Tag Archives: Selector

Agent of Change – Chapter 19

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In which a Turtle on urgent business is no trifling thing.

Edger demonstrates that, while the Clutch are not inclined to rush into anything, they’re capable of acting rapidly and decisively when the situation calls for it. And that, if they’re slow to come to a conclusion, that just means that they’ve given it a lot of thought, not that they’re stupid.

Every time we get a mention of Val Con’s minor telekinetic ability, I go back and check the chapter near the end of Mouse and Dragon, and every time the chapter stubbornly continues to be about young Pat Rin being discovered to possess a minor telekinetic ability. I don’t see how that could be the result of a confusion, so I suppose we must take it that they both possess a minor telekinetic ability. I still wonder what happened to Pat Rin’s.

I don’t believe a word of the stuff about electron substitution as a basis for Val Con’s enhanced psychic abilities, by the way, but it’s part of a grand tradition in space opera of using post-Newtonian physics as a handwave for all kinds of entertaining nonsense and I’m prepared to run with it. (Since I’ve raised the subject, though, I’d like to take this opportunity to recommend the essay on What Quantum Physics Is Not from Chad Orzel’s book How to Explain Physics to Your Dog, which is educational, clearly written, and features an evil mirror-universe squirrel with a goatee.)

Agent of Change – Chapter 18

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In which several people are given things to think on.

Miri and Val Con are clear of Lufkit, but they’re not clear of trouble yet. Justin Hostro is sending people after them —

— I find myself wondering how he was able to discover their destination, when so far the name of Volmer has been spoken only in the hearing of Turtles. Perhaps Watcher mentioned it while he was in Xavier Ing’s custody, though that seems unlikely; a more plausible possibility is that the process of setting the ship for the journey included filing a destination with local traffic control —

— and near the end of the chapter we’re introduced to a new group of people, who act as a reminder that there are other dangers in the wide universe, which Miri and Val Con might now be heading toward.

Agent of Change – Chapter 13

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In which Miri makes use of the enemy of her enemy.

I have a feeling Grandmother Cantra would have approved of Miri’s solution to the trouble she and Val Con find themselves in under the hyatts. Her advice in times of yore was that a useful ally is defined by the answers to the questions “Can he shoot?” and “Will he aim at my enemy?” No mention, I realise now, of any requirement that their choice of target be motivated by goodwill towards oneself…

Taking the approximate age given for Edger when he entered the story, and making the simplifying assumption that shells are attained at regular intervals, produces the estimate that young Sheather is about five and half centuries old. That estimate may well be out by a considerable amount in either direction, but it underlines the point I made a few chapters ago about twelve years being unlikely to be a significant portion of his life.

This is, as far as I can remember, the only mention in the series of an Yxtrang ambassador. (Multiple ambassadors, is implied by Val Con feeling the need to specify that he’s referring to the one assigned to this sector.) Interstellar diplomacy doesn’t really seem characteristic of the Yxtrang as I remember them, particularly if it might mean agreeing not to attack somebody they want to attack. Maybe it’s just an excuse for getting a close look at the defenses of places they intend to attack regardless.

Agent of Change – Chapter 12

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In which everyone has some catching up to do.

Things are heating up. The cops are hot on Val Con’s trail, and Miri’s soon to be in a similar situation with the Juntavas. (In retrospect, it seems like it might have been a strategic error not to have wondered more about who Murph’s lady friend was, although I suppose there wasn’t really any way for Miri to have found out even if she had wondered.)

It’s interesting, after Val Con took the time to explain to Miri what would happen to anyone who attacked him while Edger and his brothers were around, that when he is attacked he tries to find his own way out of it instead of calling on them for help. I suppose his instinct is still to avoid involving Edger in the shadowy side of his life any more than absolutely necessary. Also, if Val Con started a fight between Turtles and armed cops there would almost certainly be casualties on one side or both, which he would then have on his conscience along with everything it’s already loaded down with.

Agent of Change – Chapter 9

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In which Val Con and Miri discuss their chances.

This chapter is mostly taken up with an explanation and demonstration of the capabilities and limitations of the Loop, the mental gadget Val Con has that estimates probabilities of success and survival for him. (It still has at least one trick up whatever mental gadgets have instead of sleeves, though, which we will learn about later.)

Miri is worried about Val Con because he’s just calculated and recited the odds of her dying at his hand without showing any emotion or personal investment. I don’t think she’s right about him not comprehending what he’s been saying, though; the narration notes that he had to make an effort to keep his voice emotionless. It would be interesting to know what the emotion was that he was trying not to show.

Agent of Change – Chapter 8

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In which Miri thinks on her feet.

Miri and Val Con are both older than the eighteen to twenty-five years estimated in the police bulletin: Miri is twenty-seven, and Val Con is thirty. It’s already been noted that Val Con looks significantly younger than he is; apparently Miri does too. It’s likely a Liaden thing, considering that it’s Terrans doing the estimating, and in any case the height probably has something to do with it.

I’ve mentioned before that one of the things I like about this series is that many of the minor characters, though they may appear once and then never be seen again, have distinct personalities and a sense of personal history. This chapter contains a few more examples.

Agent of Change – Chapter 7

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In which preparations are made for dinner.

I went back and checked “To Cut an Edge” again, and it says that the stick-knife is a standard part of a Scout’s kit. That surprised me a bit; I’d have said it seemed more like a spy’s weapon than a Scout’s. On reflection, though, Scouts by the nature of their profession spend a lot of time in uncertain situations, and this can’t be the first time in Val Con’s career where it was wise to be armed without seeming to be.

I’m not sure why Selector’s response to Edger about the deal with Justin Hostro is so grumpy. Annoyed at how much Edger is talking up the deal, maybe. Or just generally ill-disposed to anything involving the Cavern of Flawed Knives. Any thoughts?

Agent of Change – Chapter 6

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In which Miri and Val Con discuss family history.

One of the interesting things about Miri’s family tree is that, if Val Con’s calculation of the year named Amrasam is accurate, Miri’s grandmother was born within a year of Val Con’s father. Daav yos’Phelium waited until relatively late in life to marry and have a family, but Miri Tiazan, as we will be told later, had her daughter young, and her daughter seemingly did the same.

It may be that, in this, Daav is the odd one out. There’s a cultural imperative for every Liaden to have at least one descendant, and many Liadens who appear in the series are shown to have opted to do it early to get it out of the way. What the cultural imperative is on Surebleak I don’t know for sure, but a ghetto world with a short life expectancy would probably also tend toward young parenthood. Miri Tiazan didn’t live to see the age at which Daav yos’Phelium started seriously considering his posterity.

Agent of Change – Chapter 5

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In which Miri meets Val Con’s brother.

The story of Val Con’s first meetings with Edger and Handler, back when Val Con was a trainee Scout and Edger had yet to achieve his twelfth shell, is told in the short story “To Cut an Edge”. Selector is also mentioned in that story, though he does not appear. Sheather is not mentioned at all, which likely just means that he was otherwise occupied at the time; though he seems to be the youngest of the Turtles here present, he is old enough and experienced enough to have been included in the market research expedition, and it seems unlikely that he would have been significantly less so a mere (by Turtle standards) twelve years ago.

Although I had remembered the Turtles’ distinctively different idea of what constitutes “a long time”, I had forgotten that this introduction explicitly notes that Edger is considered young by Turtle standards. I’d settled into thinking of him as, if not an elder, at least a person of mature years, but it’s possible that proportionally speaking he’s about the same age (and nearly as reckless) as Val Con and Miri.

It strikes me that, based on this chapter, Edger’s people and Val Con’s have several notable cultural features in common, including clans, bows, and dialects that reflect melant’i. Doubtless the details vary considerably, though.

To Cut an Edge

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In which the Edger does something hasty.

Back to Korval, but not to Liad, for Val Con is outworld on his preliminary Scout exam.

This is another story where I feel like I’d probably have more to say if I were reading it for the first time.

I like all the characters in this; they’re strongly drawn and make the most of the limited screen time they get. (An un-looked-for advantage of e-readers is that I no longer have to stop and ask myself “Can I say ‘screen time’ when it’s on paper instead of a screen?”) Edger’s first scene also does some good compact work at showing the Turtles’ society and their idea of doing things in a timely manner.

It’s probably just a coincidence, but I notice that in this stretch of stories which introduce (or re-introduce as adults) the main players of the new generation, Pat Rin’s story is next to Natesa’s and Val Con’s is next to Miri’s. (But no Shan story to go next to Priscilla’s, apparently. Yet.)

Tomorrow: “Shadow Partner”