colicade

[lazybarbarians]

Precursor, by C. J. Cherryh

Kalinara: So, since I tricked Ragnell into taking two turns in a row to finish up Aftermath, this was my second turn. I decided to go back to one of the first series we started reviewing, and chose C. J. Cherryh’s Precursor. This is the fourth book of her Foreigner series.

So needless to say, none of this review will make much sense to anyone who hasn’t read the three books that came before.

Ragnell: Or at least the three reviews that came before.

K: Precursor starts three years after the end of Inheritor, and basically starts what I think of as the “Atevi In Spaaaace” trilogy. I’ll try to keep this synopsis short, as anyone who’s read Cherryh knows, her books tend to be pretty dense with content.

So by this time in the story, the Atevi have finished constructing their shuttles. And this means travel to and from the space station/ship is now a reality. The ship has recalled Jase and Yolanda, and as a response, Tabini sends Bren and his usual cohorts (Banichi, Jago, Tano, Algini) as well as a full atevi household (Bren’s status has risen in the world), up too, to set up the next stage of diplomatic negotiations.

Bren meets, however, a diplomatic quagmire. For all its urgency, the ship was NOT ready for the atevi, and a lot of strings need to be pulled to get things even remotely satisfactory. And then things go from inconvenient to downright dangerous when there is a coup in the highest ranks of ship government. Fortunately, Bren is not without recourse. And his guard are as effective as ever, even in these alien surroundings.

R: Honestly, how the hell didn’t see this coming sooner or later once the test flights went underway I don’t know. Tabini got his people to create spaceflight in three years. They should have at least expected he’d be asking soon, and that they should get some quarters ready for big aliens.

K: I think a lot of it may have been internal prejudice about primitive aliens. They see the Atevi, and they see a people who are still considerably more behind than they are technologically speaking. They don’t have any real appreciation of the way that Atevi have been able to use and innovate the Mospheiran technological advances (advances that eventually the Atevi would have been able to create themselves without help, just on a slower time scale), or how quickly they’ve come already. They also don’t seem to appreciate just how Tabini works as a leader. When he makes a decision, it happens.

As I mentioned, Bren’s status is considerably elevated. He’s finally figured out that he isn’t the ordinary translator/spy that he signed up to be. The story actually, finally, divorces his role completely from “translator” as a number of other characters with at least a workable command of the Ragi language are introduced. Both Tabini and Ilisidi show that they have resources outside of Bren, when it comes to simple communication with the humans on Mospheira. That said, Bren’s role is still vitally important.

Bren is Tabini’s diplomatic hammer, basically. And he is breathtakingly good at it. The four captains are the autocratic governing body of the whole ship, and Bren dictates terms to them. Bren also negotiates a completely separate business deal with the kinda-sorta-competing Mospheiran faction. (Bren has officially at this point made his break from the island. Apparently they do still try to pay him though.)

I remember the first time I read this book, I immediately went back and reread Foreigner. It’s a very similar feeling, I think, to watching A New Hope right after Return of the Jedi. Seeing Luke Skywalker back as that naive farmboy once you see him as the Jedi Master he becomes is such an amazing experience. He’s so adorable! This is, I think, Bren’s Return of the Jedi. There is no question that he’s a formidable force of nature, and possibly, in his own way, the third most powerful person on the planet (after Tabini and Ilisidi.)

R: Bren Cameron is one of only two people in any of the three factions who has experience mediating between humans and an alien species. (The other being the retired old paidhi Wilson, because Jase was still following Bren’s lead when he worked with the atevi.) In the situation this series has set up, that is a perfect comparison because he is basically a diplomatic Jedi. That is how rare that skill is and how necessary it is.

K: He’s not completely free of his anxieties though. There’s a truly lovely freakout scene early in the book, where he starts lambasting himself for enjoying having the fate of the world in his hands. The poor thing probably would still benefit from a therapist. Especially now that we’ve gotten a good look at his mother. The woman makes a physical appearance at the beginning of the book, and we see more of her personality through phone calls and letters. And she is terrible and incredibly manipulative. When I look at her, I start to suspect that a lot of Bren’s own diplomatic skills likely came about long before he met the Atevi, in sheer self defense.

R: He is being too hard on himself. Look, power is fun. That’s why it’s so corruptive. It’s fun to be the person someone needs to agree with and while that’s pretty much what led to the situation on the Captain’s Council first place that Bren enjoyed that scene so much proves he’s still human. Which he was worrying about last trilogy.

And really, it’s so much fun to watch. Usually we get these scenes on stuff like Star Trek with the uncooperative diplomat or politician and we see from the crew point of view. Here we see from the diplomat’s point of view, that he knows he’s being difficult and that this is part of establishing boundaries during negotiations. He feels bad about it with the rank and file personnel, and you feel a little bad for them too, but it is so enjoyable each time he puts the Captains in their place.

And then Ilisidi shows up, and it’s like he gets a power-up and gets to be ten times as loud and demanding and it is just so much fun to read. He goes from badass to Badass when she shows up.

K: At least he still has his relationship with Jago, which is so lovely and drama free. We also finally get an answer to the nature of Jago’s relationship with Banichi. Which likely adds a really interesting dynamic to Bren’s relationship with Banichi as well. Banichi is now Joe West, matchmaking his adopted son and his daughter.

R: That was just such a funny thing. And it’s not dropped for just nothing, it adds to the stressors during the parts of the book when Banichi disappears to well, be Banichi.

K: One of the things I think is really funny about this series is how each book ends up expanding on the factions and adding more division versus what came before. Like in Foreigner, we’re introduced to the humans and the atevi. Invader expands on that by introducing Deana Hanks and her Heritage Party as an antagonistic faction of humans. Inheritor is what introduces the Ship folk as their own faction, and Tatiseigi as a representative of very conservative Atevi.

Following in that trend, Precursor introduces a couple of new factions as well, and they’re all represented by new characters.

The first two I want to talk about are Tom Lund and Ginny Kroger. These two are Mospheirans, and introduced as members of the Heritage Party, who go up to the station with Bren. (Tabini’s idea, he likes symmetry and wanted Mospheira to send their own delegation when he sent Bren.) Bren particularly started off badly with Kroger, who seemed to exemplify her party’s closed minded attitude. However, once Bren and the Mospheirans unite against the increasingly bewildering behavior of the ship folk, he gets to learn more about them and the Heritage Party itself. Basically, the antagonists like Hanks and her father were only one part of the Party, while others joined because of other reasons: like the desire for independent scientific recovery and the push for space. Kroger, in particular, has personal ambitions regarding the rediscovery of robotics, which she believes will enable humans and atevi to engage in mining resources and other space-tasks with greater safety.

We have new adversaries though, in the form of Tamun, the fourth Captain of the crew, and his hardliners, who affect a coup against Ramirez, the leader of the Captains and the one we’ve encountered before (at least by radio), who is the one supporting the diplomatic relationship with the Atevi.

R: So far, Tamun is the most dickish antagonist we’ve seen. Which is why no one will miss him.

K: And then there’s Kaplan, who is introduced as Bren’s reluctant guide. Kaplan represents the everyman ship view (as opposed to Jase, who has a fairly elevated status, and also is off screen for most of the story as a victim of the coup). He is wary but ultimately curious about the Atevi, and it’s through him and crewmen like him that Bren is able to gain some social leverage, spread the truth about the coup, and make contacts throughout the ship.

Amusingly, we get a hint of Atevi politics as well. Bren’s elevated status has brought with it an official household (led by an esteemed old man named Narani, whose propriety and taste impresses even Ilisidi) and a prestigious apartment in the Bujavid, something that even some lesser Lords don’t have. Among his staff is a chef named Bindanda, who is both remarkably talented, and a spy from Lord Tatiseigi, a conservative Atevi lord who had been introduced in the last series. Everyone is well aware of Bindanda’s status as a spy, and try to accommodate that whenever possible.

R: Well, it’s not like he’s shooting up valuable artwork.

I love how bizarre the atevi seem to the crew in this way. Bren goes up there a lot more relaxed than an atevi lord would be, but clearly Tabini is presenting him as one. And that requires all this redecoration and accommodation that will definitely have to occur when the atevi take over the station and put whatever lucky lord gets to live in outer space up there. But the idea that there’s cosmetic adjustments to be made is just completely foreign to the ship humans, and they have no idea how lucky they are that Bren was sent up first with a polite staff before Ilisidi got up there.

K: In the midst of all of these events, we get some lovely worldbuilding moments. For example, Tabini has built an embassy for humans in Shejidan, designed (with input from Bren and Jase) to suit human tastes as much as possible. Meanwhile, we get to appreciate what goes into making the station quarters livable to Atevi (it reminds me a little of feng shui, though I am far too ignorant of the practice to make any real comparison.)

R: I don’t think the practice is too different from what we do for humans, just the details. They paint dentist offices in pastels so people don’t get upset. There are certain images you don’t put on the walls in public places. There’s a cliched type of motel and hotel setup so that everyone’s comfortable as they travel through. You don’t blast cacophonous music or have loud unpleasant noises in a waiting area. Certain smells are not good. Just for atevi, they need all of the numbers to be right in addition to the colors, sounds, and smells.

K: We also learn more about Ship culture: the emphasis on family (“cousins”, the fact that Ramirez’s children are in the command track, Tamun chooses his uncle to be a new Captain after the coup), a somewhat paternalistic attitude toward women, and a veneration for old women, which comes in very handy when Ilisidi comes in as the cavalry.

R: Yeah, Tabini had to have picked that reverence for old ladies up during incidental conversation and filed that away as a way of taking definitive and quick control before the Ship-Humans could know what happened.

K: I’ve said before that this is essentially the start of a new trilogy. Where the first trilogy focused on the interrelationship between Mospheira and Atevi, with the Ship as a catalyst, this trilogy is focused on space, with a special look at the ship humans and their interrelations, with Bren and the Atevi as catalysts. It’s only going to get more complex from here on out. :-)

[silvermoongirl10swfics]

Exists in a delicate balance and the difference between victory and defeat info

I was doing some tidying on my laptop and I rediscovered these family trees and Jedi lineage trees for my Exists in a delicate balance series and its spinoff series, so I thought I would post them here in case anyone was interested. 

Obi-Wan’s family tree (with added Cody as they did get married in this series):

Obviously, apart from Obi-Wan and Cody everyone else is an OC. Including Ranna (Obi-Wan’s Padawan who is mentioned).

His brother Owen’s name was chosen because on wookieepedia it said Obi-Wan remembered having a brother called Owen.

Bren Tanoor was named after her mother Bronwyn. Ben Kenobi was named after his uncle Obi-Wan.

Reeft’s Jedi lineage combined with Echo and Fives’ family tree:

Apart from Binn, Reeft, Echo and Fives, everyone else listed is an OC.

Binn Ibes is Reeft’s canon Master. Rem Birlel is an OC Padawan I created for Reeft.

For a few years, Echo became Reeft’s mission partner and went with Reeft (and later Rem) on Jedi missions.

In my the difference between victory and defeat series. While on a mission, Echo comes across a baby girl at an orphanage, he decides to adopt her and he names her Annileen Domino. Choosing the surname Domino for himself as well. Once he and Annileen return to the Temple, Fives absolutely loves his new niece and also gives himself the surname Domino.

Annileen falls in love with Carrick, who is human and also an orphan. Carrick does not know his surname so he takes on Annileen’s surname when they get married. Their daughters Nyra and Myri are born two years apart. Their eldest daughter, Nyra, is Force sensitive and becomes Rem’s second Padawan. Echo and Fives are proud to see their surname, which also honours their batchmates, is living on in Jedi history.

Yoda’s (disaster) lineage:

Cyslin Myr is a canon Master I found for Mace. Her Master is not listed so I made Yoda her Master, making Mace a part of Yoda’s many lineages. Within Mace’s lineage branch, the only OC is Krine Dara. I got a little carried away with the random name generator and decided to give Caleb a Grandpadawan.

For Obi-Wan’s lineage, I wanted him to have lots of Grandpadawans and great-Grandpadawans, so I enlisted the help of a random name generator to fill in the gaps. Some of these OC Padawans names you might recognise as I have used some of them in my new Vopak series.

Ranna Carn and Aliyash Shudar are Obi-Wan’s OC Padawans. Aliyash is now also featured as Obi-Wan’s newest Padawan in my Vopak series. Her characterisation has remained the same.

Other OCs in the lineage: Luca Donnall, Raarkoo, Kodo Agon, Navi Tetsu, Onol Mona, Feevo Tana, Eenar Barotr, Owen Courte (Anakin’s OC Padawan), Tyvokk (Anakin’s OC Grandpadawan), Jysell Waldar (Leia’s OC Padawan) and Jynne Daivik (Leia’s OC Grandpadawan). Jynne Daivik is another Padawan OC who is now in the Vopak series, except in that series she is Garen Muln’s OC Padawan and one of Aliyash’s best friends.

[midnight-dice]

Star Wars: Age of Exandria Caleb Widogast

(More headcanons/info below the cut; Beau should be next up!)

Guess what? I know next to nothing about Star Wars, but I had ideas so what knowledge I have has amalgamated into this Mighty Nein headcanon that they would fit a bit too well into the Star Wars universe. Timeline? We don’t need no timeline, this is fanfic. 

So my vague AU dictates that some type of war has been going on for some time, of course, and that Caleb was a Death Trooper (a la the beginning of Rogue One) in the Empire, and Darth Ikithon mind-tricked him into believing his parents were traitors so that he would have no connections that would miss him should he be up for some crazy death-squad experiments. Which followed with some kyber experimentation and Force hoodoo (yes, that’s the technical term) that turned a once-Force-null Bren into a pseudo-Sith. He attempted to train him with these powers, and he became very knowledgeable in Sith techniques (though Ikithon never let him have a lightsaber; apparently he’d never reached the step of being his true apprentice before more shit went down)

This also turned him crazy, and he hijacked an escape pod and got the hell out of dodge, wandering planet to planet. He adopted a Loth cat while travelling, and eventually teamed up with the bounty hunter Nott, who was quite the bowcaster shot when things got sticky. 

Accidentally, he might have freed an entire system’s worth of slaves with a band of misfits - Nott, of course; Beau, a rogue Jedi punk; Fjord, a smuggler who seems to know far too little about the Force to have the power he does; Jester, a Twi’lek technician with a gaggle of droids at her beck and call; Yasha, a starfighter of a woman with a temper to match; and Molly, who was smuggler one moment, jedi master the next, followed by slave and then Hutt-slayer. 

This of course got them the attention of the Rebels, and Senator Thyless outfitted him with a blaster and a mission: deliver a secret Jedi holocron to Queen Kryn with the crew of their stolen liberated Empire ship, the M9-Stareater, renamed jokingly as the Ball Eater. 

[jedimasteramell]

Same chart but with more pizzaz, added the NPC LIs and how I bring them together along with @ravenclawnerd’s Sharye, and @uldren-sov’s Azred, Talcyn, and Astra.

Brief Synopsis

Relationships: -Zhaire and Lixell are sisters -Nadhala is Sibhe’s mother -Dinek, Kal, and Teeubo are all siblings -Tegal and Azred are cousins

Allyship: - Lixell, Sibhe, Jacoac, and Dinek are all jedi of roughly the same age and grew up with each other. -Kal knows a lot of other smugglers, and pirates, its through her that Tegal and Adri met -Jyotti is initially a bounty hunter and becomes a Mandalorian, its through her that Teeubo becomes reuinted with Kal -Lixell and Sibhe are nexus’ of the Republic side, mainly because they tend to lead the missions for the flashpoints and planetary quests. -The Empire side is fraught with minor alliances. Senio is the most active, particularly as a cipher agent. -Senio is also the only Imperial (Prior to Ilum) to have ever actively assisted the Republic. - Nahdala is Dinek’s master.

Rivalries: -Rivalries only exist imperial side and mainly between the sith. Vesca maintains a deep rivally with her moral opposite Xyshanni; Lucien, as SIS, believes Zhaire to be one of the greatest dangers to the Republic, and the Chiss Eva'luhni and Thahn have a long standing aversion to each other, especially as Eva'luhni suspects Thahn of his force-sensitivity.

Love: -While many of the characters fall for actual love interests several dont. -Senio after accidentally falling for Hunter, meets Jonas while in the Alliance. Septeri, whom was in her same training program loved her unrequitedly for a time. -Azred, Sharye, and Jacoac are allies but also emotionally much more, whether they go beyond that has yet to be seen. -Bren, an undercover Coruscant Security officer, partners up with Kal and is utterly charmed by her and her flirting. -Zhaire is at an odd point with Quinn, not having seen him since prior to her capture ans subsequent imprisonment of Arcaan - Daya and Tal might be the sweetest OTP to end all OTPs, Lucien and Astra are a hot mess.