Tag Archives: Miri Robertson’s silver necklace

Plan B – Chapter 4

3 Replies

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.

Carpe Diem – Chapter 5

3 Replies

Orbit
Interdicted World I-2796-893-44

In which Miri and Val Con take a break.

Miri’s store of personal valuables has shrunk a bit since she took stock back on Lufkit. Probably the rest of it is still in her box, safe and sound on Edger’s ship, and this is just the stuff that was so important to her that it was in her belt pouch even for what she expected to be a short expedition. In which case it’s interesting to ponder what’s here (her grandmother’s House Badge, the jewelry Val Con gave her, the harmonica, and a cloudy sapphire whose story we’ve never been told) and what isn’t (several more bits of jewelry of unknown provenance, some papers, and the key whose story we will get later).

This is the first time Val Con’s mentioned Grandmother Cantra, and only the second mention of her in publication order (the first being when Shan told Priscilla about his family in Conflict of Honors).

Agent of Change – Chapter 11

3 Replies

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 9

Leave a Reply

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 7

1 Reply

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?