In which Syl Vor goes to school.

Personally, I always thought Syl Vor’s objection to the bracelet was worthy of consideration, and his question about whether the other students would be wearing similar was on point, though not perhaps in the way he meant it. He’s already going to stand out from the rest of the group as it is, just by who he is, without making things more difficult by adding another obvious point of difference.

And isn’t it interesting that when trouble does happen, it comes from amiable Pete, and not – say – the more overtly antagonistic Rudy? (Rudy, incidentally, does come from one of the turfs that initially resisted the opening of the Road, though it’s suggested in I Dare that the people there came around once they understood what they stood to gain.)

I don’t remember if the novel goes into this later, but Pete’s reading trouble is a well-recognised dyslexic symptom, and there are some fairly straightforward things that can be done to mitigate it that would be within the reach even of someone living on Surebleak – the trick, of course, being finding someone on Surebleak who might recognise the symptoms and know about the remedies.