Tag Archives: pilot’s jacket

Dark Secrets

In which the crack team of Kilsymthe and yo’Dira deal with some unfinished business.

Being that this story involves an entirely new cast of characters at an entirely new location, it’s a bit short of indications about where it fits in relative to the main series. It’s more recent than the Jethri books, since the team-up of a Terran spacer and Liaden is unpopular in some quarters but not considered a remarkable innovation. The bit about “the asterisked end-notes in the ven’Tura Tables” might indicate that it’s before the Tables were properly revised. Caerli uses the technique called the Smuggler’s Ace; the earliest mention we have of that is in Scout’s Progress, but I don’t think we know how old it already was then, so that doesn’t help much.

The list of customers at the drinkery includes two women in “librarian’s robes”, which I’m not sure what to make of.

Ambient Conditions

In which Kishara jit’Luso takes advantage of ambient conditions.

This is an oddity: a story retelling another existing story from another viewpoint. We’ve had stories that crossed paths before (“Quiet Knives” comes to mind), but usually that’s a case of two people on different paths that happen to intersect for a sentence or two. This is a special case, for reasons that are explained in the author’s note.
Continue reading

Preferred Seating

In which Can Ith yos’Phelium finds a new seat.

I see an irony in the description of Can Ith’s preferred seating: “with his back against the wall, and most of the room before him”. Presumably, it’s the being able to see most of the room that makes it his favoured way of sitting, but on this particular occasion it suits him because he has his back against the wall in more ways than one.
Continue reading

Trader’s Leap – Chapter 37

Colemeno Port

In which Shan yos’Galan receives news of kin.

I’m not exactly surprised by the revelation about Trader Isfelm’s family; in fact, though I didn’t specifically see it coming, it had something of a feeling of inevitability about it as it unfolded.
Continue reading

A Visit to the Galaxy Ballroom

In which Lina yo’Bingim does not wish to be part of the problem.

I’m fairly sure the merc who says “Efning” to Lina is attempting to wish her a good evening, but in the first moment I always think he’s offering his name.
Continue reading

Accepting the Lance – Chapter 53

Bechimo

In which there is a free and frank exchange of views.

In all the excitement, I don’t think anyone got around to reading the emergency pinbeam message. It should be okay, though; most likely it was just a heads-up about the thing that happens at the end of the chapter, which went okay anyhow.
Continue reading

Accepting the Lance – Chapter 5

Surebleak Port
Portmaster’s Office

In which the Portmaster has people looking over her shoulder.

Oh, yeah. And the survey team. I’d forgotten about them, what with so much else going on.
Continue reading

Fortune’s Favors – Chapter 3

In which Mar Tyn receives a warning.

I wonder if it’s actually possible for a Luck’s gift to break like that, or if it’s just a superstition. I can see how people who rely for success on a Luck might get to worrying about the possibility of it going wrong.
Continue reading

Fortune’s Favors – Chapter 2

In which Mar Tyn asks an unaccustomed question.

It seems a bit late in proceedings to be introducing a whole new category of probability-workers, but I suppose that if there are only a few of them and they keep to themselves, and their gifts only affect their immediate vicinity — and the Healers and dramliz choose to have nothing to do with them — one can understand why we haven’t heard of them or seen them at work before now.
Continue reading

Fortune’s Favors – Chapter 1

In which the luck moves roughly around Mar Tyn eys’Ornstahl.

We have seen one of the gambling Hells of Solcintra Low Port, and a luck-for-hire, before, in “The Beggar King”.

The detail about the Luck being provided with “as much cold tea as you can stomach” is specific enough that it has to mean something. I presume that the idea is camoflage; unless closely inspected, a glass of cold tea would look much like the glasses everyone else is carrying, while being less likely to impair the drinker’s wits at a time when he needs them to stay sharp.
Continue reading