Tag Archives: pinbeam

Songs of the Fathers – Chapter 2

Aequitas
Hel’s Gate, Rannibic Station

In which there is a change of plans.

There are a couple of resonant names in the dateline of this chapter.

Wikipedia describes aequitas as “the Latin concept of justice, equality, conformity, symmetry, or fairness”. Also, I see from my notes, in the Liaden Universe aequitas is the name of those tokens used by traders to ensure a fair exchange of information. So Aequitas is a plausible thing for a trader to name her ship, and it also echoes the broader issues of justice in the situation in which Lomar finds herself in this story.
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Trader’s Leap – Chapter 31

Dutiful Passage
Colemeno Orbit

In which the visitors prepare to be received.

I wonder if the cats had anything interesting to say in their nameday greetings, or if Jeeves just translated their message into human-polite.
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Trader’s Leap – Chapter 21

Dutiful Passage
En Route to Volmer

In which Shan consults several people regarding the future.

We now have the names and descriptions of all three planets of the Redlands system: apart from Colemeno, there is Ukarn, site of a mining operation, and Metlin, site of a scientific research base. (Metlin is the name of one of the Liaden weekdays; I don’t have any insights to offer about the etymology of the others.)
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Trader’s Leap – Chapter 19

Dutiful Passage

In which Priscilla receives a history lesson.

Shan’s coaster that was a gift from Ambassador Valeking was introduced in Alliance of Equals and has appeared a couple of times, in that book and then in this one, during scenes where Padi has been meeting her father in his office.
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Trader’s Leap – Chapter 13

Dutiful Passage
Pommierport

In which there is an unexpected detour or two.

I think that when Priscilla talks about “ambient noise”, she doesn’t mean quite the same thing as the Haosa do when they talk about “the ambient”. If it is, it’s noteworthy that the course of action suggested by her training is to try to block it out.
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The Gate That Locks the Tree – Act 3, Scene 1

In the Hall of the Mountain King
Enter Talizea, Miri, Jeeves, Val Con, the Tree, clowders of cats and kindles of kittens

In which the house is unsettled.

“In the Hall of the Mountain King” is the title of a famous piece of music by Edvard Grieg, originally written as incidental music for Henrik Ibsen’s play Peer Gynt. The relevant bit of the play tells how Peer Gynt visited the court of the Mountain King and formed a connection with one of the King’s daughters, not entirely to the satisfaction of anybody involved. The supernatural and inhuman Mountain King’s most famous moment has him proclaiming a philosophy of supreme selfishness that regards everyone and everything else as inconsequential.

…and I’ve said all this before on the blog, because Crystal Dragon used “In the Hall of the Mountain Kings” as a chapter title when it had a sequence set in the domain of the Great Enemy. To have the same metaphor now applied to Jelaza Kazone is, to say the least, disconcerting.
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Accepting the Lance – Chapter 69

Bechimo

In which the reward for a job well done is another job to do.

And it’s another job that’s going to involve talking to ships with their own intelligences. Being bonded with Bechimo probably means Theo has more of those to look forward to.
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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.
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Accepting the Lance – Chapter 15

Jelaza Kazone

In which Korval is keeping its head down.

And now we’ve caught up with the final chapter of Neogenesis.
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Shout of Honor – Chapter 8

In which Ochin has been thinking.

I am curious about whom Cheladin intends to quote Ochin’s assessment to. I can’t think of any regulatory body that would be able to claim and enforce jurisdiction if he’s right about what’s going on.
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