Tarnsman -Chpt 1

Other than it striking me suddenly that Tarl Cabot is British and now permanently is walking around with a hot British accent in my mind, the things that stood out to me the most were that Tarl Cabot was not exactly qualified for the position he took with the American College. I wonder if this is to show that at this stage in the series he has an earth-side view of Honor. I have heard that in the first few books Tarl is a bad example of what a Gorean is supposed to be, and maybe this shows it.

He decides to go camping during the Christmas break because he has been studying so hard to keep ahead of his British History students, for he has learned that simply being British does not seem to make you an expert on History. He borrows some camping gear from a colleugue who works in the department that he calls the "deplorable" -physical education. Something I also found humorous for a furture warrior to say. He looked at his compass and pretended to know what he was doing when he stepped into the woods pressumably to never be seen or heard from again.

He found a metal envelope when he stopped hiking for the day and was gathering wood. At first he thought it was a joke, that the collegue had placed it there and was nearby so he shouted and looked for someone until he realized he was quite alone. It had an erie blue glow, but was other was featureless, save for an indentaion of a thumb print on the back. It did not seem felixable or even with the ability to open. It ceased to glow after he held it for awhile. He ignored it for a good while, even trying to curl up in his sleeping bag and go to sleep. Yet he seemed to have a feeling of fate or destiny weighing on him, and suddenly he decided he knew exactly what to do to open it. He pressed his thumb to the center and it crinkled open, a ring dropping out and falling out unnoticed.

The letter appeared to be written by his father some 300 years before the current date, though he notes it is the same month and day, but he can not seem to figure it out since his father left when he was an infant, and his mother died when he was still young. The letter informs him that there is no choice, that the fate was decided. He should wear the ring, and then it requests that he bring with him a handfull of earth. It also instructs him to discard the letter for it will be destoyed.

He's very upset by the letter. So much so that he covers the fire, puts the letter in his pack, finds the ring and puts it in his pocket, then packs his things to leave even though it is the middle of the night. He wants to get as far away from the campsite as possible. While he was walking his pack burst into blue flames, and all was lost. He whipped out his compass determined to get the heck outta there, but found that the compass was spinning out of control. The compass spinning I thought was a direct metaphor for exactly how he was feeling. All things that were stable and supposed to point the way were gone and spinning out of control. That's when he really lost it. He yelled and took off through the woods at breakneck speeds and tried to get away. Yet, somehow, he ended right back at the camp. I really felt like this was a direct metaphor that sometimes, no matter how you try to escape your fate, some day your ship will just come in. Which it did.

Before he stepped into the ship, he knelt and gathered a handful of soil.