Tag Archives: ‘skins

Crystal Soldier – Chapter 17

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On port
Barbit

In which Jela and Cantra go for a quiet drink.

This is one of my favourite chapters in the Crystal Duology. Possibly it’s because it’s a very Korval sort of scene in a duology that mostly sets a different tone than the Korval novels. I could see Val Con and Miri, for instance, getting into a situation similar to this one.

Though I realised on this re-read that it’s not just the Korval novels it reminds me of:

As Lobsang followed the ambling Lu-Tze he heard the dojo master, who like all teachers never missed an opportunity to drive home a lesson, say: ‘Dojo! What is Rule One?’
Even the cowering challenger mumbled along to the chorus:
‘Do not act incautiously when confronting little bald wrinkly smiling men!’

Crystal Soldier – Chapter 15

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Spiral Dance
Taliofi

In which several people are not what they appear to be.

There are, of course, no Liadens in this setting, but there are people who possess attributes that will come to be considered Liaden. A few chapters ago, it was mentioned in passing that a golden-tan skin tone is a high class marker, and here we learn likewise about the very Liaden-like manners of a person with that skin tone. The word used is “Inside”, which I suspect refers to the inner reaches of the galaxy, placing high society socially and geographically at the opposite pole from the Rim.

And Rint dea’Sord, the first person we’ve yet encountered who combines a Liaden-like skin tone with Liaden-like manners and a Liaden-like name, is a fraud. The skin tone is make-up, the manners are self-taught and wouldn’t stand up in the actual Inside, his pretty Inside accent disappears in emotional extremity, and all things considered I wouldn’t lay money on the name being authentic either. He’s putting on high-society manners for the advantage it gives him against his fellow low-lifes.

Meanwhile Cantra, it seems, is doing the inverse. She was brought up with high-class manners, which she doesn’t use, preferring to present herself as a Rimmer like Garen. In retrospect, there were several moments foreshadowing this, including the moment a few chapters ago where Dulsey bows to her and she almost replies with the corresponding bow instead of a Rimmer’s nod, and the way her reminisces of Garen have always mentioned Rimmers in a way that leaves it ambiguous about whether she counts herself as one. And the fact that she was the subject of the previous mention of golden-tan skin tone as a high class marker.

Also, she’s an aelantaza — whatever that is, the few details we’ve got so far sound worrying — and her “first aid kit” is, judging by Jela’s reaction, sheriekas tech.

Crystal Soldier – Chapter 14

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Spiral Dance
Transition

In which Cantra exercises due caution.

Here is another point of distinction between this setting and the setting of the later Liaden novels: the transition from Faldaiza nearspace to Taliofi nearspace takes twelve seconds. Interstellar journeys in the later novels are more likely to take hours, if not days.

(Or am I comparing the wrong things? Most of the journeys that come to mind at the moment involve Dutiful Passage, which is a full-size trade vessel; Spiral Dance is a much smaller ship, and maybe that is the only significance difference. Something to keep an eye on going forward, anyway.)

Crystal Soldier – Chapter 13

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Outbound, Faldaiza Nearspace
Approaching Transition

In which it is not better to be locked out of the pilot’s tower than to be locked in.

Another short chapter.

We get a glimpse of Cantra’s childhood as she’s waking up, in a reasonably natural and unforced bit of exposition. Followed by that classic of unnatural exposition, The Character Looks At Her Reflection So The Reader Can Find Out What She Looks Like.

There’s an interesting bit near the end of the chapter. Apparently this is the first time Jela’s slept apart from the tree since they joined forces. The tree doesn’t appear to be at all bothered by the separation, though.

Crystal Soldier – Chapter 11

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On the ground
Faldaiza Port

In which Cantra acquires a co-pilot, a mechanic, and a damn’ vegetable.

There are, at various points in the series, mentions of the Tree’s leaves rustling in a way that has nothing to do with any wind that might be blowing. In this chapter, there’s the inverse: at a moment when rustling leaves would be an unhelpful distraction, the Tree’s leaves stay still despite the wind.

What with Cantra complaining about Jela not knowing who’s after him, it occurs to me that I don’t know who’s after him either. What are the options? Agents of the Enemy disguised as humans? Actual humans who have some reason to want Jela’s efforts to fail?

As Dulsey shows hidden depths and a desire to seek an independent destiny, we get some more backstory about the way things are for Batchers. The observation that the only sure way to be rid of Batch tattoos is to amputate and regrow both arms is striking, not only for what it says about Batch tattoos but also for what it says about the present state of medicine.

Crystal Soldier – Chapter 10

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On the ground
Faldaiza Port

In which you gotta know when to walk away, know when to run.

Well. This is getting quite exciting, isn’t it?

The name of Dulsey crops up for the first and not the last time.

I’m trying to remember if we see the gambler again; I have a kind of feeling we do, but it’s hard to be sure without a name to latch onto, and the situation in which we last see her in this chapter could go either way. I don’t have the same kind of feeling about the two cops, so it’s nice that they got to have so much personality in such a small appearance.

Crystal Soldier – Chapter 9

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On the ground
Faldaiza Port

In which somebody is taking an interest in Jela and Cantra.

I’m not sure I have anything particular to say about this chapter. Stuff happens, but I don’t want to just recount what happened without adding anything of my own.

I did like the detail that the bar is as successful as it is in part due to suggestions from Jela. A generalist is a useful person to have around.

Crystal Soldier – Chapter 8

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On board Spiral Dance
Faldaiza Port

In which Cantra yos’Phelium goes for a meal and some company, and gets more than she expected.

Enter a new point-of-view character: Cantra yos’Phelium, independent cargo pilot running solo.

With the new point of view, we get an outside description of Jela. He has eyes as black as the space between the stars, and, yes, brown skin. He’s shorter than the breadth of his shoulders would suggest — and shorter than Cantra, though that’s not so indicative since her height is “not inconsiderable”.

We learn about Cantra’s height from her own point of view, as well as the fact that she’s not as young as she was. From Jela’s point of view, we learn that Cantra has green eyes.

Quite a bit of backstory threaded through this chapter: about Batchers; about world-eaters; about the Rim, its people in general and Cantra and Garen in particular. Also about the navigation beacons, which caught my attention when first I read this, because they don’t have (or apparently need) those in later novels. Other things they don’t have in later novels include the smart clothing on display here, that can scan rooms for danger, send messages, display images in the air.

And another thing that caught my attention the first time, as someone who’d only read the later novels, is the mention and description of Solcintra, that fabled origin planet, which apparently is rather less illustrious in its own time than it appears through the filter of nostalgia.

Crystal Soldier – Chapter 7

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Awaiting Transport

In which Jela heads off into the wild blue-green yonder.

Not that much happens in this chapter: a shuttle lands, Jela and the tree get in, it takes off again. The interest is in the details: about the technology of the shuttle, about Jela’s training, about Jela’s past (the intriguing description of his name as “nothing more than a quartermaster’s joke”).

Speaking of names, we learn the name of the Commander who recruited Jela to his present course of action: Ro Gayda. Absent further context, it’s not clear whether that’s all surname, or part surname and part personal name (and if so — he added, remembering Ro Laren — which is which).

There’s also an interesting description of Jela helping the tree gain a fuller understanding of flying machines.