Tag Archives: galandaria

Skyblaze

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In which Vertu dea’San decides that somebody ought to do something.

This story is, among other things, a valuable reminder that while Korval were happy enough to be thrown off Liad for their part in the Battle of Solcintra, there are others served similarly for whom it might not be so pleasant.

Reading a story featuring “galan’ranubiet” (Treasure of the House) and “galandaria” (compatriot), I find myself wondering after the meaning of “yos’Galan”.

I said a few days ago I was going to have something more to say about taxis. The bulk of this story takes place at a time when there’s only one licensed taxi driver in Surebleak Port City, and even at the end of the story the number has only grown to three, with some consideration being given to a fourth. That sets it before the climactic sequence of Necessity’s Child, which contains at least three active taxis and likely more.

(So why have I scheduled it after? We’ll come back to that.)

Now let us consider the other major indicator of when it’s set: the passing of the seasons. The main section of the story takes place in local winter, at some point after Korval came to settle on Surebleak, with the last section taking place early in the following spring. That’s straightforward enough.

Now we have two choices:

Ghost Ship tells us that Korval settled on Surebleak before winter turned to spring, that Theo’s visit occurred during late spring (this point is made on multiple occasions), and that the event which kicks off the plot of Necessity’s Child occurred a few weeks before the onset of summer. This seems to fit: Vertu arrives during Korval’s first winter, joins Jemie in the taxi business, and they spend the spring building up the business to a point that will account for the flock of taxis bringing people to the new school when it opens in early summer. The bit near the end of this story, with Vertu and Jemie in early spring considering diversifying into the ground-courier business, meshes nicely with Jemie’s cameo in Ghost Ship, in late spring, delivering a courier message.

However. Necessity’s Child itself claims to begin in late winter, which would put the school opening in early spring, and allow little if any time for the building of the taxi fleet.

After due consideration, I have decided I prefer the timeline suggested by Ghost Ship, and not just because it’s more insistent about it. (Ghost Ship, as I said, mentions the season repeatedly, while the beginning of Necessity’s Child does so only once – and, for that matter, the school opening scene has a mention of how warm the day is, which might be taken to mean that even the end of Necessity’s Child disagrees with the beginning about what time of year it is.)

There are still a couple of more short stories and a novel set on Surebleak which I haven’t read yet because they all came out after I began the re-read; I’ll be interested to see when they claim to be set.

(When I was scheduling the re-read, the one detail I remembered from all this confusion was that Ghost Ship was set in spring, but I forgot that it said Korval had been there since winter, so I thought Vertu’s first winter on Surebleak must be after both Ghost Ship and Necessity’s Child, and scheduled “Skyblaze” accordingly. If I were doing it now, I would definitely put “Skyblaze” before Necessity’s Child.)

Tomorrow: “Roving Gambler”, one of those stories set on Surebleak that I haven’t read yet.

Prodigal Son

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In which Scout Commander yos’Phelium returns to the scene of the crime.

I haven’t read this story since a while before the first time I read Ghost Ship, and there’s quite a bit more to it than I remembered. I remembered the mirrored scenes with Miri at the beginning and end, and I remembered everything that happened at the Explorers Club, but the entire middle section I’d completely forgotten about. It’s a much better story with the middle in.

(I recognised the bits with Nelirikk that were included in Ghost Ship, of course, because I’ve just finished reading that, but I remember thinking both times I read Ghost Ship that those must have been new additions to the course of events.)

Speaking of the mirrored sections at the beginning and end, I noticed on this re-read that the opening scene is also reflected in the middle, with Hakan and Kem taking the places of Val Con and Miri, and the place of the rocking chair being taken by a different rocking chair.

Misfits

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In which Ichliad Brunner’s family finds him embarrassing.

At no point in the story does anybody get around to correcting Tech Brunner’s mistaken impression of who Miri is and what she’s doing; on the contrary, it’s apparently confirmed when she shows up again speaking Liaden like a native. This is amusing for those of us who have read the novels and know Miri’s story, but I wonder how it would look to a reader who hadn’t and didn’t. Would the lack of any explanation of Miri’s behaviour appear as a gap in the story, like the lack of any explanation of what Korval’s up to?

(I also see that Skel’s fate is not mentioned, but I think in that case a reader familiar with the shapes stories take can probably figure it out.)

Neither of the dates at the beginning and end matches up neatly with the dates given in I Dare. The date given for the attack on Solcintra at the beginning is the day after the date given in the novel (though I suppose the attack might have lasted long enough to carry over into a new date, according to the Standard Calendar, and the novel neglected to mention it in the excitement). The final scene, which clearly takes place after Korval is ordered off Liad and decides to migrate to Surebleak, is given a date two whole days before the date on which those things occur in the novel.

(And now it probably sounds like I don’t like this story. I do, really, I’m just not finding words to talk much about the things I like.)

Tomorrow: We return to Theo Waitley – and, at last, to sensible chapter numbers – with Saltation chapter 33.

Carpe Diem – Chapter 69

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Vandar
Winterfair

In which Hakan sees a thing that he cannot have seen.

The first published description of an autodoc in action, and one of the more detailed explanations of what it is an autodoc actually does.

The autodoc’s analysis indicates that Miri caught a bit of the MemStim that felled sig’Alda, which presumably explains why she’s been reliving Klamath all the way to the ship. (Not that it needs a memory drug for a gravely injured person to be reliving a past trauma, but it might otherwise have been a bit of coincidence that she was reliving precisely that one.)

It probably says something about sig’Alda that he didn’t bother to hide the footprint trail from his ship. Even given an out-of-the-way location, it might have been better tradecraft to make it less easy for someone to stumble across if they happened to be passing. I have a nasty suspicion that he didn’t bother because he figured any local who found the ship would be done in by the security system, and as far as he was concerned that was a satisfactory state of affairs.

Carpe Diem – Chapter 64

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Vandar
Winterfair

In which Val Con speaks to a compatriot and a brother.

Val Con slipping out of his Department conditioning with the l’apeleka he learned from Edger is interesting in several ways.

One way is that it’s an example of things that go around coming around. If Val Con hadn’t been the kind of person who would and could befriend a Turtle, he’d be in serious trouble now (if he wasn’t already dead, back in any of the several incidents where his friendship with Edger has already helped pull him out of the fire).

It’s also a sign of one of the Department’s blind spots. They must have known Val Con had a history with the Clutch — they have access to Val Con’s service history, and even if they didn’t the fact that Edger lent him a ship would have been a big hint — but they don’t seem to have thought much of it. It’s not so much that I expect them to have had a counter for the l’apeleka specifically — I wouldn’t be surprised if Val Con is the only non-Turtle who knows much about it, and certainly even if an agent of the Department tried to get a Turtle to talk about Turtle things he wouldn’t get far — but even if they didn’t know about l’apeleka specifically, they might have considered the possibility that Val Con had learned something unusual from the Clutch, and they didn’t. All the time we’ve seen the Department spend thinking about what lessons they need to learn from Val Con’s past, and his time with the Clutch never comes up. It’s like they take it as read that no non-Liaden culture could produce anything the Department needs to worry about.

Trade Secret – Chapter 16

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Tradedesk, Dockside and More

In which networks are affirmed and expanded.

At Tradedesk Control, Jethri and the Scout make the acquaintence of Director ViChels Carresens, who is in charge of the station, and who shares a name with the Carresens Coordinating Committee that’s running the trade meeting.

Speaking of shared names: the ship he mentions that his family has donated for moving the station to its final position, Nubella Run, is one of those ships Paitor mentioned to Khat as being involved in whatever Arin Gobelyn was up to.

Speaking of shared names: along the way, Jethri overhears some pilots discussing another arrival whose name is doubly interesting. The new arrival bears the name of Omron, and is perhaps that same D. Omron who signed the invitation that brought Jethri here; and her given name is Dulsey, perhaps that same Dulsey who is an associate of the Uncle. If all the perhapses bear out, it would appear that the Uncle wishes to meet with Jethri…

And as if Jethri didn’t have enough to look forward to, there’s Samay pin’Aker, Clan Midys, who went to such trouble to accidentally meet him. (A familiar name, here: one of the students who facilitates Aelliana’s demonstration of practical probabilities in Scout’s Progress is a pin’Aker – and his partner is a ven’Deelin. No way of knowing whether that tells us anything useful about Samay, of course.)

Balance of Trade – Chapter 4

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Day 34
Standard Year 1118

Ynsolt’i Port
Zeroground Pub

In which Norn ven’Deelin is not what Jethri expected.

My heart was pounding during Jethri’s visit to the Master Trader. Physical danger in stories generally doesn’t bother me much, but a character on a course to, as Jethri puts it, learn the depths of his own folly, that’ll get me every time. (One has more respect for the dangers with which one has had personal acquaintance.)

We meet our first Master Trader, wearing our first Master Trader’s amethyst ring. Which, so soon after Crystal Dragon, prompts a thought I’ve not had before: I wonder if the amethyst was chosen as the mark of Master Traders in honor of Tor An yos’Galan’s remarkable eyes.