Tag Archives: Jefferson

Carpe Diem – Chapter 62

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In which Tyl Von sig’Alda makes an approach.

sig’Alda is demonstrating a very closed-minded attitude here: instead of paying attention to new information and adjusting his theories and plans, he’s holding on to his theories and plans and taking in only what information fits what he already believes he knows. Some of it’s definitely indoctrination, like the way he shies away from the possibility that Val Con might be consciously and happily free of the Department’s influence, and some of it is… probably at least partly due to indoctrination, like the way he dismisses everything any Terran does as an irrelevant distraction. But I’m not sure that explains the way he seems to have accepted certain things as facts when they were only ever presented as plausible theories, like Miri’s supposed drug addiction.

One way and another, his inability or disinclination to accept new information is going to come back and bite him sooner or later, when reality fails to match the contents of his head. The question is how much damage he’s going to do before then, trying to impose the contents of his head on reality.

Carpe Diem – Chapter 2

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Lufkit
Neefra’s Tavern

In which Tyl Von sig’Alda enquires after a colleague.

This chapter gives us the first mention of the name of Val Con’s erstwhile employers, the Department of the Interior. It’s the first mention in publication order, obviously, but I’ve discovered on this re-read that it’s also the first mention in chronological order: the prequels are all careful to avoid mentioning the name, though there are places in them where one familiar with the Department’s style may recognise its hand at work.

We also get, in Tyl Von sig’Alda, a look at another of the Department’s agents in action, and a reminder that Val Con isn’t typical. Though Miri complained about him sometimes seeming to be two different people, that was really her good fortune, because that was a sign he was already working free of the Department’s influence; if he’d been one person, it would have been the person who would have killed her out of hand as soon as she ceased to fall within the Department’s narrow definitions of usefulness. Agent sig’Alda doesn’t have any hesitations on that score (and his lack of interest in Miri as a person is going to come back and bite him later).

Agent of Change – Chapter 23

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In which Hostro’s message catches up with the Juntavas.

I had forgotten about Val Con’s near-death experience. Given some of the weird psychic stuff that happens elsewhere in the series, it might have some deeper significance that isn’t immediately obvious, but if it does I don’t know what it is.

Agent of Change – Chapter 21

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In which Miri and Val Con discuss marriage.

I raise my eyebrow at Val Con’s assertion that who he marries is his choice and not the choice of the Clan. From what we’ve seen in the prequels, I think the Clan would have something to say about that, particularly since what he’s proposing is a lifemating that would deprive the Clan of any possible future use it might get from his marriage prospects. As Delm, of course, he would have the ultimate say. But he’s not Delm yet — and if he holds to the intention he goes on to suggest, to steer clear of Liad and Korval in future, he’s never going to be. (Then again, if he steers clear of Liad and Korval in future, he’ll be depriving the Clan of the use of his marriage prospects whether he marries Miri or not.)

It’s a sign of the new balance Val Con has worked out for himself that he’s comfortable again identifying himself as “Scout Commander”. He’s probably doing it at least partly to reassure whoever might be on the distressed ship, but I don’t think that would be sufficient impetus for him to do it if he were still in the spy-not-a-Scout headspace he was in before.

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.)

Agent of Change – Chapter 19

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In which a Turtle on urgent business is no trifling thing.

Edger demonstrates that, while the Clutch are not inclined to rush into anything, they’re capable of acting rapidly and decisively when the situation calls for it. And that, if they’re slow to come to a conclusion, that just means that they’ve given it a lot of thought, not that they’re stupid.

Every time we get a mention of Val Con’s minor telekinetic ability, I go back and check the chapter near the end of Mouse and Dragon, and every time the chapter stubbornly continues to be about young Pat Rin being discovered to possess a minor telekinetic ability. I don’t see how that could be the result of a confusion, so I suppose we must take it that they both possess a minor telekinetic ability. I still wonder what happened to Pat Rin’s.

I don’t believe a word of the stuff about electron substitution as a basis for Val Con’s enhanced psychic abilities, by the way, but it’s part of a grand tradition in space opera of using post-Newtonian physics as a handwave for all kinds of entertaining nonsense and I’m prepared to run with it. (Since I’ve raised the subject, though, I’d like to take this opportunity to recommend the essay on What Quantum Physics Is Not from Chad Orzel’s book How to Explain Physics to Your Dog, which is educational, clearly written, and features an evil mirror-universe squirrel with a goatee.)