Tag Archives: Edger appreciates art

Moon on the Hills

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Surebleak

In which Korval acquires a new neighbour.

It’s an evocative name, “World’s End”. There’s the obvious sense in which the place is named, referring to a physical boundary, a place where the world comes to an end, but there are other things it could mean, such as a temporal boundary, a time when a world comes to an end. Sometimes a person’s world can come to an end even though the planet continues untouched. Yulie’s world might have ended when he lost the last of his kin. It might have ended today, if Boss Conrad had been someone other than the person he is.

(And isn’t it interesting how, when he’s talking to Yulie, he’s mostly Pat Rin but sometimes he’s Boss Conrad for a moment or two?)

It’s also interesting to speculate how things might have gone differently if Yulie’s brother hadn’t got himself killed before Boss Conrad showed up, and had been the one handling the negotiation for road access.

Saltation – Chapter 42 & I Dare – Chapter 58

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Day 201
Standard Year 1393
Solcintra
Liad

In which Theo brings her business to the Delm of Korval.

The fact that it’s Clonak on the gate leads me to wonder whether he recognised a family resemblance in Theo, and that formed part of his decision to let her in. He did, after all, know her father well and for many years.

Speaking of family resemblances, Theo’s first words on being reunited with her father are exactly the same as Val Con’s.

There’s apparently been some disagreement among readers about the way I Dare ends, so for the record I personally found it a perfect and delightful note on which to end the Agent of Change series, and would have thought myself entirely satisfied if that had been the last we ever heard of Liadens. (Though I am, of course, glad now that it wasn’t.) To me, it didn’t come across as a loose end, but as a reminder that even with the Department defeated, the wide universe still contains new discoveries and new adventures, and the children of Korval are not the kind to live quietly ever after.

Tomorrow: New adventure.

I Dare – Chapter 37

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Day 51
Standard Year 1393

Departing Lytaxin

In which Daav and Aelliana go on a journey with several surprises in store.

I find myself wondering when Edger found time to acquire the new shuttle and have it fitted to the ship of the clan. The months he and Sheather spent waiting on Shaltren to see if the Juntavas could find Val Con and Miri seem most hopeful, except that they didn’t have the ship with them, it having gone on to Volmer and them having opted to go straight to Shaltren on a Terran vessel.

That also gets me wondering how they got from Shaltren back to Lufkit to visit Liz, and then from there to Lytaxin. They must have switched back to the ship of the clan at some point, since they arrived at Lytaxin in it.

Perhaps when Edger and Sheather left Lufkit for Shaltren, Edger sent Handler, Selector, and Watcher ahead to Volmer, to secure the ship of the clan, make arrangements for the addition of the shuttle, and await them there. Then after Sheather’s visit to Liz, Edger and Sheather went to Volmer, collected the upgraded ship, and proceeded to Lytaxin. That seems to cover everything, except that we’re still left with the question of where Handler, Selector, and Watcher are now.

I Dare – Chapter 9

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Day 50
Standard Year 1393

Lytaxin
Erob’s Medical Centre
Catastrophe Unit

In which healing goes forth.

Erob’s medical technicians think a lot of themselves, don’t they? To be fair, I suppose they have a right to, most of the time; it’s just that this situation is unlike anything they’ve been trained for.

A couple of unexplained visions occur. Shan gets a vision of Moonhawk to match his vision of Lute last week (I really hope those get elaborated on some day), and Miri gets a vision of Val Con in Jelaza Kazone’s garden. Val Con’s easy enough to explain, given the lifemate link, but it seems unlikely, even given the givens, that he and she have literally travelled all the way back to Liad; perhaps it’s Val Con’s metaphor for some safe space within himself that he retreated to for protection from the damage that was unwittingly being done him. It might not be an inappropriate metaphor, at that; the way the Tree meddles with its mobile branches, it might be personally responsible for Val Con’s survival even if it’s not directly present.

I like the moment where Shan thinks of the room he’s in as the “room of catastrophes”, leaving it open whether it’s a room in which catastrophes are dealt with, per the official designation, or a room in which catastrophes are created.

Plan B – Chapter 23

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Lufkit
Merc Hall

In which Edger and Sheather change course in response to fresh information.

I suppose technically Edger has come to the correct conclusion, but I’m dubious about his premises: surely the same bustle would be afoot without Val Con’s involvement. (Then again, perhaps it wouldn’t. The luck moves in strange ways around Korval.)

I’m struck by the term “blood war”, which more than one merc has now used to describe the Yxtrang invasion, but I don’t think any of the Yxtrang themselves have used. Perhaps it’s a merc term, used to distinguish a conflict with motives other than a nice big paycheque.

Agent of Change – Chapter 13

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In which Miri makes use of the enemy of her enemy.

I have a feeling Grandmother Cantra would have approved of Miri’s solution to the trouble she and Val Con find themselves in under the hyatts. Her advice in times of yore was that a useful ally is defined by the answers to the questions “Can he shoot?” and “Will he aim at my enemy?” No mention, I realise now, of any requirement that their choice of target be motivated by goodwill towards oneself…

Taking the approximate age given for Edger when he entered the story, and making the simplifying assumption that shells are attained at regular intervals, produces the estimate that young Sheather is about five and half centuries old. That estimate may well be out by a considerable amount in either direction, but it underlines the point I made a few chapters ago about twelve years being unlikely to be a significant portion of his life.

This is, as far as I can remember, the only mention in the series of an Yxtrang ambassador. (Multiple ambassadors, is implied by Val Con feeling the need to specify that he’s referring to the one assigned to this sector.) Interstellar diplomacy doesn’t really seem characteristic of the Yxtrang as I remember them, particularly if it might mean agreeing not to attack somebody they want to attack. Maybe it’s just an excuse for getting a close look at the defenses of places they intend to attack regardless.

Agent of Change – Chapter 12

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In which everyone has some catching up to do.

Things are heating up. The cops are hot on Val Con’s trail, and Miri’s soon to be in a similar situation with the Juntavas. (In retrospect, it seems like it might have been a strategic error not to have wondered more about who Murph’s lady friend was, although I suppose there wasn’t really any way for Miri to have found out even if she had wondered.)

It’s interesting, after Val Con took the time to explain to Miri what would happen to anyone who attacked him while Edger and his brothers were around, that when he is attacked he tries to find his own way out of it instead of calling on them for help. I suppose his instinct is still to avoid involving Edger in the shadowy side of his life any more than absolutely necessary. Also, if Val Con started a fight between Turtles and armed cops there would almost certainly be casualties on one side or both, which he would then have on his conscience along with everything it’s already loaded down with.

Agent of Change – Chapter 8

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In which Miri thinks on her feet.

Miri and Val Con are both older than the eighteen to twenty-five years estimated in the police bulletin: Miri is twenty-seven, and Val Con is thirty. It’s already been noted that Val Con looks significantly younger than he is; apparently Miri does too. It’s likely a Liaden thing, considering that it’s Terrans doing the estimating, and in any case the height probably has something to do with it.

I’ve mentioned before that one of the things I like about this series is that many of the minor characters, though they may appear once and then never be seen again, have distinct personalities and a sense of personal history. This chapter contains a few more examples.

Agent of Change – Chapter 7

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In which preparations are made for dinner.

I went back and checked “To Cut an Edge” again, and it says that the stick-knife is a standard part of a Scout’s kit. That surprised me a bit; I’d have said it seemed more like a spy’s weapon than a Scout’s. On reflection, though, Scouts by the nature of their profession spend a lot of time in uncertain situations, and this can’t be the first time in Val Con’s career where it was wise to be armed without seeming to be.

I’m not sure why Selector’s response to Edger about the deal with Justin Hostro is so grumpy. Annoyed at how much Edger is talking up the deal, maybe. Or just generally ill-disposed to anything involving the Cavern of Flawed Knives. Any thoughts?

Agent of Change – Chapter 5

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In which Miri meets Val Con’s brother.

The story of Val Con’s first meetings with Edger and Handler, back when Val Con was a trainee Scout and Edger had yet to achieve his twelfth shell, is told in the short story “To Cut an Edge”. Selector is also mentioned in that story, though he does not appear. Sheather is not mentioned at all, which likely just means that he was otherwise occupied at the time; though he seems to be the youngest of the Turtles here present, he is old enough and experienced enough to have been included in the market research expedition, and it seems unlikely that he would have been significantly less so a mere (by Turtle standards) twelve years ago.

Although I had remembered the Turtles’ distinctively different idea of what constitutes “a long time”, I had forgotten that this introduction explicitly notes that Edger is considered young by Turtle standards. I’d settled into thinking of him as, if not an elder, at least a person of mature years, but it’s possible that proportionally speaking he’s about the same age (and nearly as reckless) as Val Con and Miri.

It strikes me that, based on this chapter, Edger’s people and Val Con’s have several notable cultural features in common, including clans, bows, and dialects that reflect melant’i. Doubtless the details vary considerably, though.