Tag Archives: Delgado

Dragon Ship – Epilogue

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Jelaza Kazone
Surebleak

In which Kamele has a matter for the Delm of Korval.

The first meeting between Kamele and the Delm of Korval went rather better than I was expecting, the first time I read this; I particularly admire Val Con’s feat in navigating around the issue of Theo’s father’s name. However, it’s only a temporary measure; I can’t see them getting away with leaving him unnamed all the way until he returns to explain himself. (And likewise, the several complications involved in the situation of “Father’s first alliance”.)

To be fair to him, I don’t think he intends to hide the truth from Kamele; it is only that he’s being selective and giving her first the bits she needs to hear, while leaving the more confusing and worrying details for a moment when they might be explained clearly and received calmly.

And here, in a sense, the Liaden re-read comes to an end, since there’s nothing left to re-read. There are, however, several new things to read that have come out since I began this, and those will carry me through into October. Specifically, it’s the short story “Chimera” tomorrow, and the very-much-not-short Dragon in Exile after that.

Dragon Ship – Chapter 17

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Tradedesk

In which Theo examines a possible danger to the ship.

Somehow, it hadn’t occurred to me before this point that Theo didn’t know about Clarence’s past. But it makes sense for Daav not to tell her; it’s not the kind of thing a daughter of Delgado might be expected to take calmly. She handles it all right here, but that’s after she’s got to know Clarence as a person and gained some experience of what he brings to the ship.

Theo’s statement that she’s never going back to Eylot if she has any say in it strikes me as tempting fate, but that might just be because I’ve read this book already.

Dragon Ship – Chapter 16

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Tradedesk

In which Clarence is thoroughly investigated.

In a way, this is the delayed appearance of a scene one might have expected to ensue from Clarence being recognised on the station by an unnamed party. Because he’s among friends, though, it goes a lot better than it might have done.

Probably everything Clarence says is true, but there are some gaps in his testimony that a less sympathetic questioner would have picked him up on: for instance, what was the name of the company he and O’dell used to work for? Likewise, I notice Grafton asks him if the accusation of being a Juntavas agent is true now, and neglects to ask if it was true when it was made.

The bit about how Clarence made the mistake of trusting O’dell because they came from the same place strikes an echo: one of the lessons Instructor yos’Senchul made sure Theo learned was that you can’t trust anybody just because they belong to a particular group. It seems Clarence didn’t have such good teachers, and had to learn it the hard way.

Dragon Ship – Chapter 15

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Tradedesk

In which Theo is not getting through to people.

I thought at first that the ChivinTrade guy’s repeated emphasis on there being no need for Theo to come down and get planet dust on her boots sounded like some kind of resentful prejudice against spacers, but the information that he’s afraid of something suggests other possibilities. It might be connected to the politics Theo was hoping there wasn’t going to be any of; Chustling is the planet with the procedural, rather than meteorological, landing restrictions.

Compared to the status report at the beginning of the book, when Win Ton first went into the Remastering Unit, there’s been improvement in most measures, with Neurological and Skeletal the same, and Dermal, Reproductive, and Urinary somewhat lower (which might be a sign that the Unit is currently focusing its efforts on the bits Win Ton needs to survive).

Dragon Ship – Chapter 13

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Tradedesk

In which Clarence explores the shopping district and his options.

When Joyita first announced himself, he had two rings on one hand. Now he has three.

Although I’ve read the book before, I don’t confidently recall who it is that Clarence has run into, but I have a sort of feeling that it’s not as bad as it might be. And it might be pretty bad, considering the last time Clarence unexpectedly ran into someone who recognised him, it was one of his old Juntavas colleagues, and he ended up having to shoot the guy.

Dragon Ship – Chapter 9

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Frenzel
Chaliceworks Aggregations

In which Theo counts her blessings.

The placement of the scene with Kamele says something about the authors’ priorities. If it had appeared a few chapters ago, it would have contrasted obviously (perhaps a bit too obviously?) with the scene at Jelaza Kazone which reminds us that the person Kamele is going to Surebleak to see isn’t there, and nobody knows when he’ll be back. Placed here, it instead invites the reader to compare and contrast the strong-mindedness of mother and daughter. It also gives context, for readers who didn’t know it or had forgotten, for Theo’s musings about her family in the following scene.

Dragon Ship – Chapter 8

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Frenzel
Chaliceworks Aggregations

In which Chaliceworks is more careful than brave.

A couple of interesting things in the reactions to Theo. One is the bit about her “tools”, which presumably means her lacework.

The other is the furore about her working for inner calm, which suggests (especially the bit where they doubt any man could have taught it to her) that it’s not any of the usual calming exercises used by pilots of all genders. The fact that she learned it from her father makes me suspect that it might be the one he learned from the wise woman Rockflower when he was a young scout. In that case, the reaction would be proportionate (and not unlike the reaction it got from the Healers when Daav used it at the end of Scout’s Progress).

There was a meeting between Shan and Lomar Fasholt in Conflict of Honors, set eight years before this. Shan saw trouble coming even then, and so did she – she was making plans to leave Swunaket when she could wrangle her business into a portable form, and he offered her his assistance when the time came. If his most recent information is that she’s still trading out of Swunaket Port, it would appear she never took him up on that offer.

Dragon Ship – Chapter 4

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Arriving Frenzel

In which Bechimo acquires an Executive Officer.

The bit about the Compressed Info Package containing all the ship information that port needs to facilitate docking makes me think back to Pat Rin and Cheever arriving at McGee, and Cheever reminding Pat Rin to tell the port that the ship used an old-style protocol. I can’t think of any reason why they wouldn’t be sending a CIP themselves, since it’s implied here to be standard procedure, and I’d think that kind of information would be in the CIP. On the other hand, Cheever says it’s worth mentioning because otherwise the port personnel might make an incorrect assumption, and I can believe he was figuring that, having made the assumption, they might skim over the relevant bit of the CIP and see what they expected to see unless it was backed up by a verbal reminder.

It occurred to me to wonder, while Bechimo‘s crew were dealing with Frenzel traffic control, whether they’re making much use of Bechimo‘s special method of space travel. Then I remembered that the last two chapters have been headed some variation on “Between Jumps”, which suggests not. Several reasons for that come to mind; one is that Theo probably still doesn’t know enough about the method to trust it, and another is that they’ve been specifically hired to test out a route that will presumably be followed in future by ships that don’t have Bechimo‘s advantages, so they need to follow it in appropriate fashion to get good data. And, of course, arriving by mysterious means would run the risk of annoying and puzzling traffic control.

Dragon Ship – Chapter 2

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‘tween Jumps

In which first board fails to answer to the pilot.

Even if Bechimo were in the right, messing with the function of the pilot’s controls is dangerous territory to get into, and Theo’s correct not to let him get away with setting a precedent.

Especially since Bechimo isn’t in the right: the Builder’s Rules, as reported in Ghost Ship, do not forbid involvement with Korval. They do say that it’s best to avoid dealing with Korval if possible, but they go on to admit that it sometimes might not be avoidable and even give advice on the best way to proceed in that case.

And if Bechimo genuinely believes that they ought to avoid entanglement with Korval, the time to have brought it up would have been when Korval offered Theo the loop contract. To accept Korval’s contract then, and complain now, suggests that Bechimo is acting out of other motives. (Or was too eager to accept occupation back then; in either case, a situation calling for reflection on Bechimo’s motivations and decision-making.)

There’s an interesting word choice during this scene, as a consequence of Screen Six tending to go to a flat unvaried colour when Bechimo is in a state of high emotion: when Theo announces the error test, the resulting display on Screen Six is described as “bright and untroubled”, which is a clear description of what the screen looks like and exactly the opposite of the state of mind it represents.

Dragon Ship – Chapter 1

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Jump

In which the pilots conduct a ship wipe.

Clarence deciding to address Bechimo as “Chimmy” serves two purposes, one for the readers and one for the characters.

Outside the story, it lets the readers know how “Bechimo” is pronounced. I can think of at least three ways to pronounce the “ch” in “Bechimo” (and I apparently chose the wrong one the first time I read Ghost Ship), but there’s really only one way to pronounce the “ch” in “Chimmy”.

Inside the story, it’s a signal from Clarence about how he intends to interact with Bechimo, a signal which Bechimo seems to be pointedly declining to take note of. (I don’t for a moment believe that he wasn’t capable of figuring out who Clarence was talking to; pretending he didn’t get it was his own signal, and one I expect Clarence cheerfully to ignore in his turn.)

The part of the signal Bechimo’s probably objecting to is the part that says Clarence isn’t going to let him get away with being formal and high-handed. They’ve got to work as a team if it’s going to work at all, and that means every member of the team has to be open to input from the others; especially since it’s been demonstrated that even though Bechimo knows things about the ship and the Builders that the rest of the crew doesn’t, on practical matters there are times he’d do well to pay attention to the experienced pilots.

There’s another part of the signal which Bechimo maybe genuinely isn’t getting or appreciating: Clarence tends to interact with people in a casual, friendly sort of mode, the kind where nicknames are appropriate, so doing it with Bechimo shows he accepts Bechimo as a person.

(I find myself wondering whether there ever was an original Chimmy, or if that’s merely corroborative detail, intended to give artistic verisimilitude to an otherwise bald and unconvincing narrative.)