Tag Archives: Lufkit

Agent of Change – Chapter 14

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In which Senior Commander Higdon does not approve of papers.

The intensity of Val Con’s negative reaction to Polesta’s effrontery gains an extra level in the light of Liad’s traditions and taboos, which have not been mentioned yet this novel but have been covered in some depth in the prequels we’ve already been through in this re-read. By Liaden standards, what Polesta does would have been an astonishing liberty even in private and with a receptive partner; to do it in public, and after Val Con has made it clear he’s not at all interested, qualifies as a major assault.

I have a feeling the authors might have known that already, even if they hadn’t seen fit to mention it yet; on the other hand, I’m not so sure about another thing we know from the prequels that hasn’t been mentioned yet this novel. Lytaxin, the world to which the Gyrfalks are headed, is the homeworld of Clan Erob, Miri’s grandmother’s family. Miri doesn’t know that yet, of course, but Val Con must, and yet he doesn’t show any sign of thinking it might be a good idea to head in that direction. Come to think of it, though, if one learns that a friend’s home is the destination of a troop of mercenaries anticipating “a job of work”, one wouldn’t want to head that direction, at least without an opportunity to approach slowly and sidelong and find out just what’s afoot…

Agent of Change – Chapter 13

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In which Miri makes use of the enemy of her enemy.

I have a feeling Grandmother Cantra would have approved of Miri’s solution to the trouble she and Val Con find themselves in under the hyatts. Her advice in times of yore was that a useful ally is defined by the answers to the questions “Can he shoot?” and “Will he aim at my enemy?” No mention, I realise now, of any requirement that their choice of target be motivated by goodwill towards oneself…

Taking the approximate age given for Edger when he entered the story, and making the simplifying assumption that shells are attained at regular intervals, produces the estimate that young Sheather is about five and half centuries old. That estimate may well be out by a considerable amount in either direction, but it underlines the point I made a few chapters ago about twelve years being unlikely to be a significant portion of his life.

This is, as far as I can remember, the only mention in the series of an Yxtrang ambassador. (Multiple ambassadors, is implied by Val Con feeling the need to specify that he’s referring to the one assigned to this sector.) Interstellar diplomacy doesn’t really seem characteristic of the Yxtrang as I remember them, particularly if it might mean agreeing not to attack somebody they want to attack. Maybe it’s just an excuse for getting a close look at the defenses of places they intend to attack regardless.

Agent of Change – Chapter 12

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In which everyone has some catching up to do.

Things are heating up. The cops are hot on Val Con’s trail, and Miri’s soon to be in a similar situation with the Juntavas. (In retrospect, it seems like it might have been a strategic error not to have wondered more about who Murph’s lady friend was, although I suppose there wasn’t really any way for Miri to have found out even if she had wondered.)

It’s interesting, after Val Con took the time to explain to Miri what would happen to anyone who attacked him while Edger and his brothers were around, that when he is attacked he tries to find his own way out of it instead of calling on them for help. I suppose his instinct is still to avoid involving Edger in the shadowy side of his life any more than absolutely necessary. Also, if Val Con started a fight between Turtles and armed cops there would almost certainly be casualties on one side or both, which he would then have on his conscience along with everything it’s already loaded down with.

Agent of Change – Chapter 11

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In which Miri and Val Con come to the attention of the authorities.

Bringing Miri breakfast through a locked door, disconcerting as it understandably is for her, is I think basically a friendly gesture on Val Con’s part, and not just for the breakfast itself. The implicit message, that a locked door isn’t enough to keep him out, might be read as threatening, but he doesn’t need or want to threaten her at this point; if he meant her harm, he’d have done better to let her going on thinking that a locked door would keep her safe right up until it was time to prove her definitively wrong. As it is, it’s less a threat than a warning: he’s showing her what he can do, even though it means giving up a tactical advantage, because it’s something she needs to understand if they’re going to work together.

The mention of the Belansiums on Justin Hostro’s walls clears up a small mystery. The painter Belansium is featured in the short story “Phoenix”, set about a century before this; by the time I first read that story, I’d forgotten about the paintings in this chapter, so I’ve been wondering on and off since then how Bel first came to the attention of the authors. Now I know.

(Incidentally, it’s a nice bit of foreshadowing that Miri compares Justin Hostro’s interior decoration to Sire Baldwin’s.)

Agent of Change – Chapter 10

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In which Val Con and Miri are troubled by old memories.

Miri remembers the first time she took a life, acting in self-defense. The event has previously been mentioned in “Fighting Chance”, the story about Miri signing on as a merc — it naturally touching on several questions a mercenary commander might want to ask a potential recruit — but not in much detail.

Val Con remembers Daria dea’Luziam, whom he loved and lost when they were both trainee Scouts. “To Cut an Edge”, the story about Val Con meeting Edger, is set not long after her death, and Val Con’s memories of her surface several times through it. I remember thinking when I re-read “To Cut an Edge” that there was something not quite all there about the way Daria’s tale is given in that story, as if there were a telling detail that hadn’t made it in. I think now that perhaps that telling detail is in this chapter; considering publication orders and so on, the authors might reasonably have expected anyone reading “To Cut an Edge” to have read Agent of Change already.

Or maybe it’s just me.

It’s interesting to reflect on why Val Con and Miri are remembering these particular memories, what it says about what each of them got out of their recent conversation, and what it says about each of them that they’ve had lives which produced such memories in the first place.

Agent of Change – Chapter 9

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In which Val Con and Miri discuss their chances.

This chapter is mostly taken up with an explanation and demonstration of the capabilities and limitations of the Loop, the mental gadget Val Con has that estimates probabilities of success and survival for him. (It still has at least one trick up whatever mental gadgets have instead of sleeves, though, which we will learn about later.)

Miri is worried about Val Con because he’s just calculated and recited the odds of her dying at his hand without showing any emotion or personal investment. I don’t think she’s right about him not comprehending what he’s been saying, though; the narration notes that he had to make an effort to keep his voice emotionless. It would be interesting to know what the emotion was that he was trying not to show.

Agent of Change – Chapter 8

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In which Miri thinks on her feet.

Miri and Val Con are both older than the eighteen to twenty-five years estimated in the police bulletin: Miri is twenty-seven, and Val Con is thirty. It’s already been noted that Val Con looks significantly younger than he is; apparently Miri does too. It’s likely a Liaden thing, considering that it’s Terrans doing the estimating, and in any case the height probably has something to do with it.

I’ve mentioned before that one of the things I like about this series is that many of the minor characters, though they may appear once and then never be seen again, have distinct personalities and a sense of personal history. This chapter contains a few more examples.

Agent of Change – Chapter 7

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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?

Agent of Change – Chapter 6

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In which Miri and Val Con discuss family history.

One of the interesting things about Miri’s family tree is that, if Val Con’s calculation of the year named Amrasam is accurate, Miri’s grandmother was born within a year of Val Con’s father. Daav yos’Phelium waited until relatively late in life to marry and have a family, but Miri Tiazan, as we will be told later, had her daughter young, and her daughter seemingly did the same.

It may be that, in this, Daav is the odd one out. There’s a cultural imperative for every Liaden to have at least one descendant, and many Liadens who appear in the series are shown to have opted to do it early to get it out of the way. What the cultural imperative is on Surebleak I don’t know for sure, but a ghetto world with a short life expectancy would probably also tend toward young parenthood. Miri Tiazan didn’t live to see the age at which Daav yos’Phelium started seriously considering his posterity.

Agent of Change – Chapter 5

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In which Miri meets Val Con’s brother.

The story of Val Con’s first meetings with Edger and Handler, back when Val Con was a trainee Scout and Edger had yet to achieve his twelfth shell, is told in the short story “To Cut an Edge”. Selector is also mentioned in that story, though he does not appear. Sheather is not mentioned at all, which likely just means that he was otherwise occupied at the time; though he seems to be the youngest of the Turtles here present, he is old enough and experienced enough to have been included in the market research expedition, and it seems unlikely that he would have been significantly less so a mere (by Turtle standards) twelve years ago.

Although I had remembered the Turtles’ distinctively different idea of what constitutes “a long time”, I had forgotten that this introduction explicitly notes that Edger is considered young by Turtle standards. I’d settled into thinking of him as, if not an elder, at least a person of mature years, but it’s possible that proportionally speaking he’s about the same age (and nearly as reckless) as Val Con and Miri.

It strikes me that, based on this chapter, Edger’s people and Val Con’s have several notable cultural features in common, including clans, bows, and dialects that reflect melant’i. Doubtless the details vary considerably, though.