Dutiful Passage
En Route to Volmer
In which Shan consults several people regarding the future.
We now have the names and descriptions of all three planets of the Redlands system: apart from Colemeno, there is Ukarn, site of a mining operation, and Metlin, site of a scientific research base. (Metlin is the name of one of the Liaden weekdays; I don’t have any insights to offer about the etymology of the others.)
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Dutiful Passage
Pommierport
In which there is an unexpected detour or two.
I think that when Priscilla talks about “ambient noise”, she doesn’t mean quite the same thing as the Haosa do when they talk about “the ambient”. If it is, it’s noteworthy that the course of action suggested by her training is to try to block it out.
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Off-Grid
In which Tekelia makes the acquaintance of a Dragon.
It was nice of the authors not to keep us hanging too long on that question.
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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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Dutiful Passage
Millsap Orbit
In which Padi and Shan commune with inanimate objects.
This is a surprisingly long chapter and I’m up against a deadline, so I’m going to do it in two parts.
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Millsapport
In which the Healers of Millsap are unhelpful.
That went… about as well as I was expecting, really.
There were moments when I had hope it would go better, but the point at which I became convinced it was going to go off the rails was when Healer Ferin chose to ask the question “What did you do to deserve this?”, which is never an appropriate thing to say to a trauma victim under any circumstances and especially not when one is treating them for that trauma.
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Tarona Rusk
Langlast Departure
In which Tarona Rusk takes stock of herself.
I think that when Tarona Rusk assumes that Shan intentionally set her up as a weapon against the Department, she’s making the usual mistake of the Department-trained of projecting their own methods and motives onto Korval. As accounted in Alliance of Equals, the two motivations for his actions that she dismisses out of hand are the two that were most on his mind at the time, and far from expecting her to take on the Department he expected her to want help staying away from them.
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The Tree Court
In which there is a discussion of amends.
The Tree Court is warm and there is no snow on the ground, which is noteworthy because during the storm there was explicit mention of clumps of snow falling from the Tree’s branches and collecting at its base. The Tree has tidied the place up a bit to be hospitable to its guests, and perhaps specifically in response to Toragin telling it earlier that the kittens will need a warm place to sleep.
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In the Hall of the Mountain King
Enter Joey
In which the guests are settled for the night.
Joey, despite being in the stage directions, is not listed in the dramatis personae. But then again, neither are any of the other cats, except Chelada.
Vertu started out the story thinking of the unregulated cab drivers as something that might need to be addressed at some point. Now, having seen how much trouble an untrained driver can get himself and his passengers into, it’s become pressing business for Boss Gotta. Or, no, not quite for Boss Gotta, if we take Boss Gotta as being the person who’s gotta do it because they happen to be present when there’s nobody around whose job it is; as Vertu says to Jemie, in this situation they are the people whose job it is.
The Gate
Enter Nelirikk and Jarome
In which Vertu and her passengers make it within the gate.
Jarome, it turns out, is another character who is in the cast list twice, once for his first appearance in person and once for when he becomes someone known by name to the viewpoint characters.
I don’t know if it’s because she’s in the middle of a conversation between Liadens when it happens, or if she’s still Liaden enough in her head that it would have happened anyway, but I note that when Vertu’s viewpoint refers to Miri it names her as “Miri Tiazan” and not “Miri Robertson”.