In which Val Con and Miri have a busy morning.
I like “a salute so smart it could have driven itself into town”. And Val Con’s interactions with the cat.
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Neogenesis – Chapter 20 part IV
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Tag Archives: Chancellor of the University of Delgado
Fledgling – Chapter 41
Delgado
In which Kamele and Theo go home.
Immediately, Theo is thrown into a situation that shows how much she’s changed in the six months she’s been away. (Incidentally, considering they spent maybe a week on Melchiza, that means they spent the better part of three months on Vashtara in each direction. Kind of drives home what a serious undertaking the trip was.) The terminal is the kind of chaotic jostling situation that would have been a disaster during her “clumsy” phase, but not only does she not create any disasters, she deftly avoids several that might have been caused by the inattention of the people around her. And the fact that Kamele essentially chose to throw her into this situation by sending her off to get the luggage unattended shows that Kamele trusted she would be able to get through it unscathed.
(On the other hand, the luggage scene also shows Theo with a new habit that’s going to cause her some trouble in Saltation. Continuity!)
Boy, that terminal helper is really inadvertant. Somehow, I doubt that the comment Kamele left on his feedback form was a complimentary one.
I’m pretty sure the reunion in this chapter is the first time in the book we’ve seen the entire family interacting; we’ve had Theo with Jen Sar, Theo with Kamele, and Kamele with Jen Sar, but not all three, for the entire time the family has been living separately. The occasional moments when all three have been in the same place together (such as when Theo showed Kamele and Jen Sar the snake AI) happened off the page — until now, when the family is properly back together.
Fledgling – Chapter 7
Retrospection on an Introduction
Chancellor’s Welcome Reception for the Gallowglass Chair
Lenzen Ballroom, Administration Tower Three
University of Delgado
In which Kamele met Jen Sar.
The Chancellor’s reception is one of a small number of scenes that appear in more than one place in the series, from more than one perspective. Comparing Kamele’s version here with Jen Sar’s version in Mouse and Dragon is an interesting exercise, for the things they see differently, and especially the things which are unexplained in one and matter-of-factly explained in the other. (It also, unfortunately, shows that nobody warned the copy-editor of the latter book what was going on; not everybody makes the transition from one version to the other with spelling intact.)
Mouse and Dragon – Epilogue
Chancellor’s Welcome Reception for the Gallowglass Chair
Lenzen Ballroom, Administration Tower Three
University of Delgado
In which Jen Sar Kiladi comes to Delgado.
Sharon Lee once mentioned on her blog that there are apparently readers who are under the misapprehension that when Daav left Liad to be Kiladi, he was taking the easy way out. I can see where they might have got that impression from Scout’s Progress, where Daav spends a lot of time chafing at Liad and thinking about taking off for elsewhere, but I think Mouse and Dragon does a good job of counteracting it. Over the course of the novel, Daav makes accommodations and settles into his place on Liad, and the last few chapters show very clearly that in leaving Liad he’s leaving his son and his brother and many other people and things he values; the discovery of Aelliana’s presence was a help, but it’s clearly still traumatic for him.
One thing I notice about this chapter is that it never names the point-of-view character. I mean, it’s obvious who it is, but is he Daav yos’Phelium or Jen Sar Kiladi? (Kiladi on the outside, but Daav on the inside where he can hear Aelliana? Though I notice that at those moments, Aelliana also goes unnamed; apparently Kiladi is aware of possessing an invisible companion – I suppose that would have been a necessary adaptation, since neither Daav nor Aelliana would have been happy if she’d had to pretend not to be there most of the time – but not of her identity. Likewise, her comment about his sister isn’t attached to a name, and it’s possible the sister he remembers is not the same as the one she does.) That was a long parenthetical comment; where was I? Ah, yes, the question of his identity. There are moments where he doesn’t seem too clear on that question himself.
This is where we leave Aelliana and her beloved friend (whoever he is) for now; it will be a couple of months for us (and a larger number of years for them) before we will get to see what becomes of the new situation on Delgado, and of the potential friendship with Scholar Waitley.
For now, there is a week or two of short stories, beginning with “Veil of the Dancer”, and then the novel Conflict of Honors.