Gobelyn’s Market, Franticle
In which Franticle True has many annoyances, both imported and home-grown.
“This Arin who is dead” is an interesting phrase. It might just be put that way through unfamiliarity with the language, but the way it’s put carries an implication that there might be other Arins of interest who are still alive.
I like the bit of interplay about not permitting a dependent to remain uninformed in a complex situation.
Gobelyn’s Market
In which the Gobelyns keep an eye out for trouble.
One of the commenters remarked, back when we were reading Balance of Trade, that she wondered how Iza had continued to be captain. I was inclined at the time to give Iza the benefit of the doubt, since we hadn’t seen much of her and that not at her best, but the more we see of her the less room for doubt there’s getting to be. This chapter, one of the crew goes so far as to express (out loud, though not in Iza’s hearing) a hope that Iza will think to step down, but it seems they don’t think the case is bad enough to ask her outright.
Yet.
In other news, the stuff about the difficulties of navigation in a four-star system is interesting, for those who are interested in that kind of thing, and may be a warm-up for a discussion of the difficulties of navigating the Seventeen Worlds later.
I don’t like the way the Liadens are paying attention to them, and I don’t like the way the chapter ends with “and then the door opened”. That could lead to “so they stopped talking and went in”, but it could just as easily lead on to “revealing, to their shocked gaze, …” (So far, though, I am being good and not going straight on to the next chapter.)
Stateroom Number Two
Liaden Tradeship Wynhael, Outbound from Banth, a Backworld
In which Jethri’s story is by no means over.
A new novel!
The prologue gives us Bar Jan chel’Gaibin nursing his grievances, some hints about what’s up on Banth, and Jethri continuing his career but discovering that Old Tech is still going to be a part of his life. The chel’Gaibin seems to have decided to take particular offence against Khat, so no doubt we’ll be hearing more of the crew of the Market along the way. That’s all the major dangling threads from Balance of Trade picked up already – all I ask now is a throwaway line about how Jethri’s moustache management is getting on, and I’ll be happy.
We get quite a detailed portrait of Bar Jan chel’Gaibin in the first part of the prologue. Not a nice fellow, the chel’Gaibin. The description of his debt book is revealing, and so is the bit about the rigged dueling pistols – that latter also saying something about the family he comes from, given that they’re the house’s pistols and not his personally. (I wonder if we’ll be seeing those pistols in action, later.)
We also learn some things about Jethri. The bit about him feeling as if fractins are aware of him is new, though it fits in with what we already had about his knack for salvage items.
Jethri is currently working on a world where they go in for elaborate ceremony, which gives us some interesting new flourishes on the bows. I particularly like the revelation that the language of bows includes a construction for “I realise my sleeves aren’t long enough to do this bow justice”.
Day 189
Standard Year 1118
Irikwae
In which Junior Trader Jethri Gobelyn looks to the future.
I’m still not sure about the wisdom of choosing Master ven’Deelin as the evaluating master. She does have a point, but then this isn’t just about avoiding partiality, it’s also about being seen to avoid partiality: letting her evaluate her own apprentice gives anyone who doesn’t want to accept Jethri an opening to suggest that she let him off easy.
Although, it just now occurs to me, to do so would be inevitably to cast aspersions on the melant’i of a widely-known and well-respected Master Trader, which they might well be forced to conclude was a course of action whose consequences they couldn’t sustain. So perhaps it’s not so unwise as I thought.
Tomorrow, “Out of True”, which is still up on the Baen front page. Then, on to the sequel.
Day 168
Standard Year 1118
Irikwae Port
In which there are several beginnings for Jethri and his family.
This is another chapter where I’d probably have a lot to say if I were reading it for the first time, but this time round it’s more the minor details catching my attention.
One really trivial detail is that when Jethri’s thinking about all the people at the Tarnia clanhouse he misses already, one of those listed is a “Mrs tel’Bonti” who is not mentioned anywhere else in the book. Presumably the person being referred to is the cook, Mrs tor’Beli, who does not otherwise appear in the list.
Seeli’s news settles it: there’s definitely something going on between her and Grig. I wonder for how long? “A couple of Standard Months” is since they began their stay on Kinaveral, but of course there’s nothing to say they haven’t been carrying on longer than that.
It’s an interesting touch that the Spacers would prefer their baby to be born in space. Seems to me that would mean they’re a long way from help if anything goes wrong, but then again a Spacer’s life consists almost entirely, one way or another, of being a long way from help if anything goes wrong.
Day 166
Standard Year 1118
Elthoria
In which Norn ven’Deelin considers her options.
Master ven’Deelin is decisive in moving to assist her foster son, not that I expected anything different from her by this point.
I am not sure I have correctly untangled that very long sentence which comes third in this chapter. It sounds like it has a story behind it, whatever it means.
Day 161
Standard Year 1118
Irikwae
In which Jethri and Khat each have a long and incident-packed day.
Well now, this is a long chapter.
Khat’s day brings her to Banth, an inhospitable planet which a surprising number of Liadens seem to want to visit. And among them, the chel’Gaibin and her son, who reacts badly to encountering one of Jethri’s kin. I really like the sequence with Khat’s friend Keeson and his sister, which probably wasn’t strictly needful to the plot but adds a lot of texture to the story.
Jethri’s day, in between encounters with tailors and dancing instructors, takes him out to the vines, teaches him a few things about the local fauna, and leads to a possibly unwise bright idea involving the device Grig called a “weather maker”.
It’s been alluded to previously, but this is the first time the Code of Proper Conduct has been mentioned by its full title. Also mentioned is that it’s currently three volumes long, a state of affairs that I seem to recall does not maintain itself indefinitely.