Ribbon Dance Hill
In which Moonhawk and Lute go in peace.
To be fair to Bentamin, he’s actually pretty competent when the chips are down, it’s just that we’ve mostly seen him when his relatives are putting him off his stride.
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Ribbon Dance Hill
In which Tekelia has an urgent question for Shan, and an important answer.
One consequence of Padi and Shan being teleported directly to Ribbon Dance Hill is that it bypasses questions of geography, so my guess about whether the Hill is related to the ridge Padi read about is unlikely to be answered until it’s all over, if then. I think it’s a good guess, though; a hill that may be literally from another world seems like a good place for these kinds of goings-on.
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Colemeno Port
Great Hall
In which it may be accounted misfortune to lose one kinsperson, but two looks like carelessness.
Betya seelyFaire’s account of her ancestor’s reasons for coming to the Redlands have a noticeable resonance with Dyoli’s reasons for doing likewise.
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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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Dutiful Passage
Millsap Orbit
In which Padi has a long day.
Shan has a plan: to visit the Redlands, which it turns out is not one country, or even one planet, but a system with three inhabited planets.
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Dutiful Passage
Millsap Orbit
In which Padi and Shan commune with inanimate objects.
This is a surprisingly long chapter and I’m up against a deadline, so I’m going to do it in two parts.
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Dutiful Passage
Langlast Departure
In which Shan and Padi get some rest.
Now we have some familiar faces, and a sense of where this story fits in the series. It’s only a day or two since the end of Alliance of Equals, so this is taking place around the same time as Neogenesis. (At least to start with.)
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Healspace
In which yos’Galan does what needs to be done.
Noting that this chapter is all about Langlast, with nothing about Tolly and Admiral Bunter, I wonder if next chapter is going to be the inverse, and leave us waiting to find out what became of Padi.
I don’t quite understand what Padi’s disappearance signifies, but I don’t for a moment believe that she’s dead.
(I wonder where Lute has got to…)
The Garden of Gems
Langlastport
In which there are attacks from multiple sides.
It’s still not clear whether this is one set of co-ordinated attacks, or separate attacks in space and on land that happen to coincide. Once Tarona Rusk declared herself an agent of the Department, and the people seeking Padi likewise, I was prepared to conclude that the attack on the Passage was also the work of the Department; after all, as we’ve been reminded, attacks under cover of rightful customs activity are a thing they’ve done before. But then there’s Priscilla’s Seeing that one or more of the attacks is motivated by “some local chief’s bid for celebrity” – presumably Plishet. Perhaps Plishet is working with the Department because they’ve persuaded him they can give him something he wants?
I’m pretty sure this is the first time we’ve heard of a dramliz working for the Department voluntarily. It’s a fairly horrifying prospect.
The implication that Shan could have been a full dramliz if he had wanted to be is interesting, both in connection with the unfolding pattern of Lute’s lives and in light of his statement to Padi that it’s not possible to choose not to be dramliz.
Dutiful Passage
In which Shan has an unanticipated meeting, and Stew still awaits an anticipated arrival.
Definitely ramping up to having Moonhawk and Lute take an active hand in the story. As yet, I don’t have any ideas about why. Presumably it’s not going to be just because a bunch of people have decided to take an unfriendly interest in Shan’s ship.
I like the grace note about the stream at Trealla Fantrol.
I don’t blame Stew for calling in his own expert when things got suddenly worse, but I wonder where his expert is from, and I’m inclined to suspect that having two experts on the case is not going to make things easier.