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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Bechimo
Wyrd Space
In which some introductions take place.
It occurs to me to wonder if there’s some kind of familial connection between the norbears and the Trees. Then again, there might be species all over the place that communicate through mental images; we don’t really know.
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In which Daav’s future is decided.
And now the Tree approves of Daav’s choice of Aelliana — because, as I see it, now Daav has made the choice, where before he was only thinking sadly of a choice he might have made.
(And why does the Tree care? Is it, as Daav accuses, only interested in breeding stock, or did it want Daav to choose the woman with whom he’d be happy? I don’t suppose we’ll ever know. Either way, Daav is certainly right about one thing: the Tree’s method of expressing its disapproval wasn’t fair on Pilot tel’Izak.)
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Reminder: Although there is one chapter of Scout’s Progress remaining, it is repeated in its entirety near the beginning of Mouse and Dragon. With that in mind, tomorrow we go straight to Mouse and Dragon chapter 1.
Elsewhen and Otherwhere
In which Rool Tiazan and his lady are overtaken by that which pursues them.
Like so much that happens with the dramliz in this novel, I don’t much understand the details of what just happened.
I might get a better grip on it when Rool Tiazan and his lady show up again (which, this being a prequel, we know they will). But I kind of suspect I won’t.
On the ground, Star 475A
Mission time: 14.5 planet days and counting
In which Jela wouldn’t leave ’til he’d dug up that damned skinny stick of a tree.
In Scout’s Progress, one of the chapter headings is an excerpt from Cantra’s Logbook in which she recalls Jela telling her the story of how he found the tree and how he refused to leave the planet without it. The story as she recalls it doesn’t go quite like this, but then stories often change some in the re-telling. (I suspect the embellishment about the tree being so puny Jela could pot it in a left-over ration tin of being Cantra’s own contribution, though; it doesn’t seem characteristic of Jela.)
It would appear that Corporal Kinto, if not a foe, isn’t exactly a friend of Jela’s either. I wonder if there’s something personal behind that or if it’s just interservice rivalry.
On the ground, Star 475A
Mission time: 14 planet days and counting
In which Jela makes a friend and a promise.
Jela has found the last Tree. It’s an unpreposessing thing at this point, shorter than he is. He gives it water. It gives him food. (And the experienced visitor to the Liaden Universe does not discount it as mere coincidence that, after eating the seed pod it drops, he promptly falls into a hibernation that keeps him until his rescue arrives.) Speaking of the seed pod, though, it’s larger than I expected: “fist-sized”, it says, and I’d always pictured them as smaller. Perhaps they are, usually.
Reading this chapter four days after “Dragon Tide” means that the dream Jela has in the Tree’s shadow is considerably less mysterious than it might otherwise have been.
This chapter begins and ends with two interestingly-written moments: at the beginning, there’s the description of Jela’s emotion when he discovers that there is, after all, a survivor; at the end, the suspenseful wait to find out whether the approaching flyer is friend or foe, which is resolved when Jela recognises the man who jumps out — and completely dispelled when the man loses his footing and swears.
On the ground, Star 475A
Mission time: 9 planet days and counting
In which Jela conceives an interest in dendrology.
What Jela has discovered is the Trees, or what’s left of them.
While he’s following their trail, hoping to find one that’s still alive, we get some exposition about why he thinks they might be worth finding, along with a hint that although this may be a science fiction universe, it contains things that might well be indistinguishable from magic; and when his mind wanders, some more exposition about his own status as a batch-produced, gene-selected soldier. We also get the first mention of the more recent Strain, of whom we will be hearing more later, whose fashion is to wear their Batch tattoos on their faces instead of on their arms. (The voice of memory says, “On the right – insignia of born-to Troop…”)
On the ground, Star 475A
Mission time: 3.5 planet days and counting
In which M. Jela Granthor’s Guard goes for a walk.
Here, for a change, we are introduced to a character who will be back again tomorrow: M. Jela Granthor’s Guard, Generalist, who is stuck on a desolated planet after his ship was holed in a space battle, and “being a generalist — and an M” has decided that while he’s waiting for rescue he might as well do some exploring.
It is not explained precisely what a generalist is, although one gets the idea that it’s whatever is the opposite of a specialist. (The idea of a Generalist goes at least as far back as a short story titled “The Solution” that Steve Miller wrote in the days before he and Sharon Lee began collaborating.)
Come to that, it’s not explained in this chapter what any of the rest of it means. From memory, “Jela” is his personal name, and “M.” is his Strain (“like R. Daneel Olivaw”, was the thought that flitted through my head). I don’t recall precisely about “Granthor’s Guard”, whether it was his first posting or is his current posting or what, but I expect that will be cleared up sooner or later.
What is explained is a lot of backstory about the sheriekas and the present state of the galaxy, which will no doubt be important going forward.
The chapter ends with Jela making a Discovery. I am nobly resisting the urge to peek at the next chapter and see what the discovery is. (Admittedly, this would be more noble if I weren’t pretty sure I remember what it is from the first time I read this.)
In which the ancestor of a major recurring character goes a-voyaging.
“Dragon Tide” is definitely a prequel, I reckon, in nature and not just by accident of birth. It’s chronologically the earliest story of the Liaden Universe, but it’s not a good one to read first.
For one thing, if you expect the first story of a series to give an idea of what the series will be like, this story doesn’t do that. It’s told in an atypical mode, features a cast of characters we’ll never see again, and a setting that will be revisited only once, briefly, and then much changed.
For another thing, if you don’t know what’s coming after this, you’re missing out on part of the story, the way that in places it parallels or foreshadows events yet to come. I don’t know what I’d have made of this story if I’d come to it cold.
(I wonder if anyone ever has come to it cold? Some of the short stories debuted in general anthologies, but this one was a chapbook original; I don’t think it’s ever appeared in a book that wasn’t being pitched specifically at readers who were already Liaden fans.)