Tag Archives: partial timeline

Events covered by The Updated But Partial Liaden Universe® Time Line.

Saltation – Chapter 42 & I Dare – Chapter 58

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Day 201
Standard Year 1393
Solcintra
Liad

In which Theo brings her business to the Delm of Korval.

The fact that it’s Clonak on the gate leads me to wonder whether he recognised a family resemblance in Theo, and that formed part of his decision to let her in. He did, after all, know her father well and for many years.

Speaking of family resemblances, Theo’s first words on being reunited with her father are exactly the same as Val Con’s.

There’s apparently been some disagreement among readers about the way I Dare ends, so for the record I personally found it a perfect and delightful note on which to end the Agent of Change series, and would have thought myself entirely satisfied if that had been the last we ever heard of Liadens. (Though I am, of course, glad now that it wasn’t.) To me, it didn’t come across as a loose end, but as a reminder that even with the Department defeated, the wide universe still contains new discoveries and new adventures, and the children of Korval are not the kind to live quietly ever after.

Tomorrow: New adventure.

I Dare – Chapter 57

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Day 59
Standard Year 1393

Solcintra
Liad

In which the Council of Clans throws Korval into the briar patch.

The Delm Hedrede who delivers the Council’s judgment here is not the same Delm Hedrede who clashed with Korval thirty years ago in Scout’s Progress – different pronouns – but it does make me wonder if Hedrede has a personal investment in Korval getting booted off the planet.

There’s a neat bit of narrative sleight of hand with the problem of what to do with the dies: the problem is carefully laid out, then just as Val Con is about to suggest a solution, the conversation is interrupted. The reader is left to assume that a solution is found without the authors having to actually come up with one.

Tomorrow and tomorrow: Revisiting old friends and seeing how they’re affected by recent events, in “Misfits” and then the remainder of Saltation.

I Dare – Chapter 56

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Day 56
Standard Year 1393

Solcintra
Liad

In which Pat Rin faces the judgment of his delm.

I’m not sure what to make of the bit about Val Con looking enough like Pat Rin to be “a younger edition of himself”. That seems too specific to be just family resemblance, particularly since Cheever’s met enough of Pat Rin’s relatives to have some range on the family resemblance already, although those were second cousins, and Val Con is a first cousin. A side effect of Line yos’Phelium gene-selecting for delm traits, maybe? Val Con was bred to be delm, and Pat Rin is descended from those bred to be delms even if he wasn’t himself (and he might have been, despite his mother, if the old delm had hope of getting the bloodline back on track). Or maybe the resemblance is not only genetic but also increased by a similarity of expression or attitude arising from a similarity of melant’i: Val Con, the delm of Korval, and Pat Rin, who might have been delm of Korval and has certainly been the something-very-like-a-delm of Surebleak. Anyway, it explains why people are going to mistake them for brothers when they start being seen in the same places.

After all the worry Pat Rin spent on showing up in front of the delm wearing a pilot jacket he doesn’t feel entitled to, Val Con doesn’t give it a second look until Pat Rin draws attention to it. Apparently, he doesn’t find anything implausible in the idea of Pat Rin having qualified as a pilot since they last met.

I Dare – Chapter 55

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Solcintra
Liad

In which the Captain acts for the safety of the passengers.

The mode of Ultimate Authority, which is referred to twice in this chapter, has, perhaps unsurprisingly, not come up much before: three times in the series up to this point. Priscilla adopts it briefly when putting Sav Rid Olanek in his place at the end of Conflict of Honors; Commander of Agents is said in Carpe Diem to use it when dealing with his underlings; and Val Con, greeting the Tree in Plan B, places the Tree in the position of ultimate authority.

The fact that it’s used twice in this chapter, and by whom, is the central conflict in a nutshell: the first is Commander of Agents again, and the second is Miri when she takes on the melant’i of Liad’s Captain. And I think it says something that, whereas Miri adopts the mode temporarily and in a situation where she is in fact the duly-appointed ultimate authority until the emergency is resolved, the Commander is not only self-appointed but apparently expects to be regarded as the ultimate authority all the time.

There’s a leap near the end of the chapter that I’ve never been able to follow. After the doomsday weapons are activated, ter’Fendil says he can deactivate them if Val Con gives him the control device, and Val Con does. Then it cuts to another scene, and when it cuts back everybody’s running for their lives and talking about the urgent need to do something before the weapons break out and start killing everybody. Is there something missing, or is it just me missing something?

I Dare – Chapter 54

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Day 54
Standard Year 1393

Solcintra
Liad

In which the counter-attack on the Department begins.

Dramatic revelation: Commander of Agents has a name! Presumably it was Val Con who provided that detail; I wonder if that means he had a habit of sticking his nose where it wasn’t wanted even as a loyal Agent of the Department, because somehow I can’t imagine the Commander making a habit of introducing himself to his subordinates.

And now that name has been broadcast over Solcintra on an open wavelength, along with the information that his Department exists and claims to speak for Liad. Likely the attitude that this is an absurdity produced by an addled Terran will be a common one, but even so it’s a crack in the Department’s veil of secrecy. And it serves notice to the Department, because they’ll know who must have put Higdon’s Howlers up to this. (Even more so, if I’m right about the Commander’s name being a secret kept even from his own agents.)

Once again, the day matches the chapter number. I don’t expect that to continue any further, though; things have started moving fast, and I doubt events are going to wait a whole day to find out what happens next.

I Dare – Chapter 53

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Day 53
Standard Year 1393

Surebleak

In which Pat Rin prepares to take the fight to the enemy.

I was surprised at first that Natesa wasn’t going with Pat Rin, but of course it’s the same principle as only one portmaster going on the shopping trip. Somebody’s got to stay and mind the store, the more so if there’s a risk that anyone who goes won’t be coming back.

Here’s a small amusing thing: For once, the number at the head of the chapter matches the chapter number; it’s Day 53 and Chapter 53.

I Dare – Chapter 52

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Clutch Homeworld

In which the Elders decide.

A very short chapter, this; normally, I would have grouped a chapter this short with one of the chapters on either side, but in this case neither seemed a good fit.

Speaking of very short things… This chapter has no date at the top, which implies that it’s the same day as the previous chapter: Day 54. The earlier chapter in which Daav and Aelliana went in to speak to the Elders did have a date at the top: Day 54. So Daav and Aelliana’s testimony, and the Elders’ deliberations, have altogether taken less than a day. The Clutch must really be taking this urgency thing seriously.

Or, of course, I’ve completely misread the implication of the absent date stamp. The chapter does say that Daav and Aelliana have lost track of how much time has passed; maybe the implication is instead: It’s later, but who knows how much?

I Dare – Chapter 51

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Day 54
Standard Year 1393

Dutiful Passage
Jump

In which various people spend time in transit.

I haven’t been noting it every time a relevant detail has come up, but I think by now we have to acknowledge that in the Liaden universe cats are sapient and capable of dramliz-type abilities. Some cats, anyway. Merlin, at least. (Come to that, I wonder if Val Con knew how appropriate the name was when he chose it…)

I feel like I should say something about the scene with Hazenthull and Nelirikk, but nothing particular is coming to me.

It’s good to see Trilla again.

I Dare – Chapter 50

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Day 47
Standard Year 1393

Surebleak Port

In which Pat Rin need not suffer the indignity of having his license pulled.

And now Pat Rin has about caught up with the end of Plan B. Specifically, this chapter is in the six-day gap between the climactic penultimate chapter and the final epilogue-sort-of chapter. In fact, these last few Pat Rin chapters from the arrival of the Juntavas courier on, this section which might be regarded as the climax of Pat Rin’s subplot, fits so neatly into that six-day gap that one might believe it was designed that way. (Especially if one vaguely recalled having heard somewhere that Pat Rin’s subplot was originally intended to be part of Plan B.)

I Dare – Chapter 49

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Day 54
Standard Year 1393

Solcintra
Liad

In which Anthora is boxed in.

Well, that’s one way to prevent Nova sorting things out by going in front of the Council and accusing the Department: send someone in front of the Council to accuse Korval of everything the Department has done.

Interesting that it’s Aragon who’s been maneuvred into making the accusation. Aragon has been mentioned several times as an old and respected High House, so an accusation from Aragon will be taken seriously; it’s a significant step up from the last time we saw somebody make an accusation in Council at the Department’s instigation, when it was an ambitious clan hovering around the border between the high and mid levels. Also interesting because the most recent of the Agents of Change that have been named to us, earlier in this book, was a chel’Mara, and chel’Mara looks to Aragon — so it might even be her specifically that Aragon is about to ask about when he’s interrupted.

Because of course there’s an interruption: having Korval called before the Council to answer an accusation might be an effective way to force Anthora out of Jelaza Kazone, but letting things run on long enough for her to actually answer would be risky. I presume the interruption was part of the plan, for that reason and because it provided the excuse to hustle Anthora into the room where the trap lay ready, but I wonder how the Department managed it. Did they know their targets so well as to be able to predict that attacking dea’Gauss at a particular time would result in a Master Accountant interrupting the Council hearing? Worrying thought, that.

Having done this re-read, paying more attention to names than I usually do, I recognize everyone in the list of Korval’s allies and friends. Justus is the clan of Ken Rik, Guayar is the clan of Clonak, Ixin is the clan of Jethri and of Aelliana’s prize student Rema, Reptor is the clan of Aelliana’s space pirates, and Mizel is the clan that produced Aelliana herself. (The fact that it’s counted now among Korval’s friends is a pretty clear sign that Aelliana’s mother is no longer delm.)

The date issue is compounding itself: if the chapter heading was wrong about it being Day 53 when Anthora was told to present herself to the Council the next day, this chapter must also be wrong about it being Day 54 when she presents herself to the Council. But I still think that’s more straightforward than the alternative.