Tag Archives: Theopholis

Saltation – Chapter 17

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Ops
Anlingdin Piloting Academy

In which Theo’s advisors advise her.

It’s clear from the conversation Theo’s advisors have with her when they get back to the Academy that their hand-talk discussion on the trip back covered a lot of ground on the topic of What Are We Going To Do About Theo? — not just in general, and for the future, but also in quite a bit of detail regarding how they would approach Theo with their conclusions. The moment when yos’Senchul surprises Theo to make the point about how she reacts to the unexpected — right when Veradantha is drawing her attention by talking about how she reacts to the unexpected — has the feel of having been choreographed in advance.

I wonder if there was any particular reason for Veradantha to pick Jankalim and Theopholis for her list to demonstrate that aspects of culture are universal. (It happens that Jankalim and Theopholis are respectively the first and last planets visited by the protagonists in Conflict of Honors. Theopholis has some striking cultural details, including a peculiarly unpleasant penalty for pre-meditated murder; Jankalim we didn’t really get to see much of, culture-wise.)

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.

Conflict of Honors – Chapter 49

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Master’s Tower, Theopholis
Witch’s Hour

In which Balance is achieved.

Not the usual sort of settling of accounts one might expect at the end of an adventure story, but one which suits Priscilla’s character, and also helps demonstrate that “Balance” is not necessarily the same thing as “revenge”.

On which note, Delm Plemia clearly expects Korval and Priscilla to demand more in balance of Sav Rid’s follies than they actually do. It speaks to his melant’i that he doesn’t try to argue his way out of anything; he’s seen the evidence and he knows it’s a fair cop.

Conflict of Honors – Chapter 47

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Crown City Theopholis
Judge’s Hour

In which Sav Rid’s delm has words with him.

Seeing how unaware Sav Rid is of how far he’s strayed from the path of a man of honor and a trader whose actions reflect well on his clan, I find myself wondering if the trouble that’s about to fall on him from a great height might not be a fortunate event for him — though of course he’s not going to see it that way, regardless — and even if attacking Korval might have been, if not the wisest thing he might have done, the thing that led to the best outcome he could have reached. Supposing that he’d stuck to slightly less dramatic forms of dishonor, avoided the notice of his delm, and continued down his present path, I can’t imagine it leading to any better outcome than this, and I can imagine several outcomes for Sav Rid and his crew that would be much, much worse.

Conflict of Honors – Chapter 44

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Precinct House Detention Hall
Crown City, Theopholis
Hour of Fools

In which Shan takes Priscilla home.

And now the Hour of Fools, which makes me wonder if the naming of the hours is drawn from the Arcana of the Tarot. And also whether we’re supposed to infer that one or more of the characters in this chapter is a fool, which would be rather uncomplimentary (though not, I suppose, any more so than the previous chapter being the Hour of Demons).

Conflict of Honors – Chapter 43

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Precinct House
Crown City, Theopholis
Hour of Demons

In which the legal system of Theopholis does not show itself in the best of lights.

This is another chapter where I would probably have had more to say about it on first reading, but on re-reading my main reaction is “Yes, that’s about how I remember it”.

I’m curious about how the hours are named on Theopholis. I thought at first, with the Kings and the Knaves, the theme might be card-related, but then there was the Viscount, so I thought it might be rulers. And in this chapter, there’s a mention of the Regent’s Hour, which would fit, except that there’s also the Hour of Demons, which doesn’t. (And I wonder whether it’s significant that there are multiple Kings and Knaves and Demons, but only one each of the Viscount and the Regent.)

Conflict of Honors – Chapter 42

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Master’s Tower, Theopholis
Viscount’s Hour

In which Shan receives more bad news.

It occurs to me that events on Theopholis are echoing events on Arsdred: a confrontation involving Collier, Priscilla, and Gordy; Priscilla taken into custody; Shan called away from a pleasurable negotiation to straighten matters out… Some of the echoes are deliberate on the part of the characters (Collier deliberately picking on Priscilla and Gordy together because it was Gordy who intervened last time), others not. Bookends.

I appreciated it being mentioned that Daxflan officially has still not arrived at Theopholis. After Arsdred, it would have been spectacularly foolish for Priscilla and Gordy to be wandering around by themselves if they had known Collier was also in port.

Conflict of Honors – Chapter 41

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Crown City, Theopholis
Hour of Knaves

In which Dagmar Collier encounters the Tree and the Dragon.

This confrontation between Priscilla and Collier goes very differently from the one on Arsdred. Priscilla is a lot more self-confident now, and has access to abilities she didn’t know she had then. She’s got… call it room to maneuvre: on Arsdred, she was fighting from moment to moment to keep on top of the situation, but here she has the opportunity to consider what approach to take. I think it’s worthy of note that her first choice is to offer Collier a way out, and hold the Dragon in check as long as they can; there are people who, if they had a Dragon, would use it first chance they got. (I don’t know, mind you, whether such people would be able to achieve the study and discipline required to achieve such a Dragon as Priscilla has.) In a way, it brings Priscilla’s story back around to the incident on Sintia that got her into trouble in the first place.

Conflict of Honors – Chapters 38, 39 & 40

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Shipyear 65
Tripday 177
Second Shift
9.00 hours

Master’s Tower, Theopholis
Hour of Kings

Raggtown
Local Year 537

In which a delayed shipment goes by another carrier.

If memory serves, this is the first time in this re-read I have scheduled multiple chapters on a single day, except for a one-page interlude in Crystal Dragon. I can see why I did it, though; the three chapters are each very short, and they all relate to a single situation. In a book that didn’t divide the chapters by location, they might well have all formed part of a single chapter.

It’s instructive to compare the responses of the two Olaneks to learning that Dutiful Passage has taken Daxflan‘s cargo. Taam Olanek’s angry (and ill-directed) initial reaction suggests that there may be a family trait contributing to the way Sav Rid is, but at least after the initial outburst he is able to take himself in hand and consider the matter rationally. Sav Rid, though, continues raging, and his grudge against Korval seems to have parted company with rationality entirely. Which leads to another point of difference between them: the delm’s first thought on learning that his clan’s ship has caused a situation is to take responsibility for seeing the situation resolved; Sav Rid on the other hand seems utterly determined to place responsibility on anyone but himself.

There’s some interesting handling of bad language in this portion of the novel. In the first of the three chapters, there is Ken Rik’s uncomplimentary remark about Sav Rid, which is left untranslated, presumably to avoid bruising the sensibilities of the reader. In the third chapter, there’s Sav Rid’s uncomplimentary remark about Priscilla, which on the other hand is given a direct literal translation that doesn’t make it immediately apparent how insulting it is in the original Liaden.

And now, with the Passage and Daxflan both headed for Theopholis, and representatives of both their clans waiting to greet them, things are beginning to come to a head…