Posts Tagged ‘Liaden Universe’
Read More, or, How to Stay Sane in a Global Pandemic
Folks, I wrote a week ago or so about the mass hysteria over the corona virus. Since then, more information has come out, and it appears the only thing that can mitigate the damage from this previously unknown virus is “social distancing” — in other words, trying to stay away from people who aren’t members of your nuclear family (or are exceptionally good friends you’ve seen in the past week or two).
Social distancing doesn’t necessarily mean isolation, mind. You can still talk with your friends, even those who you haven’t seen in the past week or two, by phone or by using an internet app like FaceTime or Skype. And if you do go out with someone you’ve seen recently, you can probably walk next to them as per usual; still, to be safe, we’re told to keep six feet apart in public if at all possible.
The hope by doing this is that it’ll give the virus a chance to die out. But no one knows if it’ll work.
But this post is about how to stay sane during this difficult time. And I intend to tell you what helps me the most: Reading books.
In fact, I splurged and bought Sharon Lee and Steve Miller’s newest Liaden Universe book, ACCEPTING THE LANCE. And I enjoyed it immensely. There’s a lot in that book that seems to apply right now — people who’ve been upended by life, having to re-establish themselves, having to learn how to go on in drastically altered circumstances. And the new consensus that comes out of the chaos is a much better one than the previous; it allows for people of great diversity to find ways to talk to one another, and to find ways to help everyone become their best selves.
Yes, it’s only a book. A bit of entertainment, if you will. But there’s a lot of truth in it.
That said, here are some other books I absolutely adore, and believe may help you if you are a SF&F reader (or just want to broaden your horizons).
NIGHT CALLS, KINDRED RITES, SPIRAL PATH — Katharine Eliska Kimbriel
This is the Night Calls trilogy, and it is exceptionally good. Alfreda “Allie” Sorensson is a smart young lady in a frontier version of America that includes magic. And she has a good deal of it. But she’s a practical soul, is Allie, and she knows being strong in anything can scare people. How she finds her own balance and equilibrium during a number of harrowing tests is well worth reading, again and again.
The stories of Stavin Kel’Aniston, starting with ALL THAT GLITTERS — Loren K. Jones
Stavin is my favorite of Loren’s many characters (thus far). He is quite short, feels he’s not attractive or smart or worth anything…then he takes up a dare, meets a dragon, and the dragon is impressed. (Note that Stavin was far too smart to try to kill the dragon.) He’s much more intelligent than he thinks he is, but Stavin is also a young man with a young man’s faults. Who he meets, the challenges he faces, who he loves, and what happens to him are well worth reading about. And you’ll love his wife, Sharindis (or Shari); she knows just what to say to bring him down a peg or two, whenever needed.
Mind, if you want to read something else by Loren, I’m all for it; I’d just start with Stavin, as he’s so much fun.
Finally, I also recommend the stories by Chris Nuttall. He has several great universes going on, but my favorites are his Schooled in Magic universe (featuring Emily, a young lady from Kansas who must learn her magic quickly or she won’t survive) and his Zero universe (where most people have magic, some have a ton — but the people who may have the most power of all are, paradoxically, the Zeros who have none as they’re the only ones who can forge truly awesome weaponry).
So, to find these stories, go to Amazon and look first at Katharine’s page. Then at Loren’s. And finally, at Chris’s…you can’t go wrong, and it may help you deal with this crisis to be reminded that resilience and pluck come in all shapes and sizes.
Two New Reviews Up at SBR Over the Weekend
Folks, I had a busy weekend with regards to reviews, which is one reason I wasn’t able to write an after-action report right away with regards to Friday’s review of Sharon Lee and Steve Miller’s newest novel in their ongoing Liaden Universe, TRADE SECRET.
You see, my latest review, up as of a few, short minutes ago, is for Vera Nazarian’s haunting and compelling COBWEB EMPIRE, the second in her Cobweb Bride series. Her series is dark fantasy, yet there’s somehow an underpinning of optimism that carries you through nearly unimaginable suffering . . . in Ms. Nazarian’s conception, Death needs a bride and has refused to go on taking souls until he gets one. But he can’t have just any bride . . . oh, no. He needs a specific bride he calls the “Cobweb Bride” (hence the name of the first book of the series, COBWEB BRIDE, and the series itself, natch), and nothing else will do.
This universe is unlike anything I have ever seen. It is rich, dark, menacing, yet there are plenty of good people who populate it, including the couple at the heart of all the chaos, Persephone “Percy” Ayren and her own dark knight, Duke Beltain Chidair. (Note that Beltain hasn’t yet accustomed himself to being the Duke as his father is undead and certainly doesn’t wish to give up the title, being as distressing a personage as can be imagined . . . at least until an even worse one, Sovereign Rumalar Avalais of the Domain, shows up.)
I have enjoyed reading Ms. Nazarian’s conception thus far, and can’t wait to dive into COBWEB FOREST . . . which is why I plan to read and review it this week. (I’ve already skimmed it, but there’s many, many more things to discover by reading it multiple times.)
At any rate, I also enjoyed Sharon Lee and Steve Miller’s TRADE SECRET quite a bit. It’s told in an unusual way that I likened to a mosaic, as nothing really fell into focus for me until right before the end — then I understood it completely.
Why a mosaic? Well, with a lot of mosaics, you can’t really tell what’s going on until you can stand outside and ponder them. And as that was definitely the case here, it seemed to fit.
So there you have it: Two new reviews are up at Shiny Book Review for two interesting and thoughtful books that both delighted me enormously, albeit in radically different ways.
Hope you’ll enjoy the reviews — then, if they intrigue you anywhere near as much as they did me, go buy the books. (Hours of reading enjoyment await. And the re-reads . . . did I mention the re-reads yet?)
Just Reviewed Lee and Miller’s “Dragon Ship” at SBR
Folks, it’s really tough for me to write a negative review, especially when I truly enjoy the writers in question. Yet when a book comes in that I find lacking, regardless of who writes it, I have to give my honest assessment.
Such is the case with my review for Sharon Lee and Steve Miller’s DRAGON SHIP over at Shiny Book Review tonight. I praised the writers, said I enjoyed the way they told the story for the most part — but I just didn’t get behind two conscious author’s decisions that the pair of authors made. And because of that, I just couldn’t like or recommend this book even though I have liked and/or appreciated what Lee and Miller have written in every other case. (Yes, even the dark fantasy duology comprised by DUIANFEY and LONGEYE. There I knew going in that there would be some aspects of the story that would disturb me due to the genre, and was not put off.)
The two plot twists that really bothered me were these — making Captain Theo Waitley irresistible to anyone of either sex (including AIs) really wasn’t necessary. And putting a male lover, a female lover, and a male AI lover on the same ship with Theo being basically oblivious to all of them, much less the trouble they could get into if they ever fully realize that Theo’s not truly in love with any of them, doesn’t seem to make a whole lot of sense.
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Warning — major spoilers ahead. You have been warned.
Now, back to our original post.
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The whole idea of Bechimo the ship wanting to fully unite with a human (or in this case, half-Liaden) captain, to the point that Theo ends up being nearly forced to submit to a procedure that will give Bechimo full access to her thoughts, her soul, and her very being, also is deeply disturbing. That Bechimo, the person, wants to unite with someone on a deep level is not disturbing, of course — most people of any types want this, if they’re honest. But that he’d actually want his lover the captain to submit to such an invasive procedure and not realize that it’s akin to mental and soul-rape is also incredibly disturbing.
And Bechimo the person being obviously naïve despite his many centuries of life and roaming the galaxy does not even begin to excuse this.
So, we’re left with a young woman, Theo, who’s basically married in all the ways that count to Bechimo the person at the end of DRAGON SHIP. But she still has both her male lover and her female lover serving aboard the ship. Theo’s not worried about them, or anything else, and seems to be floating in the way most newlyweds do — excepting one thing: she never, ever consented to this level of invasion in her personal life, because she couldn’t have possibly understood this is what Bechimo (the ship) meant by “needing to be served by a full Captain.”
All of that really bothers me, to the point that I could not in good conscience recommend DRAGON SHIP even though the writing is as stellar as ever.
As to the other problematic plot point, bringing a long-dead character back to life — or even attempting to do so — is really difficult for any author or authors to pull off. It can be done, sure. (Stephen R. Donaldson has done just that with his character Thomas Covenant, and of course the original Star Trek brought back Spock.) But it has to be done carefully, and with planning.
Otherwise, it just doesn’t work.
That’s why even the thought of bringing back Aelliana Caylon, by far my most favorite of all the wonderful characters Lee and Miller have ever written, bothers me so much. (Even though she’s been around as a ghost for years, and even though she obviously takes an interest in what’s going on all around her, bringing her back in a new shell — a new body — does not seem right.)
Those two conscious author’s decisions are why I don’t like DRAGON SHIP and am most unlikely to ever re-read it. And it’s why I delayed writing my review until I had a full handle on exactly why I didn’t like this book despite my admiration for the writing pair of Lee and Miller and for their creation the Liaden Universe in particular.
Hopefully, I’ve done a good job in conveying the pluses of this book (the writing, the writers, the skill they take in their craft, etc.) and the minuses — the plot and the two author’s decisions that completely perplex — in a way that show I didn’t intend to bash the writer or their creation.
I just didn’t like it, that’s all.
And before anyone else says it — yes, I realize that someday, someone’s going to dislike my books, too. (Maybe many someones, though I hope more of these “someones” will like my writing and my books than not.) I just hope that they’ll be polite about it when they criticize, as I can handle that.
Whereas outright rudeness is much tougher to swallow, which is why I tried hard to avoid that in tonight’s review.
Just reviewed Lee and Miller’s “Ghost Ship” at SBR
Folks, if you want an interesting, mind-blowing adventure that capably continues the journey of pilot Theo Waitley, half-Liaden through her father’s side and related to the current Delm of Korval (an extremely powerful personage), seek no further.
Hie thee hence to my latest review of the inestimable Sharon Lee and Steve Miller’s Liaden Universe (TM) epics, GHOST SHIP, at Shiny Book Review. Go here, if you’re like the folks of Clan Korval and believe “I Dare” to be your calling card (as well you should):
Because if you haven’t read any of Lee and Miller’s novels yet, what’s stopping you?
Enjoy!
Barb Caffrey's Blog 