9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Balancing the Clans, May 26, 2010
This review is from: The Dragon Variation (Liaden Universe Novels) (Paperback)
The Dragon Variation (2010) is an SF omnibus in the Liaden Universe series, including
Local Custom,
Scout's Progress and
Conflict of Honors. These volumes track two personages in the Korval Clan and their offspring.
Local Custom (2000) is the first novel in this series by internal chronology, but the fourth novel published. Er Thom yos'Galan is caught in an emotional and moral bind: Liaden law requires him to provide children to the clan, yet he is infatuated with a Terran woman that he had met several years before on Proziski. After a whirlwind affair, the two had parted, with Er Thom returning to his ship and trade route.
Now that his clan has demanded his child, Er Thom finds himself unable to become interested in any other woman. In a spirit of desperation, he borrows a ship from his foster brother and tracks down Anne Davis at her university. Their affair resumes immediately, as if no time has passed.
But then Anne introduces Er Thom to their son, Shan yos'Galan. Suddenly their love affair runs afoul of a difference in customs. To Er Thom, the boy is a child of Clan Korval and Line yos'Galen and must be presented to the delm and thodelm to be accepted into the clan and line. Anne doesn't see him quite that way.
Anne considers Shan as her child, with Er Thom only the sperm donor. She refuses his offer of a contract marriage, seeing it as only another temporary fling.
Scout's Progress (2000) is the fifth SF novel in this series. Aelliana Caylon is a Scholar in Subrational Mathematics at Chonselta Technical College. She teaches a course in Practical Mathematics -- Math for Survival -- to Scout Academy students and is well liked by her classes.
Aelliana makes the mistake of disagreeing with a financial issue with Ran Eld. He challenges her, but their mother -- the Delm of Mizel -- thinks that there is some truth to her arguments. She orders Ran Eld to allow Aelliana to invest her quarter share as she wishes and to track the progress.
Aelliana presents the student Scouts with a practical problem with parameters defined by themselves and requires them to document the solution by the next class. Later she encounters two of her students while she is wandering the streets in thought. They invite her to their table, wine and dine her, and then take her into the new casino.
Aelliana observes the play of hands at a Pikit table. When the holder of the table invites her to sit and play, she seats herself. When the matter of stakes is raised, she puts forth her quarter share, but he is persuaded to risk his ship.
Aelliana plays skillfully and wins. The ship is docked at the Binjali Garage. It is soon registered in her name and she can take possession the following day. She drops by to see her ship and gets a personal tour by the owner of the facility.
She is pleased to see that Ride the Luck is a jump ship. Now she has to get a Second Class Pilot license and to learn Terran so that she can become independent. First she takes the test for a Second Class license and passes.
Her license will be Provisional until she has acquired sufficient hours of piloting a ship. When she comes to ask Jon to tutor her on ship handling, Daav is on duty by himself. He has a package to deliver on Outyard Eight, so he acts as her copilot as they fly to the station.
Conflict of Honors (1988) is the second SF novel in this series. Priscilla Delacroix y Mendoza is a Terran, a native of the planet Sintia. She became a spacer at age sixteen. She is now Cargo Master of the Liaden ship Daxflan.
The Terrans on the Daxflan are very disgruntled by the conditions. They are treated as nonpersons and eat disgusting food in an impromptu messhall away from the Liaden crew. Priscilla's friend Shelly has just bought out her contract to get off the Daxflan.
After Shelly leaves, Priscilla saves the file containing her suspicions of contraband in the sealed cargo. Then she is unexpectedly assigned to go down to Jankalin. Since the planet is only a dropoff point, she is puzzled about being in the landing party.
On the world, Dagmar takes her aside to help carry something. Once they get through the recalcitrant door, Priscilla is knocked out and left in the locked room. When she awakes, Priscilla discovers that she has been stranded on Jankalin.
Priscilla gains employment on the Dutiful Passage to overtake her ship. The captain requires her to take a battery of strange tests before hiring her under personal contract. Then he assigns her to Lina as Pet Librarian, with additional duties as needed.
Priscilla does many and varied tasks on the Dutiful Passage. The pet library is one of the most pleasant, but she really enjoys the piloting lessons. These are required in her contract, but are not charged to her account.
When the Dutiful Passage next encounters the Daxflan, someone tries to murder Shan. Priscilla saves the Captain, but he does not allow her to reveal their suspicions of Dagmar's involvement. Shan does tell her of Dutiful Passage's outstanding complaint against Daxflan. Shan even mentions the conflict between his sister and Sav Rid.
These tales involves Clan Korval in various issues between the clans. Telempathic talents also lead Korval clansmen to their lifemates. Sometimes such talents are a blessing and other times not.
The stories reveal much about the history of Clan Korval and Liaden. Indeed, the history of Liaden is closely related to Clan Korval. The Delm of Korval is the Clan Captain. Always remember that Korval means ships, pilots and responsibilities.
The tales have a degree of similarity, but follow three different males within Clan Korval. Although Conflict of Honors was published first, this omnibus has the tales in internal chronological order. Read and enjoy!
Highly recommended for Lee & Miller fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of alien cultures, social conflicts, and paranormal talents. If anyone is not familiar with this series, the initial volume is
Agent of Change.
-Arthur W. Jordin
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderfully crafted world - a must read..., June 26, 2010
This review is from: The Dragon Variation (Liaden Universe Novels) (Paperback)
If you have never read any of the Liaden books then I envy you the initial pleasure of finding them first time. My son introduced me to Local Custom and I was hooked - so borrowed all the printed books he had at the time. Like many of the Liaden fans (including Anne McCaffrey) I read and re-read the books and as my son does the same I now need to buy my own copies - hence my delight that they are now all to be re-released as second hand copies of a couple are very expensive!
Set in a future Universe we have space, traders, differing worlds and practices, wizards, dramliz, rigid codes of practice, dragons oh and a sentient tree in stories written with a very deft hands that give us characters that we care about and want to hear more of.
As you read each last page you inevitably want to know .... "what happens next?"
I read a lot and also topping my book list are Lord of the Rings and Pride & Prejudice - the Liaden books from Sharon Lee & Steve Miller provide a child from Tolkien & Austen, written with JRRT's creation of worlds and cultures yet with the lightness of touch and observations of people of Austen that makes them such a pleasure to read again and again...
Just buy and enjoy.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wondeful space opera, June 6, 2010
This review is from: The Dragon Variation (Liaden Universe Novels) (Paperback)
These are three of my favorite books. I can read them again and again. And since the authors have a HUGE fan in Anne McCaffrey, anyone who is attracted to her books, can expect something to love here.
I read each of these books separately - lucky to get them for one low price - with my first Lee/Miller book being the third of these. I then went on to the next 2 in the series, because these weren't out yet, but this is now in the proper order - though it surprisingly doesn't matter in which order you read these, other than when you hit Carpe Diem, the next one up, it is a good time to stick to the timetable in the Clan Korval books.
When I was reading these, I wasn't even thinking about the romance that is in them, and that's the way I like it. Romance, but not like romance novel stuff. No, these books have the feeling of McCaffrey, or some Heinlein, or Andre Norton, or McKillip, or McKinley or Moon or well, you know what I mean. And there really aren't enough non-fantasy books out there that do this which aren't primarily military sci-fi somehow. The characters are just much more interesting, while being as honorable as I like them to be.
Plus, I like a little bit of paranormal in my sci-fi.
So - perfect!
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