Re Kirstein: I've seen the interview. The woman needs a website, or at least a publically available email address, so readers can bug her periodically. Picked up The Language of Power last weekend; tLoP is off my "unread" list. Lucky for you, or I'd smack you with the spoiler-stick for that "ships vanish" comment. Vague thematic hints are cool, but specific plot spoilers annoy me.
On possibilities: a Darkover-esque setup? (I know, not the only example, just the one I ran into first.) We're really speculating in advance of the data, but there's nothing that explicitly rules it out, and some of the chance comments in tLoP about the wizards' power tentatively support such an explanation.
My "Slado the AI" theory is nicely exploded. I am a happy, happy reader. Either he's fruitbat, or something got out of his control (extremely unlikely, but then one remembers how much effort went into the Chernobyl accident) or there's information we don't have. Kieran's actions make me think there's a strong element of the third.
Re: Goat: but he's neither fruitbat nor dead! Unlike Janus and Fletcher. And he seems like he could wind up Bel's counterpart with the Inner Lands peope -look how he organized Donner. For once, there's a possibility that a man close to Rowan will make it out of the series with his sanity relatively intact. I'll be over here, doing the dance of "not in an overly Cherryh-like universe." And waiting for the other shoe to drop, because it always does.
there is a little bit of "even men you think are your allies have other motives" vibe in the fourth book too
That's a useful way to describe it. But from Rowan's PoV it's true of pretty much every character, really... except maybe Bel and the other Steerswomen. (Steerspersons?) Possibly it's related to Rowan's principles: she's got a Thing about truth, and Janus and Fletcher went to some lengths to decieve her.
(Tangential thought: depending on the quality of the wizards' med tech, Berry and her husband might be really bribable. The City in the Crags could be unfortunate for that whole "people decieve Rowan" thing.)
Re Baker: I read BP, WK after tGG, so anything in there hit my conciousness after my first "intro" to the LGMs. IIRC they were originally introduced in one of the Asimov's shorts I haven't read yet ("The Fourth Branch" - blurb on Fictionwise.com), so my frustration probably isn't justified. Still, even if they're fabulous sneakers, they've got to leave some shadow of their presence - if only, as you pointed out, in strangely sterile or deformed caves. Absence can be a sort of presence, or a clue of presence. The Company novels are usually pretty good about conforming to Chekhov's "gun on the mantelpiece" rule, so to have the LGMs shot off out of nowhere - from my perspective - still annoys me. Not enough to make me stop reading, but enough to make me comment.
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baggyeyes
Re: The Lost Steersman & The Language of Power
Date: 2005-04-11 01:44 pm (UTC)On possibilities: a Darkover-esque setup? (I know, not the only example, just the one I ran into first.) We're really speculating in advance of the data, but there's nothing that explicitly rules it out, and some of the chance comments in tLoP about the wizards' power tentatively support such an explanation.
My "Slado the AI" theory is nicely exploded. I am a happy, happy reader. Either he's fruitbat, or something got out of his control (extremely unlikely, but then one remembers how much effort went into the Chernobyl accident) or there's information we don't have. Kieran's actions make me think there's a strong element of the third.
Re: Goat: but he's neither fruitbat nor dead! Unlike Janus and Fletcher. And he seems like he could wind up Bel's counterpart with the Inner Lands peope -look how he organized Donner. For once, there's a possibility that a man close to Rowan will make it out of the series with his sanity relatively intact. I'll be over here, doing the dance of "not in an overly Cherryh-like universe." And waiting for the other shoe to drop, because it always does.
there is a little bit of "even men you think are your allies have other motives" vibe in the fourth book too
That's a useful way to describe it. But from Rowan's PoV it's true of pretty much every character, really... except maybe Bel and the other Steerswomen. (Steerspersons?) Possibly it's related to Rowan's principles: she's got a Thing about truth, and Janus and Fletcher went to some lengths to decieve her.
(Tangential thought: depending on the quality of the wizards' med tech, Berry and her husband might be really bribable. The City in the Crags could be unfortunate for that whole "people decieve Rowan" thing.)
Re Baker: I read BP, WK after tGG, so anything in there hit my conciousness after my first "intro" to the LGMs. IIRC they were originally introduced in one of the Asimov's shorts I haven't read yet ("The Fourth Branch" - blurb on Fictionwise.com), so my frustration probably isn't justified. Still, even if they're fabulous sneakers, they've got to leave some shadow of their presence - if only, as you pointed out, in strangely sterile or deformed caves. Absence can be a sort of presence, or a clue of presence. The Company novels are usually pretty good about conforming to Chekhov's "gun on the mantelpiece" rule, so to have the LGMs shot off out of nowhere - from my perspective - still annoys me. Not enough to make me stop reading, but enough to make me comment.