In which Hazenthull has a plan.
Things appear to be going well for Haz so far. I’m finding this the opposite of reassuring.
Neogenesis – Chapter 6 part IV
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I Dare – Chapter 21
Day 50
Standard Year 1393
Dutiful Passage
Lytaxin Orbit
In which Ren Zel consults a Healer.
There’s a lot going on under the surface in this chapter, I feel.
It’s been two, three years since the unhappy run of events that ended with Ren Zel being offered a place on Dutiful Passage. Being used to living in a world without Healers, it hadn’t occurred to me until Lina brought it up that there was anything unusual about him still being haunted by those events, but of course among Liadens – and especially in a community such as the Passage which looks after its own and is, as Lina mentions, well supplied with proficient Healers – it would not be usual for a person to still be afflicted after so long.
(I wonder if the authors started with the fact of Ren Zel still being haunted by his past, and from there followed the implication that something about him impeded his healing, or started with the fact of him possessing a natural shield, and from there followed the consequence that his healing would be thus impaired.)
I Dare – Chapter 16
Things That Go Bump in the Night
In which several people pass a restless night.
Anthora and Ren Zel together always fill me with fond amusement, or amused fondness, which I think I might now be sufficiently old enough to carry off successfully, though it’s been there even since the first time I read I Dare, when I was about the same age as Anthora. I think there’s something about the way Anthora presents herself that encourages one to think of her as a precocious youngster whatever her actual age. Sober Ren Zel, on the other hand, sometimes seems older than his years, but I’ve always had a few years on him because he’s actually younger than Anthora.
The interesting thing about Anthora’s encounter with Ren Zel is that it’s not just a case of her bumping into him when she goes to follow up her vision of the Passage under attack: her nightmare of battle is almost certainly an echo of his nightmare memory. (When Anthora talks in her sleep, what she says is Ren Zel’s dialogue from a particularly harrowing moment in the battle.) Which suggests that there was already some kind of connection between them, a suggestion reinforced by the fact that Ren Zel finds her presence somehow familiar.
Plan B – Chapter 30
Erob’s Boundary
War Zone
In which Val Con has a plan which is too audacious to fail.
Over the course of this book, I’ve been having trouble figuring out what it means for a Liaden to be one of “the line direct”. Earlier, Nova said that Miri’s heirloom showed her grandmother was one of the line direct and that would make her easier to identify, and I thought maybe that meant the line direct was whichever family line a clan’s delm was chosen from: Line Tiazan in Miri’s case, or Line yos’Phelium in Korval. But here is Shan counting himself and Priscilla as members of the line direct, so at least in Korval’s case it’s not just yos’Phelium.
But now that I’m thinking about it, I recall a scene back in Scout’s Progress where the term is used to distinguish between someone who might wear Korval’s crest because they’re actually a member of the clan and someone who might wear Korval’s crest because they’re an employee in one of Korval’s businesses. So, I guess that’s what it means, and that does fit the bit with Miri’s heirloom: knowing that her ancestor was an actual member of Clan Erob and not just someone who happened to work for them at some point would make it easier to narrow down who she is. (I’m not sure I see the usefulness of the concept in general: wouldn’t every person be in the line direct of their own clan? But then again, Liadens don’t really do “in general”; there’s always a context. Whenever a Liaden says “the line direct”, the meaning would always be outlined by who’s speaking, who they’re speaking to, and what hats they’re wearing.)
Plan B – Chapter 27
Erob’s Boundary
Quarry War Zone
In which the Yxtrang come off second-best in an argument.
I’m glad Dustin survived; I would have felt bad if he’d gotten killed because Shan maneuvred him into taking him back to the lifeboat.
I’m struck by the detail that the Yxtrang have one kind of rifle for ordinary troopers and a different kind for officers. I mean, I know we recently learned that the Commander of the Gyrfalks owns a particularly nice pistol, but that’s presumably because she made an individual decision that she wanted it, and probably saved up some of her own money to get it, not because of a standard rule. I wonder what the difference is between the Troopers Regular Field Long Arm and the Officers Personal Duty Long Arm: Is the officer version functionally the same, just with extra frills? Or do the officers get a weapon that works better than the regular trooper version? Or worse?
Priscilla’s flash of memory is interesting, because I don’t think it’s hers. The involvement of the red counter suggests that it’s an older memory, from Moonhawk or Lute, though none of the stories we’ve yet been told about them has anything to match it.
Plan B – Chapter 21
Dutiful Passage
In Jump
In which the Passage is welcomed to Lytaxin.
Another chapter where much happens, but all I can find to talk about is minor details like this:
The message signed by Grandmother Cantra establishes that Plan B is very old. It’s even older than the Council of Clans, which wasn’t chartered until the sixth year after Planetfall.