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This Thread Spoils Peacemaker; you know you want to click it
Topic Started: Apr 1 2014, 01:07 PM (3,434 Views)
bmills
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I was surprised by Bren nominating Toby as his unofficial successor.

Toby certainly doesn't have the academic background, but after Bren and Wilson, no human has more experience dealing with Atevi. Is he up to the politics, though? That's a bigger problem. He is personally acquainted with the highest levels of Atevi government. As for Bren, given his level of involvement in Atevi affairs himself, it might not be a bad idea for him to resign as human/atevi paidhi while retaining the position of Tabini's paidhi. Almost all of his work these days is mediating between atevi, but he could train a successor for the other form of the office. Now that a cooperative policy is set and the subversive parties of both races have been dealt with, the job of human/atevi paidhi can go back to being mostly routine and linguistic.

I have to say I was a little underwhelmed by Peacemaker. It felt to me like a lul between one story ending and another starting. Now, with a writer like Cherry, that's isn't necessarily a bad thing. I wasn't bored because I like these characters so much, but the highlight of the book for me was the bickering between Tabini and Ilisidi. Plotwise, the only major event was restoring legitimate leadership of the Assassins Guild. Eh, maybe it's just me. I have ZERO interest in child characters. But for me, the Foreigner stories are best and most interesting when Bren is trying to reconcile the psychology of two races so they can work together, and he hasn't done much of that since meeting with the Kyo six or so books back.

On another subject, I found the historical summary in the appendix somewhat puzzling, and I don't know if it's intentional retconing, the author losing some of the details of a very long and complex story, or me misunderstanding something in the first place.

1. This summary entirely omits that Phoenix stopped off to refuel at an uninhabitable solar system before finding the Atevi world. (Which still, inconveniently, has no proper name.) It's true that this was a short passage even in the first novel, but it's a vital aspect of the backstory because it explains how the ship's leadership was transformed from being one profession among many to an hereditary aristocracy; they were given a greater say in decisions because they undertook the higher mortality rate of exposing themselves to the radioactivity in that system, and that social stratification ossified over a generation or two. Can that be left out and the story still makes sense? I suppose so.

2. This version of events says Tabini sent Bren to Ilisidi as a gambit, daring her to maintain her obstructionist hyper-conservatism when confronted with the actuality of a constructive human. While that was certainly a big part of what was going on, I always interpreted the events of first novel as having been precipitated by Phoenix's return, so that simmering problems became urgent crises, and *that's* why Tabini chose that moment for his gambit. Yet in the appendix, the return of Phoenix is tossed in almost as an afterthought. If my interpretation is wrong, that means that the timing of Phoenix's return at the height of this crisis was an unrelated coincidence, which seems like a plotting ploy unworthy of a writer of Cherryh's abilities. It's also possible, though, that the narrative of the appendix isn't mean to be strictly chronological.

3. And just because it was interesting, what the heck was that about a first wave of human explorer/colonists pulling a Roanoke and disappearing without a trace? (Page 351.) It seems one of the less tolerant Atevi factions might have massacred them.
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Arcadia
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Woohoo!! I just stopped in to see if there were a new book out, and yes, yest there is!!! Which I just ordered, and have to avert my eyes now so I don't read spoilers. Thanks Shejidan!!
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Neco the Nightwraith
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The other night, I dreamed I had just cracked open a newly acquired copy of Peacemaker. I had just started reading a paragraph, and then all the words became runny and ran off the page, and the book dissolved in my hands. I woke up with the strong desire to scream in frustration.
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Bea
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Can I be honest and say I was disappointed in this book? It just didn't gel with me as much as the others.
Suddenly you have Toby catapulted in as the man to turn to for Tabini if anything happens to Bren. Excuse me? He can hardly speak the language and has no idea of how to behave in society. He has no mathematical training at all and he has a partner who certainly would cause a crisis very quickly and he is the only one suggested.
What has happened to the other interpreters? There are at least two we know of on the station and there must be more in training at the University.
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Neco the Nightwraith
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"Peacemaker : Foreigner #15
Creator: Cherryh, C J
Pickup location: Launceston LINC
Total copies: 2
Queue position: 1
Estimated wait: 9 to 31 days"

*SCREAMS*

IT'S HERE!!!

*Actually it's not my hands... but it's in the Library!!!!*
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hrhspence
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So it seems that my county library has just acquired "Peacemaker" as an Ebook. It's too late for me, but any Cherryh fans in Vegas can check it out!
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Xheralt
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Bea,Apr 20 2014
05:43 PM
Can I be honest and say I was disappointed in this book? It just didn't gel with me as much as the others.
Suddenly you have Toby catapulted in as the man to turn to for Tabini if anything happens to Bren. Excuse me? He can hardly speak the language and has no idea of how to behave in society. He has no mathematical training at all and he has a partner who certainly would cause a crisis very quickly and he is the only one suggested.
What has happened to the other interpreters? There are at least two we know of on the station and there must be more in training at the University.

Realized my previous attempt to reply to this has vanished. Hey Guild, I didn't accidentally click "Report" instead of "Reply" did I?

But this sums up my feelings as well. What about Ben and Kate? Those worthies were -- as you, Gentle Reader, may recall -- the subjects of my unfinished fanfic "Valasi's Ghost". That story has been rendered thoroughly non-canonical by :cherryh: taking Wilson's personality a decidedly different direction, but I may still try to finish it at some point.

And what is the developing interface up on the station like?
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Xheralt
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hrhspence,Apr 10 2014
11:17 PM
Am I the only one that felt that this could have been a good place to wrap up and end the whole series?

Or, just jump ahead another decade or two. Show us "Life after Illisidi" (without having the wrenching transition of it actually happening right in front of us).

Cajeiri, having inherited Malguri, remains mostly ensconced there (to avoid his sister, whom despite his hopeful intentions remains intractable).

Najida Manor would now be an extension of the Mospheira Language Studies program, graduate (or post-graduate?) students are funneled through there for some real experience (before going to the station or the starship?), Bren able to devote most of his time to that, rather than inter-atevi things.

Oh, but the kyo issue. Maybe handle that in flashbacks, too? That's almost too big to handwave away like that... :Arrgh:
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Aja Jin
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number one good, A ?
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Xheralt,Apr 30 2014
10:39 AM
Or, just jump ahead another decade or two. Show us "Life after Illisidi" (without having the wrenching transition of it actually happening right in front of us).

Cajeiri, having inherited Malguri, remains mostly ensconced there (to avoid his sister, whom despite his hopeful intentions remains intractable).

Najida Manor would now be an extension of the Mospheira Language Studies program, graduate (or post-graduate?) students are funneled through there for some real experience (before going to the station or the starship?), Bren able to devote most of his time to that, rather than inter-atevi things.

Oh, but the kyo issue. Maybe handle that in flashbacks, too? That's almost too big to handwave away like that... :Arrgh:

I think that would be a nice approach. The series needs some freshening up
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hrhspence
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this ^ is what she did with the chanur series
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Mitha
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I think there is still a rabbit or three hiding in the hat, as it were. The number of human children creates an infelicitous group...one recalls Tabini telling his son something like "There will be another." Perhaps a red herring, perhaps not.

Toby...yeah, I have to say I was surprised by the idea of him taking Bren's place. One imagines Toby himself would be quite boggled. Someone whose idea of a great life includes long periods of time on a boat out in the ocean with only one companion does not strike me as a good candidate for paidhi, regardless of his language competency...which, one notices, appears to have progressed remarkably over the past few books. Granted that all we have is Bren's POV, and he may not know as much as he thinks he does about what Toby has been doing, but still...what, if anything, is going on with all that?

Quote:
 
Show us "Life after Illisidi" (without having the wrenching transition of it actually happening right in front of us). 

I wouldn't be at all surprised to see :cherryh: handle it exactly that way eventually, though it might be only a few days or months, rather than years. But 'Sidi-ji is *such* a fantastic character, the loss of her presence would be a very great loss for the story. There would need to be someone else, to take up that role of Immovable Object to Tabini's Irresistable Force. Possibly Damiri??? Or perhaps that could be a red herring too.

:baji
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Xheralt
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With the Ajuri so thoroughly discredited, Damiri is almost entirely without a House. Atageini needs an heir, but it cannot be her.

I'm figuring that Malguri will end up being Cajeiri's power base, his stronghold (if he doesn't end up Captaining the starship)....but (wicked thought) WHAT IF Uncle gave him Tirnamardi instead? In turn, 'Sidi-ma could bequeath Malguri to Damiri (via the marriage connection), lending substance to the comment "you could be me someday". No, neither 'Sidi-ma or her subjects would want Malguri's secrets going to anyone "outside the family", scratch the thought. There are undoubtedly others it can pass to, if not Cajeiri.

Back to the nonexistent Atageini heir. 'Sidi-ma so enjoys playing matchmaker. There's a whole new frontier opening up with the Marid, connections that need to be strengthened. How better than a high-level contract-marriage between Tirnamardi and Tanaja? Fresh blood, in both directions. Maybe Siodi-daja (mature and perhaps not past childbearing years) will catch Uncle's eye?

OR, Cajeiri's sister could be set up as the Atageini heir (which fits the bill of being emphatically not-Malguri), giving her a focus for the ambitions she, given her parentage, will undoubtedly have. Uncle has some decades left (barring violence or assassination) before he approaches Ilisidi-level frailty.

The number of children is NOT infelicitous, as long as Cajeiri is with them. Same reason Assassins work in otherwise-infelicitous pairs and quartets, because they always have their principal in the equation.
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bmills
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'Sidi-ma could bequeath Malguri to Damiri
Malguri is the standard-bearer of the conservatives and Eastern Association. I doesn't seem likely to me that they would accept the installation of a progressive Westerner.
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magicdomino

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bmills,May 1 2014
04:27 PM
Malguri is the standard-bearer of the conservatives and Eastern Association. I doesn't seem likely to me that they would accept the installation of a progressive Westerner.

Or even a conservative Westerner.
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Xheralt
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bmills,May 1 2014
11:27 AM
Malguri is the standard-bearer of the conservatives and Eastern Association. I doesn't seem likely to me that they would accept the installation of a progressive Westerner.

I did say "scratch that thought", I was thinking out loud as I typed.
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