Surebleak Port
Portmaster’s Office
In which the Portmaster has people looking over her shoulder.
Oh, yeah. And the survey team. I’d forgotten about them, what with so much else going on.
Continue reading
In which Erthax exercises his creativity.
From some authors, I would say that Vepal and Sanchez are obviously being herded in a particular direction. From these authors, I tend to be more cautious of expecting obvious and tidy conclusions.
Continue reading
In which Mar Tyn asks an unaccustomed question.
It seems a bit late in proceedings to be introducing a whole new category of probability-workers, but I suppose that if there are only a few of them and they keep to themselves, and their gifts only affect their immediate vicinity — and the Healers and dramliz choose to have nothing to do with them — one can understand why we haven’t heard of them or seen them at work before now.
Continue reading
Liad
In which Don Eyr fails to persuade Serana to leave him.
I was actually kind of surprised by how useful Don Eyr and Serana found the melant’i plays as a guide to Liaden behaviour; people who have tried that in other stories have had mixed success due to their source texts being unrealistic, melodramtic, or outright fraudulent.
Continue reading
Liad
In which Don Eyr is taken away and educated.
I knew two things going in to “Degrees of Separation”: that it’s a prequel to “Block Party”, which is not unusual for a Liaden story, and that the cover image prominently features the Eiffel Tower and a globe of the Earth more-or-less centred on France, which is. Earth (or Terra) has been mentioned occasionally, but has never yet appeared on-screen.
Continue reading
In which Val Con and Miri offer their solutions.
The distinction Val Con makes between those who count themselves to be Scouts and those who count themselves to be Liaden Scouts is one I was reaching for yesterday but didn’t manage to wrap words around. (And reminds me of Eylot, forcing its pilots to decide whether they were pilots who happened to be Eylotian or Eylotians who happened to be pilots.)
It also, come to think of it, suggests the possibility, if not the certainty, that at some point in the future the Scouts headquartered on Surebleak are going to accept non-Liadens into their ranks. Once you’ve reached the conclusion that being a Scout and being a Liaden are not necessarily linked, it’s an obvious consequence. (There have been hints in that direction already, too, with people mentioning that the Scouts have been providing educational opportunities on Surebleak, usually followed by commenting that Scout teachers always treat their students as prospective Scouts.)
Continue reading
In which Val Con and Miri are not getting much sleep tonight.
Chapter 20 is shaping up to be a long chapter, to the point that I’m almost wondering if I need to subdivide the sections even further. Makes sense, though, since this is the chapter where a whole bunch of plot strands come together, not just from this book but from the four books preceding it.
Continue reading
In which a family reunion or two occurs.
More bows and modes in this chapter than we’ve had in a while, including a couple of new ones. Well, it’s been a while since we’ve had a conversation, in other than everyday circumstances, between two parties familiar with the forms.
Continue reading
Tinsori Light
In which Tocohl makes a status report.
I found the jump from where Tolly and Haz were at the end of the previous chapter to where they are when they show up in this one so jarring that I actually flicked back a few pages to make sure I hadn’t accidentally skipped a chapter. Maybe it would have been a short chapter, and amounted to “Everything went according to plan for once”, but it still feels to me like its absence leaves a perceptible gap. Even a sentence or two from Tolly or Haz about what they’d been doing since the end of last chapter would have helped. (Maybe we’ll still get that in an upcoming section, and I just haven’t got to it yet because I stopped to write this entry.)
Continue reading
In which the light keeper shares the gift of his knowledge.
Last time, I mentioned two things an experienced Liaden Universe reader might know about the light keepers that someone coming to this novel cold wouldn’t, and already both have been brought out in the open. Which is fair enough, because they’re both important things to know.
Continue reading