Tag Archives: Janice Weatherbee

Conflict of Honors – Chapter 30

1 Reply

Shipyear 65
Tripday 155
Third Shift
14.00 hours

In which Priscilla accepts a promotion.

Priscilla’s grasp of Liaden communication is improving. Not only does she have a repertoire of useful hand gestures for sentiments like Think nothing of it, this time she is able to separate her friend Shan from her boss Captain yos’Galan.

This is the first time Priscilla has thought of Moonhawk, at least where we could hear her, since she witnessed Moonhawk being declared dead, way back in the first chapter.

Is this the only time in the series Priscilla mentions a sibling?

Conflict of Honors – Chapter 29

Leave a Reply

Shipyear 65
Tripday 155
Third Shift
12.30 hours

In which there are consequences of the encounter at the jump point.

When Kayzin Ne’Zame suggests to Shan that Priscilla should be promoted to second mate, I suspect that’s Shan being a trader and allowing himself to be reluctantly persuaded into the course of action he already wanted to take.

This chapter contains a hint that there’s an actual practical reason for Shan to carry that glass of wine with him everywhere. As he told Priscilla, he does drink from it sometimes. The rest of the time is perhaps so that the times when he needs it don’t stand out, to give away something that might produce a disadvantage.

Conflict of Honors – Chapter 27

1 Reply

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?

Conflict of Honors – Chapter 25

1 Reply

Shipyear 65
Tripday 148
Fourth Shift
20.00 hours

In which even a Mendoza of Sintia must deal with graceless people at parties.

Though Priscilla welcomes the intercession of Mr dea’Gauss and Judge Zahre as divine intervention, she might reasonably be inclined to doubt that that was what it was after it results in Ambassador Grittle’s outburst. And yet, I wonder; we know from the Moonhawk stories that the Goddess is not averse to steering her children through uncomfortable moments on the path to good outcomes, so it’s possible that there was a divine intervention and that the outburst was as much an intended part of it as the intercession. (Indeed, there are times when I suspect that the entire course of Priscilla’s life from that day in Diablo’s has been part of divine plan that we have yet to see the end of. It’s a hard road she’s been walking, but certain people seem to have spent the last few centuries building roadblocks over all the easy ones.)

Speaking of roadblocks, I take it that Shan’s shadowed expression in the last scene of the chapter is due to the reminder that, for all that they’re able to be comfortable and joke together, Priscilla still thinks of him first of all as Captain yos’Galan, with all the limits that implies on how they might interact. If she’d understood that she had the option of replying to her friend Shan instead of to her captain, and if she’d chosen to exercise that option, the conversation might have proceeded very differently.

Conflict of Honors – Chapter 12

1 Reply

Shipyear 65
Tripday 139
Third Shift
16.00 hours

In which Kayzin Ne’Zame’s suspicion of Priscilla comes to a head.

They’re nearly at Arsdred, and Priscilla hasn’t yet decided whether she intends to remain with the Passage after that. She was being swayed toward staying before she got the sharp reminder that the first mate doesn’t welcome her, and she doesn’t know yet that the captain has required the first mate to mend her ways.

I like the wrinkliness of Kayzin Ne’Zame’s relationship with Shan. She questions his decisions, but it’s because she feels it’s her duty and responsibility to make sure he’s thought them through properly, and when he puts her in her place, she’s mortified for herself but also proud of him for the demonstration of the quality of his melant’i.

It’s a good thing I wasn’t very attached to the hypothesis of 5-hour shifts, because this chapter’s dateline breaks it, too. I think the model of 6-hour shifts best fits the data so far, with the previously-mentioned fudge for the tenth chapter. On that model, Third Shift would run from Twelfth Hour to Eighteenth Hour, with Priscilla’s dinner date at Seventeenth Hour being accommodated by the policy Shan mentions of allowing an hour off to eat.

Conflict of Honors – Chapter 10

7 Replies

Shipyear 65
Tripday 136
Third Shift
11.30 hours

In which the pet librarian works everywhere but the pet library.

Priscilla continues to make friends, and Kayzin Ne’Zame continues to not be one of them. Shan clearly hasn’t been telling his first mate what he’s up to, or she wouldn’t have been surprised to find Priscilla in the comms tower, but I don’t know that I blame him; it’s not strictly something that a captain is obliged to tell his first mate about, and it wouldn’t be a problem except that she’s inclined to be suspicious of Priscilla, which is her problem and not his. It’s uncomfortable for Priscilla, though.

The norbears in the pet library have a mix of names; Delm Briat has a very Liaden name, Master Frodo a very Terran one, and Lady Selph and Tiny could go either way. (Most importantly, though: norbears!)

Tonee sig’Ella is, I notice, one of those characters who occasionally appear in this series for whom the authors have not found it necessary to resort to gender-specific pronouns.

This chapter’s dateline doesn’t fit 7-hour shifts or 6-hour shifts, unless it’s anticipating the beginning of Third Shift at 12.00 hours. Alternatively, it does fit 5-hour shifts, and so does every other dateline we’ve had since Priscilla boarded the Passage.

Conflict of Honors – Chapter 8

5 Replies

Shipyear 65
Tripday 131
Second Shift
6.55 hours

In which Dutiful Passage gains a pet librarian.

Details continue to emerge about what kind of ship Shan yos’Galan runs. Last chapter there was the policy of giving the crew a stake in the ship’s trading; this chapter it’s Shan’s approach to crewmembers who wish to pursue a skill that will increase their value to the ship.

All is not rosy, however; not everyone is as welcoming to Priscilla as Rusty and Lina were. The first mate is downright frosty, though it turns out she has some basis: Dutiful Passage has encountered Daxflan before, in circumstances which, though they are not detailed here, did not leave her with a trusting disposition toward Trader Olanek and his crew.

This chapter contains one of those details that might go past without notice on a first reading but attracts more attention from a re-reader: an off-hand mention, this early in the story, that this is Kayzin Ne’Zame’s last trip with the Passage. (Fortunately for her, this is not the kind of story where “one last job before I retire” means she has a metafictional target painted on her back.)

The chapter heading is again consistent with a 24/4 shift system but not a 28/4 system.