Dutiful Passage
Millsap Orbit
In which Padi has a long day.
Shan has a plan: to visit the Redlands, which it turns out is not one country, or even one planet, but a system with three inhabited planets.
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Tag Archives: I dare
Roving Gambler
In which Quin yos’Phelium finds occupation.
Oh, so that’s what a nerligig does.
It strikes me that “Roving Gambler” is very much about what the Code calls “proper conduct”. It’s full of people facing the question of what would be the correct thing to do in the circumstance, and as like as not finding that it’s not an easy question on a world like Surebleak, which is continually being challenged on what answers it did have. The kinds range from small domestic questions involving a father and his son to big policy issues involving the Boss of Bosses (and in classic melant’i fashion, the extreme ends of the spectrum involve the same people wearing different hats).
Korval has it particularly bad, as Pat Rin points out at the end, because they’re used to living on Liad and having the Code to consult on questions like this, but now they’re on Surebleak and the answers are different. (Something that’s foreshadowed all the way through the story, as Quin keeps finding moments where proper Liaden behaviour doesn’t quite fit the circumstance.) I’m not surprised that it was Kareen who’s been given the job of figuring out their situation; if anybody knows about proper conduct, it’s her. It’s interesting, though, that she’s specifically stated to have been ordered by the Delms to study the question: Is that just them putting an official stamp on the enterprise, or did they find that she was unwilling to get started?
I suppose if there’s any course of study that might help prepare one for running a planet, Generalist might be it. It’s been a while since we’ve encountered a professional Generalist; I’m pretty sure the last one was Quin’s many-times-grandfather Jela.
On the question of Surebleak’s seasons, I find this story inconclusive; all we hear about the weather is that it’s recently turned good after a long bad stretch, which doesn’t say much on a planet with weather like Surebleak’s, and anyway it’s not clear precisely how long after Ghost Ship it takes place, so there’d be no way of comparing.
Tomorrow: “The Rifle’s First Wife”
Necessity’s Child – Chapter 5
In which Pat Rin is up early, and Syl Vor is late for his tutor.
Something odd’s happened to the timeline again. During Ghost Ship, we were informed – several times – that it was spring, approaching the onset of what passes on Surebleak for summer. Now, in this chapter, it is suddenly “very nearly spring”.
That said, the apparent fact of it being winter, and the subsequent discussion of Surebleak’s climate, constitute a nice bit of incluing that sets up Nova’s later remark that it will be a warm day on Surebleak before a particular unlikely thing occurs. (Also a nice bit of incluing is the passing mention of the child-on-the-street policy, which we’ll be hearing of again in a chapter or two.)
Being aware of the fact that many of the Department’s agents are on some level innocent victims, and thus being wishful to rescue them if possible, is something of a tactical handicap for Korval, but I can’t say I’d prefer Korval to not want to help them. I wonder if that was a factor in the Department’s choice of recruiting techniques, the possibility of producing that handicap in any opponent the Department might acquire. The Commanders and analysts of the Deparment we’ve seen, who regard agents as expendable and don’t seem to grasp that Korval doesn’t think the same way they do, probably wouldn’t be able to come up with such a strategy, but then the Commanders and the analysts are products of the system; whoever set up the system in the first place might have had a broader range of thought.
Daughter of Dragons
Liad
The Grand Lake Townhouses
Solcintra
In which Lady Kareen is offered an attractive prize at a price she is not willing to pay.
It’s striking, in view of their many differences, that Kareen’s reply to the Department’s offer is so much the same as her son’s.
This is the single largest, if not the only, part of the series to be told from Kareen’s point of view, and offers several clues to how she ended up the way she did. We get her perspective on being abruptly (though not, I think, with anything like deliberate cruelty, for what difference that might have made) downgraded from highly-favored only child to second-place to a kid brother who doesn’t want the preferment she can’t have. It’s also mentioned that she’s been married multiple times; since Korval is not among those clans who find such things a financial necessity, the implication is that it took her several attempts to get Pat Rin, a circumstance which casts light on her relationship with him.
At that, she’s mellowed somewhat since she last appeared, way back in “A Day at the Races”. She’s got more respect for Val Con’s quality as a delm (which probably started then, come to think of it). And she seems better disposed toward Daav than used to be the case; perhaps a quarter-century of his absence has given her room to admit his good points without being constantly reminded of their points of difference. Part of it might be that the unusual nature of recent events have caused her to see things in new lights, the way she’s recently come to find value in Luken bel’Tarda and in Jeeves.
Perhaps, although this seems very unlikely, she’s softening in her age: she’s nearly eighty Standards now, and although that’s not as old for a Liaden as it would be for a Terran, it’s not young.
(It also means that she and Her Nin yo’Vestra have been close for something like fifty or sixty years.)
I don’t think yo’Vestra’s postulated situation actually applies to Korval, which departed its holdings in accordance with a plan agreed to in advance and did in fact notify all its members appropriately; even the one they weren’t sure was still alive got the message, let alone the one yo’Vestra is trying to position as having been abandoned. To be fair, of course, yo’Vestra doesn’t know that Pat Rin was notified, since none of his colleagues have yet had a chance to discuss the matter with Pat Rin — and anyway, that whole question falls to the wayside if no other clan member lives long enough to contradict his proposed account.
Timing: Anthora and Jeeves have already shifted to Jelaza Kazone. yo’Vestra’s remark about having found and then lost Pat Rin suggests that this is after Pat Rin’s encounter on Teriste. That puts it at least three days, and probably a day or two more, after Nova gave the scatter order. Which is not too unreasonable, on consideration, since most of that is probably down to the amount of maneuvring it would take to get five children, including two infants, out of their usual routines and off the planet without anybody noticing where they went.
It’s an interesting detail that one of the things saving Kareen, in the end, is that whatever the lofty personages of Liad might think of Korval, those who are employed by them know them to be dependable and fair in their dealings.
Tomorrow: back to I Dare.
I Dare – Chapter 11
Teriste Casino District
The Practical Statistician
In which Pat Rin is offered a piece of jewelry at a price he is not willing to pay.
In a way, the Department is doing Pat Rin a favor, by forcing on him the melant’i of Korval. It is a considerable burden, to be as far as he knows the last person left to uphold the Clan, but it also allows him options he would not otherwise have had. Before, when he was literally the last person in the Clan’s line of succession, he had no choice but to decline Natesa’s offer of assistance in accordance with the Clan’s policy; now that he speaks for the Clan, he has not only the right but the responsibility to make a choice for the best good of the Clan.
I’m not sure how long the situation would have held together if Pat Rin had agreed to the Department’s offer; for one thing, the rest of the clan might be scattered and hidden but Anthora is plainly still alive. Perhaps at this point they were still confident they could fix that problem by the time Pat Rin got home.
The scene in the casino is the first time we’ve seen Pat Rin handle dice since that day when he was a child and he found he could make dice come up with any number he chose. That might be happenstance; another interpretation is that Pat Rin still has that facility with dice but has chosen, as an honorable man, not to use it except in cases of dire need, a distinction for which this situation might reasonably be held to qualify.
Plan B – Chapter 20
Erob’s Hold
Practice Grounds
In which Val Con and Nelirikk speak of Jela.
The news that the entire 14th Conquest Corps is acting out of turn suggests the possibility that the Yxtrang we’ve encountered so far, who value prestige over effective action, are atypical, and most Yxtrang are more sensible. On the other hand, there’s still the decision High Command made about Nelirikk, and if Yxtrang High Command doesn’t behave typically of Yxtrang, who does? Perhaps these Yxtrang are atypical not in the sense that they behave unlike Yxtrang, but only in taking typical Yxtrang qualities to an unusual extreme.
The bit about what “the Troop did not know — or did not tell” is interesting, in light of the prequels. The Troop does know how Jela died, or at least did at the time, since Cantra told them; indeed, Jela’s Troop was named in his honour only after he died. Perhaps the story was lost to memory because it contained too many things that the Yxtrang would not wish to remember: Cantra herself, for one.
Plan B – Chapter 12
Dutiful Passage
Jump
In which the crew of the Passage investigate the capabilities of the new weapon pods.
Okay, that settles it: the Passage has been in orbit around Krisko all this time.
There are several possibilities for the author of the message with the chess-based code, but I lean toward the Krisko Portmaster, whom the authors made a point of describing near the beginning of the chapter as an old chess partner of Shan’s.
Conflict of Honors – Chapter 43
Precinct House
Crown City, Theopholis
Hour of Demons
In which the legal system of Theopholis does not show itself in the best of lights.
This is another chapter where I would probably have had more to say about it on first reading, but on re-reading my main reaction is “Yes, that’s about how I remember it”.
I’m curious about how the hours are named on Theopholis. I thought at first, with the Kings and the Knaves, the theme might be card-related, but then there was the Viscount, so I thought it might be rulers. And in this chapter, there’s a mention of the Regent’s Hour, which would fit, except that there’s also the Hour of Demons, which doesn’t. (And I wonder whether it’s significant that there are multiple Kings and Knaves and Demons, but only one each of the Viscount and the Regent.)
Conflict of Honors – Chapter 27
Shipyear 65
Tripday 155
Second Shift
6.00 hours
In which Sav Rid Olanek makes a countermove.
Just one of those details one notices: Near the beginning of the chapter, Priscilla wishes she might be told that she’d done something well, rather than the second mate’s understated “okay”. By the end of her chapter, she’s got her wish, although (as is so often the case with wishes) in circumstances that she might happily have foregone if given the choice.
One wonders precisely what instructions the mercenaries were given that their captain summarized as “he wanted you out of the race real bad”. I’d be inclined to assume that meant shoot-to-kill, but we were told earlier that death is not usually considered an appropriate way to achieve Balance, and I don’t think Sav Rid’s that far gone yet. Is he?
A Day at the Races
In which Val Con scores a victory over a field of skimmers and an aunt.
Speaking of families of consequence, here is Korval again. Anne and Er Thom have died since we saw them last, and Shan is now First Speaker, holding the clan in trust for when Val Con becomes Delm — though Val Con seems no more eager to do that thing and to give up the Scouts than his father was. (One suspects he’s going to find it harder to put off once the “your father was Delm at your age” card enters play, but he has a few years up his sleeve yet before he reaches that age.) For that matter, Shan is not keen on being First Speaker, and looks forward to being able to hand it off to Nova and head out on the Dutiful Passage. (Presumably there’s an age restriction of some kind, else Nova would be First Speaker already; she’s clearly better suited for it temperamentally.) And in the mean time, Shan races skimmers, and Val Con spends time with bartenders…
This is a case where the right ordering of a story is unclear, not because it’s not certain when it takes place, but because it’s certainly taking place at the same time as another story. I chose to put “Shadow Partner” first, since most of that story takes place before this one begins (and this ends after that does, if only by a paragraph or two), but they would not do badly the other way round.
Tomorrow: “Certain Symmetry”