Tag Archives: The Goddess

Plan B – Chapter 30

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Erob’s Boundary
War Zone

In which Val Con has a plan which is too audacious to fail.

Over the course of this book, I’ve been having trouble figuring out what it means for a Liaden to be one of “the line direct”. Earlier, Nova said that Miri’s heirloom showed her grandmother was one of the line direct and that would make her easier to identify, and I thought maybe that meant the line direct was whichever family line a clan’s delm was chosen from: Line Tiazan in Miri’s case, or Line yos’Phelium in Korval. But here is Shan counting himself and Priscilla as members of the line direct, so at least in Korval’s case it’s not just yos’Phelium.

But now that I’m thinking about it, I recall a scene back in Scout’s Progress where the term is used to distinguish between someone who might wear Korval’s crest because they’re actually a member of the clan and someone who might wear Korval’s crest because they’re an employee in one of Korval’s businesses. So, I guess that’s what it means, and that does fit the bit with Miri’s heirloom: knowing that her ancestor was an actual member of Clan Erob and not just someone who happened to work for them at some point would make it easier to narrow down who she is. (I’m not sure I see the usefulness of the concept in general: wouldn’t every person be in the line direct of their own clan? But then again, Liadens don’t really do “in general”; there’s always a context. Whenever a Liaden says “the line direct”, the meaning would always be outlined by who’s speaking, who they’re speaking to, and what hats they’re wearing.)

Plan B – Chapter 27

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Erob’s Boundary
Quarry War Zone

In which the Yxtrang come off second-best in an argument.

I’m glad Dustin survived; I would have felt bad if he’d gotten killed because Shan maneuvred him into taking him back to the lifeboat.

I’m struck by the detail that the Yxtrang have one kind of rifle for ordinary troopers and a different kind for officers. I mean, I know we recently learned that the Commander of the Gyrfalks owns a particularly nice pistol, but that’s presumably because she made an individual decision that she wanted it, and probably saved up some of her own money to get it, not because of a standard rule. I wonder what the difference is between the Troopers Regular Field Long Arm and the Officers Personal Duty Long Arm: Is the officer version functionally the same, just with extra frills? Or do the officers get a weapon that works better than the regular trooper version? Or worse?

Priscilla’s flash of memory is interesting, because I don’t think it’s hers. The involvement of the red counter suggests that it’s an older memory, from Moonhawk or Lute, though none of the stories we’ve yet been told about them has anything to match it.

Plan B – Chapter 24

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Lytaxin War Zone
Altitude: 12 kilometers

In which Shan finds himself in a war zone.

First published description of how the Tree talks, I think, and the most talkative it’s been since the prequels. Maybe it’s significant that this is one of the seedlings; perhaps being talkative is an attribute of the young.

In a moment that relates to something we’ve discussed in the comments, Shan reflects on the traditional differences between yos’Phelium and yos’Galan, and acknowledges that genetically there’s not actually much to choose between them. I wonder how much that extends to un-war-like Cousin Luken; we know Line bel’Tarda has had at least one infusion from relatively-respectable yos’Galan, but I don’t recall any mention of piratical yos’Phelium doing likewise.

I don’t remember now what I made of Shan’s encounter the first time, before I’d read the short stories about Lute. Re-reading it now, with those under my belt, two things occur to me. One is that Lute and Moonhawk have unfinished business in this when that is going to catch up with Shan and Priscilla sooner or later. The other is that I like the bit of business with the dagger; it’s very Lute.

Plan B – Chapter 21

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Dutiful Passage
In Jump

In which the Passage is welcomed to Lytaxin.

Another chapter where much happens, but all I can find to talk about is minor details like this:

The message signed by Grandmother Cantra establishes that Plan B is very old. It’s even older than the Council of Clans, which wasn’t chartered until the sixth year after Planetfall.

Carpe Diem – Chapter 65

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Dutiful Passage

In which Shan and Priscilla regroup and reflect.

“I didn’t know it wasn’t possible, so I did it” is a glib enough explanation, but given some of the things we’re told elsewhere, I have a suspicion that Shan’s achievements are a sign that there’s more to him than he knows — and particularly, that it’s being brought out of him by his association with Priscilla, which would explain why it wasn’t spotted when he was young.

That’s an interesting detail, about direct mindspeech being so uncommon that Priscilla doesn’t know of anyone with the capability. Now I’m trying to think if there have been any other people doing it in the series so far.

This is another chapter which gains in richness from all the work the authors did in Conflict of Honors.

Carpe Diem – Chapter 61

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Dutiful Passage

In which Shan and Priscilla go visiting.

And now we’re into that portion near the end of a Liaden novel where the chapters get shorter in a way that works as fast-paced action editing if you’re reading them normally but doesn’t work so well if you’re on a strict schedule of one chapter a day.

It sounds, from what Shan says, as if there’s never been a yos’Galan delm of Korval, and will not be as long as yos’Galan has any say in it. yos’Galan will accept the duty of First Speaker when necessary, but no more, and even that only as long as necessary before they can hand the reins back to yos’Phelium. I suppose if yos’Phelium failed entirely, yos’Galan would be obliged to become the primary line and take up the ring, but not for any lesser catastrophe. (And I’m having trouble picturing the circumstance that might destroy yos’Phelium utterly without taking yos’Galan too.)

Carpe Diem – Chapter 53

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Dutiful Passage

In which the captain has a task for the first mate, as one member of Korval to another.

There’s something funny going on with the timing between last chapter and this. Since receiving Nova’s declaration, Dutiful Passage has visited three planets, shedding cargo and crew, a process that must have taken days if not weeks. (From Ardred to Raggtown alone was twenty days in Conflict of Honors, although that was on a trading schedule and they’re presumably travelling more quickly and more directly now.) And so, days or weeks after receiving Nova’s declaration, comes a pinbeam from Anthora, reporting an attack on Trealla Fantrol — which attack took place less than an hour after Nova declared Plan B to be in effect. Pinbeams, we’ve been told, are considerably more expensive than more common methods of long-distance communication, and part of the reason for that is because they don’t take weeks to get to their destination.

On the other hand, the name implies that a pinbeam message is sent directly to its destination, which might mean that it relies on the recipient being in a known location. Perhaps Anthora directed the message to where the Dutiful Passage was scheduled to be, but the Passage wasn’t there because it had already shifted to moving more quickly and more directly, and the message has been playing catch-up since.

Speaking of shedding cargo, there’s an interesting mention of the ship’s very outline having changed, become “lean and sleek”, which suggests that in the normal course of things the ship carries some significant amount of cargo attached to the outside of it instead of carried within internal cargo bays.

What Shan says in this chapter indicates how far off the mark the Department’s view of Korval is. The Department sees that Korval is powerful, and suspects Korval of being a rival for control of Liad’s interests, because that’s what it would be in Korval’s place. But Korval’s interests and priorities are not the same as the Department’s, arising from origins so different that the Department probably wouldn’t be able to understand them even if it was aware of them.

The way Shan tells Priscilla about his decision ties back to the conversation they had earlier about the necessity of seeking for Val Con, in which he said that since they were not yet lifemates Korval’s necessities were not yet hers.

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 44

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Dutiful Passage

In which Priscilla takes delivery of a package.

Another question answered: the metaphorical citadel that prevents Priscilla from contacting Val Con is of his own construction, presumably to keep the Department from capturing his inmost self. Which seems right, on reflection; it feels like a set of psychic walls imposed from without, however well constructed, would have some kind of metaphorical chink that Priscilla would be able to take advantage of.

Conflict of Honors – Chapter 50

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Shipyear 65
Tripday 287
Third Shift
16.00 hours

In which Shan and Priscilla consider the future.

I haven’t enjoyed re-reading Conflict of Honors quite so very much as I did some of the earlier novels in the re-read, but I think a large part of that may be that I’ve re-read it so many times already; the pleasure it gives me now comes from familiarity rather than the joy of discovery, which can be a bit of a problem when I’m using discovery to power the blog entries. There’s also the way it’s divided into so many little chapters, which can get a bit wearing at one chapter per day.

Tomorrow is the novella “Changeling”, and then we return to a distant, hitherto briefly-glimpsed part of the universe for the novel Fledgling.