Dutiful Passage
Colemeno Orbit
In which the visitors prepare to be received.
I wonder if the cats had anything interesting to say in their nameday greetings, or if Jeeves just translated their message into human-polite.
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Dutiful Passage
Rostermin Breakout
In which Shan yos’Galan reads his mail.
Shan’s statement about “our time in this space” implies that he thinks Lute can’t manifest on the ship while it’s in Jump. I can’t think of anything specific to give him that idea, and he may just be fishing, but on the other hand I don’t at the moment recall any specific event that contradicts it.
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Volmer
In which yos’Galan and Carresens begin an exchange.
The other thought I’d had about the people on the cover — in fact, the first thought I had on seeing it, and the only possibility I’d seriously entertained before Mar Tyn and Dyoli showed up — was that it was Padi accompanied by a new character we hadn’t met yet. I’d been becoming less confident about that possibility recently, as we got so far into the book without encountering any new character who fit the bill. I believe we have him now.
(I’ve commented before that I seem to have a tendency to ask questions and make guesses one chapter before the answer shows up. I consider that this says good things about how well paced the books are.)
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Dutiful Passage
In which Padi makes connections and Shan receives news from home.
The looper families Shan mentions are among those who have appeared or been mentioned in the Jethri-era stories: the Smiths were the first family to have norbears travelling with them, the Tragers were friendly with Jethri’s family, and the Wildes did that ill-fated bit of experimenting with Old Tech.
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Dutiful Passage
Millsap Orbit
In which Padi has a long day.
Shan has a plan: to visit the Redlands, which it turns out is not one country, or even one planet, but a system with three inhabited planets.
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Tarona Rusk
Auxiliary Services
In which Section Head Tarona Rusk catches up on the news of her department.
More details about the consequences of the Healing of Tarona Rusk, and more things whose absence was felt in Accepting the Lance. It’s going to be interesting, at some point in the future, to re-read this stretch of the series with Trader’s Leap included in chronological order, and see how much that changes how I feel about Accepting the Lance.
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Dutiful Passage
Langlast Departure
In which Shan and Padi get some rest.
Now we have some familiar faces, and a sense of where this story fits in the series. It’s only a day or two since the end of Alliance of Equals, so this is taking place around the same time as Neogenesis. (At least to start with.)
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In the Hall of the Mountain King
In which Vertu Dysan greets the new day.
With Toragin’s solution, the authors are doing a thing they’ve done a few times before: establishing the outline of the solution, but leaving the details to be filled in later in case a later story should suggest a particular detail.
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In the Hall of the Mountain King
Enter Joey
In which the guests are settled for the night.
Joey, despite being in the stage directions, is not listed in the dramatis personae. But then again, neither are any of the other cats, except Chelada.
Vertu started out the story thinking of the unregulated cab drivers as something that might need to be addressed at some point. Now, having seen how much trouble an untrained driver can get himself and his passengers into, it’s become pressing business for Boss Gotta. Or, no, not quite for Boss Gotta, if we take Boss Gotta as being the person who’s gotta do it because they happen to be present when there’s nobody around whose job it is; as Vertu says to Jemie, in this situation they are the people whose job it is.
The Gate
Enter Nelirikk and Jarome
In which Vertu and her passengers make it within the gate.
Jarome, it turns out, is another character who is in the cast list twice, once for his first appearance in person and once for when he becomes someone known by name to the viewpoint characters.
I don’t know if it’s because she’s in the middle of a conversation between Liadens when it happens, or if she’s still Liaden enough in her head that it would have happened anyway, but I note that when Vertu’s viewpoint refers to Miri it names her as “Miri Tiazan” and not “Miri Robertson”.