Dutiful Passage
In which Padi makes connections and Shan receives news from home.
The looper families Shan mentions are among those who have appeared or been mentioned in the Jethri-era stories: the Smiths were the first family to have norbears travelling with them, the Tragers were friendly with Jethri’s family, and the Wildes did that ill-fated bit of experimenting with Old Tech.
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Bechimo
In which Bechimo is free to fly.
As I said at least once before, way back near the beginning of this project, it’s always something when fictional characters have philosophical discussions about whether their life is proceeding according to some pre-ordained plan.
It wouldn’t be at all true to say that Bechimo‘s visit to Surebleak accomplished nothing, of course, but I notice that they’re leaving with the Pathfinders they were planning to drop off, and the cat they were planning to drop off, and the tree they were planning to drop off, and even the ship they were planning to drop off…
Jelaza Kazone
The Tree Court
In which Emissary Twelve is making rapid progress.
The authors are playing with the timeline a bit in order to spread characters’ scenes out, I think. It’s unlikely that Miri’s last scene (showing the beginning of a long afternoon at the office) took place after Val Con’s last scene, which ended with him getting the message to come to the Tree Court — unless he took a very relaxed stroll from the outer garden to the Tree. Or perhaps I’m underestimating how long the conversation at the Tree takes; after all, a Turtle is capable of some impressive pauses for thought.
Bechimo
In which there is a free and frank exchange of views.
In all the excitement, I don’t think anyone got around to reading the emergency pinbeam message. It should be okay, though; most likely it was just a heads-up about the thing that happens at the end of the chapter, which went okay anyhow.
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In which Val Con and Miri are not getting much sleep tonight.
Chapter 20 is shaping up to be a long chapter, to the point that I’m almost wondering if I need to subdivide the sections even further. Makes sense, though, since this is the chapter where a whole bunch of plot strands come together, not just from this book but from the four books preceding it.
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Surebleak
In which we are reunited with various people already resident on Surebleak.
As the first chapter of the latest book of a series, this is mainly concerned with reminding the reader (or introducing them if they’re entering the series here) who everyone is and what they’ve been up to. It’s quite a long chapter, which might simply be that it’s a long series and there are a lot of characters to catch up on — but then, we don’t catch up on everybody, which suggests that these might be just the characters we need to know about to follow what’s going to happen in this novel. Which suggests there’s going to be a lot happening.
(Just how long a chapter the first chapter is depends whether the first part of the novel set on Surebleak, divided into three sections headed I, II & III, is one chapter or three. I wrote the paragraph above thinking of the whole thing as one chapter, but on reflection, I think I’m going to blog it as three chapters, if only so that the blog entries are a reasonable length.)
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Bechimo
Aubernet System
In which Bechimo arrives in a new place.
Lots of technical details in this chapter, which is impresive but not the kind of thing I personally find most entertaining to read or talk about.
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Bechimo
Among the Sweet Growing Things
In which a situation develops in the hydroponics bay.
I like the description of Kara tending to the plants: three paragraphs on the value of talking to plants, with, as an afterthought, one sentence acknowledging a possible more hard-headed take on the subject.
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Bechimo
In which the ambassador greets Grakow and his attendants.
Between Hevelin petitioning for Tree Junior to be included in crew meetings, and the seed pod it gave Theo a little while back, I’m beginning to suspect that when they do eventually hand over Spiral Dance to Korval, Tree Junior is not planning to go with. That makes sense, come to think of it; unlike its parent, who’s had centuries to get used to being in one place, this tree still has fresh memories of travelling around having adventures with Jela and Cantra, and might want to stick with Theo and have more adventures.
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Bechimo
In which preparations are made ahead of the captain’s debriefing.
Watching the Pathfinders try to make sense of Joyita while lacking the key detail about him is kind of amusing.
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