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Saltation – Chapter 18

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Diverse Cultures Celebration Team
Anlingdin Piloting Academy

In which Theo meets friends new and old.

It hadn’t occurred to me that yos’Senchul referring to Korval and Ixin by their nicknames might be a test of Theo’s knowledge of Liaden clans — at least partly, of course, because my own knowledge of such is at least solid enough that those two nicknames are transparent to me.

I wonder if Theo would have thought to look up Line Kiladi in the Book of Clans if Kara hadn’t interrupted — and what she would have found if she had.

Win Ton’s courier ship, Torvin, built in a Korval-affiliated ship-yard, has a name with history behind it: Clan Torvin was the clan of pilots that Cantra yos’Phelium was the last survivor of before she founded Clan Korval.

The bit about Liadens and Terrans disagreeing over which side of the ship things like entrance hatches go on is just a colorful detail here, but it will be significant later.

Saltation – Chapter 8

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Erkes Dormitory, Suite 302
Anlingdin Piloting Academy

In which Theo and her roommates open their mail.

I wonder what a banthawing might be, and what kind of bad habits it teaches. Piloting habits, presumably, from what Chelly says — but I have to say that absent his comments, I would find a strip of hot pink gauze suggestive of a different class of bad habit entirely.

Clearly the whole Hap Harney business is not going away any time soon. Which… it’s not that I mind, exactly, but does this mean I’m going to be repeating “still haven’t been told what Hap Harney actually did” every chapter for the rest of the book?

Fledgling – Chapter 36

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Melchiza
Transit School

In which Theo and Kamele make progress.

On Melchiza, pilots are recognised as rare and special people, and apparently this means that Melchizan pilot culture is affected by the Melchizan attitude that leaders should stand aloof and not hold themselves back trying to help others less special. Inspector Vidige’s lesson about a pilot bearing sole responsibility for the decisions he must make is not entirely new (I’m particularly reminded of Aelliana in Scout’s Progress, and the lesson that she must learn to back her own judgement if she wishes to be a pilot), but the emphasis is different. At least it’s somewhat softened by Pilot-Instructor Arman’s comment which suggests that Melchizan pilots do form bonds of loyalty with their crew (like the brother’s friends in the folk tale?); self-sufficiency is one thing, but if they’d been taking it to the extent of not even trusting a co-pilot that would have been asking for serious trouble sooner or later.

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 22

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Vashtara
EdRec Level
Library

In which Theo is introduced to menfri’at and bowli ball.

Theo is picking up the pilot’s way of moving from Win Ton, and along with it the mental toolkit needed to avoid the kind of maladapted interactions with other people that got her labelled clumsy back on Delgado.

The bit where Theo gets mistaken for a Liaden is a fairly strong indication that Jen Sar is her father in fact and not just by courtesy and by virtue of having a hand in her upbringing. Whether you find this interesting might depend on whether you were already, notwithstanding the indications that it’s not usual practice on Delgado, taking Theo’s parentage as read.

It would appear that Win Ton hasn’t read Tan Sim’s Ugly Day.

With the benefit of hindsight, at least one of the things Chair Hafley says in this chapter is very, very ironic.

Fledgling – Chapter 21

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Vashtara
EdRec Level
Pet Library

In which Cho sig’Radia offers a warning.

It’s interesting that the pet librarian doesn’t attract any norbears. One is tempted to wonder if he was chosen for norbear duty specifically because he doesn’t, and if so what that implies about the pet library’s attitude toward their charges.

The word Win Ton can’t think of a Terran equivalent for, cha’dramliz, is composed of familiar parts: “dramliz” is the Liaden word for people with supernatural abilities, while the “cha'” prefix is usually translated as “heart” when it appears in endearments like cha’leket and cha’trez. (It’s also a component of the word denoting “daring” in Korval’s motto.) That gives us “heart-wizards”, with “heart” having an emotional rather than an anatomical connotation, which suggests that here is the Liaden word which the series usually renders as “Healers”. And that’s obviously a translation convention, rather than a proper equivalent, so it’s not surprising that Win Ton was not able to lay his hand on the word.