Tag Archives: Springbreeze Farm

Prodigal Son

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In which Scout Commander yos’Phelium returns to the scene of the crime.

I haven’t read this story since a while before the first time I read Ghost Ship, and there’s quite a bit more to it than I remembered. I remembered the mirrored scenes with Miri at the beginning and end, and I remembered everything that happened at the Explorers Club, but the entire middle section I’d completely forgotten about. It’s a much better story with the middle in.

(I recognised the bits with Nelirikk that were included in Ghost Ship, of course, because I’ve just finished reading that, but I remember thinking both times I read Ghost Ship that those must have been new additions to the course of events.)

Speaking of the mirrored sections at the beginning and end, I noticed on this re-read that the opening scene is also reflected in the middle, with Hakan and Kem taking the places of Val Con and Miri, and the place of the rocking chair being taken by a different rocking chair.

Carpe Diem – Chapter 57

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Vandar
Springbreeze Farm

In which contacting a spaceship is beneficial only if one has plans to leave the planet.

Faced with the possibility of getting a lift off the planet, Miri and Val Con now need to decide if they want to try and make something of it.

Despite the attraction to Miri of a planet that’s like home except cleaner and with happy children, I think there’s really only one way the choice could have come out. Apart from Val Con, as Miri mentions, having things left undone in the wide universe, I don’t think they actually have the option of staying on Vandar the rest of their lives: with all the people looking for them, they’re going to be found sooner or later. The choice isn’t really “stay or go”, it’s “be found now, when we’re expecting it and have some measure of control over the circumstances, or be found later, perhaps unexpecting and unprepared”.

Carpe Diem – Chapter 55

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Winterfair

In which there is an opening for a trio.

Speaking of language lessons, Miri’s a lot more fluent in Benish these days too. It’s an interesting detail that she’s started using Benish figures of speech even when she’s talking to herself in Terran.

I don’t know that it tells us anything new, but as a bit of incluing I admire Miri’s statement that once it starts snowing the place will be just like Surebleak except with happy people.

Carpe Diem – Chapter 46

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Dutiful Passage

In which Priscilla and Shan open Miri’s package.

There are a lot of little character details in this chapter that I like, which help to make Priscilla, Shan and Miri seem like real people.

I understand, from past conversations, that the wording of Miri’s message is not the same in all editions of Carpe Diem. For the record, then, this is the wording in the copies I own, published by Meisha Merlin:

We’re okay. Clan Korval in danger. Don’t talk to Interior Department. Go to Edger if things get bad. Ship coil-blown — world restricted. Tell Shan: Access Grid seven-aught-three \Trimex:Veldrad. Repeat: Access Grid 703 \Trimex:Veldrad. Love to all.

Carpe Diem – Chapter 43

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Springbreeze Farm

In which Miri and Val Con are reunited.

Ah, you can tell Val Con’s recovered: they’re bantering again. I love the banter in this series.

And after all this time we get an answer to the question of who gets which coloured napkin, though no indication of whether it’s a definite or a contingent answer. Is the blue napkin always for Val Con, or only under some circumstances, or does anybody get whichever colour they want?

This is a fairly significant chapter for the series, in that it contains the first-published detailed description of the lifemate’s bond or wizard’s match. (Which I still think is a consequence rather than a cause of people getting together, even though Val Con here recalls hearing stories about intended lifemates finding each other through their bond. Stories may be made up or distorted, especially so in a context that encourages a romantic spin on the material.)

Carpe Diem – Chapter 35

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Springbreeze Farm

In which there is war in Bentrill.

This is a chapter where I would probably have had plenty to say on a first reading, but on the re-read it’s mostly “Yes, that’s how I remember it going.”

Val Con’s reached back into his Agent of Change conditioning to gain an advantage in the battle (to ensure Miri’s safety, where he would not have taken such a risk on his own account), and there are already signs that there are going to be consequences.

I wonder when Val Con learned to recognise the Gyrfalks’ battle cry; as far as I recall, nobody had occasion to use it during the very brief period he and Miri were travelling with the Gyrfalks. Maybe Miri’s been using it while they’ve been sparring.

Carpe Diem – Chapter 33

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Springbreeze Farm

In which there is danger and Miri is home alone.

Things are heating up, with two hazardous situations developing in parallel. Although I don’t think they’re actually occurring simultaneously; I have a feeling the Edger subplot might be getting stretched out through the book instead of occurring at a consistent pace.

The radio news report Miri doesn’t listen to is presumably connected to the Bassilan rebels that were mentioned in passing the first time Zhena Trelu took Val Con and Miri in to Gylles.

Carpe Diem – Chapter 29

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Springbreeze Farm

In which Priscilla’s message is received.

Val Con mentions that Korval has been led by “thirty-one generations of yos’Pheliums”. If we assume a round figure of a thousand years since the founding of the Clan, that gives an average spacing of 30-35 years between generations, which is not unreasonable and accords with the information we have about the ages at which various yos’Pheliums have become parents.

It does, however, contrast interestingly with the information established elsewhere that the number of actual Delms to date has been 85. That works out to an average of 2-3 Delms per generation, and each Delm holding the post for an average of slightly over a decade. And we know that there have been stretches where there was only one Delm in each generation, and Delms who have borne the ring for as much as fifty years, so there must also have been periods when the turnover was even more rapid than the average suggests.

The message from Priscilla, with its implication that Korval is enquiring into matters relating to the doings of the Department, leaves Val Con determined that they must do something, and soon. It remains to be seen, however, what can be done.

Carpe Diem – Chapter 27

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Springbreeze Farm

In which Val Con paints portraits in piano music.

Miri is right: Val Con is trying to hide parts of himself from her. We have that not only in this chapter, when he declines to attempt more than the most cursory musical sketch of himself, but in the previous chapter, when his joy at being able to hear her life-song was mixed with hope that she would not be able to hear his. Given the life he was leading before he met Miri, it’s understandable that he might be reluctant to expose her to the details, but it strikes me that lack of communication is not wise in a long-term committed relationship. Even if he doesn’t want to reveal details, it might help to be honest about the fact that he is keeping something hidden, and about why. It may even be that, having been acquainted with the problem, Miri may be able to help him with it, the way he helped her when she was afraid of how he might react to knowing the real her. It’s a thing partners and lifemates do.

When I first read the Liaden novels, I had to stop in the middle of this chapter for several weeks, because my copy of Partners in Necessity had a binding error and contained a repeat of pages 609-656 where pages 657-704 should have been. (When I reported the error to Meisha Merlin, they very kindly sent me a new copy without charge, for which I’m still grateful.) If you happen to know of anyone who owns the copy with the inverse problem, get in touch — maybe we’ll be able to find an eccentric collector who’ll buy the pair of them as a matched set…

Carpe Diem – Chapter 26

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Springbreeze Farm

In which Jerry’s piano returns to life.

Time’s moving strangely again. There’s mention of a tune Hakan was playing on his guitar “three days ago”, which might be on the day Val Con and Miri met him and he persuaded Zhena Trelu to let Val Con use the piano; three days seems a reasonable period for them to find time to line their schedules up so he can come and tune the piano. But Zhena Trelu says it’s been “three weeks” since Miri and Val Con showed up, and the day before they met Hakan Miri said it was “barely a week”. That would suggest that it’s been over a week since they met Hakan, and while that’s possible and it’s also possible that the occasion three days ago was not the first time they heard Hakan playing his guitar, it seems less likely that Hakan would let a whole week go by before seeing to the piano.

In other, less ambiguous, time-related news, it’s three years since Zhena Trelu’s zamir died, which makes this local year 1478. Whatever that might mean in comparison to the Standard Calendar.

The conversation between Miri and Zhena Trelu outside the locked door is another of my favourite moments in this novel.