Surebleak

Books set on Surebleak

--at least some scenes in each book take place on Surebleak

• Novels: I DARE, GHOST SHIP, NECESSITY'S CHILD, DRAGON SHIP, DRAGON IN EXILE, NEOGENESIS, ACCEPTING THE LANCE
• Shorter Stories: Fighting Chance, Moon on the Hills, Daav's Up Early (a Ghost Ship Splinter), Skyblaze, The Rifle's First Wife, Hidden Resources, Roving Gambler, Friend of a Friend, Chimera, Code of Honor, Block Party
  • and Street Cred and Lord of the Dance, which are not official canon
• See The Books (and other stories)

Surebleak

• Surebleak is both a planet and “the largest, indeed the only, city on the planet”
  • in the short stories Skyblaze and Moon on the Hills it's called "Port City"
• The settlers named it Surebleak --"the name of the planet itself to be a sign of the original colonists’ disapproval"
• Surebleak is the birthplace of Miri Robertson and Liz Lizardi (see Fighting Chance)
• It's home to Clan Korval after banishment (escape?) from Liad

Planetary Space

• Surebleak is a planet in the Daiellen Sector
• "end-of-the-spiral-arm planet"
• The planet has two Tidal moons: Triga and Toppa.
• “the double-star Chuck-Honey is barely a light year away”
• Surebleak’s gravity is a bit lighter than Liad’s, according to Quin
• Plus it's cold, Boss!"

Gravity Field - of Luck?

Theory: Surebleak shelters Clan Korval, making the planet "The Dragon's Lair" and as such, the planet is inside a gravitational field of luck:

• Aelliana Caylon: "You believe that the Luck is not merely attracted to Surebleak, but has been captured by it? That gravity both ensures a consistent layer of luck, and quiescence?"
• See the Luck for more on this

Trade Loops

• No trade loops yet
• Shan yos'Galan says the planet is "off the beaten path but there are three solid mid-level routes through that sector" so a trading loop is conceivable
• including a possible loop from Tradedesk after Theo talked with the Carresens
  • Janifer Carresens-Denobli, one of the three ranking traders and a senior trade commissioner, sends his 'First Thoughts' to Shan yos'Galan for a Trade Loop including Surebleak: “I offer here, as my first thoughts, a loop that accommodates Surebleak and also Ashlan, which is an anchor port for three Carresens long-loopers and many others, of the small-loop ships. I am thinking, too, of Nomi-Oxin-Rood, which is something much on the lines of Surebleak—there is potential, but nothing that would tie it into existing routes. If there were to be a new loop, perhaps a hybrid loop...”

Spaceport & Security

• Portmaster’s Office: Dayside Portmaster Claren Liu, Nightside Etienne Borden
• “Surebleak is a low tier port....We’ve got one space-going tug. What we don’t have is defense.”
  • So Pat Rin obtained eight interconnected asteroid miners from Korval’s ship-stack in the Sherzer System, helped by Cheever McFarland, "Colonel" Andy Mack, Flyer Shugg, etc,
  • Placing the asteroid miners in orbit to form a planetary security-net
• Tower:

"Cortz Lattice,” came the hail on their frequency, “we see you. You’re in Surebleak Control Space, under Pilots Guild TE standards. Repeat, we use a base Terran/Trade/Liaden protocol and my Liaden’s still being learned. Speak up; it’s crowded at dinner time.”

The pilot, not in the least put out by the casual character of this contact from Surebleak Port’s central authority, only touched a switch, answering in Standard Terran.

• "having the Port recertified and also -- by the way, upgraded three levels” Roving Gambler
• Pilots' Guild Field Office at Surebleak Port
• Registry Office (ship registry): “No doubt the Registry Office, like it was called—put together jointly by Korval, the Portmaster’s Office, and the Committee of Bosses—no doubt that those ships would be found undesirable. The Registry Office having, among other tools, access to the database of a Juntavas Judge.”

Port Security

• Commander Angela “Liz” Lizardi, retired from The Mercs, is Chief of Port Security Many of her security officers are retired mercs. "several of the ex-mercenaries in employ of Port Security would hold the start of the evening hands if he was expected."
  • “Security? We got some. There’s the Watch in the city, and cops here in port. In case you get bidness with ’em, they like to be called Port Security. You want more than that, you provide your own.”

Climate

• Cold, bleak. Chilly in the summer. Long winters.
  • See wintry imagery at Bleaker Buzz: Language Play
• Portmaster Liu: “We have two weather satellites to back up comm traffic and a comm satellite that backs up the weather satellites.”
• Korval hired master meteorologist Ichliad Brunner (see Misfits) to improve the climate with orbital mirrors and a weather satellite,
• "...according to Weatherman Brunner, once the mirrors are deployed in orbit, and tuned correctly, we should see some climatic benefit very quickly"
• "Our weatherman predicts cold weather this evening, with a chance of a summer snowstorm."
• Weather Task Force: "Anthora and Ren Zel were to attend the meeting of the Weather Task Force" (with Technician Vord and Oskar Ekelmit, task force secretary). "Ren Zel produced a Terran smile, so broad as to feel a farce, and gave the secretary a nod. “Good evening, also, to you, sir,” he said. “I believe we made progress this session.” Actually, they had talked a number of very simple points into senselessness and gave permission for Mr. Brunner’s rather expensive next step in the satellite project with scarcely a question. Still, having obtained permission was excellent.

Geography

• sea, swamp, river: “The weather had been unrelenting, windy and cold, for the past seven-day now, and the forecast for the morrow was much the same. The night winds would move over the seacoast, pushing moisture into the swamp-regions, where it would gather energy from the barely frozen rivers, then push to and over the bowl of the city as the winds changed.”
• H2O: plenty of snow, sleet, and slush, mixed in with fog (snow fog), rain, mist -- and occasional sun
  • Yet in The Rifle's First Wife Diglon reflects on the planet's original condition, which perhaps couldn't sustain human life: "after their [the original colonists] hard work Surebleak had breathable air, drinkable water, and land that could support farms and a spaceport."
    • So this implies only the territory surrounding the timonium quarry, the city, and the spaceport is habitable. But there are rivers, sea coast, swamps, hills, etc??
• Hills, valleys, coast: “A safe road out to the coast and back! Another one up into the hills and back!” (Melina Sherton)
• “I got an interest in the border farms and some trade further in.” (Melina Sherton)
• Road Boss will build the road out to the sea
• Island, owned by Yulie Shaper
• Archipelago: "I’ve been looking about Surebleak for a place to site yos’Galan’s new house....I have my eye on the archipelago that lies east and north of here.”

Port Road

• Runs from the Spaceport out to World's End, where the timonium diggings used to be (and Jelaza Kazone now is). See Moon on the Hills
• Travelling by the Port Road, there are five tollbooths between the Spaceport and Penn Kalhoon's turf, then a further five tollbooths between there and Jelaza Kazone. The first turf near the Spaceport is Boss Vine's. The next turf out from Boss Kalhoon's is Boss Whitman's, and the next turf out from that is Boss Conrad's. The last turf before the end of the Road is Melina Sherton's. The next turf in from that is Ira Gabriel's.

History

• Settled several generations ago by a mining company -- The Gilmour Agency -- which abandoned the planet when a newly discovered, richer, and more accessible timonium source became available in an asteroid belt. and )
• Settled by “my grandpa’s grandpa”: Rebbus Marks, an older man himself, shows the ID card for his grandpa's grandpa, an economist for Gilmour Agency.
• The company broke ground on its first timonium mine, at the place that became known as World's End, "a century and more" before Korval came to live on Surebleak.
• Including the years spent setting the settlement up, Surebleak had "seventy years or so of heavy traffic" before the company abandoned it.
• The Gilmour Agency had an evacuation plan that could have got everybody off the planet, and all the equipment, but the executives decided it would be an unjustifiable expense, so they left behind the equipment and everybody below Grade Six.
• Yulie Shaper's Grandfather, pilot Captain Shaper, sued the Gilmour Agency for breach of contract and got a large settlement of land and equipment (see Moon on the Hills)
• Miri Robertson’s grandmother (named Miri, line Tiazan of Clan Erob settled on Surebleak. She left Lytaxin to postpone a contract marriage until after she gave birth to her dead lover's child. "She ran away to have her kid...She crashed on Surebleak and couldn't get home...I'm guessing."
  • "Miri Tayzin — grandmother, I guess. Mom might've named me for my grandmother — she never said. Just that her mother'd died in 1358, back during the Fevers, when the fatcats . . . "
• The original colonists dubbed the planet Surebleak: "Surebleak — he’d done his research and knew the name of the planet itself to be a sign of the original colonists’ disapproval -- but there, after their hard work Surebleak had breathable air, drinkable water, and land that could support farms."

Government

• After the Gilmour Agency abruptly evacuated, Surebleak government began to fall apart. Social systems eventually failed, including medical care when 'Bleakers couldn't pay the renewal fee for the galaxy-wide Health Net. Government completely collapsed when a plague struck the city, causing fear, death, chaos.
• So the city was divided into turfs, overseen by Bosses. Each turf ran through the Port Road at some point.
• Taxes: Bosses used tollgates to block access to the Port Road, allowing passage upon payment. Bosses also collected "insurance" fees from all businesses within their turf. In some turfs, the mandatory insurance payment was punitively exorbitant.
• Systemic problems: In rough turfs, folks tended to seize control by killing the seated boss. Thus, bosses and their "hands" were those most willing and able to take and hold power -- regardless of whether they knew what to do with it.
  • Some bosses (Melina Sherton, Penn Kalhoon, Ira Gabriel, etc.) sincerely tried to care for their turfs, providing limited schooling, local health care, water treatment, etc. But with the Port Road blocked at each turf boundary, it was difficult for responsible bosses to communicate, much less collaborate.
• There has recently been some improvement since Boss Conrad brought about the establishment of the Affiliation of Surebleak Bosses.
  • Jonni Conrad (Pat Rin yos'Phelium) wanted a council-based leadership system, but the associated bosses promptly made him the Boss Boss: "His fellow bosses, however, had insisted that there must be one Head Boss...and he had bowed to that, seeing that this was the model they understood."
• When Clan Korval settled on Surebleak, the Delms agreed to protect and repair the Port Road. Val Con and Miri are the "Road Boss" with a "newly constructed office at the port."

Bosses - Council of Bosses

🔹Council of Bosses (Roster tentative. As of Accepting the Lance, the Council consists of twenty Bosses including the Road Boss.

The Bosses meet face-to-face every ten days, "as a demonstration that peaceful meetings could not only be maintained, but produced useful results". Elsewhere this is described as "the weekly meeting of the Council of Bosses", implying that Surebleak has a ten-day week.

• Abram - In Miri Robertson's youth. See Fighting Chance
• Victor Armhaut (M) - Conklin (gun at Conrad's party, swallowed by his streets)
• 🔷 Jonni Conrad (M) - Blair Road. The Bosses Boss. "The Reform Boss" Conrad’s "head hand" is Cheever McFarland
  • Conrad’s apprentice, Boss Quin. See Roving Gambler.
  • Conrad’s exec, “Boss Nova”Michael Golden is Nova's "head hand"

“Michael Golden, whom Mr. McFarland had speedily taken as his advisor in matters of greater street security and implementation of new policy—what one might call “law.”

Unlike Mr. McFarland, Michael Golden had grown up on Surebleak—indeed, on this very turf..."

• 🔹Josh Cruthers (M) - Arcadja Alleys, a thin bald man
• Deacon (M) - a turf neighboring Blair Road (before Conrad started cleaning up)
• 🔹 Engle / Engles - turf borders the consolidated school
• Feenan - was the Boss of the turf where Andy Mack grew up
• 🔹 Fortunato — Does Boss Fortunato know the Citizens’ Heavy Loads Committee met with the Syndicate here, in Riley's back room?
• 🔹 Ira Gabriel (M) - turf near the far end of the Port Road, next in from Sherton's - produces crops of wheat and oats
• Goyan - turf neighboring Rinehart's (before Conrad started cleaning up) in Chimera
• Henrick - one of the Bosses who "donated" part of their turf to create Blair Road Turf
• Iverness - one of the bosses cleaned up by Conrad, according to Lionel Smealy (possibly he's thinking of Boss Ivernet?)
• Ivernet (M) - Industry Street "hell hole" (before Conrad started cleaning up)
• Voral Jene (F) - Gough Street (gun at Conrad's party, swallowed by her streets)
• 🔹Penn Kalhoon (M) - Hamilton Street turf, "Second Boss in the Association" and Boss Conrad's deputy
• 🔹Korval -- Road Bosses. “Bosses Korval, Val Con yos’Phelium and Miri Robertson. They signed the Road Protection Agreement” — in charge of the Port Road.
• Latimer - Hamilton Street, predecessor of Boss Kalhoon. (Miri’s childhood turf) See Fighting Chance
• 🔹Marriot / Marriott (M) - "six turfs over from Wentworth's"
• Nort Moran (M) - Blair Road (Boss Conrad's predecessor)
• Ostay - Hamilton Street (Boss Kalhoon's immediate predecessor)
• Peterman - Hamilton Street (a predecessor of Boss Latimer)
• Randall - Blair Road (Boss Vindal's predecessor)
• Rinehart - turf neighboring Goyan's
• 🔹 Fran Schomaker - Gilly Street
• 🔹 Schroeder (M) - borders the consolidated school
• 🔹Melina Sherton (F) - turf at the far end of the Port Road, where the city meets the farmland - turf produces meat, fruits and vegetables, as well as handling import of goods from further afield and from Yulie Shaper
• Threadle
• Tiede - one of the Bosses who "donated" part of their turf to create Blair Road Turf
• 🔹Torin (M) - far from Chairman Court. electrician Varn Jilzink is on Torin’s turf in Block Party
• Tourin (M) - Blair Road (first Boss of Blair Road Turf; Boss Randall's predecessor)
• 🔹Wentworth (M) - Jopha Road (If Luce Jacobs and Pete Day collected insurance for Wentworth...?)
• 🔹Whitman (F) - turf on the Port Road between Conrad's and Kalhoon's
• 🔹Elva Whitmore
• Vindal (F) - Blair Road (Boss Moran's predecessor)
• 🔹Zalan Vine (M) - turf nearest the Spaceport, he "holds the territory outside the main gate"

Culture

Surebleak is a place with a soul of its own, and as such, it's a character.

• For Surebleak's idiomatic language, see Bleaker Buzz: Language Play
• One theme of the books set on Surebleak is culture...shock? Assimilation? Mix?
• Ms. Audrey learns Liaden customs and seeks to preserve 'Bleaker ways:

The Scouts were teaching classes. She’d signed up for one, herself — Introduction to Liaden Culture. It didn’t look like anybody was offering an Introduction to Surebleak Culture . . . yet. She figured she could teach one herself, if it went too far along without anybody more qualified than the proprietor of a whorehouse stepping up.

• Lady Kareen yos'Phelium leads a group effort to ensure a good marriage between Bleakers and Clan Korval, and all newcomers -- The Scouts, the various Liadens and Terrans, The Mercs -- to the benefit of all cultures:
  • "Since the relocation, my work has been redefined. The Delm requires me to observe the society in which we now find ourselves, and.."
• More details at Surebleak Culture Study

Hospital versus Healer Hall

See Healers and see The Dramliz

Surebleak now has doctors, medics, and Healers, with clinics and a new Healer Hall — a Liaden concept. Is there also a hospital, a Terran concept? Or a joint Healer Hall / Hospital?

• "There is a Hall here — a poor thing, compared to the Great Hall at Solcintra, but we will do our duty by our kindred." Healer Hestya works at Surebleak Healer Hall with Liaden physician Kez Rel ter’Ista, dubbed Kestrel -- but he seems also to work at the clinic. (semantics??) See Chimera
• "Don Eyr left the window to pour himself another cup of tea. Elaytha needed a Healer, he thought, carefully. On Liad, that thought would not have been possible. In Low Port, the situation would have been hopeless. The Healers did not administer to the clanless. He could not have said why he thought the Healers who had come to Surebleak might deal differently, unless it was merely that, Surebleak had dealt them a hand, when Liad had refused even to sell them a deck." See Block Party.

No Terran healers. So they all thought...

• “It was Hestya who spoke. "We have been told that there are no Terran Healers," she said. "This would appear to be. . .an error. Clearly, you are a Healer, Darby Bajek, as I am. The difference between us is that I have been taught control”....“You will be required to live at the Hall during the first phase of your instruction” Hestya tells Darby.

Few clinics before Conrad: "Ira's got six clinics"..."Audrey, she grabbed what she could of Vindal's clinic before Moran torched them" Clinics under Boss Conrad:

• A full-time clinic, day and night, advertised in The Blair Road Booster See Moon on the Hills. Medic Svenz "told him to lie down and rest...on the treatment couch...” “Mister Warchiski, who worked at the clinic” ...“she must be taken to the clinic....Call, and they will send the clinic taxi," said the Liaden physician Kez Rel ter’Ista, dubbed Kestrel. See Chimera

Surebleak Scouts

The schism in The Liaden Scouts led to a faction moving to Surebleak:

• Surebleak Headquarters
  • Scout Administrative Commander ven'Rathan (f)
• Surebleak Transitional Team
  • Scouts who volunteered for Surebleak, scattered across homes, (see Surebleak Culture Study), businesses (see Ms. Audrey's), even at Jelaza Kazone (see The Rifle's First Wife)
• Scout Academy: “The Scouts are offering courses, and intend to open an academy here”
• Surebleak Scouts are open to training all who qualified
• Potential Scout community:

Shan yos'Galan to Daav yos'Phelium: "I have my eye on the archipelago that lies east and north of here..." I might look over that land..."and invite the scouts to do likewise. If they find the situation pleasing, then we might ease the pressure cooking of culture in the capital city.”

“Do so many scouts follow the Dragon?” Daav asked, startled.

“Ms. dea’Gauss’ database will be definitive, of course. My impression is that there is an ... ideological divide between those who consider themselves to be scouts and those who consider themselves Liaden scouts.

• Scouts also came to Surebleak to help the natives:

The old days, and the old ways . . . best if they never came back. To hear the culture experts from the Scouts -— and Kareen, too -- tell it, though, there might be a few generations before the new ways caught on entire. Which was why they needed to have some control over how the new ways grew, and keep a sharp eye out for unintended consequences.

• See Surebleak Culture Study

Establishments

• Accountants Guild, with sleep learners
  • corner /storefront qe'andra
  • See Street Cred and dea'Gauss
• Al's Hardware Store on Rendan Road, what was once Boss Moran's turf ,
  • discrepancy: "on Blair Road, directly across from Al's Hardware" (maybe it's on the corner of Blair and Rendan Roads)
• Ander's Sweet Shop - a block away from the clinic (see Chimera)
• Andy Mack's Repairs, at/near the port (see Skyblaze)
• Angel's Place, "out in Boss Feenan's turf that was"
• Audrey's House of Joy, Blair Road (See also Ms. Audrey)
• Bakeries
  • Algaina's unnamed bakery near The Wayhouse, on Chairman Court (seeBlock Party)
  • BrickOff Flourpower Bakery (baker Granita) (Skyblaze)
  • Joan's Bakery, preferred meeting place for The Bedel. , ,
  • Quill's Bread Bakery: "Vessa Quill had been among the first to move into Boss Conrad's turf. She had immediately set up a bread bakery in a storefront half a block from the Boss's house". She "delivers hot bread right to the kitchen door" before breakfast (Nova's house).
    • Quill asked Don Eyr to bake chernubia for her shop.
• Bazaar -- Surebleak Bazaar: a variety of shopping markets and a large common room: "There were things here that the Troop would pillage for; that soldiers would duel to possess."
  • "the Bazaar there at the port, where all the best things off Surebleak get offered."
• Bentler's Brewery
• Blair Road Booster, news-sheet (Moon on the Hills)
• Blair Road Building Committee: Constituted the night arsonists destroyed the bakery
• Bob's Grocery
• Carpet Emporium (Boss Conrad, perhaps also bel’Tarda) -- "advertisement, announcing the grand opening sale at the Carpet Emporium on Blair Road, directly across from Al's Hardware"
  • Ajay Naylor’s hand-tied rag rugs are sold here
• Consolidated School, located at the meeting of four turfs, held by Bosses Conrad, Kalhoon, Schroeder and Engle.
• Council Hall where Council / Committees meet
• dea'Gauss Accounting & Qe’andra Firm
  • Ms. dea’Gauss, reporting on the project to recruit native ’bleakers to the ranks of the Liaden qe’andra already on-world See Accountants Guild
• Electrician Varn Jilzink, in Boss Torin’s territory (see Block Party)
• Emerald Casino —“And while you’re on port, don’t forget to visit the Emerald Casino. It’s all here at pilot-friendly Surebleak Port!” (and see Roving Gambler)
• Everett's Market, in Whitman's turf
• Finder's Junk Heap, in Marriot's turf
• Galaxy Ballroom, nightclub catering to pilots and scouts, with its own bowli ball court
• Gilmour Agency Warehouses, abandoned by the company -- The Bedel live in the lower levels, by Council-approved squatters rights: "How if we say to Boss Conrad that we the Bedel have established tenancy, and the buildings are ours?""The Bosses have given us the place, which is our place," Udari added.
• Greenlie’s Dry Goods
• Healer Hall -- "Tommy Lee has driven a car into the city. He will first stop at the Healer Hall"
  • See Hospital versus Healer Hall section
• Jakob’s Juice Bar, at the port -- “a tall glass of gwiffa juice”
• Jemie’s Cab Service — Taxi / Courier, Port-n-City. Jemie and Vertu (see Skyblaze)
• Jolie's House of Joy, Hamilton Street turf
• Korval Yard, shipyard
  • ?? same as "Boss Conrad's tiny shipyard -- Korval's first on Surebleak"??
• Library ??
  • (perhaps not mentioned yet, but see Media Center)
  • "Audrey, she grabbed what she could of Vindal's clinic and library before Moran torched them"
• Machine Shop, Kalhoon's Repair, where Miri worked as a youth, (See Fighting Chance) and possibly the same unnamed machine shop young Rudy works at years later
• Media Center: "a media center. Perhaps he would find a book there"
• Melina Sherton's Produce Market -- at the edge of town, selling farm products and perhaps Autumn Wine
• Merc Hiring Hall/ Recruitment and Training Center. See Neogenesis and Shout of Honor
  • Perhaps where Commander Relgen of Relgen's Raiders will interview the Pathfinders
• Meruda's back room poker
• Nelsin's Grabasnak (24-hour snacks at the port) Nelsin Wasnyak, who owned a hot drink and snack counter on the main port.
• Pilot’s Guild Field Office at the Port
• Planetary Cooperative: Duty-Free Shops at the port
• Port Security HQ (Liz Lizardi)
• Portmaster's Office
• Printers / Print Shop -- prints Blair Road Booster, newspaper
  • newspaper staff includes Daten Eliot (F), editor, and Jan Valski (F), reporter
• Rag Shop
• Registry Office (ship registry): put together jointly by Clan Korval, the Portmaster’s Office, and the Committee of Bosses, and having, among other tools, access to the database of a Juntavas Judge (Natesa)
• Reski’s, a cafe that does good breakfasts and a "decent" bean-based scrapple handwich
• Riley’s Back Room — in Fortunato’s turf, where the Citizens’ Heavy Loads Committee met with the Syndicate
• Road Boss's Office, newly constructed at the port
• Sherman's Shoot-Out, on Veedle Street
  • has a dock: We’ll be puttin’ you into communication with Sherman’s Shoot-Out—owner of that pad you’ll be down on... Right on port edge, certified legal landing pad for ships of your class."
• Space Port Lounge, featuring Poker Night Specials (see The Rifle's First Wife)
• Spacemen’s Hostel - at the Port (expensive cubicle spaces for lodging)
• Stadium -- The Hooper plays there, in Skyblaze
• Supply Store
• Surebleak Scouts HQ (see Scouts section)
• The Syndicate (location not advertised)
• Tantara Floor Coverings / aka Port Annex Rug Shop, -- Luken bel'Tarda / perhaps also Boss Conrad,
• Tobi's (a bite and a brew)
• Trade Bar
• Vin's Pawn Shop
• Watch Headquarters -- city patrol (and see Port Security HQ)
• Wayhouse, temporary housing for newcomers in need, located in Chairman Court:
  • "a wayhouse, wasn't it? Always had been, back to when the Gilmour Agency ran Surebleak. Wasn't meant but to give a newbie on the street someplace in outta the snow to sleep while they got themselves sorted an' settled." (See Block Party)
• Whosegow -- the jail
• Wilmet's Grocery (Jim Snyder's first stop on Insurance Day)

Korval Homes on Surebleak

For staff sorted by house, with location and residents, see Korval's Employees

• See Jelaza Kazone for details about the main clan house, exterior and interior, and the grounds. But see The Tree for details about Jela's ssussdriad.
• See Trealla Fantrol for details about the yos'Galan mansion, on Liad and the new construction on Surebleak

Seasons

• There may be a discrepancy

I Dare

On Day 31 of Standard Year 1393, it is "high summer".

Ghost Ship

When Jelaza Kazone first arrived on Surebleak, shortly after Day 201 of the same year, it was not yet spring. In due course, there was spring, followed by late spring. The gather held for all the Bosses at Jelaza Kazone took place "a matter of local weeks" before the onset of summer. When Val Con was called to deal with the trouble on Vandar, it was still spring.

Necessity's Child

A few days after (that's after) the gather held for all the bosses, it is "very nearly spring".

Dragon Ship

When the Uncle's message about Daav reaches Surebleak, it is summer.

Dragon in Exile

Begins on a "supposed summer evening". It continues to be summer in subsequent chapters. When Lionel Smealy meets the Road Boss, it is "mid-summer". "The days were growing cool again" just before Sherman's shooting competition. In the epilogue, Yulie says that in "'Nother ten or twelve days we'll be seeing autumn".

Street Cred

"The season, so he'd been told, was early autumn"

The Rifle's First Wife

It’s early spring – “winter having been gone some weeks now”. (Lizzie's age indicates that it's a subsequent spring to the one in Ghost Ship; Alara's situation, that it's before the end of Dragon in Exile. Perhaps it's the spring mentioned in Necessity's Child.).

-- Well as to that, it cannot be the Spring mentioned in Necessity's Child, because baby Talizea isn't born until the epilogue, where Syl Vor tells Nova: "I'm happy to make the acquaintance of my new cousin Talizea, but I'll be very happy to go home again."

Neogenesis

The gardens are being/have recently been prepared for winter. Winter oats are sprouting. Yulie Shaper is busy harvesting.

Accepting the Lance

Follows immediately from Neogenesis. By halfway through the story, it is winter.

The Gate That Locks the Tree

Follows "not long" after Accepting the Lance. It is still winter. This is not Vertu's first winter of Surebleak (see "Skyblaze").