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Carpe Diem – Chapter 60

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Interdicted World I-2796-893-44

In which Tyl Von sig’Alda comes to Winterfair.

Tyl Von sig’Alda’s impressions of Winterfair are a contrast to Miri’s a few chapters ago. They’re seeing many of the same things, but reacting to them very differently. That even extends to the dateline at the head of the chapter: sig’Alda knows the local name of the planet, but he’s not going to lower himself to using it.

I wonder if sig’Alda was a Scout before he was recruited by the Department; not all the pilots taken by the Department were. His reactions here are certainly not those a Scout would have, but that just brings us back around to the question of how much of his attitude is him and how much was instilled in him by his Department indoctrination.

And once again, the child he encounters is not given any gendered pronouns, and nor is the child’s parent — but, where it felt earlier like the authors were leaving room for the reader’s imagination, here it feels like the reason their genders are not noted is because sig’Alda doesn’t see them as human enough to care.

Carpe Diem – Chapter 59

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Vandar
Winterfair

In which the Snow Wind Trio makes its radio debut.

The performance of “Leaf Dance” is another of my favourite moments from the novel. I tend to assume that any attempt to put the Liaden Universe on the screen would inevitably disappoint, but that’s one scene that would be amazing if someone got it right.

Carpe Diem – Chapter 5

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Orbit
Interdicted World I-2796-893-44

In which Miri and Val Con take a break.

Miri’s store of personal valuables has shrunk a bit since she took stock back on Lufkit. Probably the rest of it is still in her box, safe and sound on Edger’s ship, and this is just the stuff that was so important to her that it was in her belt pouch even for what she expected to be a short expedition. In which case it’s interesting to ponder what’s here (her grandmother’s House Badge, the jewelry Val Con gave her, the harmonica, and a cloudy sapphire whose story we’ve never been told) and what isn’t (several more bits of jewelry of unknown provenance, some papers, and the key whose story we will get later).

This is the first time Val Con’s mentioned Grandmother Cantra, and only the second mention of her in publication order (the first being when Shan told Priscilla about his family in Conflict of Honors).

Agent of Change – Chapter 20

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In which Agent of Change Val Con yos’Phelium meets his death.

Hmm. The glossary in the back of Pilot’s Choice is quite explicit that “Entranzia volecta” is High Liaden, with the Low equivalent being “Tra’sia volecta”. Then again, Miri says she understood that bit, so maybe her complaint about Val Con springing Low Liaden on her applies only to the “cha’trez”, which is definitely Low Liaden. That just leaves the question of whether it’s likely that Val Con would mix High and Low Liaden in a single three-word sentence.

On a less confusing note of drawing-information-from-other-stories: Given what we know from the prequels about Liaden customs, the non-verbal components of Val Con’s leave-taking say a lot about his regard for Miri and his hopes for the future, though Miri herself is no more able to translate than she is able to translate the murmured comment that precedes them. (I wonder whether Val Con would have done the same if Miri did possess the knowledge to interpret, or if he only allows himself to make the declaration because it won’t be understood.)