Liaden Tolly is anxious to avoid meeting, but I don’t think that necessarily means anything; the description doesn’t go very far and probably fits a lot of Liadens. There’ll be a fair few who are of a portly bearing, red hair isn’t entirely uncommon (look at Miri’s entire family, for a start), and it’s a rare Liaden who isn’t shorter than Val Con.

Dragon in Exile – Chapter 12

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Tantara Floor Coverings
Surebleak port

In which Quin has a date.

The shop’s name, “Tantara”, is a variety of rare and valuable carpet – specifically, the variety of which the bel’Tarda heirloom carpet, bestowed on Pat Rin by Luken in “Heirloom”, is an example.

I still consider Beslin vin’Tenzing’s idea of Balance unreasonable, but on reflection I think I see where a Liaden would say I went wrong. Proper behaviour for a Liaden is to look out for oneself, one’s kin and dependents, to lend a hand to an ally if asked, and otherwise to pay every other person in the universe the compliment of assuming them capable of taking care of themselves. The desire to find a solution that serves everybody harmed in the attack on Solcintra would not be admirable to a Liaden, but instead an unconscionable failure to mind one’s own business. vin’Tenzing’s duty is to do no more than find a solution that serves vin’Tenzing, and if in the process somebody else’s solution gets stepped on it’s up the other person to take it up with vin’Tenzing as a fresh matter requiring Balance.

Dragon in Exile – Chapter 9

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Blair Road
Surebleak

In which Val Con reflects on his dream.

Though I chose other things to talk about last chapter, I was a bit surprised that Miri’s experience of the dream was of being sliced up and reshaped, when the dream is of being an established agent of the Department and doesn’t include the training that shapes a person into a living weapon. I think I get it, now, though: the Department’s training isn’t just about forcing a person into a new shape, it’s also about instilling processes that keep them in that shape, against whatever tendencies and defences might try to return them to themselves after the training is concluded. The trimming and burning and twisting is going on under the surface of every agent of the Department all the time.

On this chapter’s other plot strand, the thought suddenly strikes me: what if Mr Kipler is smart enough to conceal how smart he is, and getting arrested and hauled in front of the Bosses is part of the plan?

Dragon in Exile – Chapter 6

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Jelaza Kazone
Surebleak

In which Rys offers his brother a gift.

The bit about the dreams of the Bedel is an answer to a question I never thought to ask, and it almost makes me want to immediately re-read Necessity’s Child just to look again with fresh eyes at all the times the luthia speaks of dreaming on a subject or Rys’s brothers dream on the design of his leg brace. (“Eleutherios”, too.) I have no doubt that when I do, I will find that they are all consistent with this newly-revealed information; I have a feeling the authors have known this about the Bedel all along, and chose not to mention it in Necessity’s Child to achieve a particular effect. Well played, authors.

(There’s also a suggestion that when he says he prayed with his brothers, that has a particular meaning to the Bedel. That one, I think we had a hint of in Necessity’s Child, the first time Rys himself heard one of the kompani use the word in context.)

I’m seeing an interesting bit of melant’i going on in the exchange between Pat Rin and Mr pel’Tolian. They’ve been together something like twenty years at this point, and Mr pel’Tolian chose to follow Pat Rin to Surebleak, so I think it’s safe to say they’ve got some degree of personal regard alongside the lord and manservant relationship; but it’s all being expressed through the forms appropriate to the lord and manservant relationship because to be otherwise would be, well, inappropriate.

Dragon in Exile – Chapter 4

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Jelaza Kazone
Surebleak

In which situations develop.

I am impressed and horrified by Agent bar’Abit’s plan and by the circumstances that led to her attempting it. I’ve said before that the Department does not treat its people well; I’m increasingly feeling the depth by which that’s an understatement.

I’m on Val Con and Miri’s side about not wanting to give up on the prisoners, but at the same time I’m aware that that’s very easy for me to say when it’s just a hypothetical situation for me.

I don’t think I believe in the existence of the man who supposedly asked Mr Kipler to play a joke on Hazenthull; the explanation doesn’t fit the things he actually said. I particularly keep coming back to the bit where he went off on a tangent about the Road Boss, which doesn’t fit his narrative. (It also makes me wonder about whether he’s telling the truth about having nothing to do with Liadens; would someone who didn’t care about Liadens care about Korval attacking Solcintra?)

Boss Conrad’s plan for dealing with Baker Quill’s problem seems straightforward and well thought out, but the fact that the novel’s cover depicts a shoot-out near a bakery inclines me to suspect it won’t go off entirely without a hitch.

Dragon in Exile – Chapter 3

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Surebleak Port

In which Hazenthull and Tolly do their rounds.

It is perhaps a testament to how vividly Tolly is written that I was convinced until I checked my notes that he’d appeared at least once before. Apparently not, though.

One character who probably has appeared before is Port Security Chief Lizardi, who is most likely the same Liz Lizardi whom Miri’s Lizzie is named for. And if so, that’s interesting, because the last time we saw her she was solidly retired. No, I tell a lie: the last time we saw her she was with Hazenthull, and Diglon, helping Korval get themselves kicked off the homeworld. Perhaps, between that and helping organise the Lytaxin cavalry, she discovered she wasn’t as retired as she thought.

One of the advantages of reading a new book is I get to try and predict things. (And then, if my record on Trade Secret is any guide, you-all who have read it already get to laugh at how wrong I am.) So, for what it’s worth, I predict that the loudmouth’s “slip o’ the tongue” is connected in some way to the fellow Tolly wasn’t interested in meeting at the Emerald.

Dragon in Exile – Prologue

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In which Val Con speaks to his heir.

It’s a prologue. Not much to say about it, really. It reintroduces the key points for new readers, and for returning readers who don’t happen to have just finished reading the preceding novels.

One thing about doing it in a scene like this, instead of just doing a Story So Far narration straight to the audience, is that it also introduces a few characters, not just in the sense of telling the reader that they exist and what their names are, but also by showing what they’re like as people and how they interact with each other.

Ghost Ship – Chapter 6

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Surebleak Spaceport

In which cold Surebleak offers Delm Korval a warm welcome.

Jen Sar Kiladi has “been lost”, which might add to the awkwardness if Kamele ever takes it into her head to demand his safe return. One might say that it offers instead the opportunity to tell Kamele, with some degree of accuracy, that Kiladi has died, but I don’t think that would work for long and in any case I’m confident Daav knows as well as Theo does that he owes Kamele the whole truth. His reluctance to tell her so far has been about trying to spare her the further trouble of being dragged into Korval’s orbit at a dangerous time, not about shirking his duty.

It does raise the question of why Kiladi has slipped away. Perhaps he felt, or whatever part of Daav keeps him working, that he’d served his purpose: Daav has said more than once that he’s completed the Balance in which Kiladi was such a useful tool, and he’s also fulfilled his original purpose in the sense that he was only supposed to stick around until he was discovered, which he now has been. And letting go of Kiladi presumably means there’s more room in Daav’s head for Aelliana. But I find myself remembering that Aelliana’s most striking recent increase in ability was associated with Daav eating one of the Tree’s seed pods, and wondering: Did Kiladi-Daav make the decision that Kiladi’s time was done, or was the decision made for him?

That’s an intriguing background detail, the hint at friction between the Pilots’ Guild and the Federated Trade Commission. I don’t think we’ve heard of the Federated Trade Commission before, at least by that name; perhaps it’s descended from the trade commission that was around in Jethri’s time. I’m tempted to speculate, on the basis of no evidence whatever, that it’s a Terran organisation that takes issue with the Pilots’ Guild because, as we know, the latter is a case of harmonious collaboration between Terrans and Liadens. But then again, we know from various bits with Shan that he was certified as a Master Trader by a Trade Commission that is likewise a collaboration. (I’m sufficiently attached to my hypothesis to wonder if there’s more than one Trade Commission. Perhaps the Federated Trade Commission is a smaller federation of traders who don’t want to be involved in anything that requires collaboration with Liadens. But now I’m really speculating.)