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Necessity’s Child – Chapter 25

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In which Syl Vor introduces his sister to a game.

The information-trading game is interesting, because it’s never been mentioned before in a Liaden story, but it’s very similar to a game featured in one of Lee and Miller’s non-Liaden works.

Master Walk was published in a chapbook about a decade ago (the ebook edition is still available), and also appears in the print anthology Double Vision. I get the impression it was hoping to be the first of a new series – it’s got that feeling about it, like how you can often tell if a telemovie started life as a pilot episode – but so far there have been no sequels.

It’s science fiction again, set in a galaxy that is like and unlike that of the Liadens in various respects. The trading of information is a big thing both in the setting in general and the plot of Master Walk in particular, and the traders of information play the token-swapping game to keep score during a transaction. (It is considered that a transaction has not been completed with honor unless each participant gives and receives equal value.) The full game, at least in that version, uses tokens of several denominations, allowing a considerable amount of precision when indicating how much value is placed on a piece of information received.

There’s a moment that’s stayed with me, where a trader asks a question, receives the answer, and hands over a token indicating how valuable they found the answer to be – and the person they’re dealing with immediately also hands over a token, indicating that they’ve received valuable information from the size of the token the answer elicited.

Necessity’s Child – Chapter 22

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In which thought is given to the future.

Apparently we are not to discover just yet what has become of Rys.

Ms ker’Eklis seems to be in a bad mood; perhaps she resents her dinner being put back. As a Liaden, she ought to know about necessity, but perhaps she thinks a boy’s necessity is not as necessary as an adult math tutor’s. Or perhaps, to be fair, it’s only that she doubts this particular boy, since about half the mentions of Syl Vor’s tutors in the book so far have been because he’s running late for his lessons for one reason or another.

Necessity’s Child – Chapter 9

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In which Syl Vor has been reviewing the forms.

Of course the corollary of asking Syl Vor to make sure someone knows where he’s going is that it allows for judgement as to whether someone ought to go with him. Wandering around the grounds is one thing, but a boy his age really shouldn’t go into a place like Surebleak city on his own, even if he does have a knife and a gun with him and some idea how to use them.

It occurs to me to wonder whether Syl Vor was deliberately trying to avoid adult oversight for his trip. I don’t think so, since he’s making an obvious effort to do the thing right, so I think it’s just what he says, that he didn’t want to be a nuisance by interrupting anyone, and hasn’t entirely grasped the idea that it wouldn’t be such a nuisance alongside the possibility of him getting in serious trouble on his own. (At least, I don’t think he’s consciously avoiding people – but on the other hand, he does show some uncertainty that he’s doing the right thing, and there’s a thing people sometimes do where if they suspect they’re going about something wrong they unconsciously steer clear of anyone who might tell them so.)

Necessity’s Child – Chapter 1

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In which Kezzi and Malda do not get to go out.

New novel, new set of characters; it’s not even clear until nearly the end of the chapter that we’re still on Surebleak, around the same time as the last novel. (In fact we seem to have wound back a bit from where Ghost Ship ended, if the attack on Miri is still fresh news.)

We have heard of the Bedel once before, not recently: one of the protagonists of “Eleutherios” was a member of that group, though it wasn’t clear in detail then what that meant. Doubtless, there will be more room for detail as this novel progresses.

Kezzi stands out a bit by virtue of having a dog; characters in this series are more likely to be cat people. In fact, I’m not sure Malda isn’t the first dog to actually appear.