Read the previous entry in the series here.
Read the next entry in the series here.

Following more of the ongoing exchange among bird-keepers, “Blue Ink, Black Rain” begins with Alise sitting quietly and contemplating the insights offered by her burgeoning friendship with Bellin, a crewmate aboard the Tarman. Leftrin interrupts her as she writes, and she reports that she is recording conversations with the dragons, describing her progress with them. Leftrin inquires about her scholarly apparatus, which she describes in some self-deprecating terms, and an offhand comment leads her to a new realization about the work. When she tries to write of it, though, she realizes she is out of ink, and she makes to call on Sedric for more.

Sedric stirs to consciousness, disturbed by the intrusion, and cries out. Alise, startled, explains herself, and Sedric panics at her going through his goods. He responds snappishly to her, and she stalks out, equally snappish. After, Sedric considers his situation and the continuing communion he has with the dragon Relpda. The changes the dragon’s blood have wrought on him are noted, and Carson calls on him. The tensions of his interactions with Carson are rehearsed, as are the doubts about his life with Hest that they prompt in him. Carson confers about Davvie with Sedric, the two arriving at an understanding regarding the boy and Carson urging Sedric to out himself.

In a boat together, Thymara and Rapskal proceed together in the dragons’ wake, Thymara rehearsing recent events and their fallout. The pair bring their boat ashore along with the other keepers, setting up camp for the evening, and Rapskal heads off in search of of food. After he leaves, Tats approaches Thymara, and the two confer about their situation. Noting the closeness among some of the other keepers, Thymara grows jealous, and discussion of sex among the keepers ensues. Rapskal returns amid it, making discussion uncomfortable in the detail he provides. Thymara stalks off, encountering Sedric, and the two talk together briefly before Thymara stalks off again. This time, she encounters Alise and Sintara in an argument about herself. The dragon rebukes both Alise and Thymara, and the two work to comfort one another afterward.

Leftrin comes off watch and considers his situation before he meets with Jess. Jess proposes harvesting parts from a dragon he has cultivated and sedated, and he suggests absconding with their prize together. Melee ensues.

Sintara considers Thymara and Alise briefly before becoming aware of an incoming flood. The dragons and their keepers scramble towards safety, but to no avail, and Sintara is taken by the flood. She recovers, but Thymara is swept away, and Sintara recovers her at Alise’s urging, claiming her triumphantly.

I find myself struck by the easy acceptance of same-sex attraction among the hunters that accompany the Tarman and the dragon keepers upstream. It is something at odds with my own experience; growing up in rural central Texas I was, and living in rural central Texas I am surrounded by people who do a lot of hunting and fishing. Many of them profess homophobic sentiments with varying degrees of vehemence; few of them avow acceptance of same-sex attraction or acting thereupon. Admittedly, I am not sufficiently acquainted with many people for them to confide their views in me, so there may be great differences between the performances made publicly and those made privately. And in any event, part of the nature of fantasy literature is that it is escapist; it can easily be aspirational, and the argument might be made that it both inherently is and that it ought to be so. (To be sure, that would have some interesting implications for such works as Donaldson’s. But that’s a discussion for another time and place, as well as another student than me. I have enough to do with this project without taking on others. Yet, oh! how they beckon!)

Indeed, the social commentary Hobb offers, consciously or otherwise, is striking. Perhaps it is because I am looking for such things, anymore. Many will oppose such things, calling for me and others who read with intent to “let a story be a story.” But stories are human products, and the people who make them are enmeshed in their systems of governance and culture. The stories told cannot help but be reactions to and engagements with the same–and with those that follow, as they continue to be told and written and heard and read.

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Read the previous entry in the series here.
Read the next entry in the series here.

After another component of an exchange among bird-keepers, “First Kill” turns to the occurrence of an earthquake on the Rain Wild River as the dragons, their keepers, and the Tarman proceed upstream. Thymara considers the experience, and she notes changes among the dragons as they continue in the wake of the event, their order of travel described.

Matters are uneasy in the evening, Greft lashing out after his earlier embarrassment and Jerd joining him shortly after he stalks off into the night. Thymara funds herself musing on possibilities and the development of customs and social mores. Potentials captivate her, and she resolves not to act upon them without deliberation.

The next morning, Thymara wakes and considers her situation and that of her colleagues. Tending to her morning ablutions, she confers with Sintara and reflects upon what she has seen and understood. As she seeks food, Alise comes upon her, and the two confer, Alise admitting to doubts and asking Thymara to teach her rudimentary woodcraft. She also notes having stumbled upon Greft and Jerd’s intimacy, and abruptly shifts the topic back to fishing. Alise tries her hand at the task successfully, and the two talk of the dragons as they continue to fish.

Alise stumbles onto larger prey and subdues it while Thymara and others struggle to make the kill. Thymara is struck by Sintara’s wing and knocked into the river, from which Mercor retrieves her. She is tended, and she realizes Sintara’s total disdain for her, excusing herself quietly from the gathered dragons and keepers. Alise tracks her departure with sadness, and she listens as Mercor discusses the fish that she and Thymara secured.

After, Leftrin and Alise confer, the captain comforting the passenger. He also ensures that she has what she needs to sluice the acidic river water from herself. Sintara, for her part, stalks away and muses on human foolishness and whether or not she ought to make Thymara into an Elderling. The mental communion between the two irritates Sintara, and neither finds the other in high regard.

I appreciate that the present chapter does more to lay out the relationship between dragons and their keepers–nascent Elderlings. The contrasts among dragons’ attitudes are also worth attention, Mercor’s treatment of the keepers standing in sharp relief to Sintara’s frankly adolescent conduct. And Thymara’s rumination on the basis of social mores seems to be of a piece with the democratizing impulses at work in the later portions of the Liveship Traders novels (here and elsewhere). I note, though, that the Traders’ renegotiation of their position with respect to Jamaillia seems more an attempt by the privileged to retain their privilege than the dragon keepers’ contemplations of establishing their own heritage after having been outcasts from their own families. Power dynamics are decidedly different, and I’m sure there’s some historical parallel that escapes me as I write this. (That it does is my problem and not that of the parallel that I cannot bring to mind at the moment; that I am not informed about a thing does not mean that said thing in unworthy, despite the protestations of too many to that idea.)

I’d be happy to put my talents to work for you; let me know what all you need written, and we’ll talk!

Read the previous entry in the series here.
Read the next entry in the series here.

Following another exchange between bird-keepers (and one of a gossipy sort), the second chapter, “Tricky Currents,” begins with Hest regarding Sedric harshly, berating him for his timidity and turning to another lover. It is a dream, however, and Sedric startles awake, considering his situation and the likelihood that what he has dreamt will come to pass.

Soon after, Alise calls on him, finding him still abed. She expresses concern about his continued convalescence, and he attempts to deflect her conversation. Alise offers to take him back downriver, which offer he refuses, citing concerns about incoming seasonal changes. Sedric notes the changes to Alise’s appearance occasioned by their upriver trip and considers that Hest may not take her back, and Alise leaves him to rest and recover. After, Sedric mulls over their situation further, rehearsing the political and economic entanglements that ensnare him and turning aside from them mentally to confer with the copper dragon, Relpda, whose blood he has tasted. The implications of his ability to do so are not lost upon him.

After leaving Sedric’s bedside, Alise repairs to the galley aboard the Tarman, considering the workings of the liveship around her and musing on her distaste for the hunter, Jess. She reports Sedric’s condition to Leftrin, and their conversation turns to the local geography. Challenges posed by what is known of the geography are discussed, and Jess interrupts with complaints about pay. Leftrin is provoked, and Jess makes an exit, leaving Alise confused.

Leftrin considers the implications of the outburst and his eagerness to retain Alise’s regard. He embraces Alise before being able to stop himself, though she seems eager for it, and he forces himself to separate from her. Taking his leave of her, he strides out on deck and confers with his ship before lapsing into thought and ruminating on his entanglements with Chalced, realizing that Jess is a Chalcedean agent. His manipulation of Greft receives attention, as do its implications. So do the implications of Leftrin’s choices regarding the Tarman and the liveship’s crew, and he confers with Swarge briefly among considerations of the same before turning to thoughts of murdering Jess.

The Tarman alerts Leftrin to an incoming earthquake, and Leftrin calls out orders to secure the craft against it. Alise, joining him, asks after the event, and Leftrin lays out likely effects with which they will have to contend, as well as how to address them. Their talk turns to the possibilities of their mission’s failure and Leftrin’s motives for taking it on. And Leftrin finds himself again considering life with Alise.

The present chapter is another expository one, spending a large portion of its pages rehearsing events from the previous novel in the series and laying out context of the milieu in which it takes place. So much is to the good, of course; one of the challenges faced by readers of novels in series is coming into the series after its beginning, and getting caught up takes some doing. (As someone who has gotten to read a lot of novels other than the first in a series, I understand this concern well.) A good recap is therefore quite desirable, and it’s good to have seen one in the present novel.

The present chapter also lays out more major conflicts to come. It has been a while since I read the present novel, I admit, so my memory of events within the pages is faded, but it seems to me Jess is not well placed to make it into the next novel, while Alise, Sedric, and Leftrin are. Whether or not I am remembering well or guessing correctly, though, will be seen as the rereading progresses.

I’d be happy to put my talents to work for you; let me know what all you need written, and we’ll talk!