Tag Archives: chernubia

Block Party

In which good neighbours become good friends.

No very specific indications of when this story is set, only that it’s after “the Lady and the Perfessor” have embarked on their project of documenting Surebleak’s social history.
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Chimera

In which things are changing on Surebleak.

Even granting that a public gathering of all the Bosses seems like a good opportunity to make a statement, it strikes me as particularly lacking in foresight for the disgruntled pack to try and start something at, of all things, a shooting competition. That’s right up there with the legendary criminal who tried to knock over the local precinct’s favourite coffee shop during the cops’ lunch break.

The old argument about the new consolidated school suggests this is set shortly after Necessity’s Child, though how much after would depend on the balance between the newness of the school and the oldness of the argument. Actually, it might even be during the late stages of Necessity’s Child, if the argument is “what to do when the new school opens” rather than “what to do now the new school has opened”.

(It might turn out that I’d have had more to say about this story if I’d read it after Dragon in Exile, the way Trade Secret turned out to contain details that clarified the situation in “Out of True”, but I had important pragmatic reasons for putting Dragon in Exile last in the schedule, namely that that meant I could schedule everything without needing to know exactly how many chapters there are in Dragon in Exile.)

Dragon Ship – Chapter 25

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.

Dragon Ship – Chapter 19

Tradedesk

In which there are many meetings.

…well, that seems a pretty clear statement that Bechimo was built in or shortly after Jethri’s time, with Arin’s ideas as guidance. There have been other people named Arin (there’s one in Crystal Dragon), and there might even have been another who was a noted thinker on subjects of interest to traders, but it’s not likely there was another who was all that and had a son who took a different path.

But we’re still stuck with the fact that the beginning of Ghost Ship states straight up that Bechimo has been awaiting a captain for over five hundred years – which is to say, since two hundred years before Jethri was born.

(On another, less contradictory, note, we have another hint to go with the one from “Intelligent Design” of a technological underpinning for psychic abilities in the Liaden Universe.)

Ghost Ship – Chapter 11

Mozart’s Modicum
Starport Gondola

In which Theo picks up an antiquity and a tail.

Theo, as is perhaps only to be expected from someone raised on a Safe World, isn’t really up to speed on what might be involved in a situation like this. As the operative tailing her notes, she doesn’t realise she might need to take precautions against people like him, and although it’s good that she does notice she’s being followed, it’s not so good that she thinks confronting the tail directly is a good idea, and she’s too ready to take his explanation at face value and assume the problem is dealt with. It’s there in the meeting at the teahouse, too; it’s good that she started to leave when her contact didn’t give the right recognition signal, but if she really understood why elaborate recognition signals might be necessary in the first place, she’d have kept going no matter what her contact said next.

It’s enough to make one wonder what the Uncle was thinking, sending her out so unprepared. Did he underestimate the influence of her upbringing, and assume that a pilot with her reputation would know these things? Or does he want her to get into trouble?

The tea Theo orders, Joyful Sunrise, is the same high-grade blend Daav gives Master dea’Cort as a joke in Scout’s Progress.

Saltation – Chapter 38

Conference Room Able
Pilots Guildhall
Volmer

In which the bad news keeps on coming.

Caratunk is a planet we’ve heard of before: it’s where Jethri’s father met Iza Gobelyn.

And we heard about that in the same chapter which first informed us that “there are secrets in all families”, a phrase that’s associated with a particular family, and a particular person who is likely to be the same person Win Ton is on his way to meet. It amuses me that he’s implicitly included in Win Ton’s reference last chapter to unspecified people “even less reputable” than Scouts or Juntavas.

The fact that Win Ton was at Nev’lorn when the fighting broke out is interesting, and offers an additional reason for the Department to have decided the time was right for overt action. (And prompts one to wonder what might have happened if he and Daav had encountered each other there.)

And now the bad news from home has caught up with Theo, having been somewhat delayed by Kamele’s lack of familiarity with the options for sending an urgent message long-distance to a person in motion. There’s an irony here: Theo does know where to find her father – or would, if she had the means to link together several things she’s learned recently – but, lacking those means, she doesn’t know that she knows.

Misfits

In which Ichliad Brunner’s family finds him embarrassing.

At no point in the story does anybody get around to correcting Tech Brunner’s mistaken impression of who Miri is and what she’s doing; on the contrary, it’s apparently confirmed when she shows up again speaking Liaden like a native. This is amusing for those of us who have read the novels and know Miri’s story, but I wonder how it would look to a reader who hadn’t and didn’t. Would the lack of any explanation of Miri’s behaviour appear as a gap in the story, like the lack of any explanation of what Korval’s up to?

(I also see that Skel’s fate is not mentioned, but I think in that case a reader familiar with the shapes stories take can probably figure it out.)

Neither of the dates at the beginning and end matches up neatly with the dates given in I Dare. The date given for the attack on Solcintra at the beginning is the day after the date given in the novel (though I suppose the attack might have lasted long enough to carry over into a new date, according to the Standard Calendar, and the novel neglected to mention it in the excitement). The final scene, which clearly takes place after Korval is ordered off Liad and decides to migrate to Surebleak, is given a date two whole days before the date on which those things occur in the novel.

(And now it probably sounds like I don’t like this story. I do, really, I’m just not finding words to talk much about the things I like.)


Tomorrow: We return to Theo Waitley – and, at last, to sensible chapter numbers – with Saltation chapter 33.

Carpe Diem – Chapter 31

Liad

In which Shadia Ne’Zame has the garbage run.

First-In Scout Shadia Ne’Zame is a new character, though we’ve met at least one member of her family before. Clonak ter’Meulen is an old character whom I’m very pleased to be re-acquainted with. (At least, he is in chronological order. I believe this is his first published appearance, though Val Con mentioned him a few chapters ago.)

This is a difficult chapter to say anything about, partly because it’s so short and partly because the things I do want to say — regarding Auxiliary Headquarters and the fact that the garbage run, these days, is not so boring as Scout Ne’Zame believes — come from remembering things from earlier readings that we haven’t got up to yet in this re-read.

I do wonder how Shadia and Clonak came to be such close friends as their banter suggests. It’s made clear that they’re quite different in age, so it’s unlikely that they were anything so obvious as classmates at the Academy.

Saltation – Chapter 11

Counseling Center
Anlingdin Piloting Academy

In which Theo is given some paperwork to review.

Theo goes to see the counselor Chelly recommended, meets Kara again, and receives a letter from Captain Cho informing her, among other things, that news of her dramatic landing has been directed to her mother, on the Safe World of Delgado. Kind of a transitional chapter, this, full of consequences unfolding but not yet unfolded far enough to be clear on how they’ll turn out.

Trade Secret – Chapter 21

Tradedesk, Gallery 770

In which Jethri brings the evening to a satisfactory conclusion.

This may well be seeing a connection where none is intended, but I can’t go past the mention of “a qe’andra of extreme melant’i and form” without thinking of the dea’Gauss.

I don’t think, from what we’ve seen of him, that Bar Jan chel’Gaibin did intend, or even realise, the insult he offered to Samay pin’Aker – but in saying so, I’m effectively pronouncing him a person of little melant’i, and I can see why a well-brought-up young man like Jethri would avoid doing that while it remained possible to give him the benefit of the doubt. (And isn’t it interesting that giving him the benefit of the doubt means assuming him to be a person who would offer deliberate insult to a lady? I think it was Oscar Wilde who said that a gentleman is a person who never causes offence unintentionally.)

This is not the first time it’s been mentioned that Jethri ven’Deelin, as a son adopted of Clan Ixin, may be required to enter a contract marriage for the good of the clan. It may just be background, but I do wonder if it’s foreshadowing an event that will occur in this novel – and if so, whether it will be so tidy as a marriage to one of the young ladies whose acquaintance Jethri has already made. (At that, the odds could be better than a first glance might suggest; I suspect most of the delms, whatever their opinion of a Terran living and trading as a son of Liad, wouldn’t want their daughters to marry one.)