Dutiful Passage
Colemeno Orbit
In which Moonhawk is impatient.
Shan doesn’t seem to distinguish between Moonhawk and Priscilla’s Goddess, but I still think that the Goddess when she answered Priscilla’s prayer earlier had a distinctly different personality.
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Civilization
In which it’s too late to keep hiding under a bush.
This might be the last appearance in the book of the word “vas’dramliz”, the Liaden word for the “small talents”, so I’m going to take this opportunity to share an observation: given that we know what “dramliz” means, vas’ must be the part of the word that signifies “small” or “lesser” — so it’s curious that we know of at least three Liaden surnames with the same prefix. Mae Nir vas’Urbil, in “Degrees of Separation”, is a chef, which might suggest that families with that prefix tend toward lower class jobs. (Menolly vas’Anamac is a scout and Kin Jal vas’Tezin an appendage of the Department, so we don’t have any idea of their families’ social status.)
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Civilization
In which Aunt Asta is in a good mood.
The opening of this chapter is word-for-word the same as in the opening of the first “Civilization” chapter — until it isn’t.
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Dutiful Passage
En Route to Volmer
In which Shan consults several people regarding the future.
We now have the names and descriptions of all three planets of the Redlands system: apart from Colemeno, there is Ukarn, site of a mining operation, and Metlin, site of a scientific research base. (Metlin is the name of one of the Liaden weekdays; I don’t have any insights to offer about the etymology of the others.)
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Off-Grid
In which the Haosa welcome new arrivals.
We learn a bunch about life Off-Grid in this chapter.
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Off-Grid
In which Tekelia makes the acquaintance of a Dragon.
It was nice of the authors not to keep us hanging too long on that question.
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Civilization
In which Bentamin receives some good news from his aunt.
The Trade Council meeting shows that Shan was right about there being opportunities for trade in the Redlands System: even if they don’t manage to set anything up in the way of physical trade goods, they have something to offer in the way of up-to-date information about routes and conditions in the wider galaxy.
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Off-Grid
In which the counselors of the Haosa discuss visitors past and future.
I didn’t notice in the last Off-Grid chapter, until Skip pointed it out in the comments, that the narrative didn’t specify Tekelia’s gender. In this chapter, all the other Haosa are accompanied by masculine or feminine pronouns, but Tekelia remains undefined.
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Tarona Rusk
Auxiliary Services
In which Section Head Tarona Rusk catches up on the news of her department.
More details about the consequences of the Healing of Tarona Rusk, and more things whose absence was felt in Accepting the Lance. It’s going to be interesting, at some point in the future, to re-read this stretch of the series with Trader’s Leap included in chronological order, and see how much that changes how I feel about Accepting the Lance.
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Off-Grid
In which Tekelia vesterGranz has a lot of questions.
A few chapters ago, when I noted the Warden’s description of the Haosa as Civilization’s line of defence, I forgot to add that I suspected the Haosa would describe the relationship somewhat differently.
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