Tag Archives: Clonak ter’Meulen

Plan B – Chapter 13

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Lytaxin
Erob’s Combat Practice Grounds

In which Jason has somebody Val Con needs to talk to.

There are some interesting resonances in the various reactions to the captured Yxtrang. The Yxtrang collectively have done some undeniably unpleasant things, but the way Emrith Tiazan dehumanizes the captive, calling him “it” and “that thing”, has unpleasant echoes of several instances when less sympathetic Liadens have applied the same attitude to Terrans. I’m also reminded of Val Con’s remark to Miri, way back near the beginning of Agent of Change, that it’s more useful to think and speak of particulars — “Val Con”, “Miri”, “Edger” — than groups like “‘the Liadens’, ‘the Clutch’, ‘the humans’, or even ‘the Yxtrang’.” Of course, in this case, Val Con has a head start in that he’s already met and spoken with an individual Yxtrang — but then again, the fact that he even attempted such a conversation is a sign he already held that attitude.

I also note that all the way through, Jase is referring to the prisoner as a person as if that’s an entirely uncontroversial thing. As a merc, I expect he’s had experience at distinguishing individual soldiers from the armies they serve, and remembering that the former are people no matter what inhuman things the latter do. But from from what we’ve seen of him, I kind of think he might in any case have been the kind of person who assumes people are people until they prove otherwise.

Breath’s Duty

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Delgado
Leafydale Place
Standard Year 1393

In which Scout Reserve Captain Daav yos’Phelium returns a favour.

Speaking of first published appearances, this is Kamele’s, brief as it is, and it gave me entirely the wrong impression of her until Fledgling came out. I blame the translators’ decision to use “mistress” as a substitute for whatever word they use on Delgado, because while it has the advantage of bypassing a lengthy explanation it fails to capture the actual spirit of Kamele’s relationship with Jen Sar. On the other hand, I admit there were also some failings of comprehension on my part, regarding (a) the actual likelihood of Daav getting in the kind of relationship that “mistress” implies, and (b) the fact, which is mentioned right there in the story, that they’ve been together long enough for her daughter to be grown up.

This may also be, even more briefly, the first published mention of timonioum.

One of the purposes of this re-read was to see what new associations would come out of the stories by reading them in a different configuration: what would come out of a story by reading it near another story I maybe hadn’t read it near before? In this case, a new thing that struck me was the first dissonant detail: after a couple of pages of Jen Sar Kiladi getting ready for a fishing trip, just as he always does, he pauses to run through the Rainbow pattern. Reading the story so soon after Carpe Diem, with everything it has to say about the Rainbow and about the Rainbow being a Scout thing, that really jumped out at me as a sign that Professor Kiladi isn’t the groundhugging academic he appears. It says, if one didn’t already know, a great deal about his background in a very few words.

Another association that I don’t think I picked up before this re-read is that Acting Scout Commander sig’Radia has the same surname as Senior Scout Cho sig’Radia, the friend and mentor of Daav’s daughter. Probably a relative, not the same person; “Phoenix” has established that sig’Radia has a history of producing Scouts, and this story says straight up that Daav doesn’t know her. (I wonder, though: I don’t think Kiladi ever actually met Cho sig’Radia other than through written correspondence, and if he did notice the connection Daav wouldn’t make anything of it while he’s keeping the Kiladi connection quiet; conversely, of course, Cho sig’Radia knows Theo’s father only as Kiladi and has no reason to suspect he’s Daav. And one who was a Senior Scout a few years ago might have progressed far enough to become Acting Scout Commander now — especially since the “Acting” suggests that the Department’s recent actions have resulted in some rapid movement in the line of succession.)

I’m pretty sure I got the significance of the Richard A. Davis Portmaster Aid Foundation first time, though.

I seem to recall there being something I wanted to say about the bit where L’il Orbit casts shade on Kiladi’s piloting skills, but the only thing that’s coming to mind now is that it was never Kiladi, in the old days, who was called “schoolteacher”. And that there’s a bit of an irony in Daav yos’Phelium being named as a reliable pilot considering what happened the last time he was seen piloting a spaceship.

Carpe Diem – Chapter 48

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Nev’lorn Headquarters

In which Shadia is all joy to see Clonak.

I’ve been puzzling over the sequence of events leading up to this, because the main thing I remembered about Nev’lorn from earlier readings of this chapter was the Department trying to get hold of Shadia, which had left me with the impression that the Department had somehow decided to siphon her off to Nev’lorn and recruit her even before she crossed Val Con’s trail. I think I’ve got it straight now, though: Her transfer to Nev’lorn was authentic Scout business, possibly due to Clonak wanting to keep her away from the Department or perhaps to recruit her in the Scouts’ resistance against it, and it was only after she filed her report from Vandar that the Department decided to take an interest in her.

(Another trick my memory played on me was that I remembered Shadia’s reunion with Clonak playing out in a corridor. I suppose I must have been confusing it with Val Con’s account of how the Department got hold of him.)

According to a series of blog posts Sharon Lee did back in 2009 about the authors’ collaboration process, the closest they ever got to a major deadlock was on the question of whether Shadia and Clonak survived the end of this chapter. (Neither of them actually wanted Shadia and Clonak to die, but one of them was convinced it was the inevitable consequence of events up to this point.) The blog posts, which all make fascinating reading, are here: Part 0, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3. The story about this chapter is in the last part (but do be aware, if you’re in a position where it matters, that it does give away what decision they eventually reached).

Carpe Diem – Chapter 38

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The Wide Universe

In which it is lovely to have a Clutch Turtle with one’s interests at heart.

I wonder: is the fact that Nev’lorn is included in the Juntavas message run a sign that the Juntavas have established interests there, under the noses of the Scouts, or are they just splashing the message around to make sure anyone it might apply to will hear it? Or, for a possibility somewhere between those two, perhaps they’re also targetting places where Scouts congregate, so that if Val Con has gone to ground in one of those places he may learn of their change of policy.

Shan seems uncertain that this is good news, and well he might, for several reasons. There might still be Juntavas who try to take advantage of the situation to Val Con and Miri’s detriment, despite the clearness of the message. Even if the Juntavas behave, the fact that they’ve so clearly and publicly expressed approval of Miri and Val Con might result in them being disapproved of in more law-abiding places. And then of course there’s the fact that, with the Department after Val Con and Miri, even surrounded by helpful Juntavas they might not be considered safe.

Carpe Diem – Chapter 31

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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.

Carpe Diem – Chapter 16

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Vandar
Springbreeze Farm

In which Val Con shows Miri the Rainbow.

This the first we’ve heard of Clonak ter’Meulen in a while — indeed, since before Val Con’s father left to pursue his Balance, and that was a very long time ago. It won’t be nearly so long until we hear of him again.

Val Con’s thought implies that he hasn’t been into his own mental safe-space at the end of the Rainbow in a long time, perhaps since he fell into the hands of the Department; it seems like the the kind of thing the Department would want to keep a person from having access to. When he tried to run the Rainbow in Agent of Change, he got diverted into one of the programs the Department bolted onto his brain before he got to the point where the stairway and the door appear.

I mentioned, back when Justin Hostro was showing off his wealth by having a Belansium planetscape, that I’d never before managed to make the connection between that and the Belansium planetscapes in “Phoenix”. I’d also never managed to make the connection between either of those and Miri here discovering that her mental safe-space includes a Belansium. (And consequently, I’d never quite understood why she was worried, which is presumably that she knows she lacks the means to have acquired a Belansium legally.) I’m pretty bad at names generally, unless they’re repeated several times in a context which says to pay attention to them, so it’s totally normal for me to have forgotten a name that was mentioned in passing many chapters ago even if I’m reading a series all at once. Or perhaps especially if I’m reading a series all at once, when each new name is quickly followed by others demanding attention. I’m doing a lot better at connecting names during this re-read partly because I’m spacing the chapters out (which gives each set of names a chance to settle into memory before the next lot arrive), partly because I’m specifically looking for connections, and perhaps mostly because I’m taking extensive notes.

Mouse and Dragon – Chapter 39

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In which Daav plans his Balance against the enemy which took Aelliana.

I’m interested by the implication that the thoughtfulness of Daav’s Balance here owes something to his previous experience of loss and Balance, which taught him the limitations of the method of direct reprisal.

Using that Diary entry as the chapter heading also provides another more subtle bookend: the last time it was used was on the chapter in which Daav and Aelliana first met.

It’s a bit difficult to know how much to talk about what else happens in this chapter when it hasn’t been explicitly called out yet, even though as a re-reader I know — and, since this is a prequel, even on the first read I knew — what’s going on. I think I’ll save that for next time.

Mouse and Dragon – Chapter 37

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In which Daav and Aelliana go to the theatre, and Aelliana chooses to be late.

We’ve reached the moment which, this being a prequel, most of the readers knew was lurking in Aelliana and Daav’s future.

The authors might have avoided it by ending the book a couple of chapters ago, but I think they knew that if they were ever going to tell the story of this day there would never be a better place to tell it than here. It might have been told as a short story, an isolated event between novels like the one we had yesterday and the others we’ll have next week, but I don’t think that would have served it well: this is not an isolated event, and telling it here, at the end of the novel, allows one to look back and see all the things that have been leading up to it.

It’s also, in a sense, the capstone of this duology. I said a few chapters ago that we’d reached the destination of the duology when Daav stood beside his lifemate holding his son – but that was Daav’s destination, not Aelliana’s. For Aelliana, the journey is about taking control of her life, and I’ve pointed out several times that each of the major turns in Aelliana’s life during the duology came of Aelliana’s choice. Here again is a major turn in Aelliana’s life, and shape it takes is determined by the choice Aelliana makes to protect Daav.

Mouse and Dragon – Chapter 26

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In which Aelliana attends her first gather, and sweeps all before her.

The guest list at yo’Lanna’s gather has a nice sense of history, being a mix of new people, people who were at Korval’s gather in chapter 26 of Scout’s Progress, and people who were at Etgora’s gather in “Choice of Weapons”. In the last category is Etgora Himself, the father of the young man whose enthusiasm Daav was obliged to dampen. (There’s also a reference to that event when Daav and the hostess are exchanging greetings.)

Less charmingly, there are also echoes of the other story set around that time: “The Beggar King”, in which pilots were mysteriously going missing, and Daav was not able to find those responsible, only oblige them to suspend their activities for a time. That time, it appears, has now passed, and pilots are going missing again.

The bond between Daav and Aelliana is developing, however slowly; Daav now possesses the ability to know without looking when Aelliana enters the room, the inverse of which Aelliana has had since the beginning of the novel.

Mouse and Dragon – Chapter 15

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In which Aelliana and Daav go to inspect their ship and make discoveries of several kinds.

Several important developments occur in this chapter, but they’re the kind of things I’m not good at stringing words together about.

I’m much better at the trivial observations, like noting that there are a few details in this chapter that have extra resonance for readers familiar with other books in the series, like Clonak’s choice of occupation, or the way Trilla apologises before wiping her face.