Bechimo
In which there is a free and frank exchange of views.
In all the excitement, I don’t think anyone got around to reading the emergency pinbeam message. It should be okay, though; most likely it was just a heads-up about the thing that happens at the end of the chapter, which went okay anyhow.
Continue reading
In which there is something missing from Scholar yo’Kera’s work space.
Er Thom is very carefully concealing from Anne the fact and extent of his disagreements with his mother. I can see how this is the course of action suggested by the principles of hospitality – the aim of ensuring the guest’s comfort might not be served if the guest were aware of the disruptions occasioned by her presence – but I’m not sure it’s the course of wisdom.
The bit about Jin Del yo’Kera’s youth abroad is interesting. A Liaden who had not spent time among Terrans might not have succeeded in finding the connection between Terran and Liaden, if it had even occurred to such a one to try.
(I have a certain fondness for the fact that his treasured memory is of an Aus sheep station. My own grandfather was the manager of an Australian sheep station, though he’d retired by the time I knew him. I don’t recall him ever expressing an opinion on the intelligence of sheep, but he mustn’t have found them too unbearable as company because even in retirement he kept a small flock.)
Day 165
Standard Year 1118
Irikwae
In which Jethri and, for a change, Miandra and Grig each have a long and incident-packed day.
Boy, and I thought last chapter was long.
This chapter opens with the first scene in which we’ve seen one of the twins without the other, and it apparently presages that their paths are going to be more distinct from here on in.
As part of that, we get an elaboration of the subtext about Healers and dramliz from Jethri’s first day here. Meicha is a Healer, and a good one, with the rare gift of being able to heal the body as well as the mind. Miandra is a dramliza, which puts her in an uncomfortable position since the people of Irikwae are prepared to accept Healers but abominate the dramliz; Miandra’s grandmother wants her to be safe but thinks the problem can be solved by Miandra restricting herself to being a Healer, a course of action which Miandra is finding increasingly untenable.
(I don’t remember now which comment thread it was, or in what context, that someone mentioned the anecdote about Korval Herself arguing for the survival of the dramliz on Liad, but anyhow this is the chapter where that appears.)
I find myself wondering whether the Healer who gave it as her professional opinion that Miandra couldn’t have held back the storm really believes that, or if she deliberately steered away from officially marking Miandra as a dramliza. (And if so, for whose comfort she did so.)
I like the bit comparing how Jethri expresses himself in Liaden and Terran, now that he’s fluent in both.
Over in Grig’s half of the chapter, he’s having a philosophical disagreement with his family. I wonder whether it’s Grig, or anyhow people who thought like him, whom Val Con and his contemporaries have to thank for their autodocs and suchlike.
Also, there is an unusual and interesting application of the word “brother”. If the byplay about “Arin’s youngest brother”, added to Iza’s insistence on Jethri being Arin’s son alone, means what I think it means, I’m not at all surprised that Iza’s still hacked off about it eighteen years after the event. (It also raises the question of what other ‘brothers’ Arin might have.) Grig’s thought about family resemblances in the elevator seems to suggest that the non-standard definition of “brother” might extend to him and Raisy as well.
(Reading that back, I realise I’ve done that thing again where I leave something out because it seems obvious to me. So, to be clear, the word I’m hearing in this conversation even though nobody says it is “clone”. The implication, as I read it, is that Jethri Gobelyn is a clone of Arin Gobelyn, and that Arin used Iza as a surrogate without her knowledge or consent. I also get the feeling, partly from the word “youngest”, that Arin Gobelyn was himself a clone, and that when his family talk about Arin in this chapter it’s not always Arin Gobelyn they’re referring to.)
I remember wondering, the first time I read this chapter, whether Grig’s Uncle was the same person as Dulsey’s Uncle, seeing as they had certain similarities in personality and interest, and then getting to the bit where Grig’s Uncle has a name, and thinking maybe they weren’t, at least until Dragon Ship came out. (By the time I got here, I’d forgotten that one of Dulsey’s associates was named Arin, or I’d have wondered about that, too.)
Right now, I’m not sure whether Uncle Yuri is the same man as The Uncle, though it seems he’s pursuing the same line of work. Perhaps he is The Uncle’s younger brother…
(I’ve compared the physical descriptions of the two Uncles, which was unhelpful to a point that seems almost suspicious. They have very little overlap in which details they focus on: only one mentions an eye color, only one says anything useful about hair color, and so on. The only details that coincide are that both are tall and lean, and many men are both of those. Grig, for one, as we were reminded a few pages earlier – and that makes me wonder, for the first time, whose younger brother he might be.)
Day 135
Standard Year 1118
Elthoria
In which Jethri discovers a foster-granmam.
The narrative seems determined to show me a liar in the matter of Jethri’s lucky fractin. If I were the paranoid type, I might wonder if the amount of time it was absent was carefully calculated so that it would reappear just as one was sure it was gone for good.
Vil Tor and Gaenor don’t entirely succeed in unlocking the approaching situation for Jethri; he still has an unpleasant surprise waiting. This is not their fault; being, as Jethri notes, Grounders, they’re not aware of all the Spacer assumptions Jethri is bringing to bear on his understanding of what he’s been told.
It seems to be significant that both Vil Tor and Gaenor touch Jethri on the shoulder as they say their farewells, since the narrator makes a point of mentioning it, and I’m aware that Liadens generally don’t go in for casual physical contact. I’m not sure what it’s significant of, though, unless just how close their friendship has become.
Incidentally, I’m intrigued by Vil Tor, whose family name is never mentioned; even in the cast list he is only “Vil Tor” and nothing else.
Day 67
Standard Year 1118
Elthoria
Protocol Lessons
In which Jethri learns a thing or two about melant’i.
There have been occasions when the scene-setting description at the head of the chapter applied only to the first portion of the chapter, before the scene shifted elsewhere, but I perceive that in this case the descriptor of “protocol lessons” applies just as much to the second scene in the corridor.
This is also one of my favourite chapters, or perhaps it would be most appropriate to say that the chapters concerning the visit to Kailipso Station collectively form one of my favourite episodes of the book.
It’s warming that Jethri has so many comrades. Some of them may have been involved less out of personal friendship than because the ship’s honor is at stake, but it’s still good to know that they consider ship’s honor to comprehend Jethri.
This is the first chapter since Jethri signed on to Elthoria in which he hasn’t thought about his family even once.
Day 42
Standard Year 1118
Elthoria
Arriving
In which Jethri begins to find his place in his new home.
I like the bit at the end of this chapter where Jethri finds that his new quarters are in some ways very different from the old quarters he left behind last chapter, and in some ways just the same.
Between Norn ven’Deelin and Gaenor tel’Dorbit, there’s probably quite a bit of information to be gathered about how Liaden differs from English in the matter of sentence structure and so on, if one is of a mind to gather that sort of information.