Tag Archives: Er Thom yos’Galan

Necessity’s Child – Chapter 14

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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.

Ghost Ship – Chapter 31

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Jelaza Kazone
Surebleak

In which Theo has breakfast with Val Con’s mother.

Theo is perfectly right to ask whether Kamele knew about Aelliana, and Aelliana blatantly dodges the question. (It’s probably true that her available time is limited, but that doesn’t mean she’s not also using it as an excuse.) Particularly given the fact that Theo recognises Aelliana as an aspect of the Jen Sar Kiladi she thought she knew – the Jen Sar Kiladi her mother fell in love with – this is going to be an additional complication in the complicated explanation Daav owes Kamele.

And it looks like Kamele’s going to be wanting that explanation sooner rather than later…

Ghost Ship – Chapter 30

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Boss Vine’s Turf
Surebleak

In which Theo is offered a trade route and a seed pod.

One advantage of re-reading is that when you know where the story’s going, it can be easier to make out what the foreshadowing is trying to tell you. For instance: Here is Clarence, who’s made himself unpopular enough that somebody came to shoot at him, and probably hasn’t helped his case much by being so unobliging as to shoot the person who came to shoot him. Might be he’ll soon be in a situation where a job that takes him offworld for a longish while will be just the thing he needs.

And Clarence’s visitor is interesting: Seems to have known him from when he was working on Liad, and got on the wrong side of him then. An independent operator, not a fellow Juntava, is my impression. It’s not just Korval’s friends who are making the trip to try their luck in the new land of opportunity.

Kin Ties

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In which Ren Zel dea’Judan has unfinished business on Casia.

The thing I find really satisfying about this story is how things turn out for Cyrbet Meriandra, the last child of Clan Jabun. I’m pleased for her sake her fate turns out not to be the desperate thing it sounded when it was foretold at the end of Changeling; she did no more to earn a part in the doom brought on her by Delm Jabun than Ren Zel did. And during the confrontation at the end of this story, it was her I was worried about more than Ren Zel; he’s a dramliza, he can take care of himself even if Anthora isn’t there to take care of him.

(I am of course also pleased that Ren Zel found a way to reconnect with his family, but it wasn’t such a subject of suspense; as soon as Anthora persuaded him to make the attempt it seemed obvious the attempt would succeed and it was only a matter of waiting to learn the details.)

There is something funny going on with Cyrbet, though. It seems to be implied that she’s too young to remember the death of her mother, and was raised from childhood with tales of Ren Zel the ogre, which would seem to fit with the mention in Changeling of a toddler identified as Elsu’s daughter. However, we have our choice of several not-entirely-consistent indications of how long it’s been since Ren Zel left on Dutiful Passage… not one of which is long enough for a toddler to grow into a young woman employed as an adult and contemplating marriage. The timeline published in the second Liaden Unibus has it that Changeling took place in Standard Year 1390, which would mean he’s been away a mere three years. Even if we ignore that, Changeling itself states clearly that Shan is the captain of Dutiful Passage, which places it absolutely no earlier than 1383, ten years ago (and probably no earlier than 1385, since Shan was nominally captain for a couple of years before he was actually free to assume the role). Finally, there’s a line in this story which can be read as indicating that it’s been twelve years (actually, it’s “a dozen Standards”, which, since it’s Liadens, might be an approximation the way a Terran would say “a decade”) and even that is not enough for a toddler to attain Bethy’s apparent age. Perhaps Elsu had two daughters, and Cyrbet was the elder by enough years to fix the maths, but then what happened to the other one?

Another oddity, but one which I think is more likely to be deliberate and meaningful than an oversight, is the Balance pronounced by Delm Jabun on Ren Zel. It’s stated clearly in Conflict of Honors that Liadens consider it inappropriate to Balance a transgression by seeking the death of the transgressor, except in really extreme cases where there’s truly nothing else that will do. So does this mean that Ren Zel’s alleged wrongs against Clan Jabun would, if real, constitute such an extreme case? Or is it a sign of Delm Jabun’s corruption, that he called for Ren Zel’s death, regardless of its appropriateness, simply because it was the outcome he desired?

There’s a lot of good parallelling going on in this story, especially on the subject of delms: so many different delms, each with their own approach to the delm’s duty of caring for their clans’ resources, allowing comparisons that cast light on what it means to be a good (or a bad) delm, and to be a good and obedient clanmember. There are also parallels between Ren Zel and his nemesis that are interesting, and instructive: we don’t get an explicit account from Bethy of why she makes the decision she does at the end, but perhaps part of it is similar to the reasoning behind Ren Zel’s account at prime of his Balance with Aunt Chane.

Tomorrow: “Code of Honor”

Ghost Ship – Chapter 13

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Jelaza Kazone
Surebleak

In which Clarence has a warning for Daav.

The comment that “the Department is a larger enterprise than even its operatives had guessed” is intriguing. I believe it, especially with the recent reminder that its operatives work in their own little boxes, not knowing or caring about the details of what everyone else in the organisation is doing. But does this mean there’s even more to the Department’s Plan than we’ve been told? (Conversely, if we’ve been told everything, what have the operatives been told?) And if the Department’s own operatives don’t have the whole picture, who does?

I take it that Daav’s anecdote about Andy Mack repurposing old company equipment is meant to convey that the Colonel is not only a practical man, but possesses the kind of practicality Clarence is in need of, that will not pay too much attention to credentials if they’re inconvenient. One suspects that not all, if any, of the equipment he’s been repurposing was, speaking strictly according to the paperwork, his to repurpose.

Ghost Ship – Chapter 5

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Arin’s Toss
Solcintra Port
Liad

In which Theo’s father tells her the truth.

Theo’s conversation with her father is one of those things that’s obviously significant but I don’t know how to talk about. (I do wonder if it helps Theo to learn that Val Con’s mother was a respected scholar. It seems like it might make the whole preposterous situation feel slightly more familiar.)

Either Theo’s taxi ride from the Port or her nap, or both, must have consumed a considerable amount of time, since it is now the day set for Korval’s departure and Theo left the Port at dawn the previous day. (Local calendar, explicitly stated, so it’s not one of those things where the Standard Day changes halfway through the local day.) No, excuse me: Theo went to call a taxi at dawn; maybe the city’s in such a commotion at the moment that it took most of the day to turn up.

The detail about Trealla Fantrol is interesting; they couldn’t take it with them, but they weren’t going to let it fall into anyone else’s hands. In which light, I wonder what it says that they didn’t mind letting Liad keep the formal gardens.

Tomorrow: “Moon on the Hills”, then back to Chapter 6.

Ghost Ship – Chapter 2

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Jelaza Kazone
Liad

In which Theo is introduced to her father’s family, and vice versa.

It is a tricky situation that Daav’s got himself in, regarding explaining himself to Kamele. The basic principle that he had kin in need of assistance is straightforward enough, but necessarily leads to questions like “Who are these kin?” and “Why have you never mentioned them before?” and, sooner or later, “But if your name is actually Daav yos’Phelium…”

Also, while I think Kamele would take the news that her onagrata had been married before at least as clear-headedly as Theo, things might get very awkward if she asked how the marriage had ended and where Aelliana is now and Daav felt obliged to answer honestly.

It’s interesting to compare Theo’s situation to Shan’s when the clan first became aware of him. Shan was rapidly enfolded in the clan, but that was because his mother had already declared him to be part of the clan by naming him yos’Galan; everything that followed was just sorting out the details. Theo is a Waitley, born under an arrangement that’s comparable in the relevant areas to a Liaden contract marriage with the offspring going to the mother’s clan, and her father has been making a point of not claiming any connection to Korval for himself let alone for her. It’s possible she could join Clan Korval at some future point, if it seemed like a good idea for all concerned (a collection of people including not only herself, her father and Delm Korval, but also her mother – which would entail the aftorementioned tricky explanations), but it’s not going to happen automatically just because her father has returned to his clan.

I like the detail that Merlin, who is usually referred to with male pronouns by those who know him best, gets female pronouns in the scene told from Theo’s viewpoint, because Theo’s from Delgado where female is the default gender.

I Dare – Chapter 55

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Solcintra
Liad

In which the Captain acts for the safety of the passengers.

The mode of Ultimate Authority, which is referred to twice in this chapter, has, perhaps unsurprisingly, not come up much before: three times in the series up to this point. Priscilla adopts it briefly when putting Sav Rid Olanek in his place at the end of Conflict of Honors; Commander of Agents is said in Carpe Diem to use it when dealing with his underlings; and Val Con, greeting the Tree in Plan B, places the Tree in the position of ultimate authority.

The fact that it’s used twice in this chapter, and by whom, is the central conflict in a nutshell: the first is Commander of Agents again, and the second is Miri when she takes on the melant’i of Liad’s Captain. And I think it says something that, whereas Miri adopts the mode temporarily and in a situation where she is in fact the duly-appointed ultimate authority until the emergency is resolved, the Commander is not only self-appointed but apparently expects to be regarded as the ultimate authority all the time.

There’s a leap near the end of the chapter that I’ve never been able to follow. After the doomsday weapons are activated, ter’Fendil says he can deactivate them if Val Con gives him the control device, and Val Con does. Then it cuts to another scene, and when it cuts back everybody’s running for their lives and talking about the urgent need to do something before the weapons break out and start killing everybody. Is there something missing, or is it just me missing something?

I Dare – Chapter 48

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Day 47
Standard Year 1393

Surebleak Space

In which Boss Conrad defends Surebleak.

Interesting that the Department’s demand to prepare for boarding is given in Trade instead of Liaden. My interpretation is that they wanted to make sure the pilot could understand it, and, presuming that Cheever was the pilot, didn’t expect him to be able to understand Liaden. (And just now I can’t remember whether Cheever actually can.)

I wonder who named the asteroid mining ships. There’s a striking amount of variety in the names.

I also wonder, now I come to think of it, who added armaments to Fortune’s Reward. They seem to have come as a surprise to Pat Rin and to Natesa, which argues against them having been added during the preparations for the project at hand, at the same time the ship was being renamed. That the weapon controls announced themselves when the ship accepted Pat Rin as pilot suggests that Fortune’s Reward has been armed all along and nobody saw fit to mention it while there wasn’t a pilot of Korval at the controls; that seems like a Korval sort of precaution.

I Dare – Chapter 47

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Day 45
Standard Year 1393

Sherzer System

In which Boss Conrad goes on an outing with some pilots.

I’m not surprised, on reflection, to see Portmaster Borden among the pilots; makes sense a portmaster would be a pilot himself. Portmaster Liu is probably a pilot as well, but somebody’s gotta stay home and mind the store. I wonder how they decided who’d go and who’d stay. Flipped a coin for it? Or maybe Liu let Borden go because he’s the one who’s always upset about never having anything to do.

I want to know more about the “alternative courses of education” Er Thom offered the young Pat Rin: what they were, and why Pat Rin rejected them. I can think of several possibilities, but I’m not sure which best fits Pat Rin and Er Thom. One possibililty I’m pretty confident in rejecting is “education in useful non-piloting careers, which Pat Rin rejected because they weren’t piloting”; it’s clear that Pat Rin had already accommodated himself to the idea of not being a pilot. A more interesting idea is that they were not alternatives to being a pilot, but alternative ways of learning to be a pilot, since the family’s usual methods had failed – which Pat Rin rejected… why? The narration makes a point of mentioning that they were all offworld, which suggests several answers: perhaps Pat Rin just didn’t want to live anywhere but Liad (seems unlikely, stated so baldly); perhaps he feared the clan was trying to hide their non-pilot away from polite society; perhaps he’d already come to believe, as in “Heirloom”, that he was an unproductive load on the clan, and didn’t want the family to waste money sending him away for an education he was convinced would come to nothing.