Tag Archives: Efraim

Fledgling – Chapter 25

Number Twelve Leafydale Place
Greensward-by-Efraim
Delgado

In which Win Ton takes time out for entomology.

There are some parallels between the two scenes in this chapter. Both involve an artificial device in the form of a living thing: the Snake of Knowledge on the one hand, and the bug on the other. And while Win Ton concludes that the bug is probably working alone, Jen Sar concludes that the Snake probably isn’t.

There’s a careful bit of linguistic footwork here: It would be tempting, faced with a spying device in the form of an insect, to have the characters make something of the fact that both a spying device and an insect may be referred to using the word “bug”. However, the result would be an incongruity, as the characters are not actually speaking English, and whatever language they are speaking is unlikely to have the same homonyms. And so it is that, although the word “bug” does appear in the chapter, it is used only in one sense and not the other.

Fledgling – Chapter 22

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 15

University of Delgado
Faculty Residence Wall
Quadrant Eight, Building Two

In which Kamele and Jen Sar make plans for the future.

If Theo was unhappy about moving from the suburb to the Wall, how much less is she going to like leaving the planet entirely? Even if it does solve a lot of problems.

I don’t think Jen Sar is unhappy with the idea of looking after Theo, as far as his own preferences go. But there is also to be considered how it would look to outsiders, if Kamele left her daughter in the care of a man — and not only a man she doesn’t have an ongoing relationship with, as far as the world knows, but a man with whom she recently broke off a relationship — rather than, say, her close friend Ella. And particularly at this point in time, when she’s moving in deep political waters and any deviation from customary behaviour may become a weapon against her. And Kamele knows all this as well as he does, which is why, I think, he’s surprised at her even making the suggestion.

Fledgling – Chapter 12

Cultural Genetics Program
Bjornson-Bellevale College of Arts and Sciences
University of Delgado

In which Theo has dinner with her father.

So, like I was saying, after that brief moment of peace and domestic harmony, comes… more peace and domestic harmony? Whatever storm this is the calm before must be really awful.

With Kartor getting a surname this chapter, all of Four Team Three are now equipped with names both fore- and sur-.

The uncharacteristic clumsiness of Theo’s father is definitely suggestive to a reader familiar with the wider Liaden universe; we saw his old teacher pull the same trick back in Scout’s Progress.

It also brings on an observation which I’m sure is influenced by me remembering things that haven’t happened yet, but I’m going to pass it on anyway: Theo was able to catch both the objects Professor Kiladi dropped without any difficulty. Conversely, every incident of her supposed clumsiness we’ve seen has involved colliding or tangling with a person — a trend reinforced by her self-description in chapter nine. This doesn’t mean that Theo isn’t the problem, since she’s still the common thread among the incidents, but it does suggest that the problem isn’t so much a lack of control of her own movements as a flaw in her understanding of the movements of others. Put her in the middle of a crowd of people and trouble is bound to follow, but give her an inanimate object moving according to the basic laws of physics, and she’s fine.

Fledgling – Chapter 11

University of Delgado
Faculty Residence Wall
Quadrant Eight, Building Two

In which Theo gains a rug and a respite.

I like this patch of peace and domestic harmony. It probably just means things are about to get even worse, though.

It’s only just occurred to me to wonder how it’s possible for Quadrant Eight to exist, since any given area consists of no more nor less than four quadrants, by definition. Maybe the university is divided into two (or more) areas, and rather than add another layer to the addresses they just continued on the numbering of the quadrants from where the first set ended. This would especially make sense if the second area is a later addition to the original layout of the university, which would explain why the address space didn’t account for the possibility. (It would also make a nice echo of Theo learning this chapter that the founders of the university didn’t think of everything.)

I was going to say something last chapter about the Safety’s apparent determination to assume that the incident on the scavage court was Theo’s fault, but I decided not to when I started considering the limitations of seeing things from Theo’s point of view. In the light of the Safety’s official report, though, there does seem to be something there — but rather than the “predisposed to expect Theo at the centre of the trouble” kind of something I was thinking of before, it seems to be more of a “determined not to let any responsibility settle on Roni” kind of something. (And that reminds me of the thing I did say about what kind of fall-out there might or might not be for Roni.)

Fledgling – Chapter 8

University of Delgado
Faculty Residence Wall
Quadrant Eight, Building Two

In which Theo gets home late.

In the last couple of chapters we’ve started to get a clearer picture of what Kamele’s like when she isn’t (a) under a lot of stress and (b) viewed through the eyes of her also-stressed teenager.

Jen Sar may have pitched the case for Coyster in terms of the good it would do Theo to have him around, but it’s clear he’ll also do some good for Kamele, whether she’s prepared to admit it or not. (And I really hope that remark about Theo not having any strangeness to deal with was the stress talking, because it’s un-advertant to a degree that’s worrying to find in a scholar of Kamele’s standing.)

Fledgling – Chapter 7

Retrospection on an Introduction
Chancellor’s Welcome Reception for the Gallowglass Chair
Lenzen Ballroom, Administration Tower Three
University of Delgado

In which Kamele met Jen Sar.

The Chancellor’s reception is one of a small number of scenes that appear in more than one place in the series, from more than one perspective. Comparing Kamele’s version here with Jen Sar’s version in Mouse and Dragon is an interesting exercise, for the things they see differently, and especially the things which are unexplained in one and matter-of-factly explained in the other. (It also, unfortunately, shows that nobody warned the copy-editor of the latter book what was going on; not everybody makes the transition from one version to the other with spelling intact.)

Fledgling – Chapter 5

City of Efraim
Delgado

In which Theo goes shopping.

This is a quiet chapter in terms of what actually happens, but it introduces a lot of details that will crop up again later, especially during Theo’s bus trip.

Theo’s memories of her father in this chapter contain several call-backs to Scout’s Progress and Mouse and Dragon, with his ring and the toasted cheese sandwiches.

Mmmmm, toasted cheese sandwiches. I haven’t had a good toasted cheese sandwich in ages. I don’t seem to be able to find cheese that toasts well, lately.

Fledgling – Chapter 2

University of Delgado
Faculty Residence Wall
Quadrant Eight, Building Two

In which Kamele and Theo — and Coyster — arrive in their new lodgings.

When I first read Fledgling, Kamele Waitley came as a complete surprise to me. In retrospect, this seems short-sighted even to myself, but it must be remembered that, Theo having said nothing about her mother in I Dare, the only previous reference to her was in “Breath’s Duty”, and that only a brief mention of an unnamed woman whom the authors, lacking space for a more complete explanation, chose to describe as Professor Kiladi’s mistress. That entirely misleading word, combined with the apparent equanimity with which Kiladi took leave of her (which with hindsight I can see as a Liaden presenting a calm face to an unpleasant necessity), produced in me an impression that left me entirely unprepared for Scholar Waitley, Jen Sar Kiladi’s friend and life-partner, when Fledgling presented her full-formed.

In this chapter Theo, who has lived her entire life in Kiladi’s house out in the suburbs, is not adjusting easily to the standard of accommodation in the Faculty Residence Wall. I suspect that Kamele is having similar difficulty, and it’s contributing to her mood; although, if memory serves, she lived in the Wall her whole life before she met Kiladi, she has also lived Theo’s entire life in Kiladi’s house, and young as Theo is that’s plenty of time to have acclimated to a new way of living.

This being a re-read, I know what prompted Kamele to move back to the Wall, and can see that her response to Theo’s question about it contains an actual answer carefully set in a false context constructed from statements that are each true in general but not actually relevant to the particular situation under discussion. (Notice how some of the time she’s talking about what “a scholar” can or should do, and only very briefly about herself specifically.)