Tag Archives: Coyster

Saltation – Chapter 14

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Sturtevan Hall Dispensary
Anlingdin Piloting Academy

In which Theo consents to a healing.

I get the idea that Theo got more healing than she realises. The med-tech is, by his appearance and speech patterns, Liaden, which opens the possibility that he is not only a healer of bodies but also cha’dramliz, one who can ease troubles of the mind and the heart. In this case, offering both the immediate assistance of soothing Theo so that her body’s healing may proceed with best effect, and also looking to the longer-term and planting a few seeds that will help Theo avoid leaping into a fight too soon without hampering her fighting ability when (and, as the med-tech says, it is when and not if for a courier pilot) the time comes that she does need it.

All of which largely goes past Theo, who has never met a Liaden Healer and wouldn’t know what to expect; Win Ton did try to explain to her about the cha’dramliz once, but he didn’t get very far before being interrupted and as far as we know he never got back to the topic. I might have expected the Healer to provide more of an explanation when requesting her permission to proceed, but perhaps this is another instance of someone thinking Theo is more Liaden than she really is. (And the thought occurs that perhaps the Healer is not free to make an explicit offer; if the regulations require him to issue pain medication that he knows won’t be necessary, that suggests that his form of Healing doesn’t enjoy wholehearted official support here.)

Saltation – Chapter 11

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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.

Saltation – Chapter 7

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Mail Room
Anlingdin Piloting Academy

In which Theo passes the time in a queue by discussing literature.

I made a series of extremely undignified noises when Theo said who the author of Sam Tim’s Ugly Day was. I’ve mentioned that one of the joys of this re-read is discovering connections that went past me before, but I have no idea how I missed that one the first time through.

The story of Sam Tim and the family joke is interesting as an example of what Lois McMaster Bujold calls the author’s right to have a better idea later. The first time Theo appeared in a Liaden novel (which, in chronological order, is still some distance in her future), she said her father had taught her that if she were ever in really serious trouble she might take the matter to Korval, with the wording strongly suggesting that he’d said so outright. When the authors came to expand on Theo’s story, it seems, they came up against the problem that if Jen Sar Kiladi had said such a thing directly he would have consequently faced the awkward question of who he was that the troubles of him and his family might be of interest to Korval, and so instead there is this series of events which conveys the lesson to Theo indirectly. (The question is not entirely unanswerable, since Jen Sar is a pilot and we know from earlier books that Korval doesn’t mind taking a hand when a pilot is in serious trouble, but we saw at the end of Fledgling that even the fact of being a pilot is more about his past than Jen Sar would like to give out.)

Saltation – Chapter 2

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New Student Orientation
Ozler Auditorium
Anlingdin Piloting Academy

In which Theo meets her roommates.

Although Theo noticed last chapter that things here are more freewheeling and less closely monitored than was the case on either of the planets she’s previously left footprints on, the wider ramifications haven’t all sunk in. She remarks to herself that the way Asu acts you’d think her home planet didn’t have a Safety Office — but she clearly means it as a joke, and it doesn’t seem to have occurred to her that it’s very likely true.

Asu says her age is “Eighteen Standards, and a half”, and Theo repeats the “and a half” before conceding that Asu is older than her. I’m not sure whether that means that it’s the half year that makes the difference in their ages or just Theo quietly pinging the unusual degree of precision. It would make sense in general that two people starting school together would be within a year of each other in age, but I’m not sure if that applies to a piloting academy; presumably pilots arrive at whatever age they’re ready. Still, I’d like to think it’s that, if only because that would mean we have an idea of Theo’s age in Standard Years and not just in the still-undefined Delgadan years.

I don’t think I like the detail from the orientation speech about the planetary government requiring them to graduate a minimum number of pilots per year. There are so many ways a requirement like that could go wrong.

After spending so much time on Delgado, I find myself wondering whether Ozler and Erkes were men or women. Which is the unmarked case on Eylot?

Saltation – Chapter 1

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Shuttle Approach
Anlingdin Piloting Academy
Eylot

In which Theo arrives at Anglingdin Piloting Academy.

Theo is off to piloting school (and, since it’s apparently still within a year of her time on Melchiza, it looks like she achieved the six month prep time Jen Sar said would be the minimum if she was a good student).

She turns out to be wrong about not seeing the three student pilots again soon, although perhaps the encounter by the luggage will be their last; it’s been a while since I first read Fledgling and I don’t remember. Somehow, though, I doubt it. I do recognise two others who appear or are mentioned in this chapter as people Theo will be encountering again with some regularity.

Fledgling – Chapter 42

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Number Twelve Leafydale Place
Greensward-by-Efraim
Delgado

In which Theo turns fifteen.

This is one of those cases where I don’t feel inspired to talk about any of the things I might have talked about if I were reading the novel for the first time, and there weren’t many new things I noticed. Although I did notice this time Jen Sar’s fishing trip in the mountains, which I suspect was at least partly intended to lay a foundation for a tale to tell anyone who asks where the idea of the old-style Gigneri came from.

I will note that this is another novel I like more after this re-read than I thought I did after I read it the first time.

It’s not easy to establish precisely when Fledgling takes place, due to a lack of outside referents. From Theo’s age we know that it’s more than fifteen years since Jen Sar came to Delgado at the end of Mouse and Dragon — but, as Theo points out in this chapter, that’s Delgadan years, and we have no indication of whether those are longer or shorter than Standard Years, let alone by how much. All we can say with confidence is that it’s after Jen Sar’s last scene in Mouse and Dragon and before his first appearance in Plan B. (The suggested reading order by internal chronology on the authors’ web site places Fledgling after Plan B, but that’s a clear case of bending chronology for the good of the story flow and reading experience, making it in effect an entire novel-length flashback; there is no possible way Jen Sar’s scenes in Plan B happen before Fledgling.) The positions I’ve given Fledgling and Saltation in this re-read are approximations achieved by starting at the end of Saltation and counting backwards based on my memory of what occurs in them; I’m taking notes as I re-read and hopefully I’ll end up with a less approximate idea of how much time they cover. (But when I publish my own suggested reading order by internal chronology at the end of the re-read, it’s likely I’ll be adopting the strategy of bending chronology for the good of the story flow and reading experience, the good sense of which becomes more apparent to me the further the re-read progresses.)

Tomorrow: Saltation

Fledgling – Chapter 40

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Vashtara
Mauve Level
Stateroom

In which Jen Sar attends a meeting.

I’ve said before that one of the things I’m enjoying about doing this re-read is being able to trace connections and find repeated names that I wouldn’t have noticed at the speed I normally read. In this chapter, the familiar name is Professor Skilings, revealed here as one of the conspirators, but already known to us from Chapter Sixteen as a high-ranking member of the faculty with a reputation for being a bad enemy to people who gain her enmity, and also incidentally the lady whose play for Jen Sar, though unrewarded, inspired Kamele to place her relationship with him on an official footing.

Sub-Chancellor Kylin’s name, on the other hand, doesn’t ring any bells.

It’s interesting that Jen Sar’s response to having a gun brandished at him is to hide behind the furniture. It’s possible that he’s playing it safe, since the years he’s spent living on a safe world might after all have dulled his edge to the point that he can’t be sure of being able to handle the situation, but don’t think I believe that, and I rather suspect he’s playing safe more because nobody on Delgado knows that he has experience being at the wrong end of a gun, and he’d prefer to keep it that way.

Kamele’s hand gestures, the ones which Theo finds reminiscent of hand-talk without being actual signs she recognises, might be Liaden gestures Kamele has picked up off Jen Sar. I seem to recall similar hand gestures being used by Liadens in conversation in past stories; the clearing-away gesture in particular sounds familiar.

Fledgling – Chapter 26

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Vashtara
Mauve Level
Stateroom

In which Win Ton explains.

Win Ton, in his desire to have everything set out clearly and plainly, produces an explanation that’s a marvel of not getting to the point. It is well for the calmness of the conversation that Kamele is an advertant scholar who waits for all the information to be in before she advances a hypothesis, because it was pretty obvious that Win Ton was giving her entirely the wrong impression about the “mature self-discovery” he’s been sharing with Theo.

It would appear that Roni’s sense of self-consequence and poor grasp of teamwork is shared with her mother, who is now revealed to be part of a conspiracy that offers personal advancement at the expense of the integrity of the University. I wonder how offended Professor Mason would be to learn that Jen Sar considers her the easier and less challenging of his potential targets.

The description of Jen Sar’s location offers a passing detail that, if I noticed the first time I read this, I didn’t retain: that the Residence Wall was built after the original campus of the University burned down. It makes one wonder just how much excitement is concealed behind Kamele’s description of the Founders being “a little too optimistic about human nature”.

Fledgling – Chapter 20

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Vashtara
First Class Dining Room

In which Theo and Kamele meet Cho sig’Radia and Win Ton yo’Vala.

One of the pleasures of reading the series in chronological order is the return of old friends, or at least of familiar names. We have met a scout of Line sig’Radia before, in “Phoenix”; that was a century ago, however, so I don’t suppose this is the same scout, though there are some similarities between the two. Senior Scout Cho sig’Radia is established as a person of intelligence and keen observation, but will nevertheless prove subsequently to have had at least one significant failure of insight in this chapter.

It appears that the research expedition has gained some members; in addition to Kamele, Theo, and the two professors emeritus from the forensic team, Chair Hafley has somehow ended up coming along, and a couple of people have brought their onagratas. Hafley’s is named Clyburn Tang — I think. The first time he’s mentioned is with a reference to “Clyburn’s onagrata“, which confused me considerably because up to now the word has only been used of a woman’s partner, but if one accepts that the word can be used in either direction the sentence falls into place and is consistent with various other indications that Clyburn is Hafley’s onagrata (and she, presumably, is Clyburn’s onagrata). Certainly, there doesn’t seem to be any other reason for the expedition including a man with no academic position whose main ability seems to be talking at length about clothes.

Fledgling – Chapter 19

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Number Twelve Leafydale Place
Greensward-by-Efraim
Delgado

In which Theo makes use of her research.

So that wasn’t actually the first time Kamele mentioned the upcoming research trip to Theo. With regard to the concerns I mentioned last time, I actually find this the opposite of reassuring, because it means that the trip has been a topic of conversation for several days without Kamele ever once thinking to mention that Theo would be going too.

There’s an interesting narrative subtlety in this chapter: at the moment the intruder is detected, Professor Kiladi disappears from the narrative. Theo’s father exists, and takes appropriate actions, but the narrator declines to attribute those actions to the person named Jen Sar Kiladi. What with the middle section being narrated from the viewpoint of Theo, who regards him simply as “Father”, Jen Sar’s name doesn’t reappear until nearly the end of the chapter. (Readers familiar with the wider Liaden universe — a phrase I will need to find a good shorthand for if I keep using it — will know what name the narrator is not saying. Although I’m pretty sure that the person who provides the answer to Theo’s question about the ring is Aelliana again.)

In the course of writing out the previous paragraph, I’ve belatedly recognised a similar subtlety back in Chapter Twelve. In between Theo meeting up with her father and the conclusion of their conversation about what name she ought to be calling him by, the narrator avoids calling him by any name at all. (Indeed, the moment she decides to continue addressing him as “Father” is visible even before she gives voice to it, because the narrator resumes doing the same.)

Somehow, knowing the history of the Gallowglass Chair and of this particular incumbent, it did not surprise me that the staff of office is a sword cane. I wonder if that’s standard for every Chair endowed by the Gallowglass Foundation, or an individual improvisation. (I don’t for a moment consider the possibility that it might be a custom of this University: this is Delgado, after all. I expect Admin would be horrified if they had the slightest idea one of their professors was walking around with a bladed weapon.)