Balance Of Trade (A Liaden Universe Novel) [Hardcover]

Sharon Lee (Author), Steve Miller (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 10, 2004

Assistant Trader Jethri Gobelyn was an honest, hardworking young man who knew a lot about living onboard his family's space-going trade ship; something about trade, finance, and risk-taking; and a little bit about Liadens. It was, oddly enough, the little bit he knew about Liadens that seemed like it might be enough to make his family's fortune, and his own, too. In short order, however, Jethri Gobelyn was about to find out a lot more about Liadens... like how far they might go to protect their name and reputation. Like the myriad of things one might say-intentionally or not-with a single bow. Like what it would take to make a Liaden trade-ship crew trash a bar. Like how hard it is to say "I'm sorry!" in Liaden. Pretty soon it was clear that as little as he knew about Liadens, he knew far less about himself. With his very existence a threat to the balance of trade, Jethri Gobelyn needed to learn fast, or else help destroy all he held dear.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Liaden universe fans will be happy to see the latest adventure set there, though it occurs more than two centuries before the adventures of Shan yos'Galan and family, who are more regular series protagonists. Young Jethri Gobelyn, from a family of Terran traders, does a service for a Liaden master trader and is taken on as her apprentice. That honor isn't appreciated by all Liadens or all Terrans, including some members of Jethri's family. Far too many Liadens regard Terrans as louts and barbarians, and in Terran lore Liadens can't be trusted--except to play dirty tricks. Lee and Miller's latest is the well-constructed story of a young man coming of age in the midst of a sometimes deadly clash of cultures. Longtime Liaden fans will relish learning some of the history that produced the worlds they already know. Perhaps this book's only fault is that it is primarily those already well acquainted with Liaden who will most enjoy it. In any event, it shows plenty of Lee and Miller's customary intelligent storytelling. Frieda Murray
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

"...an admirable addition to a series much beloved by readers of complex, character-driven and lyrical science fiction." -- Susan Krinard, author of To Catch a Wolf

"...full of action, exotic characters, plenty of plot, and even a touch of romance. The world building is outstanding." -- Booklist

"Action, nifty tech, larger-than-life characters, romance, humor, mind-expanding talents—LIADEN is space opera at its best" -- Sherwood Smith

"BALANCE OF TRADE was a fulfilling read, and Jethri’s viewpoint allowed an insider look at Liaden society." -- Jody Wallace, Science Fiction Romance Book Reviews

"It’s another thrill ride for loyal Liaden fans and a great place for the uninitiated to jump on." -- Lisa DuMond, Contributing Editor and Senior Reviewer for SFSite and Black Gate Magazine; Freelance Reviewer for SFReader.com --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 464 pages
• Publisher: Meisha Merlin Publishing, Inc. (February 10, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1592220193
• ISBN-13: 978-1592220199
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (38 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,239,290 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars On Balance, A Fine Return to the Liaden Universe, April 16, 2004

By 

"reedekullervo" (Edina, MN United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Balance Of Trade (A Liaden Universe Novel) (Hardcover)

Fans and newcomers alike should thoroughly enjoy Lee & Miller's latest adventure set in their ever-engaging Liaden Universe. Taking a break from all things Korval, they bring us a tale from an earlier time when Terrans and Liadens were still relative strangers to each other. Our young hero is Jethri, from a human trading ship burdened with a cold, distant mother, and an enigmatic, dead father but blessed with a deft hand for trade. He stumbles into a Liaden matter of honor and his own sense of fair play and justice bring him to the regard of Master Trader Norn van'Deen, Clan Ixin. She decides that there is trade and profit to be made by championing him as her apprentice.

Whisked off to learn Liaden ways and trade far from everything he has ever known, he has an uncertain start but gradually finds his footing and his mettle. He conquers Liaden bows, makes friends as well as enemies and for a spacer born and bred, even manages to find his footing living on a planet.

Jethri is a compelling young man, real enough to not be perfect, but with enough integrity and kindness to make you root for him. His tour through Lianden life is interesting, focusing much more on trade than any of the previous books. Fans of the space opera style romance of previous books will be find little of that here, nonetheless they won't be disappointed since Lee & Miller write as great a story as ever. Familiar trademarks also show up: scouts, cats, librarians and dramliza all play a part, but respectfully take a back seat Jethri and his journey.

The only nitpick I had was the book spends so much time building to various plot points - the mystery surrounding Jethri's father, the existence of old tech, his admittance to the Liaden trade guild - that the ending, when it does come, falls somewhat short of satisfying as it just started to get really interesting. If only there had been another 400 pages! As it is, the story provides a very agreeable time and certainly leaves room for more adventures with Jethri. I'll definately look forward to reading more about him.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Woo-hoo! As always, a great story with great characters, April 8, 2004

By 

R. Kelly Wagner "[e-mail]" (MD, United States) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Balance Of Trade (A Liaden Universe Novel) (Hardcover)

Miller & Lee are among the few authors, along with Lois M. Bujold, whom I will purchase in hardcover the day they come out with a new book. I have not been disappointed in the past, and I'm not disappointed now.

If you haven't read others in their Liaden series, you can still read this and enjoy it - it's perfectly good cultural space opera (as contrasted to military space opera) in its own right. It's even more fun, though, if you read the other books as well. This one takes place in a setting slightly earlier, chronologically, than the books featuring Clan Korval, and has no characters in common - Korval is mentioned only once, in passing, as a clan that breeds pilots. So you don't have to know the back-story on all the characters in the previous books in order to know what the characters in this one are doing. There are some customs, however, which will strike you as odd if you haven't already been immersed in this universe.

Someone else described this as a coming of age novel, and in part it is, but not in a way that limits it to juvenile readers. (I recently read, and reviewed, a coming of age novel by another SF author, which was annoyingly juvenile, so I am pretty sensitive to the issue.) Our young trader apprentice is already a fully developed character in his own right, and the situations he faces are not simple, nor are the adults in the story merely bit players, nor buffoons when faced with youth, as is true of too many such novels.

Now, I have to get out of the way one thing I didn't like about this book: the cover art. I hate it. It makes the Terrans look awful, the Liadens look like short Episcopalian bishops in their robes, and further, doesn't seem to me to match the descriptions of the characters at all. There's a note about the artist in the back; I have to respectfully but firmly disagree with his conception of the characters. And with the really awkward poses he's got everyone in! OK, end of that little snit. Back to the story.

We start with Jethri Gobelyn, of the trading ship Gobelyn's Market. If you want to dash off and read Christina Rossetti's poem "Goblin Market" you can, but the connections are quite brief and tenuous; the poem won't give you any big clues to the story. There clearly are some clever details drawn from the poem, such as twin girls with names beginning with the same letter, but those details are in no way critical. So feel free NOT to go look up the poem if you hate poetry. Not knowing it won't make you miss out on any big poetic allusions in the book.

Jethri's family is slightly hillbilly - his name resembles Jethro not for nothing. They talk with country accents, they hold shivarees (spelled shivary here), and they have some risk of inbreeding... and I thought at first that I would be annoyed by that, because I don't like stereotypes like that - but they turned out not to be stereotypical hillbillies at all; they're great characters. Jethri's extended group of cousins are smarter than they look.

The last part of Jethri's secret becomes revealed only near the end of the book, although there are hints regarding it which may lead you to guess earlier. Let's just say that they make the question of "coming of age" more complicated.

There is also a family of Russians involved in slightly shady dealings, again not quite the stereotypes; Grigory, his sister Raisana (think Raisa Gorbacheva if you didn't recognize Raisana as a Russian name) and their uncle Yuri have some surprises up their sleeves.

Let's see, for those already involved in the series, some differences to note: no Yxtrang, not even a mention of them. Some technology from an earlier civilization that we haven't seen in the other books; this technology is described as unstable, so perhaps by the later books the last fractins have become useless. In some ways, I saw glimpses of the authors' other series, about Gem ser Edreth, in the Gobelyns - I could see the shipboard culture of these Terran trading ships sliding into the completely shipborn culture of the gen ships there, with both the culture and the physiology changing from the human norm. Even though these are two completely different series, there's a resemblance. There's also no noticeable romance in this book, no dramatic meetings of couples like Shan and Priscilla or Val Con and Miri. Closest to romance we get is Grig's girlfriend announcing she's pregnant, and we didn't get any details before that.

No military battles in this one; it's strictly trading and education. We don't even spend much time on ship, rather mostly on stations and on mud. When Jethri finds himself on a Liaden trade ship as an apprentice, he has to learn more Liaden than he knows, and has to learn all the various shades of bows. Those who are old enough to remember Keith Laumer's Retief series may remember the endless list of numbered facial expressions that the Corps Diplomatique had, after a while! Jethri runs across a Scout, with an odd sense of humor, as the Scouts always seem to have, but also meets a regular Liaden with a sense of humor, which is somewhat rarer. While Korval's always had an odd kick in its gallop, most of the other Liaden characters have been a bit humor-impaired; Tam Sin, however, has a full sense of the humor in irony and coincidence. For that matter, we do also meet a Scout with no sense of humor, also a rarity. Even Scouts, apparently, can be narrow-minded bigots more concerned with title, position, and perks than with curiosity.

There's a very nice cat in the book. Pay attention to Flinx, he's important!

I hope that's enough hints as to the characters and plot to get you reading. Trust me, this is not just a coming of age novel, and those of you who love developing detailed pictures of culture and language will have a blast with this book.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent coming of age story, July 9, 2004

By 

Barb Caffrey "writer-for-hire" (In a Midwest State (of mind), USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Balance Of Trade (A Liaden Universe Novel) (Hardcover)

Sharon Lee and Steve Miller's "Balance of Trade" focused on young, human Jethri Gobelyn, a Trader from a family of Traders. Jethri has learned a few words of the Liaden language, and wants to learn more, but is hampered in his attempts by his mother (who wants no part of Jethri _or_ the Liadens). His father is dead, and most of his close kin don't seem to know what to make of him.

Be that as it may, after his first solo trade, he "invests" in a scheme that turns out to be shady; as it involves a Liaden Master Trader, he goes to her and asks what's going on. But she knows nothing. However, because Jethri did warn them, and because she knew he was being honorable, she takes an interest in him.

Because of this, and because his mother wants no part of him and will be happier once he's gone elsewhere, Jethri goes to the Liadens and becomes first an apprentice Trader under the kindly Liaden woman, then her foster son. Along the way, Jethri learns more about himself, the Liaden people, and what his talents are best suited for than he ever dreamed possible, and the Liadens -- the Traders, at least -- learn they still have something in common with their close cousins, the humans.

I don't want to spoil it, so I'll stop there.

The only drawbacks to this book -- and they are minor -- are that there are a lot of loose ends left at the end of the book (from the disposition of minor characters to what happens to the Old Tech Jethri and the others found along the way), and that a sequel to this book doesn't seem to be immediately forthcoming.

No matter. For characterization, plot, and meaty story like this, I'll wait.

Five stars. Highly recommended.

Barb Caffrey