I’m giving the page a second section because page 1 was starting to behave oddly.
As always, wait at least 30 days from issue of the book before starting to discuss. And give our overseas friends some extra leeway: the distribution system doesn’t reach everywhere as fast!
I did have those figures about 3 moves ago. 😉 Alas, they’re gone. But consider too they spent time in that radiation hell on their way in, and the mutation rate probably went up at that point.
One wonders of the incidence of cancer among Mospheirans. But then, the world of the Atevi seems to be colder, further from their sun? Or with less radiative output, perhaps? Interesting prospects.
Speaking of populations – I’ve long been curious as to the size of the station — is it the size of Pell? Smaller? Like Thule or one of the Hinder Stars outposts? Just me wool-gathering…
ISTR Pyanfar or Hilfy thinking about 300K stsho at Meetpoint. Incredible, I’ve always thought.
Well, they would have had a spike in mutations, before settling on atevi-earth (Atev’? Ateviin? Or the Lucas-ian “Aatevine’? 😉 We really need to come up with a name for the planet!)
It depends on how zero-tolerant they were about donors to the Taylor’s Children legacy breeding post-exposure. Once “here”, the ongoing mutation rate would be reduced (perhaps dramatically), and it would remain to be seen if mutations “breed true”, vanish, or lurk as recessives.
Maybe Phoenix/Mospherian humanity has a higher percentage of redheads? :looks around hopefully:
I almost picture Mospheirans to look like Brazilians – an odd mix of features – dark skin, blue, blue eyes, red hair maybe, or blond but with epicanthic folds…
My kids have that, actually. They’re not Downs, my wife and I are both European descent, but her ancestry is from Alsace-Lorraine. Part of me wonders if her ancestors weren’t at some point assaulted by the Golden Horde…
Well, there was a Moorish general who made it that far—legendarily had a marriage with a princess of Lorraine, I think…and he was descended from the Eastern Med.
This feels like it fits well with
CJ’s work:
http://www.filmsforaction.org/news/survival_of_the_nicest/
I’m not sure if this has been mentioned before… couldn’t find it if it has. But on page 310 of Protector, it says:
<blockquote cite="This lord of Dojisigi clan, and aiji of a quarter of the Marid at the moment, was a fifteen-year-old spoiled brat of a girl, who had once expected to marry Tatiseigi’s nephew.”
I might be remembering incorrectly, but my brain is telling me “Tatiseigi” here should read “Geigi” since Tiajo was engaged to Baiji…
I grabbed up Foreigner a few days ago, not meaning to read it through. Once I get started…
Anyway I noticed the first printing date, November 1994, and realized it’s almost 20 years I’ve had Bren and Ilisidi, Tabini, Jago, Banichi in my life.
Just want to say thanks CJ!
Now that I’ve buttered you up, here’s the question:
I notice in foreigner Banichi is upset about the guild asassin shot by Cenedi in the courtyard. His reason is because it’s someone he knows well, who was trained by the same instructors.
So at the time you wrote that did you have in mind the internal guild conspiracy of Haikuti et al?
No, but I knew there was politics, and I knew Banichi had a history.
Just as a note, where *I* twigged to the problem within the Guild was exactly where Banichi and Algini began to lay hands on the proof, was the attack on Bren at Kajiminda, which was originally laid at the door of the Taisigi lord: but you’ll recall—*they* didn’t get any warn-off from the Guild. There was a massive ‘intelligence failure’ uncharacteristic of the Guild that led to Bren and Cajeiri going into harm’s way. And where they really had it, was the attack at Najida.
Politics. I’ve always liked the way you handle it. The abuse of power shown both clearly and subtly. Heroes who hold on to their ability to care for even unrelated others.
Well I think the guild conspiracy was a deft stroke. It fit perfectly with many things you had already written. It added a fascinating reason for things that were poorly understood.
Thanks!
I wonder just how many books or even story arcs Ms. Cherryh could write BEFORE we actually get to the birthday party. I admire greatly the incredible compression of plot in the books.
We will be able to talk about Protector soon, yes?
Meanwhile, I’ve given some thought to the manner in which atevi create “nicknames”–you know, which syllables of a name are dropped to form the familiar. One and two syllable names don’t get shortened, so we have Bren-ji and Jago-ji; and I have noted that with three and four syllable names, the last two syllables are usually used, as in, ‘Nichi-ji and ‘Sidi-ji. I figured the exceptions have to do with ease of pronunciation: “Jico-ji” (Vejico) being, perhaps, easier to pronounce than Veji-ji.
So why Tati-ji (Tatiseigi) instead of Seigi-ji? Why Luca-ji instead of Casi-ji?
What on earth would Grigiji be called?
Linguistic rules, CJ?
The issue came back to my mind because of the change in Damiri’s “nickname”. In Invader. Tabini calls her “Miri-ji.” In Protector, he calls her Dami-ji.
Shortening Tabini’s name just does not work for me. Tabi-ji? Nah–that’s what you’d call a kittycat. Bini-ji? Heavens, that’s a Cub scout. Tabini’s forceful personality does not accord with either of these “nicknames”. But when he was a child, which was it. CJ?
Shortening Tabini’s name? That would be like instead of saying Mr President you say ‘HEY, Jimmy’ (Glasgow Influence here) Greeting an Atevi (Lord or otherwise) in such a diminutive manner is liable to get the perpetrator Shot
Too true, Deesha. But did Tabini not have a childhood and, thus, a shortened name? And what does Damiri call him? He calls her Dami-daja and Miri-daja and Lily-daja (Invader). Is there anyone who is “familiar” with Tabini? I wonder if his lost aishid ever used the familiar form with the aji title. . .
Can we talk about Protector yet? Who starts?
Here is a question – the new book currently being written is titles “Unknown”.
But since that breaks the theme of the previous titles – it should be “Unknown Ore” – Bren leads a team to harvest asteroids in the dirty Atavi system.
So, you’re saying the title should be “Prospector”…?
Discussion of Protector is over and long done at the Shejidan forum, by all means, have at here 😉
Apropos of nothing else (and looking back at some of my Sheji posts), I’m reposting a question of mine from there:
How many days are there in an atevi month? Given the mathematical contortions needed by our current reformed Gregorian method (97 leap years every 400 years) to keep the solar year, days, moons, and seasons in sync, I suspect atevi would be at least as rigorous.
How many months in a season?
How do atevi get around the four-ness of seasons?
||: Deep Cold/Slumbering – Warming/Sprouting – Hot/Growing – Cooling/Harvesting :||
I mean, they could subdivide the year more finely, but it still very much wants to be an even number.
Since CJ is translating from the atevi, hani, mahen, main kiffish, and other languages and lexicographies for us, she has had to do the conversions to terms familiar to us for similar things. We call the warming/sprouting season “Spring”, so whatever atevi call it with their etymology, spring is how we would know it.
Why would they have four seasons? Bren’s Mospheiran upbringing may have had him thinking that way but does he still do that? Probably not.
This isn’t Bren’s thinking or “Mospheiran” thinking, this is MY thinking, firmly grounded in physics, geometry, and reality. Seasons are the manifestation of the physical cycle of a planet going around it’s sun, which would, lacking obvious extreme exceptions of some sort, follow the same pattern pretty universally. Seasons must, of necessity, balance evenly. What warms must cool. What rains must dry. What is dry must have rain. What is warm must eventually cool. Unless the Atev’ orbit is much more elliptical than Terra’s? That would only double the number of warmer-cooler-warmer-cooler cycles in a solar year (aka one full orbit).
So maybe the atevi subdivide the year differently. My point is, it CANNOT be an odd number of seasons, despite the atevi preference. I could see six. It’s an even number, but it has a geometric relation to the distance from the sun.
I think it’s all relative to where you are and what seasonal differences you notice. 🙂
It is said that the native Tasmanians had the concept of six seasons.
ACK, should be “what is cool must warm […] what is warm will cool”
Hey, it could be they count seasons differently! Running joke in (ruralish) Alaska was there are 3 seasons, Mud, Dust, and Ice, based on the conditions of the roads. Our calendar seasons don’t always correspond to reality. Here on the Oregon Coast, seasons really could be broken down to three easily – Rainy, Growing, and Fire!