Let us know what you think about the books. . .

[clong]

Please take a few minutes to rate and/or review Sharon and Steve's books in one (or both) or our book databases:

IBList - Sharon Lee
IBList - Steve Milelr

IBDoF - Sharon Lee
IBDoF - Steve Miller

[CONFUSER]

Sharon & Steve are brilliant!

They are experts at making Lemonade from lemons. When their previous publisher went BK and their rights to their works distributed by Mesha, they wrote TWO NEW BOOKS, with a new publisher with the LAST LINE of the 2nd novel TYING INTO THEIR LAST BOOK published by Mesha Merlin. (Sorry about typos). Then their latest book went national and all of a sudden everything fell into place and this extraordinary couple, so frequently unappreciated and unknown, had facings at Barnes & Noble. Life is wonderful! Its about damn time!!!!

[Curanto]

You might like the Liaden Universe works of Sharon Lee and Steve Miller very much indeed if:

• You appreciate precision in language
• You enjoy stories set in mannered societies
• You enjoy a good romance
• You think combat should be personal
• You think revenge should be carefully metered
• You like all of the stories set in a given universe to eventually tie together

You might not like these works much at all if:

• You think "science fiction" and "fantasy" are mutually-exclusive categories
• You think romance gets in the way of the action
• You think dialog gets in the way of the action
• You require logical explanations for everything
• You think formal speech is a stupid waste of effort
• You think a gun always trumps a knife
• You loathe cats
• The idea of 9-foot ancient wise turtles makes you giggle uncontrollably
• You like stand-alone novels that don't require you to keep track of many different plot lines from other books

[Curanto]

This is a somewhat controversial subject, so keep in mind that this is just my opinion, and I might change my mind any day now.

1. Conflict of Honors
2. Agent of Change
3. Carpe Diem
4. Plan B
5. I Dare
6. Local Custom
7. Scout's Progress
8. Mouse and Dragon
9. Fledgling
10. Saltation
11. Ghost Ship

That's the main weave. I have not yet figured out exactly where in the sequence it is best to read Crystal Soldier and Crystal Dragon for the first time. There are advantages to having read them prior to reading Plan B, but that does rather disrupt the main flow of the narrative. Reading them after I Dare or Local Custom would probably work, too.

For that matter, if you're a romance fan you might want to pull Local Custom to the front of the list, then do the rest in the order shown. If you're a military SF fan, you might want to try Agent of Change before Conflict of Honors.

Balance of Trade poses problems similar to Crystal Soldier and Crystal Dragon. It provides nice background for some events in those two books and in Saltation, but it isn't really essential to have read it anywhere in the series.

(These problems didn't exist when we were all waiting with bated breath for the next novel, and happy to get any new Liaden material. It is only the ability to sit down and read the whole story-so-far without interruption that creates dilemmas.)