Tag Archives: gods

Dark Secrets

In which the crack team of Kilsymthe and yo’Dira deal with some unfinished business.

Being that this story involves an entirely new cast of characters at an entirely new location, it’s a bit short of indications about where it fits in relative to the main series. It’s more recent than the Jethri books, since the team-up of a Terran spacer and Liaden is unpopular in some quarters but not considered a remarkable innovation. The bit about “the asterisked end-notes in the ven’Tura Tables” might indicate that it’s before the Tables were properly revised. Caerli uses the technique called the Smuggler’s Ace; the earliest mention we have of that is in Scout’s Progress, but I don’t think we know how old it already was then, so that doesn’t help much.

The list of customers at the drinkery includes two women in “librarian’s robes”, which I’m not sure what to make of.

Preferred Seating

In which Can Ith yos’Phelium finds a new seat.

I see an irony in the description of Can Ith’s preferred seating: “with his back against the wall, and most of the room before him”. Presumably, it’s the being able to see most of the room that makes it his favoured way of sitting, but on this particular occasion it suits him because he has his back against the wall in more ways than one.
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Trader’s Leap – Chapter 34

Ribbon Dance Hill

In which Tekelia has an urgent question for Shan, and an important answer.

One consequence of Padi and Shan being teleported directly to Ribbon Dance Hill is that it bypasses questions of geography, so my guess about whether the Hill is related to the ridge Padi read about is unlikely to be answered until it’s all over, if then. I think it’s a good guess, though; a hill that may be literally from another world seems like a good place for these kinds of goings-on.
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Trader’s Leap – Chapter 21

Dutiful Passage
En Route to Volmer

In which Shan consults several people regarding the future.

We now have the names and descriptions of all three planets of the Redlands system: apart from Colemeno, there is Ukarn, site of a mining operation, and Metlin, site of a scientific research base. (Metlin is the name of one of the Liaden weekdays; I don’t have any insights to offer about the etymology of the others.)
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Trader’s Leap – Chapter 19

Dutiful Passage

In which Priscilla receives a history lesson.

Shan’s coaster that was a gift from Ambassador Valeking was introduced in Alliance of Equals and has appeared a couple of times, in that book and then in this one, during scenes where Padi has been meeting her father in his office.
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Trader’s Leap – Chapter 17

Dutiful Passage

In which Lady Selph goes visiting.

Not much of immediate moment happens in this chapter, but a lot of things are about to happen.
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Trader’s Leap – Chapter 9 (I-IV)

Dutiful Passage
Millsap Orbit

In which Padi and Shan commune with inanimate objects.

This is a surprisingly long chapter and I’m up against a deadline, so I’m going to do it in two parts.
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Trader’s Leap – Chapter 8

Off-Grid

In which the counselors of the Haosa discuss visitors past and future.

I didn’t notice in the last Off-Grid chapter, until Skip pointed it out in the comments, that the narrative didn’t specify Tekelia’s gender. In this chapter, all the other Haosa are accompanied by masculine or feminine pronouns, but Tekelia remains undefined.
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Trader’s Leap – Chapter 7

Millsapport

In which the Healers of Millsap are unhelpful.

That went… about as well as I was expecting, really.

There were moments when I had hope it would go better, but the point at which I became convinced it was going to go off the rails was when Healer Ferin chose to ask the question “What did you do to deserve this?”, which is never an appropriate thing to say to a trauma victim under any circumstances and especially not when one is treating them for that trauma.
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Trader’s Leap – Chapter 3

Civilization

In which the Warden is told to expect visitors.

The Warden’s residence is apparently called the Wardian, which makes me think of the Edwardian era, or perhaps that’s just because Bentamin and his aunt remind me just a little bit of Bertie Wooster’s forceful aunts. (Not that Bentamin is much like Bertie Wooster, based on what we’ve seen so far.)
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