LMB Quote Game

[SPetty]

I'm pretty sure Caroline got it.

[Reede Kullervo]

Caz to Betriz after rejecting her "for her good" ?

Caroline, yes ).
Your turn ).

[Caroline Tredez]

Next one from the only LMB book in my reach :

Going up was futile; going down, singularly uninviting.

Where is the character, to be so peculiarly stuck ?

And I'll seize the occasion to thank you all for playing with me. It's been years now, we barely exchange a few words a month, but for once I felt the need to voice my contentment in sharing our passion for LMB's works. Good reading to all of you

[voralfred]

Next one from the only LMB book in my reach :

Going up was futile; going down, singularly uninviting.

Where is the character, to be so peculiarly stuck ?

And I'll seize the occasion to thank you all for playing with me. It's been years now, we barely exchange a few words a month, but for once I felt the need to voice my contentment in sharing our passion for LMB's works. Good reading to all of you

Well, I'm sure happy you feel this way ! I feel just like you.

Back to business:

Is your character Miles, stuck in Ryoval's basement in Labyrinth, with "Nine" (a.k.a.Taura, but only later) below but able to climb much faster than he ever could ?

[Caroline Tredez]

Yes it is ! That was a fast one. Not a very hard one, but still, well guessed. I'm posting your sherlock.

[voralfred]

It just rang a bell...

New quote :

"Yes sir," XXX grinned. "Now I understand."
"Carry on. Remember, I want maximum inefficiency, incompetence, and error."

XXX is a personal pronoun: he, she or it. If you answer by memory you do not need to specify the gender.
Book ?
Second speaker ?
Context ?

Bonus :
We do not know the name of XXX. But in a later book, a character is named who, I believe, might well be XXX. One half-point if you guess this name and a good justification for your choice (even if your choice is different from mine)

Second bonus:
Ooops ! If your choice was the same as mine, a second 1/2 bonus point if you can prove that this guess is in fact wrong !

[E Pericoloso Sporgersi]

New quote :

"Yes sir," XXX grinned. "Now I understand."
"Carry on. Remember, I want maximum inefficiency, incompetence, and error."

XXX is a personal pronoun: he, she or it. If you answer by memory you do not need to specify the gender.
Book ?
Second speaker ?
Context ?

Bonus :
We do not know the name of XXX. But in a later book, a character is named who, I believe, might well be XXX. One half-point if you guess this name and a good justification for your choice (even if your choice is different from mine)

Second bonus:
Ooops ! If your choice was the same as mine, a second 1/2 bonus point if you can prove that this guess is in fact wrong !

XXX = she (the Dendarii Fleet's Chief Financial Officer)
Book = Brothers in Arms
Second speaker = Miles
Context = Miles needs to gain time before a ton of bricks ... erm ... Sheriffs with Court Orders lands on his flagship.

That bonus question is a doozy. Worthy of the Great Sfinx or an addled scientist or even a mad physicist.
It's making me woozy.
I'm not going to break my fangs on it. I'll leave it to gentler folk to coax it from him. With excruciating torture no doubt.

@ Caroline

And I'll seize the occasion to thank you all for playing with me. It's been years now, we barely exchange a few words a month, but for once I felt the need to voice my contentment in sharing our passion for LMB's works. Good reading to all of you

That's a lovely sentiment, my dear. Thank you.
And it's quite reciprocal too: "I love you te pletter!" or "Je t'adore te pletter!"
P.S. te pletter (Dutch) = (often metaphorically) crushed to smithereens; to bits; to death
example: the meteorite fell te pletter on the Moon's surface

[SPetty]

I think Miles pulls this stunt more than once. I thought there was an instance of it in The Vor Game, too, when he's getting ready to meet Cavilo.
(this is not a guess. I will be away from the computer all next week. If it somehow turns out to be the right quote, I'll have to pick the most ridiculously easy quote possible in order not to stall the game while I'm away.)

I appreciate everyone who plays the game as well. My kids don't get my Miles jokes. I suppose it's only fair, since I don't get some of their gaming jokes, but it's nice to be with people who get the joke (and have fabulous senses of humor, clearly discernible because of the books they read). Thanks everyone!

[E Pericoloso Sporgersi]

...
I appreciate everyone who plays the game as well. My kids don't get my Miles jokes. I suppose it's only fair, since I don't get some of their gaming jokes, but it's nice to be with people who get the joke (and have fabulous senses of humor, clearly discernible because of the books they read). Thanks everyone!

Aw, you're making me blush!

[voralfred]

Sorry, I did not expect two answers so rapidly...

Spetty, what can I say? Your answer is the correct one. It is indeed in the Vor Game, before meeting Cavilo, that Miles asks his (unnamed) communications officer to consider herself as a noncommunications officer.
(the Fleet's Finance Officer in Brothers in arms is Lieutenant Vicky Bone)

The bonus is
a) for 1/2 point find a name that might be that of the communications officer (and justify your choice)
b) for a second 1/2 point, if your choice was the one I first made, explain what it is wrong!

The mad scientist strikes back!

BTW, the last line is supposed to be humorous...

[SPetty]

Alas, I left everyone hanging for a week! Sorry about that!
Next quote:

I smell diplomacy.

Book?
Thinker?
Why is diplomacy needed?

[SPetty]

An extension, then:

"I gather it's some sort of legal entanglement, sir."
I smell diplomacy. Xxx grimaced.

Book?
Who is Xxx?
What's going on?

[E Pericoloso Sporgersi]

An extension, then:

"I gather it's some sort of legal entanglement, sir."
I smell diplomacy. Xxx grimaced.

Okay. I'll go at it sideways.

Is it a Vorkosigan story?

[SPetty]

Hmm, let's see.
Sharing Knife: legal entanglements? Not really... (a lot more vigilante justice than law there)

Chalion: legal entanglements? Well, maybe in the Hallowed Hunt, but Ingrey isn't really a diplomacy kind of guy. The rest of the people with issues have trouble with people in power, not the law, as such (Cazaril's hearing, for example, required very little in the way of diplomacy, as I recall).

Vorkosiverse: legal entanglements? Hmm... yeah, I think there might have been one or two... lots of diplomacy in there, too.

So yes, Vorkosigan book would be a reasonable guess to make.

[E Pericoloso Sporgersi]

"I gather it's some sort of legal entanglement, sir."
I smell diplomacy. Xxx grimaced.

Does it happen on Earth?

[SPetty]

Nope.

[E Pericoloso Sporgersi]

"I gather it's some sort of legal entanglement, sir."
I smell diplomacy. Xxx grimaced.

Is it about embryonic urinators uterine replicators?

[SPetty]

The legal entanglement? Certainly, they're not mentioned in this particular conversation. Or for quite some time after this.

[voralfred]

Well, I found it without looking for it.
I am correcting the translations of the Vorkosigan Saga for reprinting in Omnibus form, (or should I say : I finally finished to correct.. sent the last novel today to the editor; so I'll be able to be more interactive, here on this forum) and I just bumped on it.
Well it is not different from finding it by sheer luck when reading for one's pleasure rather than guessing where it should be and checking there on purpose. Finding by sheer luck is not cheating, is it?

Oh ,well, I'll wait one more day and then give the anwer. I suppose I just gave a hint, didn't I ?

[E Pericoloso Sporgersi]

...
Oh ,well, I'll wait one more day and then give the anwer. I suppose I just gave a hint, didn't I ?

May I suggest that you post your answer at precisely 13:00 hours, your local Parisian time, if you please?

[voralfred]

...
Oh ,well, I'll wait one more day and then give the anwer. I suppose I just gave a hint, didn't I ?

May I suggest that you post your answer at precisely 13:00 hours, your local Parisian time, if you please?

Any special reason for that? I'll probably be out, at that time...

[E Pericoloso Sporgersi]

May I suggest that you post your answer at precisely 13:00 hours, your local Parisian time, if you please?

Any special reason for that?

I'll let you guess.

I'll probably be out, at that time...

Even better, as long as you're AFK ...

[E Pericoloso Sporgersi]

"I gather it's some sort of legal entanglement, sir."
I smell diplomacy. Xxx grimaced.

In Diplomatic Immunity, Miles's thought when the Barrayaran courrier ship collects him to go troubleshooting outside his honeymoon itinerary.

@ Voralfred
I was planning to post my answer at 12:55 hours, your and my local time. And then I plumb forgot to do it in time. I was busy cooking Platessa alla Romana.

[SPetty]

Correct! Your quote next, E.

Voralfred, does that mean you're working on Cryoburn and Captain Vorpatril's Alliance next, or are those already done (or waiting on an agreement to get started)? I'm sure you'll soar ahead in Sherlocks, then, if you're not busy with translating, not that I was really catching up yet.

[voralfred]

@ Spetty:
In fact they did Cryoburn, as a separate book, as the first book in the new collection, a couple of years ago, and I did contribute, then. No reedition is planned yet, and if they do, they probably won't correct it but use the same text. What they have corrected are all the books previously published, by the same editor but a different collection, as separate books (except the three novellas, in a single book just as "Borders of Infinity") up to Diplomatic Immunity. Those are all done, as of yesterday...
But as far as Captain's Vorpatril Alliance, yes, this is indeed next in line, and I'll be on the bandwagon, once more. But I'll have a small hiatus before I get to that...

@ EPS:
I don't understand. If you already knew the answer, why didn't you post it right then? (there was no 5-days ping-pong rule : the previous question was mine anyway, and much more than 5 days had elapsed)
And if not, how did you predict you'd have it by 12:55