Tag Archives: menfri’at

Scout’s Progress – Chapter 25

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In which Delm Korval goes visiting.

Zan Der pel’Kirmin and his family join the collection of impressively detailed one-off characters. From the little we get to see of them, I like them a lot.

Ran Eld is locking himself into a course that’s going to take him nowhere good; every hint he gets that he might be in serious trouble is just making him stick to it with greater determination. It doesn’t help that his mother doesn’t seem to have realised how much trouble he’s in either; another delm might have twigged, for better or for worse, that there’s more to Ran Eld’s enthusiasm for this scheme than just misguided optimism. Is Ran Eld that good at deceiving her, or does she just not want to consider that her bright-eyed boy might be mixed up in something really nasty? A bit of each, perhaps.

Trade Secret – Chapter 19

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Tradedesk, Gallery 770

In which honor is done to the memory of Emdy Sternako

Plenty happened in this chapter, and it’s entertaining enough, but I’m getting sidetracked by one of the minor details: is this the first time “Trollians” have been mentioned?

Trade Secret – Chapter 1

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Clan Ixin’s Tradeship Elthoria, in Jump

In which Jethri reflects on birthrights.

The prologue having hopefully hooked the reader with the promise of mayhem to come, this is a quieter chapter, largely given over to recapping the state of play for anybody who doesn’t happen to have just this week finished reading Balance of Trade.

Things have progressed somewhat since the end of the previous novel: Norn ven’Deelin has agreed to support Jethri in getting Tan Sim out of his difficulty, but there are still details to be worked out. If it were easy, anybody could do it.

We also get another new detail added to what we already knew: apparently Jethri’s space hair, before he became a Liaden fosterling and had to grow it out, wasn’t just trimmed short as a utilitarian thing, but sculpted in a distinctive pattern.

Balance of Trade – Chapter 11

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Day 66
Standard Year 1118

Kailipso Station
At Leave

In which Jethri is put at liberty to enjoy those things which Kailipso offers.

This is one of my favourite chapters in the book. It has the nice little scene with the bookseller, and the action and excitement of the incident later.

The bit where Jethri’s being chased by the two Liadens has echoes of Khat’s story about Byl. Jethri must be hearing the echoes, too, and it affects his judgement of the situation.

Jethri’s back to thinking of Arms Master sig’Kethra as “Pen Rel”. Maybe because he’s off duty?

I’m a thought puzzled about the name of Kailipso Station, which strikes my ear as a more likely name for a Terran establishment than a Liaden one.

Our first Scout, and our first mention of Solcintra City.

It must mean something that Iza never told Jethri how Arin died. Was she deliberately keeping the details from him, or did it just not occur to her that he might care to know them? Maybe she didn’t care to know them, and didn’t enquire into details beyond the fact that he was dead. (I wonder whether, if so, learning that Arin died a hero would make her feel better about it, or worse.)