{"id":2112,"date":"2026-05-01T15:26:06","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T15:26:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/splinteruniverse.com\/?p=2112"},"modified":"2026-05-01T17:50:19","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T17:50:19","slug":"local-custom-summing-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/splinteruniverse.com\/?p=2112","title":{"rendered":"Local Custom summing up"},"content":{"rendered":"

I need to say this upfront:\u00a0 I adore Local Custom<\/em> and its companion book, Scout’s Progress<\/em>.\u00a0 Yes, Local Custom<\/em> in particular prompted reader scorn, for being A Big Misunderstanding Book (which we have learned are to be deplored in whatever genre they are found), and also for being A Secret Baby Book (even though I in part wanted to figure out if A Secret Baby Book that, yanno, made sense<\/em>, could be written (and I think I proved that, yes, it can be done)), and for being Mills and Boon in Space (mostly from people who wouldn’t know a Mills and Boon if an author smacked them in the head with one).\u00a0 And! it’s the book that prompted Real SciFi Men\u2122 to write to Steve to tell him to rein his wife in or he’d have No Career in SciFi At All. Which, yanno — given that it was written<\/em> when we were operating under the understanding that we had No Career is only a little … never mind.<\/p>\n

Despite<\/em> All of That, I say!<\/p>\n

I love these books.\u00a0 I loved them when I wrote them, and I loved them just as much, reading them as entertainment (as opposed to being charged with finding errors).<\/p>\n

The first thing that I love is the relationship between Er Thom yos’Galan and his cha’leket<\/em>, Daav yos’Phelium — the Spare and the Delm, respectively.\u00a0 I love the openness, love, and foundational caring between them.\u00a0 Stephe Pagel once said that these books were “subversive,” “. . . because, you know?\u00a0 Men don’t call each other ‘darling.'”<\/p>\n

Though things might be a whole lot easier right now, if they did.<\/p>\n

Moving on — I love<\/em> the Big Misunderstanding.\u00a0 Anne and Er Thom do<\/em> talk to each other; they’re trying<\/em> to Figure It Out, to arrive at the best outcome for themselves, for their child, and for the future.\u00a0 That honorable intentions are thwarted by cultural landmines that neither can recognize because they’re so tightly woven in to their home cultures — and even when Anne, realizing that she’s deep in a high-stakes game that she can only win by applying alien rules — even then,\u00a0<\/em>things twist out of control.<\/p>\n

Er Thom does a little better, realizing at last that he needs to not only<\/em> not think like a Liaden, he must also<\/em> not think like a Terran.\u00a0 He needs to think like Anne.<\/em><\/p>\n

Honestly, I almost stood up and cheered when he connected that final, that crucial<\/em>, dot, and the whole picture unrolled for him.<\/p>\n

Anne herself\u00a0 — intelligent, valiant, honorable, brave.\u00a0 Practical<\/em>.\u00a0 Anne’s in no way prepared for Clan Korval, much less Liaden society.\u00a0 Yet, she moves to protect her son — she’s wrong<\/em>, but she acts<\/em>.\u00a0 And her actions are neither stupid nor despicable, given that she’s not native to the culture.<\/p>\n

I love Er Thom’s evaluation of her actions — that she had played “the game” well, given her status as a novice.\u00a0 That perhaps, to have played more to her advantage, she ought to have asked him for money — but to do that?\u00a0 Would not have been to think like Anne<\/em>.<\/p>\n

What else do I love about this book?\u00a0 Oh! Er Thom’s brother, Daav.\u00a0 A man who has been a Scout.\u00a0 A man, one might say, who does not care much for . . . rules.\u00a0 A man who is charged with keeping his clan — his underpopulated, and very vulnerable clan — safe,<\/em> on Liad, which even he, himself a dangerous person,\u00a0 characterizes as dangerous.\u00a0 A man who wants the best life for his beloved brother, and for Shan, the child of the clan.\u00a0 A man who likes Anne Davis very well, indeed, and would have no problem accepting as a member of the family — save that she, a Terran, would be seen by dangerous Liaden society as a breach in Korval’s armor, and a vulnerability to be exploited.<\/p>\n

Improbably, I love Petrella, who has lost her twin and her heir, who is ill, and who is, in her way, trying to protect what’s left of Korval.\u00a0 She is also wrong, and perhaps not kind, but when cutting a connection that is dangerous to both the clan and the connection, isn’t it, really, better to be quick than to be kind?<\/p>\n

What else?\u00a0 Ah!\u00a0 Jerzy Entaglia — “Theatre Arts.\u00a0 Chair<\/em> of Theatre Arts.\u00a0 Which gives you some idea of the state the department’s in.”\u00a0 Shan’s fosterfather, so recognized by Er Thom — kind and nurturing and caring, who taught what he knew.<\/p>\n

And, oh, look.\u00a0 Here’s the Department of the Interior, busy blowing up university buildings, and holding children at gun point.<\/p>\n

. . . I should really stop now.<\/p>\n

Summing up the sum-up — I love this book, unreservedly, and, really, there is nothing I would do differently, were I writing it today.\u00a0 Indeed, I only hope I would do as well.<\/p>\n

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I need to say this upfront:\u00a0 I adore Local Custom and its companion book, Scout’s Progress.\u00a0 Yes, Local Custom in particular prompted reader scorn, for being A Big Misunderstanding Book (which we have learned are to be deplored in whatever genre they are found), and also for being A Secret Baby Book (even though I … Continue reading Local Custom summing up<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[25],"class_list":["post-2112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-liaden-read-along","tag-liaden-read-along"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/splinteruniverse.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/splinteruniverse.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/splinteruniverse.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/splinteruniverse.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/splinteruniverse.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2112"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/splinteruniverse.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2112\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2123,"href":"https:\/\/splinteruniverse.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2112\/revisions\/2123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/splinteruniverse.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/splinteruniverse.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/splinteruniverse.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}