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Alliance of Equals – Chapter 29

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Langlastport

In which Broker Plishet is not as clever as he thinks he is.

Here, one of the threads tying the two plot lines together is the consideration of melant’i.

On Padi’s side, there’s her awareness of the fact that her current melant’i is that of a peaceful trader, not of a pilot in a dangerous situation with several youngsters depending on her. (Which itself shows her development beginning from the beginning of the novel, when she was inclined to fall back into that familiar melant’i whenever uncertain.)

I’m not sure how much furtherer Admiral Bunter is going to get in his studies by turning to melant’i plays; I get the impression, from earlier mentions, that they tend toward extreme situations of the kind where a person is so hedged about by necessity that the only way forward is the death of their dearest friend or whatever. (Recall that Anne in Local Custom was guided somewhat in her understanding of Er Thom by the Liaden literature she’d read, and didn’t always find it a useful guide.) I’m also a bit dubious about his choice of illustrious expert, who by his name is Terran rather than Liaden; on top which is the characterisation of melant’i plays as “exotic”. Then again, the Admiral is himself an outsider to Liaden culture, so perhaps an outsider’s description is what he would find useful.

Dragon in Exile – Chapter 15

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Jelaza Kazone
Surebleak

In which Lionel Smealy has a deal for the Road Boss.

There’s a lot of cultural misunderstanding in this chapter; it becomes apparent long before Lionel actually comes into the presence of the Road Boss that he’s setting himself up for failure, and it’s largely because he keeps trying to interpret the Liadens as if they were members of his own culture. In fact, this chapter reminds me a lot of the one in I Dare where Jim Snyder the insurance man completely failed to deal with the newly-arrived Conrad – which is not a complaint, in case it sounded like one. It shows that Jim and Lionel come from a common cultural context, one that has not disappeared from the Surebleak cultural mix just because the mix has had a heap of Liadens dumped into it.

The fact that his entire plan is founded on the common misapprehension that Val Con is Conrad’s younger brother doesn’t help either, of course. When you’re trying to make someone a deal they can’t refuse, it helps to actually know who you’re dealing with.

Although I see how a group of people used to operating in a laissez-faire environment might find the imposition of load size limits annoying, I kind of get the feeling that that’s not really the issue. It occurs to me that a lorry running the full length of the Road at midnight might have other reasons for not wanting to have its load inspected than just the question of its size.

Dragon in Exile – Chapter 12

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Tantara Floor Coverings
Surebleak port

In which Quin has a date.

The shop’s name, “Tantara”, is a variety of rare and valuable carpet – specifically, the variety of which the bel’Tarda heirloom carpet, bestowed on Pat Rin by Luken in “Heirloom”, is an example.

I still consider Beslin vin’Tenzing’s idea of Balance unreasonable, but on reflection I think I see where a Liaden would say I went wrong. Proper behaviour for a Liaden is to look out for oneself, one’s kin and dependents, to lend a hand to an ally if asked, and otherwise to pay every other person in the universe the compliment of assuming them capable of taking care of themselves. The desire to find a solution that serves everybody harmed in the attack on Solcintra would not be admirable to a Liaden, but instead an unconscionable failure to mind one’s own business. vin’Tenzing’s duty is to do no more than find a solution that serves vin’Tenzing, and if in the process somebody else’s solution gets stepped on it’s up the other person to take it up with vin’Tenzing as a fresh matter requiring Balance.

Dragon in Exile – Chapter 11

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Jelaza Kazone
Surebleak

In which the carpet shop has a visitor who wants Pat Rin to pay.

The discussion of how the dream adapts itself to the dreamer (and is not, for one thing, just restricted to “do you kill this person who is important to you?”) is reassuring in regard to the question of whether every one of the captured agents will be able to be offered a choice. But now I have another concern: The fact that many of the Department’s agents were bound unwillingly to a course and a goal they wouldn’t have chosen in their right minds doesn’t necessarily imply that there are no agents who would support the Department’s aims if given a free choice.

Quin’s story is a reminder of how long we’ve been following Korval’s recent history; “great-grandmother” sounds like such a long time ago, and I thought at first of some unknown ancestor, but count it back and it’s Chi yos’Phelium, whom we already know. (And that’s the second mention of her in two chapters. I don’t know if that’s going to be significant, or is just a coincidence.)

A garnet trade ring is pretty good; not the Master Trader’s amethyst, but only a few rungs below it.

Beslin vin’Tenzing’s attack would be a useful illustration in a discussion about why “revenge” is not always an appropriate synonym for “Balance”. It’s not a well-considered Balancing, even if one accepts that Pat Rin bears full responsibility for the people killed when he fired on Solcintra (and I think a full account of the responsibility there would need to consider the role of the Department, who chose to use those people as a human shield). If nothing else, it’s an attempt to redress vin’Tenzing’s losses that leaves out all the other people who sustained losses in the attack. There is more than one family that lost a child, and there’s only one Quin; they can’t all settle it by shooting him.

…though that doesn’t mean vin’Tenzing is going to be the only one to give it a try.

Ghost Ship – Chapter 43

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Jelaza Kazone
Surebleak

In which everything is going well…

Nearly the end of the book, so time to check in on everyone.

Things are going well for Val Con and Miri, with several items of unfinished business satisfactorily resolved.

And for Theo and Bechimo and Win Ton, though it’s soon yet to be sure exactly where things are going.

And for Daav – well, that’s the question, isn’t it? But even the first time I read this, I was confident we’d be getting an answer, and that it wouldn’t be the answer Daav was anticipating when last we saw him.

I Dare – Chapters 41 & 42

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Day 32
Standard Year 1393

Blair Road
Surebleak

Day 38
Standard Year 1393

Liad
Department of Interior Command Headquarters

In which business is picking up for pilot-friendly Surebleak.

And that’s why you never ask what harm it could do.

(It’s interesting that the Juntavas, a Terran organization, prefer the Bank of Solcintra as the guide for currency transactions. I suppose it’s connected to Liad’s cantra being widely accepted as the hard currency. Widely agreed-upon currency rates are, all together now, good for business.)

I Dare – Chapter 40

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Day 31
Standard Year 1393

Surebleak Spaceport

In which good intentions sooner or later need cash to back them.

A whole month has passed since we last saw Pat Rin and company, so it’s now only a few weeks before Val Con and Miri are going to start worrying about them. The way things are, though, there’s still a lot might happen in a few weeks.

If anyone ever compiles a book of advice for people caught up in adventure stories, one of those pieces of advice will surely be to never, ever, under any provocation, ask the question “What harm can it do?”

I Dare – Chapter 18

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Day 307
Standard Year 1392

Blair Road
Surebleak

In which the new boss is not the same as the old boss.

One hazard of reading a series like this in chronological order like this is that one occasionally encounters two stories that are set within a few days of each other but written years apart, and then it can be difficult to avoid noticing discrepancies.

The difference between the implication here about the carpet’s creator and the explicit description in “Persistence” is, I think, clearly a deliberate creative decision by the authors, and can be easily explained in-universe as a deliberate creative decision by Pat Rin, who would not misinform a potential buyer as to the value of a carpet but also knows the value of tuning the details to fit the audience. I can’t see any such clear-cut explanation for the fairly large difference between the price Pat Rin paid for the carpet in “Persistence” and the price he remembers paying here.

On the other hand, there are good juxtapositions, too. Snyder taking Cheever at face value is extra amusing coming so soon after Beba seeing right through him.

Persistence

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In which there is a victory for persistence.

Pat Rin’s new name, Conrad, doesn’t ring any particular bells for me; I can’t tell whether the joke about it being “the same as the carpets” is a reference to something in-universe that I don’t recall or something out-universe that I don’t know. (There’s a classic SF novel called And Call Me Conrad, but it’s one of the lamentable gaps in my knowledge of Roger Zelazny’s works, so I don’t know if this is one of the authors’ references to classic SF.)

Speaking of names, Charleschow doesn’t particularly sound to me like a place that would have high prices and private seating, but maybe different cultures have different naming standards. Or maybe it’s come up in the world, but keeps the original name because of tradition.

And speaking of names that might have reason to sound familiar, Caratunk, which appears in this story as a surname, comes up a couple of times in the Jethri books as the name of a planet that’s home to some significant trading families. And Vashtara, the cruise ship Beba and Joshu leave on at the end, is the same cruise ship Theo and Kamele travelled on in Fledgling. (Which is surely not a coincidence, since the two were written around the same time, and I can see themes and ideas they have in common.)

I noticed on this re-read, which I didn’t the first time I read it, that the place Beba and Joshu light out for at the end is the same as the origin of the other carpet Conrad took a particular interest in. There’s probably a significance there I’m not getting; maybe next time.

I Dare – Chapter 12

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Day 287
Standard Year 1392

Departing Teriste

In which Pat Rin meditates upon his requirements.

I like the interplay around Pat Rin’s earring; no doubt what Natesa says is true, but I think there is also an unsaid recognition that Pat Rin is reluctant to part with the earring for reasons unrelated to its monetary value.

Presumably it is Korval’s Luck once more at work that points Pat Rin in the direction of Surebleak, where a person “can get lost and never looked for”, the same Surebleak where a person who had been lost and never looked for was recently rediscovered by another of Korval.

Tomorrow: A one-day diversion, for “Daughter of Dragons”.