In which Therny Chirs comes to Eylot.
I think I made the right call, for me, to leave this story until after the novel, even though it doesn’t directly relate to the plot. If I had read the story first, I’d have spent most of the novel trying to figure out how it connected, which would have been distracting.
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Bechimo
Sync Shift
In which some things are opened that had been carefully sealed.
I don’t think I said this when it came up earlier: I like that Theo’s friends don’t all like each other just because all they like Theo. And that, on the other hand, it’s not held against them that they don’t; that’s just the way it goes, sometimes.
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Bechimo
Among the Sweet Growing Things
In which a situation develops in the hydroponics bay.
I like the description of Kara tending to the plants: three paragraphs on the value of talking to plants, with, as an afterthought, one sentence acknowledging a possible more hard-headed take on the subject.
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Ynsolt’i Approach
In which Ynsolt’i is back off the agenda.
My response to the Department’s claim of being “proper representatives of Liad” is a rude noise, but I wonder how much the Ynsolt’i authorities believe it.
The pilot from Metrose is another addition to the gallery of one-off characters who make an impression in a single brief appearance, the more impressively for appearing only as a voice. (That sentence was slightly trickier to put together than I expected when I began it, because I realised partway through that the pilot also belongs to the set of characters whom the authors have not burdened with gendered pronouns.)
Ynsolt’i Incoming
In which Bechimo finishes with its detour and arrives at Ynsolt’i.
And the narrative jumps forward, so we get no more information directly about what the norbears have to say or ask about Joyita. Whatever it is, it seems like it’s not a mark against Theo or Bechimo, seeing as they’ve been selected to host the Embassy Mobile to Norbears.
I wonder how much actuality there is behind the Embassy Mobile. It seems clear from the way Master Peltzer talks that it was genuinely Hevelin’s own idea to go travelling with Bechimo, but is the Embassy itself just a legal fiction to keep him out of trouble in systems that don’t like norbears, or are there actual formal diplomatic relations between norbears and the Clans of Men? Was the point of meeting Sinaya that the business required the approval of a higher-ranking norbear? It seems kind of unlikely – not, I should say, because I’m in any way doubting the intelligence of norbears, just that they don’t seem temperamentally inclined toward formal structures and hierarchies – but stranger things have happened.
Velaskiz Rotundo
In which Bechimo‘s crew increases.
The revelation at the end of the chapter is ambiguous, since there have been two Joyitas in this book, but it makes sense that it’s B. Joyita, because that’s the one Theo would definitely recognise and more importantly if the norbears don’t know about Bechimo’s copy they’ve got no reason to wonder whether Theo knows the original. So the implication I take from this is that Hevelin managed to notice and get an impression of Bechimo and Joyita despite them keeping quiet while there were passengers on board – and that the norbears, in an echo of Theo’s thought earlier in the chapter, consider B. Joyita to be a person.
That said, it would be interesting if Sinaya actually did know Jermone Joyita, either personally (how old do norbears live to? I’d say not that long based on how aged Hevelin is, but we don’t actually know how old he already was when we first encountered him) or through some version of a memory passed from norbear to norbear. (It would also be another point in favour of Bechimo‘s creation being during-after Jethri’s lifetime, since “Out of True” suggests that it was in Jethri’s lifetime that shipboard norbears became a thing.)
Speaking of Joyita, this chapter has another mention of the number of rings on his hand, currently still holding steady at three.
Meanwhile, in the far reaches of the plot, the Uncle is off to check on a mysterious project of which we have not previously heard, and he’s taking Daav along for want of a safe place to leave him. Which offers the tantalising possibility that Daav will resurface in good time to learn something about this mysterious project himself.
Jump
In which Theo seeks a relief of tension.
This is one of those chapters where I’d probably have something to say if I were reading it for the first time, but because I’m re-reading I’m just nodding along going “Yes, I remember that bit” and nothing’s jumping out at me as remarkable.
I do kind of wonder if Hevelin’s intense interest in Theo’s mental picture of Daav was all on Daav’s account, or if some of it was due to her including the Tree in the picture.
Bechimo
In which Bechimo leaves Codrescu.
There are some intriguing hints in Bechimo’s flashback. Joyita being removed from the project early. The Uncle seeing things differently from the Builders (and perhaps an implication that he too has been removed from the project?). Another mention of that subetheric communication method. And, more prosaically, the origin of Bechimo’s habit of referring to “mere ships”.
This is not an occasion for petty point-scoring, so if anybody noticed it’s wise of them not to say so, but it amuses me that Eylot Control call Theo “First Class Pilot Theo Waitley”, when in less fraught circumstances they would likely have said that they don’t recognise Theo’s qualification.
Codrescu Station
In which more help arrives.
It’s not clear yet how many of the new arrivals are here following Bechimo‘s example. It might be that some of them were coming anyway, but didn’t have Bechimo‘s head start of already being outward bound when the call came; maybe they had business to settle before they could leave, or thought of useful things to round up and bring with them. (I’m thinking of Varthaven, for instance: do they always have doctors and a clinic on board, or was that something they had to arrange before they came?) Or it could be that every one of them is here because Asu was not only inspired but decided to share the inspiration around. Certainly the way they all arrive at once suggests some level of organization.
As of this chapter, Dragon Ship agrees with Ghost Ship (as one might expect) in declaring that it is currently summer on Surebleak.
Codrescu
In which Theo is reunited with with two old comrades.
The fact that cadets from Anlingdin are actively involved in the action against Codrescu brings back the worry of Theo having to be in direct conflict with somebody she knew personally. Although, after two years during which most of Theo’s age-mates would presumably have graduated, if the authorities didn’t get them out of the Academy some other way, I’m not sure how many friends she’s likely to still have in the current student body.
There’s a moment, when Theo is suggesting to Hevelin that he stay put and out of the way, when her speech pattern sounds like Rig Tranza’s. Which makes sense, and probably indicates that on some level she’s drawing on a memory of him as a model of politely but firmly suggesting a course of action.