The Course of Honour Recs

The release date for Winter's Orbit, previously known as Course of Honour, is February 2, 2021, which is somehow only two months away.

Some excerpts of it came out in the last couple of weeks. The first chapter can be read online here and the first four chapters can be downloaded from here. Based on those, it looks like Winter's Orbit is somewhat plottier than the previous version was, but the relationship between Kiem and Jainan is still the same.

“Do you read nothing but tabloid logs?” the Emperor said. It seemed to be rhetorical. “That ship belongs to the Resolution. Despite its frankly absurd size, it contains one Auditor and three administration staff. It can apparently jump through links under its own power and is impervious to mass scanners. The Auditor—whom I will admit to finding deeply unsettling on a personal level—is here to legally renew the treaty between the Empire and the Resolution. Even you cannot have missed this. Tell me you know what the Resolution is.”

Kiem stopped himself from saying he didn’t actually live under a rock, even if Iskat was a year’s travel from any other sector. “Yes, ma’am. It runs the rest of the galaxies.”

“It does not,” the Emperor said sharply. “The Resolution is just that: an agreement between ruling powers. It runs the link network. Iskat and our vassals have signed our own set of Resolution terms, as have other empires and Galactic powers. As long as those are in place, we can trade through our link, keep our internal affairs to ourselves, and be certain no invading force will use the link to attack us. We are due to sign the treaty on Unification Day in just over a month. The Auditor, if all goes well, will look through our paperwork, sweep up those remnants the Resolution is so obsessed with, witness the treaty, and leave.”

The Auditor makes a small appearance in the four released chapters and I must admit, he sounds quite intriguing. :D

Avoliot has posted on tumblr that The Course of Honor (and And Now a Short Speech) will be gone from AO3 on April 5. Apparently, it will not be gone forever, but they recommend downloading the fic in case one wants to read it in the next couple of months.