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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In which a family reunion or two occurs.
More bows and modes in this chapter than we’ve had in a while, including a couple of new ones. Well, it’s been a while since we’ve had a conversation, in other than everyday circumstances, between two parties familiar with the forms.
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Surebleak
In which Surebleak has more visitors.
A whole lotta people arriving on Surebleak in one clump, with at least one more bunch expected soon, and all of them having business with Korval. It remains to see how much more complicated things are going to get when they start (as I expect they will, sooner or later) interacting with each other as well.
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In which Tolly suggests a straightforward approach.
Tolly’s plan seems sensible and well-thought-out — as long as the universe obliges him to the extent of the outpost being occupied by the people he expects.
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Vivulonj Prosperu
In which the Uncle is not in a good mood.
I’m not sure the Lyre Institute would share Dulsey’s assessment that they paid a great cost. They lost seven agents, but the way the Institute’s directors think, it’s not as if agents are real people; spending their lives to obtain a benefit for the directors is what agents are for.
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In which Tolly Jones gets a new assignment.
I wonder if Tolly’s ever going to learn that Haz isn’t as easy to manipulate as he keeps thinking she is. (I wonder if he’s not letting himself learn it, because the thing he keeps failing to take into account is her connection to him, and processing that would mean thinking about the implications.)
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In which matters proceed with unexpected swiftness.
We were discussing pacing in the comments a few posts ago, and I said that I have trouble judging it because I only read one chapter a day. This isn’t entirely true; although I usually do read one chapter and write one blog post a day, I sometimes get ahead of the schedule if the story is exciting enough to pull me forward. (The record is the end of Scout’s Progress and beginning of Mouse and Dragon, where I burned through at least a dozen chapters as quickly as I could write the blog posts between.) The reason I mention this is that there have been a couple of places in Neogenesis, including this chapter, where I’ve started to feel that pull forward, only for it to be cut off as the story switches to a different set of characters. Switching to a new storyline every time the current one gets exciting is a way to keep suspense, but it also means that each storyline has trouble building momentum.
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In which the light keeper shares the gift of his knowledge.
Last time, I mentioned two things an experienced Liaden Universe reader might know about the light keepers that someone coming to this novel cold wouldn’t, and already both have been brought out in the open. Which is fair enough, because they’re both important things to know.
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Ahab-Esais
In which Tocohl and Inki meet the light keepers.
They’re not dead yet. That’s a good start.
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Vivulonj Prosperu
In which a change of course is called for.
I don’t yet understand how the failure of the Catalinc Project could result in everything that is ascribed to it, but I note that it sounds very similar to the potential bad future Ren Zel has foreseen.
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