Tag Archives: Liaden ear decoration

Plan B – Chapter 4

Lytaxin
Approaching Erob

In which Miri Tayzin Robertson meets her family.

I suspect Val Con of conscious irony when he says that Korval has never ruled the world, considering how many people over the centuries have glossed Delm Korval as King of Liad. There’s definitely irony, though unconscious on Miri’s part (but conscious on the part of the authors) in Miri’s reassurance to herself that she’s never going back to Surebleak.

Val Con’s address to the child of Jela’s hope is an example of a literary convention that makes linguists and historians wail and gnash their teeth: the use of “thee” and “thy” to indicate archaic formality. The problem is that “thee” and “thy” are actually archaic informality; to the extent that English has ever had something resembling Liad’s distinction between High Tongue and Low Tongue, “thee” and “thy” were Low Tongue, used when speaking with close friends and family — or, depending on context, to address social inferiors. Not the most appropriate of modes for the most junior servant to use in addressing the utmost authority!

I’m willing to buy that the guest apartment Val Con and Miri are staying in is bigger than Zhena Trelu’s house, but I think the bit about the bathroom the size of Lytaxin spaceport is probably an exaggeration.

Val Con’s recitation of his relatives has two or three notable omissions. Two are easily explained: Shan’s lifemating and Anthora’s children post-date Val Con being taken by the Department, so of course he doesn’t know about them. That explanation doesn’t cover the complete lack of any mention of Line bel’Tarda, but that may be covered by the disclaimer that he’s only touching on the minimum necessary to survive the evening’s social event; perhaps Val Con figured that the odds of anyone of Erob mentioning bel’Tarda at the dinner were low enough that they could safely be left, along with the attendant explanations, for another time.

I wonder what it portends that Emrith Tiazan is Delm Erob but Bendara Tiazan is Thodelm Tiazan. Perhaps just that Erob and Tiazan, unlike Korval and yos’Phelium in their present state, are large enough that one person cannot do both jobs well.

Agent of Change – Chapter 7

In which preparations are made for dinner.

I went back and checked “To Cut an Edge” again, and it says that the stick-knife is a standard part of a Scout’s kit. That surprised me a bit; I’d have said it seemed more like a spy’s weapon than a Scout’s. On reflection, though, Scouts by the nature of their profession spend a lot of time in uncertain situations, and this can’t be the first time in Val Con’s career where it was wise to be armed without seeming to be.

I’m not sure why Selector’s response to Edger about the deal with Justin Hostro is so grumpy. Annoyed at how much Edger is talking up the deal, maybe. Or just generally ill-disposed to anything involving the Cavern of Flawed Knives. Any thoughts?

Changeling

In which a pilot lives and dies in a family of shopkeepers.

Given the way Liaden clans tend to specialise each in a profession, the question of what happens when a child is born whose aptitudes do not suit the family business is one that appears a few times in the series. Clan Obrelt, it has to be said, handles the arrival of a pilot child with considerable grace (more, for instance, than Clan Korval has sometimes shown when handling the arrival of a non-pilot child, if I’m remembering correctly a particular flashback we won’t be getting to for some time yet).

There is no specific date given in the story itself, but the Partial Time Line places it in Standard Year 1390, a few years after Conflict of Honors. This invites speculation about whether Shan would have so readily come to the aid of a Clanless and cast-out person if he hadn’t already had the experience of getting to know the comparably-situated Priscilla. On the whole, I’m inclined to think he would have; Nova remarks in Conflict of Honors that his championing of Priscilla is only the most recent example of an established tendency to pick up stray puppies, and the fact that he’s immediately aware that Ren Zel’s casting-out was no reflection of Ren Zel himself (“politics, not balance”, as Mr dea’Gauss said of Priscilla) would tend to make his attitude toward it less respectful. (And while there are some Liadens who might comfortably treat with an outcast Terran and still feel obliged to shun an outcast Liaden, I don’t think Shan is one who privileges Liaden custom that way.)

On the other hand, the fact that Shan is carrying a single-button-press “crewmember down” emergency signal just might be a result of how many times Priscilla could have used such a thing during her first tour on the Passage.

I like the detail of the medic’s reaction to Shan finding a way through the Code to allow Ren Zel to be treated. Even though he was being Liaden-stoic about it a moment earlier, it can’t have been easy for him to have a man bleeding to death at his feet and not be able to do anything about it.

It only occurred to me on this most recent re-reading that when Delm Obrelt argues for Ren Zel keeping his license on the grounds that it balances Elsu being permitted to keep hers, he’s not just using a technicality in Ren Zel’s favour: he’s taking a veiled poke at Jabun, by alluding to the fact that Ren Zel faces death only because Jabun shielded his daughter from being convicted of misconduct that would have resulted in her losing her license if she’d lived.

Conflict of Honors – Chapter 14

Arsdred Port Magistrate’s Chamber
Local Year 728
Evening Bazaar

In which Priscilla sees the legal system of Arsdred from the inside.

One of the ways in which Shan is a better trader than Sav Rid Olanek, as demonstrated here, is his ability to find the smooth path leading to a conclusion satisfactory to himself and to the person he’s dealing with. Trader Olanek seems to be of the opinion that getting his own way is all that matters, without even the awareness that he might get his own way more easily if he paid some attention to what others wanted.

I like the slight hesitation before Trader Olanek says he’s willing to speak for Dagmar Collier. That’s a nice detail.

Another nice detail is that we have a Liaden expressing dislike of the fact that Shan is willing to acknowledge Gordy as kin, just a chapter after Gordy mentioned a Terran expressing dislike of the fact that Gordy is willing to acknowledge Shan as kin. (And Gordy’s explanation to Priscilla last chapter served a useful setting-up purpose, such that we now know what Trader Olanek is talking about without having to hold up the action here for an explanation.)

I also like the bit about the insult that can’t be understood by a person who merely knows what the words mean. A feature common to many of my favourite science fiction stories is cultures that have been sufficiently developed as to have figures of speech that don’t translate cleanly. (Two other examples that come to mind are Janet Kagan’s Hellspark and Cherry Wilder’s Torin series. You can tell a culture has some depth to it when it has its own puns.)

Scout’s Progress – Chapter 1

In which we are introduced to the persons of Clan Mizel.

New novel, and a new set of characters. This first chapter does a good job of establishing them not only as individuals, but also in relation to each other.

It also does the duty of bringing a reader new to Liad up to speed on some of the key cultural features, by way of Sinit addressing those differences from the other end.

(Sinit Caylon has been one of my favourite characters in the whole series ever since I first read this chapter. She reminds me a lot of me when I was that age.)

Local Custom – Chapter 28

In which Master Trader yos’Galan attends to his duties.

Dutiful Passage is large enough that it remains in orbit, and Er Thom needs to take a shuttle up to it. I was going to say that I don’t think we’ve seen many ships that large so far, but of course Ixin’s trade ship Elthoria was the same (how soon the memory goes!). Not to mention Dutiful Passage‘s venerable predecessor Quick Passage; now that was a large ship.

The scene aboard the Passage is dotted with retrospectively-familiar names. First mate Kadia and cargomaster Ken Rik will still be serving in those positions next time we have a scene aboard, and I’m pretty sure Arsdred will come into it somewhere too, although I don’t recall offhand which of the planets on the Passage‘s route it is (and am making a point of not going to look it up; time enough to find out when the time arrives).

The appearance of Jyl ven’Apon is another one of those instances where extra nuance is added by knowing things from other stories, though I think even if you don’t the basic idea still comes across that her mode of adornment, multiple earrings and all, is not that of a person accustomed to proper society.

A Choice of Weapons

In which Daav yos’Phelium’s suitability to be Delm is tested.

Daav is having serious doubts about his fitness to be delm. I think, on the one hand, he’s not being fair to himself – he notices all the occasions when he slips, but not the occasions which also occur on which he does well (of which, there are instances where he specifically catches himself slipping and changes to a better course). And on the other hand, I think he’s holding himself up to an impossible standard; as he eventually realises, no Delm ever is always perfect.

I like Kesa del’Fordan. She is clearly a person of good melant’i, to the point that she outshines her brother for all that he’s twice her age.

I also like Daav’s description of Korval’s tendency to tallness: “the pickpocket who wishes to rob Korval must bring his own stepladder.”