Tag Archives: Cantra yos’Phelium

Dragon Ship – Chapter 41

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Bechimo

In which Theo encounters an old friend of the family.

A nice moment of cross-purpose: on hearing the message saying that Spiral Dance is out from Solcintra, Kara and Win Ton both think immediately of Solcintra City on Liad. After all, what other Solcintra is there?

I am not entirely sure what to make of Spiral Dance‘s reappearance. It could be considered as the end of something, with ship and passenger returning to yos’Phelium. But it could also be the forerunner of something: if they can make it through, what else might follow?

(The answer to that might depend on how, exactly, Spiral Dance found its way through. If it was only possible because of having a ssussdriad assisting the navigation, that’s probably an end of it, as there are no sussdriads left in the old universe. On the other hand, if the key event was Bechimo‘s haunted Struven Unit calling out in a way audible to old tech, that means the way is potentially still open – although even then, I suppose it’s unlikely that there’s going to be another ship with a haunted Struven Unit sitting in the wyrd space any time soon.)

It’s not clear how much time has passed for Spiral Dance since the Rising of Solcintra: that its passenger is now a tree and not just a seedling suggests it’s been a while, but the fact that it still fits in its planter shows that it’s been considerably less than the centuries it’s been for everyone else.

Dragon Ship – Chapter 11

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Middle Orbit
Departing Cresthaller

In which Theo and the Uncle have information brought to their attentions.

This is, I think, the most unambiguous statement we’ve ever had that this Uncle is the same one (for some value of “same”) as the one who appeared in the Crystal duology. Though I’m not sure which, out of all the peoples who crossed Cantra’s path in the duology, the Uncle is counting as “his enemies”.

And the bit about Dulsey’s eyes is interesting, because if she prefers grey eyes that indicates that her eye color is subject to change.

Speaking of names we’ve seen before: Ynsolt’i, which Theo mentions as one of their upcoming stops, is the planet where Jethri has his life-changing encounter at the beginning of Balance of Trade. And the Spwao system, with its two planets and then-brand-new Tradedesk Station, features in the sequel, Trade Secret (though that was actually written after Dragon Ship).

I notice Bechimo’s given up on protesting against being called “Chimmy”.

I Dare – Chapter 57

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Day 59
Standard Year 1393

Solcintra
Liad

In which the Council of Clans throws Korval into the briar patch.

The Delm Hedrede who delivers the Council’s judgment here is not the same Delm Hedrede who clashed with Korval thirty years ago in Scout’s Progress – different pronouns – but it does make me wonder if Hedrede has a personal investment in Korval getting booted off the planet.

There’s a neat bit of narrative sleight of hand with the problem of what to do with the dies: the problem is carefully laid out, then just as Val Con is about to suggest a solution, the conversation is interrupted. The reader is left to assume that a solution is found without the authors having to actually come up with one.

Tomorrow and tomorrow: Revisiting old friends and seeing how they’re affected by recent events, in “Misfits” and then the remainder of Saltation.

I Dare – Chapter 55

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Solcintra
Liad

In which the Captain acts for the safety of the passengers.

The mode of Ultimate Authority, which is referred to twice in this chapter, has, perhaps unsurprisingly, not come up much before: three times in the series up to this point. Priscilla adopts it briefly when putting Sav Rid Olanek in his place at the end of Conflict of Honors; Commander of Agents is said in Carpe Diem to use it when dealing with his underlings; and Val Con, greeting the Tree in Plan B, places the Tree in the position of ultimate authority.

The fact that it’s used twice in this chapter, and by whom, is the central conflict in a nutshell: the first is Commander of Agents again, and the second is Miri when she takes on the melant’i of Liad’s Captain. And I think it says something that, whereas Miri adopts the mode temporarily and in a situation where she is in fact the duly-appointed ultimate authority until the emergency is resolved, the Commander is not only self-appointed but apparently expects to be regarded as the ultimate authority all the time.

There’s a leap near the end of the chapter that I’ve never been able to follow. After the doomsday weapons are activated, ter’Fendil says he can deactivate them if Val Con gives him the control device, and Val Con does. Then it cuts to another scene, and when it cuts back everybody’s running for their lives and talking about the urgent need to do something before the weapons break out and start killing everybody. Is there something missing, or is it just me missing something?

I Dare – Chapter 47

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Day 45
Standard Year 1393

Sherzer System

In which Boss Conrad goes on an outing with some pilots.

I’m not surprised, on reflection, to see Portmaster Borden among the pilots; makes sense a portmaster would be a pilot himself. Portmaster Liu is probably a pilot as well, but somebody’s gotta stay home and mind the store. I wonder how they decided who’d go and who’d stay. Flipped a coin for it? Or maybe Liu let Borden go because he’s the one who’s always upset about never having anything to do.

I want to know more about the “alternative courses of education” Er Thom offered the young Pat Rin: what they were, and why Pat Rin rejected them. I can think of several possibilities, but I’m not sure which best fits Pat Rin and Er Thom. One possibililty I’m pretty confident in rejecting is “education in useful non-piloting careers, which Pat Rin rejected because they weren’t piloting”; it’s clear that Pat Rin had already accommodated himself to the idea of not being a pilot. A more interesting idea is that they were not alternatives to being a pilot, but alternative ways of learning to be a pilot, since the family’s usual methods had failed – which Pat Rin rejected… why? The narration makes a point of mentioning that they were all offworld, which suggests several answers: perhaps Pat Rin just didn’t want to live anywhere but Liad (seems unlikely, stated so baldly); perhaps he feared the clan was trying to hide their non-pilot away from polite society; perhaps he’d already come to believe, as in “Heirloom”, that he was an unproductive load on the clan, and didn’t want the family to waste money sending him away for an education he was convinced would come to nothing.

I Dare – Chapter 11

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Teriste Casino District
The Practical Statistician

In which Pat Rin is offered a piece of jewelry at a price he is not willing to pay.

In a way, the Department is doing Pat Rin a favor, by forcing on him the melant’i of Korval. It is a considerable burden, to be as far as he knows the last person left to uphold the Clan, but it also allows him options he would not otherwise have had. Before, when he was literally the last person in the Clan’s line of succession, he had no choice but to decline Natesa’s offer of assistance in accordance with the Clan’s policy; now that he speaks for the Clan, he has not only the right but the responsibility to make a choice for the best good of the Clan.

I’m not sure how long the situation would have held together if Pat Rin had agreed to the Department’s offer; for one thing, the rest of the clan might be scattered and hidden but Anthora is plainly still alive. Perhaps at this point they were still confident they could fix that problem by the time Pat Rin got home.

The scene in the casino is the first time we’ve seen Pat Rin handle dice since that day when he was a child and he found he could make dice come up with any number he chose. That might be happenstance; another interpretation is that Pat Rin still has that facility with dice but has chosen, as an honorable man, not to use it except in cases of dire need, a distinction for which this situation might reasonably be held to qualify.

I Dare – Chapter 8

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Day 50
Standard Year 1393

Liad
Department of Interior Command Headquarters

In which Commander of Agents moves forward on two fronts.

One of Commander of Agents’ characteristic attributes is the way he’ll casually sweep past concepts with really troubling implications. This is at least the second time his plans for Korval have taken advantage of knowledge gained from confidential medical reports. He has no apparent problem with “retraining” Val Con to betray his own family. And then there’s the box that produces “interesting reactions” in a dramliza confined inside, currently undergoing “testing”; that pretty much has to mean live test subjects, and given the Department’s track record I wouldn’t want to bet on them being informed volunteers.

It’s not quite true that Anthora’s powers have no known limits; there’s at least one known to her kin, which was hinted at in Plan B and will be explicated later in this novel. Her family seem to have kept that one to themselves, which is just as well; the Department has had the opportunity to do a horrifying amount of damage if they’d known about it.

I Dare – Chapter 3

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Day 283
Standard Year 1392

Liad
Department of Interior Command Headquarters

In which the economy demands a Korval.

Re-reading in order, we’ve already had the truth behind Pat Rin being “dismissed to a wastrel life of spoiled self-indulgence”. Even without that context, though, I’m pretty sure I could already tell the first time I read this that spoiled and self-indulgent wasn’t really what Pat Rin was like, and that he was unlikely to be as receptive to the Department’s intention as they might have hoped.

Plan B – Chapter 25

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Erob’s Hold
Practice Grounds

In which Val Con, Miri, and Nelirikk go into harm’s way.

Jase presenting Commander Rialto’s pistol to Nelirikk has a message to it, beyond “you’re going into action, you’ll need a gun”. Nelirikk already has a gun; Miri cleared him to carry one days ago. But that was Miri showing that she trusted Nelirikk; this is Commander Carmody showing that he trusts Nelirikk, and by extension committing all the mercs under his command to work with him. Also, between this and his farewell to Val Con, making people promise to bring their equipment back seems to be Jase’s favoured way of asking them to come back safe.

I see that Emrith Tiazan is still clinging to the idea of Yxtrang as inhuman monsters, and I’m not going to say that’s not understandable in the circumstances, although one might hope she’d rein it in a bit when Nelirikk is standing right there. (I guess, though, that if she’s convinced he’s an animal, she wouldn’t see the point in that; who worries about sparing an animal’s feelings?) I can’t remember if she ever does acknowledge Nelirikk as a person later on; if she does, it’ll be interesting to see what the tipping point is.

Plan B – Chapter 24

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Lytaxin War Zone
Altitude: 12 kilometers

In which Shan finds himself in a war zone.

First published description of how the Tree talks, I think, and the most talkative it’s been since the prequels. Maybe it’s significant that this is one of the seedlings; perhaps being talkative is an attribute of the young.

In a moment that relates to something we’ve discussed in the comments, Shan reflects on the traditional differences between yos’Phelium and yos’Galan, and acknowledges that genetically there’s not actually much to choose between them. I wonder how much that extends to un-war-like Cousin Luken; we know Line bel’Tarda has had at least one infusion from relatively-respectable yos’Galan, but I don’t recall any mention of piratical yos’Phelium doing likewise.

I don’t remember now what I made of Shan’s encounter the first time, before I’d read the short stories about Lute. Re-reading it now, with those under my belt, two things occur to me. One is that Lute and Moonhawk have unfinished business in this when that is going to catch up with Shan and Priscilla sooner or later. The other is that I like the bit of business with the dagger; it’s very Lute.