Solcintra

In which Tor An reads Cantra such a scold as she hasn’t heard since nursery.

I think I’ve said already that one of the things that amuses me about the duology is getting to see Solcintra as it was, not as the Liadens fondly remember it being. Though there are bits that sound familiar – there’s already that obsession with High Family status and, as I also think I’ve said already, that us-and-them mentality. (Speaking of which, the fact that they count smartstrands as a them thing neatly explains why the Liadens don’t have them.)

Cantra’s observation that the ship Jela’s given her could carry “the keepings of a small planet” is a nice bit of ironic foreshadowing.

Tor An bailing Cantra out is another of the incidents that had previously appeared as a chapter-heading quote in Scout’s Progress. In the logbook quote, Cantra describes him as acting “all according to co-pilot’s duty”; what that brief excerpt from the logbook didn’t reveal is that this is the first time she’d accepted him as her co-pilot. (I don’t remember which chapter it was the heading of; I’m going to be interested, when we get up to Scout’s Progress, to see if there’s a reason why that particular chapter was matched with that quote/this incident.)