Tag Archives: vingtai

The Gathering Edge – Chapter 11

Bechimo

In which Bechimo’s crew welcomes the survivors.

That’s a nice wielding of melant’i Kara does toward the end of the chapter, reinforcing her recommendation by giving it, with appropriate variations, from under several different hats.
Continue reading

The Gathering Edge – Chapter 4

Orbital Aid 370

In which Chernak and Stost arrive at their destination.

Well, that prediction was correct. It probably wasn’t a very difficult prediction, to be fair.
Continue reading

The Gathering Edge – Chapter 3

Bechimo
Wyrd Space

In which some introductions take place.

It occurs to me to wonder if there’s some kind of familial connection between the norbears and the Trees. Then again, there might be species all over the place that communicate through mental images; we don’t really know.
Continue reading

The Rifle’s First Wife

In which Diglon Rifle does what he may to help a teammate.

Poker was one of the first new things Diglon was taught after he came under the dragon’s wing, and he showed an immediate aptitude for it, so it’s good to see he’s continuing to develop it. In general, it’s pleasing to see that Diglon is thriving in his new environment – and a bit worrying that Hazenthull apparently isn’t, even now.

I say “even now” because the internal evidence suggests that it’s been over a year since the two of them came to stand with Korval: baby Lizzie, who was not yet born then, has progressed to standing up under her own power.

Lizzie’s development also means that although it’s early spring – “winter having been gone some weeks now” – it’s the spring after the one in which Lizzie was born, and so doesn’t tell us anything useful about that contested spring I’ve been worried about lately.

(It also means that I’ve scheduled this story too early, which is an acknowledged hazard of scheduling a story without reading it first. The actual position would be some time after Dragon Ship – and possibly one or two more novels as well, but since I haven’t read those yet either I’m not going to attempt a definite pronouncement.)

It’s nice that Alara has found a chance to make an alliance with somebody whose company she enjoys and who she has an attraction to, but I do wonder how she’s planning to explain her choice to her delm. It’s all very well saying that Diglon isn’t an Yxtrang any more, but is she going to be able to get away with not mentioning that he was? The delm did specify a “long lineage” as one of the criteria to look for, which means he’s going to want to know about Diglon’s antecedents.

One thing that might help is that, Clan Silari having made the decision to leave Liad, Alara and her clan are themselves, in a sense, no longer what they were either.

Incidentally, I notice that Diam, one of the two people who entertained Diglon on his evening off, is another of those for whom the authors have chosen not to constrain the reader’s imagination by specifying pronouns.


Next: Dragon Ship

I Dare – Chapter 31

Day 51
Standard Year 1393

Lytaxin
Erob’s Clanhouse

In which the Ring passes.

That makes two people in a short space of time who have spoken to Val Con of Korval’s responsibilities under the Contract, which is a subject that doesn’t often come up in conversation outside of Korval. It might be that, as close allies, they know something most don’t, but I think it’s less that the Contract is some kind of secret as that most people who don’t know Korval well don’t take the idea seriously. (And at that, I’m not entirely sure Emrith Tiazan wasn’t being sarcastic. We might infer that she believes in Korval’s belief in the Contract but doesn’t entirely believe in the Contract herself.)

The exchange when Korval-pernard’i removes the ring from her finger and Delm Korval places the ring on his own finger reminds me of something that I didn’t remark on when it happened: Pat Rin put the false ring the Department gave him on the second finger of his left hand, Korval-in-Trust’s finger, not the third finger, the delm’s finger. The Department was expecting that Pat Rin would happily be delm if there were nobody left to tell him he couldn’t, but what they weren’t considering is that as long as Pat Rin lives, there will always be one person of Korval judging his suitability: Pat Rin himself. Even in the eventuality that he must take up the delm’s ring because there is nobody else left, Pat Rin doesn’t count himself worthy to take up the delm’s melant’i with it, only to hold the ring in trust until Korval is able to produce someone qualified to be delm.

We also get, speaking of that incident, a detailed description of the true ring and thus the signs by which Pat Rin knew the false ring to be false. I wonder what it says about the Department that they didn’t know about the signs of wear. It might just be that they couldn’t find any way of examining the ring closely without arousing suspicion. I wouldn’t be surprised, though, if it never even occurred to them to look; they might have assumed that a wealthy Liaden family would always get any damage quickly repaired.

I Dare – Chapter 19

Day 50
Standard Year 1393

Lytaxin
Erob’s House

In which Erob’s house has many visitors.

This is one of those chapters where there’s potentially a lot to talk about, but I’ve read it so often nothing really stands out to me.

Well, there is one thing: I don’t know if it’s me being really unobservant or just having a bad memory, but I don’t remember having understood before that Hazenthull Explorer might have only been intending to stick around long enough to get her senior patched up. (I notice, by the way, that her senior finally gets a name in this chapter.) How she planned to get around having sworn an oath of loyalty to get that far, I don’t see; perhaps, as Daav says, she hadn’t planned that far ahead.

Another point of connection between the two separate plot strands of the novel is that they’re now both concerned with issues of appropriate behaviour between oath-holder and oath-sworn.

I Dare – Chapter 17

Lytaxin
Mercenary Encampment

In which two Explorers discuss their situation.

We learn the outline of Hazenthull’s recent history here, enough to understand the decision she has made, although there are details that she chooses not, or finds herself yet unready, to speak.

I’m not sure what significance to attach to the fact that the name of her senior is one of those details. It could just be that protocol calls for him to introduce himself, but other explanations suggest themselves.


Tomorrow: Another short diversion, via “Persistence”.

I Dare – Chapter 6

Day 50
Standard Year 1393

Lytaxin
Erob’s Grounds

In which collecting Yxtrang may be a genetic trait.

Because the sentry’s challenge is followed immediately by Diglon Rifle breaking cover, I thought at first that the sentry had spotted him, but if he and his seniors were keeping so quiet even Nelirikk didn’t notice them that seems unlikely. On further consideration, I think the sentry was challenging Nelirikk and the scouts, approaching openly on the path, but Diglon Rifle thought he’d been spotted and panicked. (I notice that Hazenthull Explorer did a much better job of keeping her head and keeping hidden, as is perhaps to be expected.)

It’s good to know that Explorers still exist. I remember Nelirikk worrying about that in the previous book, since it had been so long since he’d had word of their activities. (He doesn’t seem to give it particular note at the moment, probably because there are more immediate issues to attend to. Possibly also because the issue is not quite so personally important now; back then, the loss of the Explorers would have meant the loss of all he had in the way of comrades and family, which is no longer the case.)

Plan B – Chapter 32

Lytaxin
War Zone

In which Val Con’s plan gets off the ground.

I always feel sorry for the radar tech, getting bossed around like that when he’s just trying to do the right thing. And because, although Shan and Nelirikk have the excuse of needing to keep him off-balance so he doesn’t realise what they’re up to, the implication is that the approach works because he’s known officers who are just as high-handed and mean without any such excuse. And because, if he didn’t get killed when the bombs went off, he’s going to be in so much trouble that he may well wish he had.

And that’s something I like about this chapter, because it’s treating the radar tech as a person even though he’s on the wrong side. It would have been less good if the radar tech had been portrayed as an Enemy with no feelings of his own, or, perhaps even worse, as an Enemy whose humiliation was a thing to be enjoyed.

Plan B – Chapter 30

Erob’s Boundary
War Zone

In which Val Con has a plan which is too audacious to fail.

Over the course of this book, I’ve been having trouble figuring out what it means for a Liaden to be one of “the line direct”. Earlier, Nova said that Miri’s heirloom showed her grandmother was one of the line direct and that would make her easier to identify, and I thought maybe that meant the line direct was whichever family line a clan’s delm was chosen from: Line Tiazan in Miri’s case, or Line yos’Phelium in Korval. But here is Shan counting himself and Priscilla as members of the line direct, so at least in Korval’s case it’s not just yos’Phelium.

But now that I’m thinking about it, I recall a scene back in Scout’s Progress where the term is used to distinguish between someone who might wear Korval’s crest because they’re actually a member of the clan and someone who might wear Korval’s crest because they’re an employee in one of Korval’s businesses. So, I guess that’s what it means, and that does fit the bit with Miri’s heirloom: knowing that her ancestor was an actual member of Clan Erob and not just someone who happened to work for them at some point would make it easier to narrow down who she is. (I’m not sure I see the usefulness of the concept in general: wouldn’t every person be in the line direct of their own clan? But then again, Liadens don’t really do “in general”; there’s always a context. Whenever a Liaden says “the line direct”, the meaning would always be outlined by who’s speaking, who they’re speaking to, and what hats they’re wearing.)