Tag Archives: Paitor Gobelyn

Balance of Trade – Chapter 17

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Day 107
Standard Year 1118

Elthoria and Tilene

In which Jethri’s new status occasions some changes of schedule.

Norn ven’Deelin says, in word and in deed, that she trusts Jethri to behave honorably and do well, and not to make her regret claiming him as kin. I wonder how she’d have handled the situation if she didn’t trust him so well. (She wouldn’t have let the chel’Gaibins take him while he was under her protection, and perhaps she might have claimed him as kin anyway, seeing no other option – because I don’t think she’d have done that, even trusting Jethri as she does, if she’d seen another option – but perhaps she’d have arranged his schedule differently, kept him more out of the public eye, and let it be more in name than in fact.) On the other hand, perhaps this is a pointless question: if she didn’t already think well of him, he wouldn’t have been trading under her on Tilene and the situation would never have arisen.

The Master Trader’s concern over the unnamed practice lately surfaced on Tilene is ominous, especially once one starts wondering if it’s of a piece with the “climate changes” observed by her friend the Scout Captain on Kailipso.

Tan Sim’s family are seriously unpleasant people. Not that we hadn’t already been getting that impression, of course.

Balance of Trade – Chapter 15

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Day 106
Standard Year 1118

Tilene Trade Theater

In which Jethri has unexpected news of kin.

So much happens in this chapter, I’m not sure where to begin.

Why is it that things always go wrong just after somebody’s thought something like “I got through the day without doing something irrevocably stupid”? Though to be fair, Jethri didn’t do anything stupid, unless it’s stupid to do that thing he does of trusting people to be straight with him. Irrevocable, on the other hand, it certainly was. And it says a great deal for how highly Norn ven’Deelin regards Jethri that she was willing to take the irrevocable step she took to get him out of trouble.

I was amused to notice that Jethri gets to use the bow acknowledging a debt truly owed for real in this chapter, the more so since the narrator just says he bowed, “very precise indeed”, and leaves it to the reader to realise from context which bow he must have used.

I like Tan Sim pen’Akla, and I’m glad we’ll be seeing more of him. (One of the things I’m hoping for from the sequel is an improvement in his situation.)

Balance of Trade – Chapter 14

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Day 81
Standard Year 1118

Kinaveral

In which the crew has a Word with the captain.

And things actually go reasonably smoothly, as far as the purpose of the meeting goes. Iza’s not inclined to be gracious, but she knows what she needs to do.

Where things get tense is when she decides to poke Grig about the things they both know (and Paitor knows some of, but perhaps not the rest of the family) about Arin and Jethri. We get what sounds like confirmation that the stuff of Arin’s that disappeared when he died wasn’t disposed of, but instead is the same stuff Paitor was nudging her in the first chapter about bundling away and never doing anything with. (And what does it say that she did bundle it away instead of just throwing it out? Or that she has decided now to get rid of it?) We also get an escalation of Iza’s insistence on regarding Jethri as Arin’s son and none of her own, though it stops short of anything that might be regarded as a clear explanation.

Balance of Trade – Chapter 13

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Day 80
Standard Year 1118

Kinaveral

In which Iza Gobelyn goes off the dial.

Bailing out a pilot isn’t all that much different on Kinaveral than it was on Solcintra. I was going to say that at least the desk cop didn’t require a bribe, but on second thought maybe it’s just that the bribe is included under the heading of “taxes and duties”, which is arguably worse. And I don’t recall anybody on Solcintra saying anything ominous about what might happen if one crossed the port police a second time, but that might just mean that they didn’t believe in giving advance warning.

Iza’s put her kin in a tough position. Making allowances for family is one thing, but they can’t let her keep on the way she’s been going if it means the ship’s endangered. The crew meeting isn’t going to be fun for anybody involved.

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.)

Balance of Trade – Chapter 10

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Day 65
Standard Year 1118

Kinaveral

In which Mr Rumor has been doing the rounds.

I like “at sevens and eights”, which is presumably the same as “at sixes and sevens” only worse.

Mac Gold seems like an unpleasant fellow, and I wonder how much of the rumor he recounts is what Mr Rumor is actually saying and how much is him putting his own spin on it for his own purposes. (I mean, people do talk, and people who talk don’t always need encouragement to assume the worst, but based on what we’ve seen of him so far I wouldn’t put it past him.)

Balance of Trade – Chapter 8

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Day 60
Standard Year 1118

Gobelyn’s Market
Approaching Kinaveral

In which there is talk of courses being disputed.

The Market arrives at Kinaveral, where it’s going to be refitted. Most of the family have made plans for short-term jobs – particularly those who get uncomfortable if they have to spend much time with their feet planted on dirt.

Except that Iza Gobelyn, who is definitely one of that number, has insisted that she’s going to stay dirtside all through the refit.

On the one hand, it’s reasonable for a captain to feel a duty to make sure her ship’s cared for. On the other, Paitor points out that Seeli is capable of doing that on her behalf (Seeli, apparently, not being so edgy on dirt). And Iza is kind of reminding me of certain people I have known, who have given me the impression that if they ever find themselves without any sources of stress in their lives, they’ll go out of their way to find or create one.

It would be interesting to see things from Iza’s viewpoint some time. I get the feeling she has things in her past overshadowing the way she relates with her present.

Balance of Trade – Chapter 7

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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.

Balance of Trade – Chapter 6

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Day 42
Standard Year 1118

Gobelyn’s Market
Departing

In which there are secrets in all families.

With Paitor and Grig wanting to let Jethri know a few things, there’s a lot of background filled in here, not all of which ends up being noticeably relevant in the rest of this novel.

Allowing for a bit of linguistic drift, it seems likely that the blusharie the three of them share is the same kind of drink as the blusherrie Niku and Friar Julian drink in celebration at the end of “Eleutherios”.

Speaking of things returning under new names, the fractins – the Fractional Mosaic Memory Modules – seem likely to be the same as the data-tiles that were all over the place in Crystal Dragon. (Interesting that we get more description of what they look like and what they’re made of in this book than we ever did in the one where they were all over the place. I suppose when they were all over the place, none of the viewpoint characters paid them much attention.) And the suggestion that within a few years something is going to start happening to them is one of those bits that isn’t picked up in this novel, but might be in the sequel.

I’m not sure what to make of the business about there possibly having been more than one Terra.

Balance of Trade – Chapter 5

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Day 35
Standard Year 1118

Gobelyn’s Market
Dockside

In which Jethri finds his ship.

I can never decide whether Jethri’s tendency to assume a person is being straight with him until proven otherwise is a testament to his own honor or just a sign of naivety. I’m not saying it’s wrong to give people the benefit of the doubt, but to never even consider the possibility of a deception seems like a weak point in a trader.

You probably know that “Balance of Trade” was originally a short story that ended up as chapters 2 through 5 of the novel. This being chapter 5, it seems like the right moment to cast an eye over the differences. There is some tweaking of wording and punctuation, unsurprisingly, and it’s expanded a bit with extra details that will be relevant after the point where the story ended: most of the mentions of Jethri’s family apart from his mother and uncle, and all mentions of fractins and of Combine trade keys. So far as those go, they might be regarded as storyteller’s choice of what to include or leave out, but there are also parts of the story that are flat-out different. The details of Arin’s death, what few there are, are different (and fewer) in the novel, and most of the fine details involved in the trades, of who bought how much of what for which price are changed. The numbers being thrown around during the negotiation over the cellosilk are an entire order of magnitude lower.