Tag Archives: Rool Tiazan

Crystal Dragon – Chapter 15

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Landomist

In which our heroes shake the dust of Osabei Tower from their feet, some with more violence than others.

Jela has resigned himself to leaving without Cantra, but the Tree digs its heels in (or should that be “digs its roots in”?). It can tell that Cantra is on her way out, and that she’ll need both of them when she arrives. He sends Tor An on ahead with Master dea’Syl, to Captain Wellik, garrisoned on Solcintra. I can’t tell from the description whether Wellik is X Strain or not.

It’s an interesting coincidence that the emblem on Tor An’s ship (I’m not sure whether it’s the emblem of the ship only, or of the Trade Clan) is a dragon.

I note that the sections that are not from Jela’s viewpoint decline to commit themselves on whether they’re from the viewpoint of Cantra or of Scholar tay’Nordif.

Despite, or perhaps because, it’s naturally sessile, the Tree seems to really enjoy travelling at high speeds.

Elsewhere, Lute and his lady encounter Rool Tiazan in the aftermath of his battle with the Iloheen. We learn that Lute’s lady has, as it was foreshadowed last time we saw her, “accepted that burden which no dominant had taken up since the first had been born from the need of the Iloheen”: she has a name. (Indeed, she has a Name, although I confess I’m not clear on the distinction.) Those of us who recognised Lute’s name are not surprised to find that her name is Moonhawk.

Crystal Dragon – Chapter 12

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Elsewhen and Otherwhere

In which Rool Tiazan and his lady are overtaken by that which pursues them.

Like so much that happens with the dramliz in this novel, I don’t much understand the details of what just happened.

I might get a better grip on it when Rool Tiazan and his lady show up again (which, this being a prequel, we know they will). But I kind of suspect I won’t.

Crystal Dragon – Chapter 11

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Obasei Tower
Landomist

There’s another thing that I hadn’t been taking into account in considering why Tor An might seem like a good risk: the famous aelantaza pheremones. In the last scene, Scholar tay’Nordif is maintaining close proximity in the way Cantra habitually avoids, and it’s definitely having an effect.

I’ve been trying to figure out what the point of antagonising tel’Elyd and escalating with tay’Welford was, bearing in mind that mission control couldn’t have known it would be helpful with getting Tor An settled in. My best hypothesis is that the duel was intended as a general distraction that would get everybody, including Scholar tay’Nordif, out of the way and give Jela some space to snoop around on his own. Though if that’s what she had in mind, apparently she hadn’t counted on Jela needing to watch the duel himself and see that she was all right.

On the other hand, maybe it was just that she wanted to stop tel’Elyd before Jela was seriously hurt, and judged a stick duel to be an affordable cost to achieve that end. In which judgement she may have been underestimating Prime Chair tay’Welford. tay’Welford is clearly a rat bastard but I wonder if his conduct of the duel wasn’t at least partly tactical. Things would have been considerably simplified for him if tel’Elyd’s enthusiasm had unfortunately resulted in a fatal wound for Scholar tay’Nordif. If so, the luck was in it (again) that Tor An was on hand to raise a protest.

Jela’s remark that there’s no use trying to figure out whether the luck sent Tor An to the Tower or alerted Scholar tay’Nordif to his approach is a wise one, and I shall heed it henceforth.

The home garden in Tor An’s dream is very similar in purpose and philosophy to the home garden Korval is going to establish. I rather doubt, though, that the piata tree’s resemblance to Jela’s tree is drawn from memory; I suspect that’s a message of support coming in through the back channels.

Scholar ven’Anbrek is appearing quite helpful, but I’m not sure what his stake is. I can construct a reasonable motivation from the things he’s said, but by this point I’ve given up on expecting the inhabitants of the Tower to have reasonable motivations.

(Incidentally, I find myself softening toward Maelyn tay’Nordif somewhat. She’s still not a nice person, but it pales in comparison when she’s so much outclassed by the people around her.)

Crystal Dragon – Chapter 8

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Osabei Tower
Landomist

In which Kel Var tay’Palin proves a point.

It’s very tempting to speculate about what might have happened had Prime tay’Palin survived a bit longer. (Tempting, too, to assume that it would have made things easier, if only because why else would the authors have killed him off?)

I’ve been trying to remember why Scholar dea’San’s surname sounded familiar. I thought at first that it was the same as the crime boss with the assumed airs, but he was dea’Sord, not dea’San. I’ve got it now, though: Vertu dea’San, Clan Wylan, is the protagonist of the novella “Skyblaze”, which is currently scheduled at the very end of the re-read.

I had also been wondering why Scholar tay’Nordif had decided to take a liking to the cat, but I think this chapter answers that question. Clearly she had been feeling a lack of somebody to talk to who would appreciate the excellence of her thought. (Either that, or she had been feeling a lack of somebody to steal her chair and lie on her keyboard while she was trying to work.)

Crystal Dragon – Chapter 6

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Osabei Tower
Landomist

In which you may call a scholar anything you like so long as you don’t call her late for dinner.

There’s a lot going on in this chapter.

We’re reminded a couple of times in this chapter that Scholar tay’Nordif, unlike Cantra, lacks a dancer’s or a pilot’s grace. There’s her wobble when she’s turning on her heel to look at the entrance hall — by the way, I would not handle ascending a stairway like that with anything approaching calm — and there’s the bit where she fumbles her data-case.

The scene where she accidentally assembles a jamming device and, in general, the whole business of her unconsciously acting in Cantra’s interests for reasons which she insists make perfect sense to herself, is one of the things that really stuck with me from the first time I read this.

(I was reminded, the first time I read it, of Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, in which being possessed by a disembodied spirit is similar: one finds oneself doing unexpected things, and unconsciously inventing explanations for why one did them. There’s also something similar in A Fire Upon the Deep, though I don’t remember whether I’d read that yet. And there are also cases in real life, although not — as far as we know — with another consciousness directing them: some psychologists reckon that our motivations are, to a greater or lesser extent, a story we tell ourselves after doing what our instincts and unconscious urges prompt us to do.)

(Superficial aside: Scholar tay’Nordif talking about her patron from the house of the horticulturists reminds me of Mr Collins talking about Lady Catherine de Bourgh. Carnivorous Rosings?)

Meanwhile, it begins to become really apparent that in the Tower the cut-and-thrust of academic debate is taken rather more literally than we’re used to. And I’ve got to say that I’m detecting an undercurrent to Scholar tay’Welford’s expressions of concern about his boss’s health.

Speaking of health, the news that Liad dea’Syl’s students have been dying untimely is unreassuring (although not, by this point, very surprising). I wonder if that includes Jela’s instructors?

Crystal Dragon – Chapter 5

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Osabei Tower
Landomist

In which Maelyn tay’Nordif is welcomed home, a pleasure that continues to elude Tor An yos’Galan.

Jela’s party succeeds in winning entry to the Tower, with a thesis calculated to draw attention and give Scholar tay’Nordif reason to ask nosey questions about Liad dea’Syl.

It’s interesting, considering what I recall about what happens later, that Scholar tay’Welford is the designated viewpoint for the admission scene. Although that, of course, may simply be because he’s the admissions board’s designated expert in Scholar tay’Nordif’s specialism. (On the gripping hand, that’s not an unrelated coincidence.)

Tor An, meanwhile, is having trouble drawing anybody’s attention to his problem. Apparently people really aren’t all that interested in other star systems going missing. Though if everybody who insists on being interested winds up getting shot, perhaps that’s not as surprising as it first appears.

His polite sarcasm when he’s talking to the X Strain captain reminds me strongly of certain of his descendants.

Crystal Dragon – Chapter 2

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Spiral Dance
Transition

In which Jela and Cantra nail their colours to the mast.

I once encountered, somewhere online, a very disgruntled review of this novel written by someone who’d picked it as their introduction to the Liaden Universe. Looking at the amount of assumed knowledge in this chapter alone, I can see where they were coming from. (And in fairness I’ve gotta say the cover doesn’t really do much of a job of warning you that this is part two of a two-volume novel.)

Though it does at least find plot-appropriate excuses to recap the tree’s history (I like the description of the trees holding the enemy at bay by will “and by won’t”) and the appearances of our principals.

We get the first explicit statement of Jela’s built-in time limit, and something approaching an explanation. “Safer that way,” says Jela, though I notice he doesn’t say for whom.

Crystal Dragon – Chapter 1

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Light Wing
Transitioning to the Ringstars

In which there is a calm before the storm.

The part with Rool Tiazan and his lady is packed with vague foreboding, isn’t it.

And the part with homesick young Tor An yos’Galan is packed with dramatic irony. Poor Tor An.

Crystal Dragon – Prologue

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In the Hall of the Mountain Kings

Probably the longest and weirdest chapter in the entire series. (The climactic chapter of I Dare is a similar length, but much less eldritch.) The first time I read it, I came out feeling like I wasn’t sure I hadn’t dreamed parts of it.

The biology lesson is … distinctly unpleasant.

I’ve never felt sure of what the zaliata are. It’s made pretty clear that they’re not human, but if not, what is there?

“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 subterranean court of the Mountain King and formed a connection with one of the King’s daughters, not entirely to the satisfaction of anybody involved. I don’t think we’re supposed to try to read the parallels too closely, but the Mountain King is a good counterpart for the Iloheen, not only because he’s supernatural and inhuman, but because his most famous moment has him proclaiming a philosophy of supreme selfishness that regards everyone and everything else as inconsequential.

Crystal Soldier – Chapter 32

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Spiral Dance
Gimlins

In which Jela receives new orders.

So ssussdriad is the name the dramliz give to the trees, and the answer to my question of a few chapters back is presumably that at some point the Uncle got to talking with a dramliza. Which is an interesting thing to contemplate.

Also interesting to contemplate is the description of how the dramliz are interconnected. For one thing, the language geek in me is intrigued by the implication that Rool Tiazan and his lady are not two dramliz but instead collectively constitute a single dramliza. (And also amused that, in the glossary in the appendices, the collective noun for wizards is “an enchantment”.)

(Speaking of the appendices, I note with interest that the character list in the appendices includes a name that I’m certain isn’t given in the text. Commandant Harrib is presumably the ser with the interesting chair.)

(…now here’s a thing. I ran a search in the e-book to make sure I hadn’t overlooked Commandant Harrib any place, and his name does come up once in that chapter — but only in the e-book. In the trade paperback, he’s just “the commandant” throughout that chapter, including that one sentence. I wonder which way it goes in the Baen editions?)

I really wasn’t expecting Lute’s name to pop up, the first time I read this.

Tomorrow: Crystal Dragon.