Tag Archives: Yark

Agent of Change – Chapter 11

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In which Miri and Val Con come to the attention of the authorities.

Bringing Miri breakfast through a locked door, disconcerting as it understandably is for her, is I think basically a friendly gesture on Val Con’s part, and not just for the breakfast itself. The implicit message, that a locked door isn’t enough to keep him out, might be read as threatening, but he doesn’t need or want to threaten her at this point; if he meant her harm, he’d have done better to let her going on thinking that a locked door would keep her safe right up until it was time to prove her definitively wrong. As it is, it’s less a threat than a warning: he’s showing her what he can do, even though it means giving up a tactical advantage, because it’s something she needs to understand if they’re going to work together.

The mention of the Belansiums on Justin Hostro’s walls clears up a small mystery. The painter Belansium is featured in the short story “Phoenix”, set about a century before this; by the time I first read that story, I’d forgotten about the paintings in this chapter, so I’ve been wondering on and off since then how Bel first came to the attention of the authors. Now I know.

(Incidentally, it’s a nice bit of foreshadowing that Miri compares Justin Hostro’s interior decoration to Sire Baldwin’s.)

Agent of Change – Chapter 4

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In which Val Con and Miri make some calls.

Miri and Val Con are clearly starting to relax into each other’s company: they’ve begun bantering.

Val Con speaks more truth than he realises when he promises Liz he will take the best care of Miri he can, for as long as he can.

Here’s an interesting exercise for a writer: the character has a small box containing everything most valuable to her in the world — what, specifically, is in it? To answer the question for a character who’s only been in the story for four chapters would require either a considerable knowledge of parts of her backstory that haven’t made it into the story yet, or a certain talent for improvisation together with a willingness to assume explanations will present themselves as needed. Or both, mixed in some proportion. (Explanations for some of Miri’s keepsakes will subsequently become apparent, but not all. Which is as it should be; a character whose past can be entirely told is likely a character lacking in depth.)

Signs that this novel was written in the 1980s: the primary medium for data storage and retrieval is tape.