Tag Archives: Captain sea’Kira

Trade Secret – Chapter 20

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Tradedesk, Gallery 770

In which Jethri receives some good advice.

The story is really picking up now. It’s getting harder to put the book down for a day at the end of the chapter.

I wonder if Tan Sim has a specific reason to be interested in the Uncle, or if it’s just that anybody who can throw around money as seemingly-casually as he just did is a person a trader might find interesting.

I like the moment when Jethri and Tan Sim are “a riot of emotions for Liaden eyes, and the picture of restraint to Terran”. Moments of comparison like that are some of the things I love this series for. (It also reminds me of one of my favourite non-Liaden novels, Janet Kagan’s Hellspark, which is written in a similar mode and has many cross-culture moments like this. In the arena of idly wondering what protagonists of your favourite stories would make of each other, Clan Korval and the crew of the Margaret, Lord Lynn are pretty high on my list.)

Balance of Trade – Chapter 36

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Day 177
Standard Year 1118

Irikwae Port

In which there are several reunions and a parting.

The “toy” Jethri encounters is recognizably similar to the learning toys Cantra had her own encounter with, though considerably older and understandably more decrepit. After a thousand years and more, it’s not remarkable that it malfunctions; more remarkable that it functions at all. (Though I wonder how much of the malfunction is age and decrepitude, and whether any of it comes from trying to get into the mind of someone who no longer speaks the language.)

Characters using depilatory cream instead of shaving their faces is one of those science-fiction markers that I’ve seen on and off since I was a beardless youth myself (and probably goes back much further than that). I gather, though, that it’s one of those science fiction ideas that will always remain a marker of science fiction because it seems simple in concept but is actually tricky in practice. The trouble, as I understand it, is that a man’s facial hair is generally some of the toughest hair around, and a cream strong enough to dissolve it is also strong enough to do some harm to the parts of a man’s face he was planning on keeping.

The Ruby Club is obviously pretty sleazy, even if you don’t know about the Liaden taboo that’s been alluded to but not so far stated outright. If you do, it’s really sleazy.

From there, it becomes a day for being reunited with friends, including Tan Sim and Miandra, each of whom has been having a rough time since he saw them last, and Captain ter’Astin, who is not giving anything away about what kind of time he’s been having.

It’s good to see Tan Sim again. I like Tan Sim.

I like Scout Captain ter’Astin, too. On this occasion, we get confirmation that he has some facility at sensing the thoughts of others, which had been hinted at on the previous occasion when he and Jethri met.

Speaking of things hinted at on previous occasions, we get another of those remarks about family resemblance, this time applied to Jethri and Arin.

The parting is Jethri from the weather device, which for all that it’s caused a deal of trouble might also be considered an old friend in respect of how much it represents to Jethri of his links with his father.