SPOILER THREAD: Dragon Ship eArc

[rolanni]

In case you missed yesterday's excitement, the eArc for Dragon Ship, the Fourth Book of Theo Waitley, is now available from Baen. To recap:

Download it here.

Dragon Ship art by David Mattingly

This topic is for those ambitious souls who have already read the book and who are bursting to talk about it.

There will be spoilers here! You have been warned.

I ask those who wish to discuss Dragon Ship, to, please, keep to this topic and not spill out into others. Your courtesy is appreciated.

Comments

[anisosynchronic.livejournal.com]

It was bittersweet from an external perspective, in one respect--I first met Rusty Hevelin back when I was 17 or 18, at the first or second SF/F convention I went to... he was a major personage in the SF/F community. I chortled when Rusty Hevelin the norbear appeared in one of the books....

After reading Dragon Ship and a rolanni comment about viewpoints for Necessity's Child, I'm wondering if the Young Tree is a viewpoint character....

Speaking of Trees, the Tree knew/knows Aelliana and approved of her, and I think had fed nuts to her. The tree could have some of her DNA and applied it to the nut it gave Daav, perhaps?

I started thinking early on that there were lots of things that weren't going to get resolved in Dragon Ship. I was hoping/expecting to see a Kamele/Aelliana/Jen Sar/Daav menage. I was looking forward to Kamele meeting up with Daav yos'Phelium and having to deal with Daav yos'Phelium occupying the body Kamele was familiar with as Jen Sar Kiladi, and of Daav yos' Phelium who had lost part of himself which had been Jen Sar Kilad, having some cognitive dissonance and finding Jen Sar again and having to reintegrate himself.... something similar happened with Aelliana at the end of the first book she ws in and going forward in the early parts of Mouse and Dragon, where she was dealing with going from the abuse victim withdrawn professor to Courier Pilot Caylon, Delmae Korval. Also, I was looking forward to Kamele meeting Aelliana incorporate, especially since it was Aelliana who first noticed Kamele and was first attracted to her.

When Kara showed up and turned out to have a past and renewed relationship with Theo, I was hoping for a menage there, too, with them and Win Ton....

I liked seeing Asu and Kara show up. I wonder how many people know Theo is the biological daughter of Daav yos'Pheluium? Theo didn't it looked like tell that to Asu, only that Theo was under contract to Korval. I do want to know more about how the ship Asu was on dropped its passengers and hightailed it to the evacuation of Codrescu, and what the ramifications of that to Asu are. Hmm, thinking about Asu, I wouldn't be surprised if Asu manages to find out better than Theo's awaresness, the relationship of Theo to Korval.... The Theo-centric view of Asu in Saltation and Ghost Ship, shows its shortcomings (or rather, Theo's limitations as socially clueful) in Dragon Ship. (hmm, for that matter, "Dragon Ship" might better refer to Cantra's vessel, than to Bechimo! Bechimo is at least a part-owner of himsel, and while he's under contract to Korval, he is not so far at least a Korval ship. Cantra's ship is, as the property of Cantra and her heirs, up until it shows up as salvage (though arguably it's the property of the Tree on-board, which is sapient--but a minor! And if the property of a minor Tree, that puts the minor Tree and its property as subordinate to the original Tree, planted on Surebleak and Clan Korval which tends the Tree and which Tree tends the members of Clan Korval. Uh-oh, the young Tree is happy to have Theo show up.... I wonder what Bechimo make of the situation.... Theo doesn't have the same attitudes to Trees as her many times great-grandmother Cantra. "Jela's damned tree....") As salvage, the ship and contents belong to Laughing Cat...
On another point, Delm Korval is supposed to be the best pilot in Korval....

Regarding Win Ton, he was rebuilt from the DNA up, meaning probably that all the fine-detail and such body-training he'd had, no longer apply. The Uncle noted that he'd gone through such reconstruction, and the Uncle stayed or retrained successfully as pilot. Presumably the same's happened with Dulsey, too. (The Uncle may be been somewhat mendacious about his vessel's healing units' abilities--What Bechimo definitely had that was not on the Uncle's vessel, was an uncontaminated sample of Win Ton).

And another stray thought just hit me--dance and Theo. The name of Cantra's ship is Spiral Dancer. I keep thinking the Theo is Cantra reincarnated... However, Theo -has- ship she's bonded with, a ship many hundreds of years newer than Spiral Dance...

[welhar.livejournal.com]

"When Kara showed up and turned out to have a past and renewed relationship with Theo, I was hoping for a menage there, too, with them and Win Ton...."

Funny, I thought that did not ring true at all. I thought they were channelling Priscilla there.

Maybe there is one more edit coming. I noticed Win Ton was telling Theo that the DOI was the source of his troubles and Theo reacted like she heard this for the first time. (ref Saltation)

I also noticed a third board magically appeared on Bechimo, where there had only been two before (ref. Saltation and Ghost Ship)