1. Bren seems really isolated from human society -- he mentions one brother(doesn't discuss contacting him), and that he sends very uninformative letters to his mother, and that his father is estranged; his superiors might start missing him if he doesn't call for a fortnight; his affairs are brief and no-strings sorts from women not wanting or expecting more.
Human society doesn't seem all that attached to him, either -- his superiors wouldn't raise any fuss if he vanished mysteriously and was never heard from again, there's no mention of his brother or father possibly contacting him, and his successor, Hanks, pretty clearly isn't his friend, so if he has friends in the department we haven't seen them.
Does this really put him in a good position to be paidhi? If you were a Mospheiran, wouldn't you want the person representing you to the Big Scary Aliens to be a guy you knew, had some influence with, and could be pretty sure was on your side? ...So does the position really go to the most linguistically gifted, NO other criteria involved?
2. Malguri: wow. Especially for a spacefaring populace, the sheer age of the place probably is overwhelming! I was awed when Bren thought that it had been built before humans achieved spaceflight (or, at least, habitable colonies/residential space stations, depending on how you want to interpret that line).
Then I got thinky, and started wondering if this is a relatively near-future SF novel/space exploration isn't that far beyond what it is now. It might explain why Phoenix was carrying so many top-talent people and so much by way of historical records.
Edit: Just checked something I vaguely remembered, and in Book One I found this: They'd been screened, their skills had been tested, they'd had to have recommendations atop recommendations even to come close to this job. They didn't send foul-ups on a ship that carried Earth's whole damned colonial program, and disasters didn't happen to a mission as important as this one.
So the Phoenix was humanity's FIRST colony ship! So the atevi may well be their first encounter with a nonhuman intelligence...
Very polite reception Bren gets at first, despite being the only human ever to travel so far inland; loved the housekeeper asking Bren to sign in Mosphei' as well as Ragi. :D Bren's apartment sounds lovely, too, despite the unpromising corridor he traversed to reach it!
3. Ilisidi! I notice that she scares (well, "commands") Bren... but he still argues with her five seconds later. :D I love the mental image of Bren in the oversized chair with his arms about his knees, ready to duck if her cane comes his way! ♥ Bren, never stop being so adorable. (Don't stop being ready to duck, either.)
Ilisidi's conversational tactics make that little verbal wrangle Bren had with Jago look tame! For an ateva, she's shockingly rude, too -- she slanders him personally ("gambling... sex with the servants... perversion"), and humans (and paidhiin) generally destroying an antique tea set. Bren keeps wondering if she's mad, despite noting several proofs that she's both sane and well aware of the wider world; cognitive dissonance, because sane atevi just don't act that way?
4. Poisoned tea! Poor Bren. (My innards start hurting in sympathy just reading about his reaction!) Interesting, though, that he instinctively trusts Banichi when he's ill, and instinctively distrusts Cenedi (well, instinctively thinks Cenedi is Guild, and dangerous).
First impressions
Human society doesn't seem all that attached to him, either -- his superiors wouldn't raise any fuss if he vanished mysteriously and was never heard from again, there's no mention of his brother or father possibly contacting him, and his successor, Hanks, pretty clearly isn't his friend, so if he has friends in the department we haven't seen them.
Does this really put him in a good position to be paidhi? If you were a Mospheiran, wouldn't you want the person representing you to the Big Scary Aliens to be a guy you knew, had some influence with, and could be pretty sure was on your side? ...So does the position really go to the most linguistically gifted, NO other criteria involved?
2. Malguri: wow. Especially for a spacefaring populace, the sheer age of the place probably is overwhelming! I was awed when Bren thought that it had been built before humans achieved spaceflight (or, at least, habitable colonies/residential space stations, depending on how you want to interpret that line).
Then I got thinky, and started wondering if this is a relatively near-future SF novel/space exploration isn't that far beyond what it is now. It might explain why Phoenix was carrying so many top-talent people and so much by way of historical records.
Edit: Just checked something I vaguely remembered, and in Book One I found this: They'd been screened, their skills had been tested, they'd had to have recommendations atop recommendations even to come close to this job. They didn't send foul-ups on a ship that carried Earth's whole damned colonial program, and disasters didn't happen to a mission as important as this one.
So the Phoenix was humanity's FIRST colony ship! So the atevi may well be their first encounter with a nonhuman intelligence...
Very polite reception Bren gets at first, despite being the only human ever to travel so far inland; loved the housekeeper asking Bren to sign in Mosphei' as well as Ragi. :D Bren's apartment sounds lovely, too, despite the unpromising corridor he traversed to reach it!
3. Ilisidi! I notice that she scares (well, "commands") Bren... but he still argues with her five seconds later. :D I love the mental image of Bren in the oversized chair with his arms about his knees, ready to duck if her cane comes his way! ♥ Bren, never stop being so adorable. (Don't stop being ready to duck, either.)
Ilisidi's conversational tactics make that little verbal wrangle Bren had with Jago look tame! For an ateva, she's shockingly rude, too -- she slanders him personally ("gambling... sex with the servants... perversion"), and humans (and paidhiin) generally destroying an antique tea set. Bren keeps wondering if she's mad, despite noting several proofs that she's both sane and well aware of the wider world; cognitive dissonance, because sane atevi just don't act that way?
4. Poisoned tea! Poor Bren. (My innards start hurting in sympathy just reading about his reaction!) Interesting, though, that he instinctively trusts Banichi when he's ill, and instinctively distrusts Cenedi (well, instinctively thinks Cenedi is Guild, and dangerous).
What a cliffhanger to end a reading on! :D