Tag Archives: University of Liad

Alliance of Equals – Chapter 26

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Langlastport
The Torridon Hotel

In which there is conversation after dinner.

I don’t know if it’s significant that Shan describes the Liaden tongue as “the language of home” when speaking to the jeweller, after all the reminders there have been that the children of Korval need to stop thinking of Liad as home. Probably it’s just that that’s a conventional phrase and the situation is not appropriate for a more precise description.

I also don’t know if it’s significant that we’re getting a reminder now of Master Moonel, who appeared in Local Custom. That was back when Shan was a small boy, and Moonel was already the most respected jeweller on Liad, so it is not a surprise to learn now that he has since died. (Shan mentions that his shop stands empty; I wonder if that’s a sign that it happened recently, or perhaps that he was so respected nobody wishes to try taking his place.)

Possibly it is the death that matters — it makes two scenes in a row where the subject of death has come up in proximity with Padi, which helps things remain ominous even as her conversation with her father seems to be going well.

I Dare – Chapter 57

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Day 59
Standard Year 1393

Solcintra
Liad

In which the Council of Clans throws Korval into the briar patch.

The Delm Hedrede who delivers the Council’s judgment here is not the same Delm Hedrede who clashed with Korval thirty years ago in Scout’s Progress – different pronouns – but it does make me wonder if Hedrede has a personal investment in Korval getting booted off the planet.

There’s a neat bit of narrative sleight of hand with the problem of what to do with the dies: the problem is carefully laid out, then just as Val Con is about to suggest a solution, the conversation is interrupted. The reader is left to assume that a solution is found without the authors having to actually come up with one.

Tomorrow and tomorrow: Revisiting old friends and seeing how they’re affected by recent events, in “Misfits” and then the remainder of Saltation.

Mouse and Dragon – Chapter 39

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In which Daav plans his Balance against the enemy which took Aelliana.

I’m interested by the implication that the thoughtfulness of Daav’s Balance here owes something to his previous experience of loss and Balance, which taught him the limitations of the method of direct reprisal.

Using that Diary entry as the chapter heading also provides another more subtle bookend: the last time it was used was on the chapter in which Daav and Aelliana first met.

It’s a bit difficult to know how much to talk about what else happens in this chapter when it hasn’t been explicitly called out yet, even though as a re-reader I know — and, since this is a prequel, even on the first read I knew — what’s going on. I think I’ll save that for next time.

Mouse and Dragon – Chapter 11

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In which Aelliana and Anne go shopping.

And here already is an illustration of my point: Aelliana can feel Daav’s emotions, but not the process of thought that produced them, so without an opportunity to ask Daav she is left with the knowledge that he was horrified but with only speculation about what, and whom, he was in horror of. If Daav absented himself deliberately to avoid disturbing her peace of mind, he’s having the opposite of his intended effect.

Mouse and Dragon – Chapter 8

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In which Aelliana meets Daav’s brother and Daav’s sister.

I’m intrigued by the ramifications of Aelliana addressing Lady Kareen in the mode of pilot-to-passenger. It’s understandable that that mode would come to her tongue before whichever tongue is appropriate for delivering a set-down during a social call (even if Aelliana had been taught that mode, I doubt she’s ever had a chance to practice it) but it’s not really appropriate — except possibly in one sense: as the lifemate of Korval Himself, Aelliana shares his melant’i as the Captain whose passengers are every other Liaden, including Lady Kareen. (I wonder if she was standing close enough to Daav at that moment to have unconsciously picked up an intimation of the mode he was restraining himself from using.)

I hadn’t really thought about it, but it makes sense that Anne would have a place for work at the University, perhaps working with people she’s met through her work finishing Scholar yo’Kera’s book. Certainly she’s not the type to just sit about the house all day. The reason I might not have thought of it, I think, is that I wouldn’t have expected the University of Liad to be accepting of a Terran, but perhaps it helps that she is of Korval as well.

There are several grace notes I love in this chapter, including the cameo by Shan’s Mouse and Mr pak’Ora’s evident relief at not being required to remain in the same room as Lady Kareen.

Scout’s Progress – Chapter 10

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In which Aelliana gains her pilot’s license.

One thing this chapter underscores is that Aelliana is not merely good at mathematics; she’s phenomenal. Another, less cheering, thing is the way her interactions with the examination officer illuminate her experiences, in how she fears that any deviation from normal behavior will bring down punishment.

The backstory for how she’s ready to take her piloting examination, when she’d never expected to own a ship, is nicely balanced. Of course there would be a Scout in one of her classes who insisted on her getting hands-on experience. And of course she would draw the line at anything that required her family to find out what she was up to.

…I seem to keep circling around to the less happy sides of the situation, so let’s just focus on the most important thing about this chapter: Pilot’s license! Woo!

Local Custom – Chapter 40

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In which the last pieces fall into place.

I think, if memory serves, this is the first place (in publication order) that the lives and times of Cantra and Tor An were described in any detail. And the details given here, I can’t help noticing, differ in some significant respects from how the story was eventually told in the Crystal books. (One could suggest that the differences are due to the details here coming from Cantra’s logbook, which Crystal Dragon tells us she didn’t actually start keeping until after the War, when she would have been depending on a perhaps-fallible memory. Or perhaps she remembered fine, but chose to present things somewhat differently from how they actually happened; I note that one of the differences of detail is that the logbook entry quoted here presents itself as having been written during the War, before Jela’s death.)

A little detail that might easily be missed (in fact, I don’t recall having consciously noted it on any of my previous reads): Anne is now wearing the ring Er Thom gave her, the “never goodbye” present.

Tomorrow: Scout’s Progress

Local Custom – Chapter 36

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In which Er Thom hears Anne calling.

The chapter epigraph lays out, bluntly, how much of a leap into the dark Er Thom is making in choosing to go with Anne: if he leaves the clan to follow her, he leaves everything.

There’s an intriguing bit of worldbuilding in one of the incidental details in this chapter: what kind of place is the Academy of Music on Terra, that it has marksmanship as a required course of study?

Local Custom – Chapter 35

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In which several people have urgent business at the Port this morning.

And Er Thom finds himself capable of setting out, without hesitation, on a course of action that would have been literally unthinkable a twelveday ago.

I notice that, just as when Er Thom took Shan, on the day Anne came home and found them gone, the authors are deliberately casting shadow on just what Er Thom intends to when he finds Anne — a last play of the shadow-Er Thom constructed on the model of Shan el’Thrassin. I think I understand why, but I wonder if there was ever a reader who knew Er Thom so poorly by this point as to be taken in by the deception.

Local Custom – Chapter 29

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In which Anne has two unpleasant conversations.

It’s vitally important that Anne and Er Thom have an opportunity for a clear and sensible conversation, so of course they’re prevented from having one.

I think Fil Tor Kinrae is lying when he says he didn’t realise who Anne was. Of course he knew; who else would she be? I reckon he just has such a low opinion of Terrans that, even faced with a scholar, and one who has a particular interest in the Liaden language, he assumes she can’t speak Liaden.