Tag Archives: Sintia

Conflict of Honors – Chapter 34

Leave a Reply

Trealla Fantrol, Liad
Year Named Trolsh
Third Relumma
Cheletha Sixthday

In which Delm Plemia resolves to seek clarification from his kin.

So, Mr dea’Gauss has sent word to House Mendoza, despite Priscilla assuring him in no uncertain terms that it was not necessary. I suppose a man in his position must from time to time make his own determinations as to what necessity requires based on the information available to him, and the information available to Mr dea’Gauss at present does not include anything that might dissuade him from the assumption that Priscilla merely wished politely to save him some effort.

Mr dea’Gauss has apparently decided that this is a cause worthy enough to put up with being flung across the galaxy again. That he would accept the necessity without complaint doesn’t mean much, since I don’t suppose it would be appropriate to complain with an outsider present, but not only does he not complain, he almost smiles.

Conflict of Honors – Chapter 31

3 Replies

Shipyear 65
Tripday 155
Fourth Shift
20.00 hours

In which Priscilla learns a thing or two about Shan.

The detail about Priscilla’s shirt caught my eye on this reading: one of those little things that might escape one’s notice if one hadn’t got the background detail about the way she used to dress back on Sintia.

It appears that there are, after all, creatures other than the norbears in the pet library; though I confess I haven’t the slightest idea what a sylfok might be.

Conflict of Honors – Chapter 28

1 Reply

Shipyear 65
Tripday 155
Third Shift
12.00 hours

In which Gordy becomes a tree.

A little domestic interlude before the crew meeting, which is no doubt going to have Consequences.

I like the part where Lina is watching Priscilla at work. It adds to the ongoing thing of Priscilla’s friends learning about her, and it’s also a nice example of the technique of having a character compare an unfamiliar thing with a thing that’s familiar to the character but not so much to the reader, and thereby show the reader more about both things.

Conflict of Honors – Chapter 27

1 Reply

Shipyear 65
Tripday 155
Second Shift
6.00 hours

In which Sav Rid Olanek makes a countermove.

Just one of those details one notices: Near the beginning of the chapter, Priscilla wishes she might be told that she’d done something well, rather than the second mate’s understated “okay”. By the end of her chapter, she’s got her wish, although (as is so often the case with wishes) in circumstances that she might happily have foregone if given the choice.

One wonders precisely what instructions the mercenaries were given that their captain summarized as “he wanted you out of the race real bad”. I’d be inclined to assume that meant shoot-to-kill, but we were told earlier that death is not usually considered an appropriate way to achieve Balance, and I don’t think Sav Rid’s that far gone yet. Is he?

Conflict of Honors – Chapter 25

1 Reply

Shipyear 65
Tripday 148
Fourth Shift
20.00 hours

In which even a Mendoza of Sintia must deal with graceless people at parties.

Though Priscilla welcomes the intercession of Mr dea’Gauss and Judge Zahre as divine intervention, she might reasonably be inclined to doubt that that was what it was after it results in Ambassador Grittle’s outburst. And yet, I wonder; we know from the Moonhawk stories that the Goddess is not averse to steering her children through uncomfortable moments on the path to good outcomes, so it’s possible that there was a divine intervention and that the outburst was as much an intended part of it as the intercession. (Indeed, there are times when I suspect that the entire course of Priscilla’s life from that day in Diablo’s has been part of divine plan that we have yet to see the end of. It’s a hard road she’s been walking, but certain people seem to have spent the last few centuries building roadblocks over all the easy ones.)

Speaking of roadblocks, I take it that Shan’s shadowed expression in the last scene of the chapter is due to the reminder that, for all that they’re able to be comfortable and joke together, Priscilla still thinks of him first of all as Captain yos’Galan, with all the limits that implies on how they might interact. If she’d understood that she had the option of replying to her friend Shan instead of to her captain, and if she’d chosen to exercise that option, the conversation might have proceeded very differently.

Conflict of Honors – Chapter 13

1 Reply

Arsdred Port City
Local Year 728
Midday Bazaar

In which Priscilla encounters Dagmar Collier again.

The opening paragraphs of this chapter do an impressively colourful bit of scene-setting. Though I feel obliged to note that the depiction of the “dark-skinned, doe-eyed, hook-nosed” Arsdredi merchants rubs against the part of me that gets annoyed by unthoughtful recycling of cultural stereotypes. Particularly since the police at the end of the chapter, who are presumably also Arsdredi, partake of a completely different cultural sterotype.

This chapter contains a rare mention of Ken Rik the cargo master’s surname, which for the record is yo’Lanna.

“Moonphase” doesn’t say there was a sculpture of a triglant among the things Priscilla took with her from the Temple. Then again, it doesn’t say there wasn’t.

Conflict of Honors – Chapter 12

1 Reply

Shipyear 65
Tripday 139
Third Shift
16.00 hours

In which Kayzin Ne’Zame’s suspicion of Priscilla comes to a head.

They’re nearly at Arsdred, and Priscilla hasn’t yet decided whether she intends to remain with the Passage after that. She was being swayed toward staying before she got the sharp reminder that the first mate doesn’t welcome her, and she doesn’t know yet that the captain has required the first mate to mend her ways.

I like the wrinkliness of Kayzin Ne’Zame’s relationship with Shan. She questions his decisions, but it’s because she feels it’s her duty and responsibility to make sure he’s thought them through properly, and when he puts her in her place, she’s mortified for herself but also proud of him for the demonstration of the quality of his melant’i.

It’s a good thing I wasn’t very attached to the hypothesis of 5-hour shifts, because this chapter’s dateline breaks it, too. I think the model of 6-hour shifts best fits the data so far, with the previously-mentioned fudge for the tenth chapter. On that model, Third Shift would run from Twelfth Hour to Eighteenth Hour, with Priscilla’s dinner date at Seventeenth Hour being accommodated by the policy Shan mentions of allowing an hour off to eat.

Conflict of Honors – Chapter 11

3 Replies

Shipyear 65
Tripday 137
First Shift
1.30 hours

In which troubled days make for restless nights.

Priscilla has a nightmare, possibly brought on by Kayzin Ne’Zame’s hostility. (On the other hand, there are indications that nightmares were Priscilla’s default sleep pattern before she came on board the Passage, and this is just a restoration of the status quo.) Lina attempts to comfort her, both by the usual means and with her Healer abilities, but hits an obstacle in the fact that the method of achieving tranquility Priscilla learned in Temple includes a shield to keep out outside influences — which is fine if it’s an outside influence disturbing one’s tranquility, but not so good if the problem is inside the shield with you.

(Incidentally, we get at least part of an answer to what happened after Priscilla kissed Lina a couple of chapters ago. I didn’t comment on that last chapter, because I figured that if they didn’t want to go into details, it wasn’t really any of my business.)

Conflict of Honors – Chapter 6

5 Replies

Shipyear 65
Tripday 130
Fourth Shift
18.00 hours

In which Priscilla meets Shan yos’Galan.

Contrary to what I said last week, this must be where I first learned about Liadens and faces. It must be. Conflict of Honors was the first Liaden story I ever read, and certainly Gordy’s recital is the most detailed and explicit statement of the case to be found anywhere in the series. I don’t remember it, though. There is a difference, perhaps, between being told about a thing in the abstract and coming to comprehend it through being shown examples of it in action.

The dateline on this chapter is not consistent with a 28-hour day divided into four 7-hour shifts, in which 18.00 hours would be deep in Third Shift. It would, on the other hand, fit a 24-hour day divided into four shifts.

Conflict of Honors – Chapter 1

Leave a Reply

Maidenstairs Plaza
Local Year 1002
Standard 1375

In which Moonhawk is dead, and has to find a new way to make a living.

Read immediately after “Moonphase”, this is pretty much just a coda, and there’s not a lot to add.

(Unless one starts in on the apparent inconsistencies between the timelines of the two accounts, which I’m trying not to.)

On reflection, I think it would probably work better, if one was prepared to bend one’s definition of chronological order a bit, to not read this immediately after “Moonphase”, and instead read it as a refresher of the lady’s situation immediately before embarking on the rest of Conflict of Honors.

…which of course means that I’ve worked myself around, by slow and careful stages, to the belief that the best way to read it is the way the authors presented it in the first place. How about that?

This chapter does add one important thing to the story: that, rather than hanging around in this city, or cloistering herself with the Silent Sisters (who reside at Caleitha, a town which was mentioned in passing in “Where the Goddess Sends”), the one who was called Moonhawk chooses to head off for the uncertain opportunities represented by a glow on the horizon. The cause of the glow is not named here, but subsequent chapters will show that her decision was to make for the spaceport and thence offworld.

(We still don’t know which city this is that the spaceport is attached to, by the way, unless this Maidenstairs is the same Maidenstairs as in “Moon’s Honor”, in which case this is Dyan City again. I’m not sure that’s a solid clue — for all we know, every Temple might have an area in front of it called Maidenstairs — but it seems plausible, since the two earlier Moonhawks were both from Dyan City as well.)

Tomorrow: “Fighting Chance”