Tag Archives: Tor An yos’Galan

Scout’s Progress – Chapter 12

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In which Aelliana lifts as planned.

Another of Cantra’s log entries that doesn’t entirely accord with her history as revealed in the prequels. In particular, her claim to be “a sport, child of a long line of random elements”, considered from an in-universe perspective, can not be anything other than a deliberate lie.

Yardkeeper Gat’s declaration — “I don’t care what her name is or how good she can add” — is interesting. Even as he declares that Aelliana’s reputation cuts no ice in the present context (which is very likely true) he’s taking the time to show that he recognises the name and the reputation. Daav didn’t tell him she was a mathematician.

Local Custom – Chapter 33

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In which the best service Er Thom might do Syntebra el’Kamin would be to arrange matters so they need never meet again.

We’re getting toward the climax of the story now, which means the pace is picking up, which means the chapters are getting shorter, which means that if one is reading a chapter per day the suspense is being agonizingly dragged out. Argh.

I don’t fault the authors for it, since it’s not in the least implausible, but it is remarkably convenient that Syntebra el’Kamin is so thoroughly unsuited to be part of Korval, thus leaving no shadow on our hope for Er Thom to get together with Anne.

I raised my eyebrows when Syntebra thought of Er Thom as “old”, and went to check the timeline. Er Thom is only 35 years old here, but Syntebra is only 20, so he’s nearly twice her age; she was born around the time of “Pilot of Korval”, when Er Thom was already a qualified pilot and old enough to be travelling on the Passage and getting himself into trouble in an adult’s melant’i.

Local Custom – Chapter 25

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In which Shan receives two visitors.

Our first appearance of Luken bel’Tarda, who is one of my favourite characters in the series. In a setting full of hotshot pilots and marksmen and wizards and master traders and witty banterers, it’s nice to know that it’s also possible for a person who is none of those things to be signficant just by being a thoroughly decent human being. (Though, that said, I note he’s achieved the rank of Master Merchant, which suggests that even if he’s not dazzlingly brilliant he’s not stupid either.)

We also get enough detail about Pat Rin’s situation to make it quite clear why the delm found it necessary to remove him from his mother’s care into Luken’s and why her attempts to win him back are unlikely to bear fruit. Whatever her good points may be, Lady Kareen’s obviously not going to be winning any awards for motherhood.

Anne’s estimate of Luken’s age puts him within a year or two of Daav’s sister and Er Thom’s brother. I wonder if it was just happenstance that all the Lines produced heirs around the same time, or if there was some co-ordination involved.

(The estimate of Pat Rin’s age, on the other hand – which is given from Petrella’s viewpoint, so it can’t be handwaved as unfamiliarity – disagrees with the dates in the Partial Timeline by a full three Standard Years. Which, come to think of it, is Shan’s age; I wonder if somebody got confused at some point between Pat Rin’s age when Shan was born and Pat Rin’s age when the two of them first met.)

This is also the chapter in which Olwen sel’Iprith gives Daav nubiath’a. Which goes to show that two Liadens touching each other’s faces like lifemates doesn’t necessarily mean that that’s where the relationship is going to end up – she touches his face again here, even as she’s saying goodbye. And I have occasionally wondered if Daav would have handled subsequent events differently if this hadn’t happened to him just now.

Local Custom – Chapter 19

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In which the Master Trader negotiates with the thodelm.

It’s interesting that Petrella is so dismissive of Terrans, when she was a Trader and presumably had to deal with them on their own turf. But perhaps dealing with them in the line of business is one thing and having one show up on one’s own doorstep is another.

And, to be fair to her, I think she’d have taken it better before the disaster. That, I judge, has affected her thinking both personally, in that coping with her illness has left her with fewer reserves to spare for being well-disposed to others, and in her melant’i as the head of the line, being less free to tolerate eccentric behaviour from Er Thom when the entire future of the line depends on him.

Local Custom – Chapter 15

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In which Er Thom yos’Galan comes home.

The first mention by name of Er Thom’s elder brother, Sae Zar yos’Galan. (Who is – was – about the same age as Kareen, apparently. Perhaps they were intended agemates, like Er Thom and Daav. I wonder how well that worked out.)

Unlike “Shan”, which Er Thom has already remarked is not a yos’Galan name, “Er Thom” and “Sae Zar” are both yos’Galan names of long, long standing: Tor An had relatives with those names, back in Clan Alkia before Korval was founded. Thinking about that makes me wonder where yos’Phelium gets its family names, since they appear to have decided against reusing “Cantra” or “Jela”, and neither of those worthies had any families to speak of. Though, come to think of it, we do know where the name of Cantra and Jela’s son came from: if memory serves, she named him “Val Con”, which is a play on the Liaden word for “dragon”. Perhaps after that, when people from Line yos’Phelium married people from other clans they let their spouses suggest baby names, and kept the ones they liked.

Crystal Dragon – Chapters 36 & 37

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Quick Passage

In which we enter the Liaden Universe.

The tale of Moreta‘s Flight has gotta be a shout-out to Anne McCaffrey.

After being in transition for twenty-eight days, Quick Passage arrives at its destination – alone. It’s not clear here, and I remember being confused by it the first time I read the duology, but the authors have said in interviews that all the other refugees from the sheriekas made it to the new universe (by some mechanism I’m still not entirely clear on, but which undoubtedly had the fingerprints of the dramliz all over it) sooner or later.

And when I say “sooner or later”, some of them arrived later than Quick Passage – and some arrived sooner. There are places in the modern Liaden universe, about five hundred years on from here, that have histories stretching back considerably more than five hundred years. (Not to mention that if the modern era is Standard Year 1393, it’s counting from something that happened centuries before the Solcintrans arrived on Liad. Calendars don’t prove anything; Anno Domini wasn’t invented until AD 525. And even if the Standard calendar is a Liaden invention, it may be counting from something that happened back on old Solcintra.)

I wonder if Cantra bothered to ask any of the passengers before naming their planet for them.

Not that it’s an unreasonable choice. (I just suspect they’d rather have called it New Solcintra, or something.) If anything, naming one planet after Liad dea’Syl is a bit small. It’s not just solipsism: this really is the Liaden Universe.

Crystal Dragon – Chapter 35

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In which we’re leaving together, but still it’s farewell.

This is the only chapter in the duology that doesn’t have a caption saying, however ambiguously, where it takes place.

I think the mention of Dancer, “singing sweet seduction to her makers”, must be where I got the idea that she was sent off to act as a decoy; whether that was Cantra’s intention, it’s what she’s doing. (And I love the image of the seedling adding its own insulting messages.)

Hands up, anyone who thinks the Iloheen’s being honest in its offer to promote Rool Tiazan’s lady if she comes quietly. Nobody? Didn’t think so.

I was right about Rool Tiazan’s bargain with the ambitious dramliza, it looks like. (Do not meddle in the affairs of wizards, for they are twelve kinds of twisty.)

The “vast and implacable greenness” is interesting. A last-ditch attempt by the ssussdriad? Or … something else? (Do they have Turtles in this universe?)

Crystal Dragon – Chapter 34

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Quick Passage
Departing Solcintra

In which the Great Migration begins.

Since I missed all the cosmological hints the first time through, it was the number Master dea’Syl adds to his calculations in this chapter that brought home to me that the universe Cantra calls home is not ours. Such a number, appearing in the equations determining their destination – and then there’s the fact that not one person present in the tower stops and says, “Wait a minute, isn’t that…?”

Crystal Dragon – Chapter 32

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Quick Passage

In which the new clan gathers allies.

Yes, I thought that was where I remembered the gambler reappearing.

And I’m thinking that what we have gathered here is the beginnings of Korval’s ally, Clan Erob. Though I’m not sure if it’s all of them, or just the red-headed ones. 🙂

This chapter shows the flip side of Solcintra’s insularity. It neatly explained why the Liadens don’t have some of the things they don’t have, but it also means that another neat explanation is called for regarding why they do have some of the things they do have. Like, as the gambler points out here, healers, seers, and others with abilities resembling those of the dramliz.

The ink is hardly dry on Korval’s charter, and already they’re showing their form as a clan who won’t meekly wait on the Council’s decisions when the right course is plain.

Crystal Dragon – Chapter 31

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Quick Passage

In which Clan Korval exists.

I had always assumed, before I read the duology, that the Tree-and-Dragon emblem of Korval was a combination of the emblems of the two founding lines, and that since the Tree was obviously yos’Phelium’s contribution, the Dragon must have been yos’Galan’s. This turns out to be true in a sense, since Clan Alkia’s emblem is a dragon (which is not just the mascot of Light Wing after all), but it seems kind of unbalanced when yos’Phelium has dragons of its own.

Though perhaps the way to look at it is that both lines are represented by the Tree and the Dragon. yos’Phelium is the tree (for the obvious reason) and also the dragon (because of the branches-with-wings); yos’Galan is the dragon (for the obvious reason) and also the tree (perhaps representing, for Tor An, the piata tree that grew by his family home, and by inference the home itself and all that went with it).

The Clan investiture (which reads very much like a wedding ceremony, which I suppose is not inappropriate) also gives us our first mention of melant’i.

It occurs to me that one of the side-effects of reading on a fixed schedule of one chapter per day is that it messes with the pacing. An author who wishes to give the impression that events are picking up speed might go for lots of short chapters, but at one chapter per day shorter chapters mean that events proceed slower (and the long, slow chapters zip by in comparison).

I had completely forgotten the wrinkle involving Mr dea’Gauss’s family. I look forward with interest to seeing what Cantra intends to do about it.