In which there are many meetings.
Many meetings, and more reintroductions, and an innocent request concerning grapes that may or may not turn into something larger.
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Neogenesis – Chapter 1 part II
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Tag Archives: Consolidated Bosses of Surebleak
Dragon in Exile – Epilogue
In which the Road Boss comes home.
I spent the entire epilogue waiting for Theo to show up, or Daav and Aelliana, or all of them together, but it didn’t happen. Perhaps Daav’s homecoming, like the downfall of the Department, is a large enough thing to require the length of an entire book to tell it.
Maybe Daav and Aelliana are even home already and the narrator’s just not mentioning it, to avoid being distracting. Or they may be just about to arrive; the hint of the seed pods could go either way. Theo’s definitely not back yet, judging by Miri’s reaction to the vision of her with the seedling from Spiral Dancer; Miri doesn’t know it’s a thing that’s actually happened. (It has to be a thing that’s happened, because the business with Admiral Bunter shows that this is after Dragon Ship – so it’s interesting that it’s in among a bunch of visions of things that haven’t happened yet. I wonder if the young woman in Scout leathers is who Lizzie will grow up to be.)
Another thing that’s happened is “The Rifle’s First Wife”, since there she is among Korval’s other guests. I suppose that means the events of that story have been happening alongside the events of this one (or perhaps in the gap between the last chapter and this epilogue, if it’s large enough, although I seem to recall “The Rifle’s First Wife” begins when Hazenthull is still on Surebleak and Kareen is still guesting at Jelaza Kazone).
And that’s it. Nothing left to read. Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow: A few retrospective posts.
Dragon in Exile – Chapter 40
Sherman’s Shootout
Expert Round
In which the people make their feelings known.
Nelirikk has a new surname: nor’Phelium. I wonder whose idea that was, and what it signifies. I tried to see what could be gleaned from seeing who else has had a surname with the nor’ prefix, but there hasn’t been anyone – which might be significant in itself.
I like the bit about Nelirikk feeling under-equipped with only four handguns, six knives, explosives, arm-chains, and zhang-wire. (We’ve seen zhang-wire before, only romanised slightly differently: “jang-wire” was the name of the weapon Sed Ric the pirate carried for self-defence in Scout’s Progress.)
I was surprised to see Yulie. Makes sense a man with his shooting ability might want to come along to an event like this – but this is Yulie, who doesn’t do well with strangers and has been actively avoiding the city for as long as we’ve known him and longer. That he’s in the city now, having trusted somebody else to watch his farm and his cats (a Scout, he says, perhaps Tan Ort?) says a lot about how much he’s benefited from the changes on Surebleak.
For the final chapter of the book, we return to the main theme. Pat Rin’s making a deliberate point by standing unarmed in the middle of the argument: he could have shot quite a few people if he’d wanted to, but he wants people to understand that his leadership isn’t just about who can shoot who the fastest.
I may have got a bit sniffly at the bit about the people opening the road that they own.
Dragon in Exile – Chapter 38
Boss Conrad’s House
Blair Road
In which Penn Kalhoon has something to say.
I was wrong about the meeting Pat Rin sent Quin to, which I might have known if I’d thought; on further consideration, if it had been something other than an ordinary sort of meeting Pat Rin would have said so. This is not the first time I’ve been wrong in this novel about an upcoming meeting going to be the occasion for excitement; my persistent mistake has been to misunderstand what kind of story this is. I kept assuming that if a meeting got mentioned it was probably going to be important to the plot, and that if trouble was brewing it would come to a head quickly, but this is a more slow-burn story than that, and meetings of the Council of Bosses are important to the plot even if nothing dramatic happens at them simply because it matters to the characters that there is a Council of Bosses and that it’s holding regular meetings.
And that brings us around to what Pat Rin tells Penn, which is another thread of the ongoing thing about how the new ways are going to survive: if Pat Rin and Val Con and Miri get killed, that isn’t the end of the new Surebleak. Korval might have shown the way, but they couldn’t have made it happen without Surebleakeans, and now the way has been shown the Surebleakeans can make it happen without Korval if they have to.
I suspect it speaks to how much Surebleak has improved already that Pat Rin is able to compare its port to Solcintra’s Mid Port instead of its Low Port. For that matter, the state Surebleak Port was in when Pat Rin arrived was so run-down and uninhabited it might not even have stood a comparison to the Low Port, which whatever it may not be at least has an active population.
It hadn’t occurred to me how useful a scholar of the history of education might be in a city trying to develop a proper education system. I wonder how long the authors have been planning that one.
Dragon in Exile – Chapter 33
Jelaza Kazone
Surebleak
In which the Tree reaches out to a visitor, and Quin decides to go for a walk.
kin’Joyt professes to be offended that Korval is (supposedly) charging money for viewing the house, instead of having a free open day like properly civilised people, but it doesn’t seem to have occurred to her to protest by, say, refusing to buy a ticket. Then again, I get the impression kin’Joyt is willing to embrace an opportunity to be offended by Korval’s behaviour.
The mode of captain-to-passenger is an interesting choice; technically, that’s no longer an option that lies within Korval’s melant’i, since the Contract that made Korval the Liadens’ captain was concluded. It efficiently announces the delm’s identity, though; everybody still remembers, and if it’s no longer within Korval’s melant’i, there is yet nobody else who can lay claim to it.
“Lefty” pen’Erit’s new name follows the existing Surebleak pattern of This Is What Your Name Sounds Like To Me, though I had to go and look his personal name up to be sure because it’s been mentioned less often than the other examples we’ve seen.
Dragon in Exile – Chapter 28
Surebleak Port
In which Tolly lifts out, and Rys has news.
I’d never really thought about the issues involved in fitting an Yxtrang into an autodoc designed for a smaller person. This is probably a worst case, being a shipboard autodoc, which means it would take up as little room as possible, and on a Liaden ship whose designer presumably envisaged it only being needed by Liadens.
Tolly’s apology to the pilot for getting Korval tangled in their business by bringing Hazenthull onto the ship suggests that he doesn’t know that pilot, ship, and business all belong to Korval already. And I don’t understand why not. I can see that Tolly comes from the kind of background where you don’t speculate about your employer’s identity if they choose not to tell you, but why not tell him?
I suspect, given the way Korval’s Luck tends to run, that Rys and Val Con’s visit to Yulie is going to intersect in some interesting way with the Syndicate’s plan to take over the farm.
The incident at Bob’s Grocery reinforces the point that Bosil was reflecting on during the first incident at Quill’s Bakery: if the new way of doing things survives on Surebleak, it’s not going to be just because the Bosses insist, it’s going to be because the ordinary people see the advantages and are willing to fight to keep them.
Dragon in Exile – Chapter 27
Office of the Road Boss
Surebleak Port
In which it’s time to be gone.
I expect we’ll get Tolly’s story in a chapter or two, but what’s the fun of reading a book for the first time if one can’t speculate? I had wondered, when it was established that Tolly’s former employer was a Liaden, if this was another aspect of the Department of the Interior, and the mental-control business with the whistles also points in that direction. (If so, I notice that Liaden servants of the Department get names, but Terrans, even if they’re valuable specialists, are tools with serial numbers.) On the other hand, indications so far have been that the Department doesn’t think enough of Terrans to use them even as anonymous tools. Maybe this is some kind of splinter operation; maybe it’s a completely unrelated bunch of unscrupulous Liadens. It might not even be a Liaden group entirely; the woman with the other whistle isn’t said to be Liaden, and although she is said to be small in stature, it’s Hazenthull’s viewpoint saying so, and there are maybe three people on Surebleak who don’t look small to Hazenthull.
I was worried that, with Hazenthull having to take off with Tolly, there’d be nobody left to explain matters to Commander Liz, but Tocohl will be in contact with the port tower during lift, and maybe she’ll get a chance to pass a message then. Or she probably has some way of communicating directly with Jeeves, and can dump the whole thing in his metaphorical lap. (There’s another thing to look forward to: Hazenthull’s reaction to Tocohl.)
Dragon in Exile – Chapter 26
Office of the Road Boss
Surebleak Port
In which Val Con pays an educational visit, and Miri has a visitor who just won’t learn.
Val Con is interrupted twice as he gets to saying “Now, I wonder–“, so we never do find out what it was he was wondering.
I think it might be too much to expect that all Val Con will find at the Road Boss office when he arrives is Miri grumpily shutting down her computer. Even if Smealy wasn’t inclined to push matters, his shadow is likely to have something to say (although whether that means that Val Con will arrive to find Miri under attack, or just to find Smealy bleeding out on the front doorstep, I’m not sure).
Dragon in Exile – Chapter 17
Corner of Dudley Avenue and Farley Lane
In which Kamele reflects on her week, and Val Con recounts his day.
Dudley Avenue, the location of Kareen’s new establishment, was mentioned in Necessity’s Child; it intersects Blair Road, which by now should need no introduction.
I’ve been waiting for Sherman’s to put in an appearance; I had a feeling that the shooting competition would turn out to be the point where “Chimera” overlapped this novel. (I’m still shaking my head at the idea it would be a good move to start trouble at an event where the Bosses were demonstrating their shooting skills.) With that in mind, I feel safe in having another shot at predicting trouble at a forthcoming Bosses’ meeting.
Given the people involved, I also feel safe in predicting that Kamele’s determination not to shoot at the competition isn’t going to make the distance. And given those two predictions, I’m willing to hazard another, that competition targets are not going to be the only thing Kamele will find herself having to shoot at.
I hadn’t quite got what was going on with Miri’s startle last chapter, because I couldn’t quite figure out if it was in reaction to what her visitor was saying, but I decided not to say anything because I had a feeling there was something I was missing and hoped it would come clear if I waited. Which, of course, it has. (The trouble with so much happening at once is that it’s easy to lose little insignificant details like Miri and Val Con being inside each others’ heads.)
Dragon in Exile – Chapter 16
Surebleak Port
In which Quin has breakfast, and Miri is given something to chew on.
Tef Lej pen’Erit shows courage in approaching Quin for help. To some extent, it’s driven by necessity; as he says, Quin is literally the only person he knows here. But the circumstances of their previous meeting weren’t exactly friendly, so he couldn’t be sure of the reception he’d get.
It’s not clear exactly what’s going on between Villy and Quin. Partly it’s because Villy is like that with everybody, at least to some extent, but I also suspect the authors are being deliberately difficult. There’s no way, for instance, that the earlier conversation about their “date” wasn’t the result of the authors deliberately shaping the words to be misleading. But, of course, just because nothing of that sort was going on that time, doesn’t mean that nothing of the sort is going on at all.
A few weeks have passed during the interludes, so apparently that meeting I was worried about happened without incident. See? I’m terrible at predicting how a Liaden novel is going to go.
If the Citizens’ Heavy Loads Committee is serious about not liking being fined if they’re caught with a load over the limit, they’re really not going to be happy about a regular system of tolls based on load weight.