Tag Archives: Misravot

Plan B – Chapter 4

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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 13

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Liad
Solcintra Port

In which Cheever McFarland has a delivery for the First Speaker of Clan Korval.

I have a feeling I’m going to be spending a lot of this tetralogy marking off occasions where something appeared for the first time in the Liaden Universe. Here’s one: first published appearance of the Tree.

Among several other firsts, of course, including the first appearance (in order of publication or of internal chronology) of Cheever McFarland.

If Shan says that Nova is in a meeting with Mr dea’Gauss then I’m sure it’s true, but I wonder if they wouldn’t have arranged some such thing in any case, so that Shan might have an excuse to talk to Cheever first. He’s definitely taking the opportunity to try and get an idea of who Cheever McFarland is and how he came to be involved in the present situation.

Cheever is undeniably very struck by Nova’s appearance, but it’s difficult to say whether that’s significant. Maybe he’s in a particularly susceptible frame of mind because he’s so tired. Maybe she just has that effect on everybody. (We already know that she’s accounted a beauty among Liadens. What impression she usually makes on Terrans, we don’t have enough data to say.)

Agent of Change – Chapter 3

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In which the man who was not Terrence O’Grady recalls Val Con yos’Phelium.

I am reminded of something Sharon Lee says in one or another of the various places she’s talked about the origins of this novel: that when she first started telling herself stories about what eventually became the Liaden Universe, they were about Val Con the master spy on his own, but after a while Miri came into things because — as near as I can remember the wording — Val Con was in need of someone who still knew what truth looked like.

Conflict of Honors – Chapter 29

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Shipyear 65
Tripday 155
Third Shift
12.30 hours

In which there are consequences of the encounter at the jump point.

When Kayzin Ne’Zame suggests to Shan that Priscilla should be promoted to second mate, I suspect that’s Shan being a trader and allowing himself to be reluctantly persuaded into the course of action he already wanted to take.

This chapter contains a hint that there’s an actual practical reason for Shan to carry that glass of wine with him everywhere. As he told Priscilla, he does drink from it sometimes. The rest of the time is perhaps so that the times when he needs it don’t stand out, to give away something that might produce a disadvantage.

Conflict of Honors – Chapter 19

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Shipyear 65
Tripday 143
Third Shift
16.00 hours

In which Shan has some explanations.

This is a significant turning point for Shan and Priscilla, with Shan finally explaining what’s going on and the two of them agreeing on a future course of action.

We get another mention of that elusive person, Anne’s brother Richard, and perhaps the most extensive account of him, in Shan’s description of his conflation of Liadens with elves. Shan doesn’t say why Richard picked on Val Con for the role of “king of Elfland”, but presumably it’s because he had heard some account of the Contract which once prompted Anne to accuse Val Con’s father of being King of Liad. In which case, I’m pretty sure this is the first intimation, in published order, of the existence of the Contract.

Conflict of Honors – Chapter 6

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Shipyear 65
Tripday 130
Fourth Shift
18.00 hours

In which Priscilla meets Shan yos’Galan.

Contrary to what I said last week, this must be where I first learned about Liadens and faces. It must be. Conflict of Honors was the first Liaden story I ever read, and certainly Gordy’s recital is the most detailed and explicit statement of the case to be found anywhere in the series. I don’t remember it, though. There is a difference, perhaps, between being told about a thing in the abstract and coming to comprehend it through being shown examples of it in action.

The dateline on this chapter is not consistent with a 28-hour day divided into four 7-hour shifts, in which 18.00 hours would be deep in Third Shift. It would, on the other hand, fit a 24-hour day divided into four shifts.

Mouse and Dragon – Chapter 17

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In which yos’Galan advises Korval, for the good of the clan.

Ah, Daav’s famous toasted cheese sandwiches.

On this readthrough, it strikes me that they’re toasted cheese sandwiches, because the word that’s been used up until now has been “handwich”. (At the risk of self-incrimination, I admit that this is a thing I’ve been actively tracking.) Perhaps it’s a translation convention, where “handwich” is the Terran word and bears some etymological connection to “hand” and “sandwich”, but the Liaden word is so completely different that one might as well translate it as “sandwich” and have done.

I like the idea that every toasted cheese sandwich is a unique work of art, and that there is therefore no wrong way to make one.

Scout’s Progress – Chapter 4

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In which Daav wishes there were someone who might love him for himself.

It is good to have friends who care when one is in trouble, even if there seems to be nothing they can do to remedy the trouble.

The chapter epigraph reminds us of what Aelliana is risking by leaving the clan — to be outcast, never again to be able to ask the clan for the support and comfort due to a clan member — but it also underlines the fact that she’s already not being given the support and comfort due to a clan member. “Within the clan shall be found truth, kinship, affection and care,” says the Code. “Outside of the clan shall be found danger and despite.” Aelliana’s experience of clan life has contained no small measure of danger and despite, and less than she ought to be able to expect of truth, kinship, affection and care.

Local Custom – Chapter 22

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In which Er Thom and Daav discuss the present and the future.

Daav is having his own problems comprehending the situation – he also isn’t coming easy to the idea of a Liaden lifemating a Terran, and he has his own personal jealousy issue to deal with – but he’s putting in more effort than Petrella to be reasonable (and, just as importantly, compassionate).

And he never once says that he’s acting for the good of the clan. He doesn’t need to.

Local Custom – Chapter 21

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In which Daav has some conversation before dinner.

Petrella has got herself into a position that’s likely to cause trouble and is going to be difficult to get out of even if she decides she wants to: she’s stopped considering the details of the situation and started defining success entirely in terms of whether she gets her own way. She says it’s for the good of the clan, and presents to the delm that it’s in his interests for Er Thom to be obedient, but one may take leave to doubt that version of the story, particularly since the delm himself appears to have no qualms about Er Thom’s obedience.

The epigraph of this chapter suggests a thing which I don’t think is suggested so strongly anywhere else in the series: that there is, or has been within the recorded history of Terran-Liaden relations, an actual planet called Terra. I don’t recall anywhere else in the series where Terra is spoken of except as a used-to-be place.