Dutiful Passage
In which Padi makes connections and Shan receives news from home.
The looper families Shan mentions are among those who have appeared or been mentioned in the Jethri-era stories: the Smiths were the first family to have norbears travelling with them, the Tragers were friendly with Jethri’s family, and the Wildes did that ill-fated bit of experimenting with Old Tech.
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Six of Us
Daiellen System
In which Sye Mon and Bon Vit are brought up to speed.
The Daiellen Sector is Surebleak’s neighbourhood, so these two haven’t travelled all that far — or else they headed back once they discovered where the war machines had been sent. Either way, it means it wouldn’t take too long for them to join in with the convocation at Benoo Three if for some reason their presence was required in person.
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In which Val Con and Miri are not getting much sleep tonight.
Chapter 20 is shaping up to be a long chapter, to the point that I’m almost wondering if I need to subdivide the sections even further. Makes sense, though, since this is the chapter where a whole bunch of plot strands come together, not just from this book but from the four books preceding it.
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Minot Station
Transient Crew Cabins
In which Clarence pays the bills.
It occurs to me that Veep Semimodo has not actually met Ambassador Hevelin yet. If he had, he might, rightly or wrongly, react differently to the prospect of incurring the Ambassador’s displeasure.
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Bechimo
Crew Lockers
In which news is received of absent friends.
There I go again: the question I asked last entry is immediately answered, and not in the way I expected.
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Bechimo
Minot Station
In which Win Ton considers the future.
I wonder at the passing mention of “a local intrigue having to do with a weather prediction”. Again, it might be just a detail thrown in to add richness to the scene, but I find that I wouldn’t mind learning what that was about.
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Bechimo
In which the pathfinders seek context.
I have a feeling Clarence’s tale-spinning may be intending to convey information beyond the obvious, and perhaps a warning about the inadvisability of getting on the wrong side of Theo and her crew. In which case I don’t think the warning has been heard, or perhaps it’s been heard but laid aside as insignificant in the face of necessity.
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Bechimo
In which the ambassador greets Grakow and his attendants.
Between Hevelin petitioning for Tree Junior to be included in crew meetings, and the seed pod it gave Theo a little while back, I’m beginning to suspect that when they do eventually hand over Spiral Dance to Korval, Tree Junior is not planning to go with. That makes sense, come to think of it; unlike its parent, who’s had centuries to get used to being in one place, this tree still has fresh memories of travelling around having adventures with Jela and Cantra, and might want to stick with Theo and have more adventures.
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Bechimo
Wyrd Space
In which Bechimo‘s crew find a solution to a problem.
In the first proper chapter, we return to the crew of Bechimo, who are still where we left them, in the wyrd space with the mysteriously-appeared ship Spiral Dance.
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Hoselteen
In which Kamele receives news of her daughter.
I like that the news of Theo’s activities comes from news sources that show a range of degrees of reliability and accuracy, where a writer less committed to worldbuilding might have just had one. (I particularly appreciate the detail of the biased summary on the Eylot situation saying “Eylot threatened with interdiction; vessel destroyed”, which makes it sound like somebody threatened Eylot for no reason and then destroyed a ship, instead of Eylot destroying a ship and being threatened with consequences.)
Joyita has acquired a fourth ring since last time they were mentioned, which was at Velaskiz Rotundo, just before Kara signed on as crew – and putting that way makes me wonder if that’s the key. Perhaps the fourth ring represents Kara, and the original two represent Theo and Clarence… or Theo and Win Ton, the holders of the first two ship keys, and the third was added at the point when Bechimo accepted Clarence as a crew member and not just a temporary nuisance. (It appears, I think, at about the same point that Bechimo stops objecting to being addressed as “Chimmy”.)