Tag Archives: Roni Mason

Fledgling – Chapter 29

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Vashtara
Atrium Lounge

In which Jen Sar makes a contact.

Lystra Mason doesn’t have much of a future in surreptition: when she attempts to pretend that she doesn’t know what Jen Sar is talking about, she denies a specific accusation that he hasn’t explicitly made yet. It’s true that he hints at it, to show he knows what she’s up to, but if she really had no idea what he was talking about the clue would have gone straight past her. (It went straight past me, and I did know what he was talking about; I had to go back and re-read what he said before I could see what prompted her denial.)

It has occurred to me to wonder whether the people behind this plan on Delgado are the same people behind what happened to Aelliana in Mouse and Dragon. The possibility has surely occurred to Aelliana and Jen Sar as well, which perhaps explains the degree of Aelliana’s interest here.

Fledgling – Chapter 28

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Vashtara
Dining Hall Lobby

In which offers are made at mealtimes.

I’m amused by Jen Sar’s private observations of the care Roni has taken with her appearance. But I wonder about his discourse on the subject of the first-pair: it doesn’t seem in character for him, but on the other hand it doesn’t seem in character that he would simply be saying whatever he thinks Lystra wants to hear; like many Liadens, he’s disinclined to use an outright lie when a misleadingly-stated truth will serve. (As witness his statement about Lystra standing guardian over that which interests him nearly.) One aspect that comes to mind is that, while he says that he believes in the advantages of a first-pair partner being superior in age and experience, he doesn’t say how much, and leaves Roni’s mother to assume that he considers the gap between Roni and himself appropriate, where perhaps his true belief is only that things are likely to go smoother with a partner who’s a little bit older and not a complete novice.

Aelliana’s assertion that she knew no questionable people before she met him is… maybe true, from a certain point of view; it depends on what questions one is inclined to ask. She certainly had friends among the scouts, who many cultured Liadens including members of her own family would be inclined to consider questionable people. And, for that matter, there were members of her own family who were somewhat questionable themselves, though she might not have thought to say so before she met him.

There are several observations a person might make about the conversation with Hafley and her onagrata, but I’ll content myself with noting that the mention of Clyburn’s pull with Administration provides an additional suggestion, if one were needed, that Hafley’s advice to Kamele about cultivating a young man for the benefit of one’s career was drawn from personal experience.

Fledgling – Chapter 26

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Vashtara
Mauve Level
Stateroom

In which Win Ton explains.

Win Ton, in his desire to have everything set out clearly and plainly, produces an explanation that’s a marvel of not getting to the point. It is well for the calmness of the conversation that Kamele is an advertant scholar who waits for all the information to be in before she advances a hypothesis, because it was pretty obvious that Win Ton was giving her entirely the wrong impression about the “mature self-discovery” he’s been sharing with Theo.

It would appear that Roni’s sense of self-consequence and poor grasp of teamwork is shared with her mother, who is now revealed to be part of a conspiracy that offers personal advancement at the expense of the integrity of the University. I wonder how offended Professor Mason would be to learn that Jen Sar considers her the easier and less challenging of his potential targets.

The description of Jen Sar’s location offers a passing detail that, if I noticed the first time I read this, I didn’t retain: that the Residence Wall was built after the original campus of the University burned down. It makes one wonder just how much excitement is concealed behind Kamele’s description of the Founders being “a little too optimistic about human nature”.

Fledgling – Chapter 12

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Cultural Genetics Program
Bjornson-Bellevale College of Arts and Sciences
University of Delgado

In which Theo has dinner with her father.

So, like I was saying, after that brief moment of peace and domestic harmony, comes… more peace and domestic harmony? Whatever storm this is the calm before must be really awful.

With Kartor getting a surname this chapter, all of Four Team Three are now equipped with names both fore- and sur-.

The uncharacteristic clumsiness of Theo’s father is definitely suggestive to a reader familiar with the wider Liaden universe; we saw his old teacher pull the same trick back in Scout’s Progress.

It also brings on an observation which I’m sure is influenced by me remembering things that haven’t happened yet, but I’m going to pass it on anyway: Theo was able to catch both the objects Professor Kiladi dropped without any difficulty. Conversely, every incident of her supposed clumsiness we’ve seen has involved colliding or tangling with a person — a trend reinforced by her self-description in chapter nine. This doesn’t mean that Theo isn’t the problem, since she’s still the common thread among the incidents, but it does suggest that the problem isn’t so much a lack of control of her own movements as a flaw in her understanding of the movements of others. Put her in the middle of a crowd of people and trouble is bound to follow, but give her an inanimate object moving according to the basic laws of physics, and she’s fine.

Fledgling – Chapter 11

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University of Delgado
Faculty Residence Wall
Quadrant Eight, Building Two

In which Theo gains a rug and a respite.

I like this patch of peace and domestic harmony. It probably just means things are about to get even worse, though.

It’s only just occurred to me to wonder how it’s possible for Quadrant Eight to exist, since any given area consists of no more nor less than four quadrants, by definition. Maybe the university is divided into two (or more) areas, and rather than add another layer to the addresses they just continued on the numbering of the quadrants from where the first set ended. This would especially make sense if the second area is a later addition to the original layout of the university, which would explain why the address space didn’t account for the possibility. (It would also make a nice echo of Theo learning this chapter that the founders of the university didn’t think of everything.)

I was going to say something last chapter about the Safety’s apparent determination to assume that the incident on the scavage court was Theo’s fault, but I decided not to when I started considering the limitations of seeing things from Theo’s point of view. In the light of the Safety’s official report, though, there does seem to be something there — but rather than the “predisposed to expect Theo at the centre of the trouble” kind of something I was thinking of before, it seems to be more of a “determined not to let any responsibility settle on Roni” kind of something. (And that reminds me of the thing I did say about what kind of fall-out there might or might not be for Roni.)

Fledgling – Chapter 10

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Grandmother’s Library
Quadrant Three Services Zone
Faculty Residence Wall
University of Delgado

In which Theo has a meeting with her mentor.

It seems to me that there’s a worrying disconnect in the way both the Safety and Theo’s mentor respond to the incident on the scavage court. Leaving aside the question of whether it was Theo’s carelessness or Roni’s that was more responsible for Roni getting injured, it bothers me that neither seems inclined to address the fact that Roni’s response was to knock Theo down and kick her repeatedly in the ribs. It’s downright weird to have an act of willful violence skate right past after so much attention has been paid to Theo’s clumsiness; that’s no way to build a Safe society.

Actually, on re-reading, I suspect this is at least partly an artifact of the story being told from Theo’s point of view, and just because Theo’s talking-to focusses on her own part in the incident doesn’t mean that Roni isn’t getting her own similarly focussed talking-to somewhere else. But I think I’d be happier with some direct evidence of the existence of Roni’s hypothetical talking-to, because as it stands it feels like Theo is getting blamed for getting kicked in the ribs. And somehow I lack confidence in Roni getting a proper talking-to from, presumably, the same person or persons whose past responses to her behaviour have left her the kind of person who knocks people down and kicks them in the ribs.

(Am I over-emphasizing the “knocked her down and kicked her in the ribs” thing? Call it a reaction to the perceived lack of emphasis in the story, and we’ll move on.)

Even apart from that, I don’t like Marjene because she seems to be the kind of person who, though she genuinely wants what’s best for you, is operating from a preconceived notion of “what’s best” involving a generic “you” that doesn’t consider individual differences and isn’t influenced by actual evidence. It strikes me as typical of Marjene that she greets Theo with a (presumably habitual) hug that hurts Theo’s injured ribs when she’s just finished reading the report on the incident in which Theo’s ribs were injured. I bet it didn’t even occur to her that the hug might not be the best greeting in this instance, because it would first need to occur to her that there might be such a thing as an instance in which the hug might not be the best greeting.

(I really will stop harping on Theo’s ribs now. I promise.)

And it’s not just that she doesn’t notice implicit indications that she’s on the wrong track (Theo is surely too polite to complain when Marjene rubs her the wrong way, but one would hope that an advertant mentor would start to get some idea after a while); in the case of the medication, she’s been confronted with an explicit difference of opinion, and her response is that here is an obstacle to be got around by fair means or foul, not that there might be something here to enquire into and learn from.

One thing I don’t hold against her is her reaction to Theo calling Jen Sar “Father”. That has the feel of authentic deep-down shock at behaviour she’s been brought up to consider inappropriate. I expect there are things local custom has taught me are inappropriate that I’d react to just as abruptly.

And it’s a cunning bit of storytelling that that reaction happens in the same chapter as Theo’s rumination on the Mother-Daughter Center, which provides the background that helps to make sense of the reaction. An onagrata may be handy for many things about the house, but fathering he is not for, unless and only for as long as the woman chooses. One begins to get the impression, if one hadn’t already, that a long-term relationship like Kamele and Jen Sar is not the norm.

Fledgling – Chapter 9

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Teamplay: Scavage
Professor Stephen M. Richardson Secondary School
University of Delgado

In which Roni likes to score.

There are a bunch of things in this chapter it’s difficult to talk about because I’m not sure how much of what I want to say is an honest response to what’s actually come up already in this re-read and how much is influenced by remembering from the first time I read the book things that haven’t happened yet. The description of Theo’s clumsiness seems like it would be suggestive to a reader familiar with the wider Liaden universe, but do I only think that because I already know what it’s suggesting? And I’m fairly confident I figured out what was up with the mysterious research project pretty much straight away, but I’m not sure.

Another interesting aspect of the book is seeing Delgado society produce mirror images of familiar bits of male entitlement, like Ella’s eye for a pretty face a few chapters ago, or Roni’s implication here that males aren’t any good at sports. (It may well be that, as Theo suspects, Roni’s complaint is less sincere than a cover for her real source of annoyance, but if so the fact that she chose that particular complaint as a cover suggests that it’s a relatively acceptable thing to complain about.)

Fledgling – Chapter 4

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Scholarship Skills Seminar: Advertancy
Professor Stephen M. Richardson Secondary School
University of Delgado

In which Professor Appletorn is late.

I don’t know if Advertance, as defined here, is an original concept, but it was new to me when I first read this novel and I’ve found it a useful concept on several occasions since.

It’s already been mentioned a couple of times that Theo is a member of Learning Team Three; in this chapter we begin to get an idea of what that involves. Each team attends classes together, and if one member of the team falls behind the whole team gets marked down, because the expectation is that the team members will support each other. Having been selected for a mix of abilities, so that a student weak in a particular aspect of scholarship may learn and improve from the example of more able teammates, they’re not necessarily friends, as evidenced by Roni last chapter choosing to spend her free time with another team. Or maybe that’s just Roni, whose weak point is evidently teamwork.

Here’s a thing: Professor Appletorn addresses his female students as “Miss Waitley”, “Miss Grinmordi”, etc., but the Safeties address the same students as “Ms. Waitley” and “Ms. Grinmordi”. I wonder if that’s significant.

Fledgling – Chapter 3

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Fourth Form Ready Room
Professor Stephen M. Richardson Secondary School
University of Delgado

In which Theo goes to school and learns something helpful.

It’s the return of our old friend, The Scene Where The Heroine Looks In A Mirror. At least this one does a reasonable job of staying inside the viewpoint character’s head. (And now I’m trying to remember whether we’ve ever had a scene where any of the male characters looks in a mirror for the benefit of the readers. I don’t recall any, but I’m willing to believe that that’s a fault in my memory rather than in the story-telling.)

I’m not sure I approve of that clock. It would depend to some extent on whether everybody is given the same amount of time between the first announcement and the note being made in their file, and what happens to people who are genuinely incapable of getting out of bed quickly. Either way, it’s the first of several details in this chapter that are starting to build up a picture of Delgado as a society that pays really close attention to whether its citizens are doing What’s Good For Them.