some thoughts on secrets and Skolians
Apropos of nothing in particular:
One narrative trope I particularly like is The Reveal (TM). This works best if it's not deployed lightly -- a character with a big secret is obviously not going going to spill it to someone they've just met, and anyway the trope works best with some time to build up dramatic tension. But I really like the moment when the truth comes out.
This can be either voluntary or involuntary. It can be public or private. It can lead to a positive or negative reaction. I like all variations. The main point is that somebody now knows, the tension is at least partially released, and the story can move on to dealing with fallout, which is also a narrative trope I particularly like.
I mention this because one series I like has a doozy of an interconnected web of secrets at its heart, and absolutely no one has all the pieces: namely, Catherine Asaro's Saga of the Skolian Empire, and the truth about Sauscony, Jaibriol II, and their children.
This is not to say that everyone is completely in the dark. As of The Ruby Dice (I am not sure about Carnelians, since my library system doesn't own that book and therefore I haven't read it) a handful of people (Seth Rockworth, Corbal, Tarquine, Kelric, Dehya, Eldrinson before he died, obviously everyone on Prism, Viquara and Quaelen before they died, maybe one or two others I'm forgetting) know about Jaibriol III's heritage and/or know that Soz and Jaibriol II were married. Only Seth knows for sure that Jai has younger siblings; others may suspect but have no proof. And none of them except Seth know that Soz and Jaibriol faked their deaths (and Althor's) and returned to Prism to set up a little utopian colony for psions. Jai doesn't know that either, because he left Earth before his parents returned from the Radiance War. His nuclear family doesn't know that Jai became Emperor of Eube, because they were back in hiding on Prism before he traded himself for his uncle Eldrin's freedom. And only Kelric, Dehya, and Tarquine (maybe also Corbal? I forget) are aware that Jai is now part of the Triad and could set up a Eubian psiberweb if he ever abandoned his scruples.
The thing is, there is almost no way for anyone to share their respective scraps of information because it's very difficult for the people who know them to set up unmonitored communications with each other (their positions preclude that) and if these interconnected secrets were made public, the political fallout would be nightmarish beyond imagining. (Interstellar war, mark two. Which nobody can afford. Also Jai and his allies would be tortured to death.)
So naturally what I want is a story wherein Rocalisa (Jai's little sister) leaves Prism to find herself away from her parents and siblings, bring back some new supplies and settlers, and maybe secretly contact her grandfather to let him know Soz and Althor are alive... and discovers that A) her brother is now the Trader Emperor, B) her dead uncle Kelric is actually alive and running the Skolian military, C) her great-aunt Dehya staged a coup to turn Skolia into a constitutional monarchy rather than a pure republic, and D) they have somehow managed to drag their respective empires into a tentative and fractious peace. Oh, and her very existence would doom all their efforts if she's discovered and identified, and since her grandfather is dead she has no way to contact anyone for help... which is bad because she's made some awkward slips in her ignorance and now [plot things] are on her trail. Oops.
The plot would be a mix of Lisi adjusting to the emotional realization of what her brother has done (and the corollary that she'll never get to see him again), Lisi learning to navigate Skolian space on her own, and Lisi battling the people associated with whatever military/political plot she stumbled into by accident, and who now want to capture her for [fill in reason]. Eventually she successfully disrupts whatever trouble she found, and gets in contact with both Jai and some of her Skolian relatives at some point in the process, if only through coded secret messages, so now they know her part of the tangled interconnected secret web even if, for obvious reasons, they can't do anything overt about it. And of course there should be a love story, but maybe a lesbian one because the series as a whole runs on very heterosexual romances and it would be nice to get a variation on that pattern.
I don't expect Asaro to go there, but that is what I want. In fact, I want it to the point that I am considering nominating the fandom for Yuletide. Obviously I would not phrase the request in such detailed terms as the preceding paragraphs, but I think the general outline of "Rocalisa Qox Skolia leaves Prism as a young adult, learns what's happened to her relatives since the Radiance War, and has adventures while trying to keep her identity secret in order to protect the various branches of her family. A romance of some sort -- lesbian or poly would be especially welcome, though het is also fine -- would be a lovely addition though not strictly necessary" could be quite workable.
...
Hopefully I will remember that when nominations roll around this fall. :)
---------------
ETA: I was finally able to read a copy of Carnelians while visiting my parents in NJ this September (thanks to their county library system) and... on the one hand, it rehashes a stupid number of points from previous books, which is kind of silly and annoying. Like, haven't we already done this? But on the other, it gave me THAT SCENE at the climax with Jai and his family and I just... ahhhh. *floats blissfully* I'd forgive an awful lot of egregious repetition for that. Plus what's-her-name, Alina? (I am not always great with names.) Anyway, Althor's surprise!kid, and her friend the escaped provider (Red?). They were a little thinly characterized in the book itself, but there's a bunch of potential for future stories there, not that I necessarily expect Asaro to pick up those threads.
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One narrative trope I particularly like is The Reveal (TM). This works best if it's not deployed lightly -- a character with a big secret is obviously not going going to spill it to someone they've just met, and anyway the trope works best with some time to build up dramatic tension. But I really like the moment when the truth comes out.
This can be either voluntary or involuntary. It can be public or private. It can lead to a positive or negative reaction. I like all variations. The main point is that somebody now knows, the tension is at least partially released, and the story can move on to dealing with fallout, which is also a narrative trope I particularly like.
I mention this because one series I like has a doozy of an interconnected web of secrets at its heart, and absolutely no one has all the pieces: namely, Catherine Asaro's Saga of the Skolian Empire, and the truth about Sauscony, Jaibriol II, and their children.
This is not to say that everyone is completely in the dark. As of The Ruby Dice (I am not sure about Carnelians, since my library system doesn't own that book and therefore I haven't read it) a handful of people (Seth Rockworth, Corbal, Tarquine, Kelric, Dehya, Eldrinson before he died, obviously everyone on Prism, Viquara and Quaelen before they died, maybe one or two others I'm forgetting) know about Jaibriol III's heritage and/or know that Soz and Jaibriol II were married. Only Seth knows for sure that Jai has younger siblings; others may suspect but have no proof. And none of them except Seth know that Soz and Jaibriol faked their deaths (and Althor's) and returned to Prism to set up a little utopian colony for psions. Jai doesn't know that either, because he left Earth before his parents returned from the Radiance War. His nuclear family doesn't know that Jai became Emperor of Eube, because they were back in hiding on Prism before he traded himself for his uncle Eldrin's freedom. And only Kelric, Dehya, and Tarquine (maybe also Corbal? I forget) are aware that Jai is now part of the Triad and could set up a Eubian psiberweb if he ever abandoned his scruples.
The thing is, there is almost no way for anyone to share their respective scraps of information because it's very difficult for the people who know them to set up unmonitored communications with each other (their positions preclude that) and if these interconnected secrets were made public, the political fallout would be nightmarish beyond imagining. (Interstellar war, mark two. Which nobody can afford. Also Jai and his allies would be tortured to death.)
So naturally what I want is a story wherein Rocalisa (Jai's little sister) leaves Prism to find herself away from her parents and siblings, bring back some new supplies and settlers, and maybe secretly contact her grandfather to let him know Soz and Althor are alive... and discovers that A) her brother is now the Trader Emperor, B) her dead uncle Kelric is actually alive and running the Skolian military, C) her great-aunt Dehya staged a coup to turn Skolia into a constitutional monarchy rather than a pure republic, and D) they have somehow managed to drag their respective empires into a tentative and fractious peace. Oh, and her very existence would doom all their efforts if she's discovered and identified, and since her grandfather is dead she has no way to contact anyone for help... which is bad because she's made some awkward slips in her ignorance and now [plot things] are on her trail. Oops.
The plot would be a mix of Lisi adjusting to the emotional realization of what her brother has done (and the corollary that she'll never get to see him again), Lisi learning to navigate Skolian space on her own, and Lisi battling the people associated with whatever military/political plot she stumbled into by accident, and who now want to capture her for [fill in reason]. Eventually she successfully disrupts whatever trouble she found, and gets in contact with both Jai and some of her Skolian relatives at some point in the process, if only through coded secret messages, so now they know her part of the tangled interconnected secret web even if, for obvious reasons, they can't do anything overt about it. And of course there should be a love story, but maybe a lesbian one because the series as a whole runs on very heterosexual romances and it would be nice to get a variation on that pattern.
I don't expect Asaro to go there, but that is what I want. In fact, I want it to the point that I am considering nominating the fandom for Yuletide. Obviously I would not phrase the request in such detailed terms as the preceding paragraphs, but I think the general outline of "Rocalisa Qox Skolia leaves Prism as a young adult, learns what's happened to her relatives since the Radiance War, and has adventures while trying to keep her identity secret in order to protect the various branches of her family. A romance of some sort -- lesbian or poly would be especially welcome, though het is also fine -- would be a lovely addition though not strictly necessary" could be quite workable.
...
Hopefully I will remember that when nominations roll around this fall. :)
---------------
ETA: I was finally able to read a copy of Carnelians while visiting my parents in NJ this September (thanks to their county library system) and... on the one hand, it rehashes a stupid number of points from previous books, which is kind of silly and annoying. Like, haven't we already done this? But on the other, it gave me THAT SCENE at the climax with Jai and his family and I just... ahhhh. *floats blissfully* I'd forgive an awful lot of egregious repetition for that. Plus what's-her-name, Alina? (I am not always great with names.) Anyway, Althor's surprise!kid, and her friend the escaped provider (Red?). They were a little thinly characterized in the book itself, but there's a bunch of potential for future stories there, not that I necessarily expect Asaro to pick up those threads.
You can also read this entry on Dreamwidth, where there are currently (
comments)