Customer Reviews

Fledgling (Liaden Universe Novels)

5 star:		(39)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Once upon a time, there were a pair of distinguished science fiction writers whose publisher folded leaving them owed a whole bunchaton of money. They were distressed, but being creative types, Sharon Lee and her husband and writing partner Steve Miller got out the begging bowl.

What they did was to set up a website and post a chapter a week of a new Liaden Universe novel, as long as they received enough contributions to meet their threshhold.

The book, now called Fledgling, was wildly successful, the begging bowl filled to overflowing, and Baen Books was delighted to publish it...and now YOU can read it.

This is not the book that was posted. Miller and Lee have edited the posted rough draft into a polished, tightly edited, extremely wonderful book about a young woman's coming of age in a difficult situation she does not understand.

She does not know that the "Delm of Korval" her father, Jen Sar Kiladi, has told her solves all the problems in the galaxy is, in fact her father...or was, before he left Clan Korval to solve and balance his wife's murder. She does not know that Korval has for hundreds of years bred themselves to be pilots of speed, balance, brilliance and integrity. She does not know that sometimes members of Clan Korval are gawky, awkward, and graceless during their adolescence...because Jen Sar has tried to protect her and hasn't told her who she is.

WE know who Jen Sar Kiladi is, because Theo Woodley appears at the very end of the novel "I Dare" which is the last of the mainline Liaden Universe novels to be released.

"Fledgling" fills in Theo's story and explains a lot about what Jen Sar Kiladi, aka Daav yos'Phelium, has been doing in all the years since his abrupt disappearance from Liad, and his relinquishment of the Delm's Ring.

"Fledgling" can be read as a stand-alone novel, or as part of the Liaden Universe series. It is suitable for young readers, but adults will enjoy the deft plotting and witty writing style.

I recommend it highly.

Walt Boyes
Associate Editor
Jim Baen's Universe magazine

I purchased the electronic Advance Readers' Copy from Baen Books. And it was money well spent. I expect that I'll be purchasing more than one hardcover of Fledgling for gift giving this year. Although this was written as a straight science fiction novel, it works extremely well as a young adult novel.
Theo has been raised as the daughter of two scholars in a university setting. Her schoolmates are the children of academics, and it is generally expected that most, if not all, of the youngsters will also become scholars.
Sounds idyllic, right?
Well, no. The academic life isn't all sweetness and light. Worse, Theo doesn't quite fit in. Just how much and why she doesn't fit in is revealed over the course of the book. But this is not just a story of teen angst. Instead, it's a voyage of discovery, as Theo takes her first steps in learning where she does fit in, and who her companions of choice are.
This story fits in very well with Lee and Miller's Liaden universe, but it is also a delightful YA Science Fiction novel. Although there are fantasy and horror books galore for young adults, it's very hard to find science fiction with engaging, smart protagonists with believable problems and straightforward, elegant writing. This fits all the bills. We know of several youngsters who would very much enjoy these books.
One warning for parents - not only is Theo a protagonist and viewpoint character, but so are her parents. Some of the wonderful complexity of this book involves the care and concern that each of them has for the others. Very highly recommended. But purchase two copies, because once you start reading it, you might not want to give it away.

When I first saw the description for this novel, about an academic fraud investigation of falsified citations, I laughed myself silly. I had to click through to see more; I wanted to gawk at what was surely to be a spectacle of either poor judgement or the tragic outcome of a foolish bet. I have a fondness for and connection to academia, but not even I want to read a novel about department politics or falsified data. Who would be so brazen as to publish such a thing?

But then I saw the five-star reviews. "Hmm," I thought. Maybe there's something to this.

Of course, Fledgling isn't about academic fraud at all. It's a coming-of-age story about Theo, our 14 year old heroine, and how she goes from being an odd-girl-out as a potential academic, to a fearsomely talented pilot-candidate. The falsified data is just an excuse to drive the plot, to get Theo to the places she needs to be to find the place where she belongs. And like all good coming of age stories, we feel Theo's lows, mortified that she's seen as physically impaired and driving her Team score down, 'misunderstood' by her parents, obligated to go places she doesn't want to go, as well as her highs when she has the moments of joy, moments where she becomes sure of her skills and talents.

I also enjoyed Theo's interaction with her cats, her use of lace-making to create patterns and resolve puzzles for herself, her dancing, and how she sees the world in terms of math and patterns. I loved the way that a dance step on one world was martial art on another, just as we see in disciplines like capoeira. I find myself soothed by housefather Jen Sar Kiladi's deliberate, relaxed manner.

This is my first introduction to the Liaden Universe of Lee and Martin, and I quite enjoyed it. The authors drop you right in to the story, and though I had to read carefully at first to take in all the new vocabulary and culture and set the scene for the scholarly world of Delgado, it was very effective to pull and keep my interest. Indeed, I enjoyed it so much that I started reading it a second time while I waited on the arrival of more Liaden novels. There's nothing particularly profound about this story - perhaps it should rate only 4 1/2 stars - but it is masterfully written and a rollicking good read. I certainly cannot recall the last time I was compelled to immediately reread any novel. Alas, I am desolate to report that I will now be obligated to acquire the rest of the series.

At first I was a little put off by this book. I have not read any of the related books, and was a little miffed at starting out with a somewhat strange vocabulary and having no explanation of what these terms are supposed to mean. But then I thought about how often I have read a series and been annoyed when the author felt the need to spend an eternity reinventing the wheel at the beginning of each book just in case there were new readers. So I stuck with it and eventually caught on to the new words and phrases.

The general points of the book are spelled out in the product listing, so there is no need to fill in those details. What I will tell you is that I enjoyed the book, even having not read any of the other books in this line, and that I think I will now go find some of those other books to try. I was able to identify, at some point, with almost every character. We all know what it is like to be awkward like Theo, to have to make unpopular choices like Kamele, or to have secrets to keep like Jen Sar. The book is well written and it was easy to slip into the story and lose track of time. I highly recommend this book.

This book has a charming history of its own, which I won't repeat here, since it's already been described in several other reviews, but what really matters is not how the book came to exist, but whether it's worth reading. The answer here is an unequivocal YES!!!!!

Theo Waitley appears at the very end of I Dare (Liaden Universe Novel Series), which is the most recent book in the main storyline of the Liaden universe. Clearly, if the main storyline is ever taken forward, she will be involved in it somehow. This book, while not in that main storyline, fills out her background, and starts her on the trajectory that will have her hurtling into the last chapter of I Dare.

Unlike other stand-alone Liaden works, such as Balance of Trade (A Liaden Universe Novel), this one is clearly headed back to the main story. This heightens the pleasure for those who have already read those main books, and makes it a good entry point for people new to this universe.

In some ways, this is a very good introduction to the whole Liaden universe. It starts to answer the questions long-time fans have about what Theo's father has been doing all this time, and it works well as both an academic intrigue novel and a coming-of-age story. What's more, it's written in such a way that it could easily be the first Liaden novel someone read, without being at all confusing. One of the rich aspects of this universe is the variety of cultures that have developed on various planets (and in other locales as well). Theo lives in one, obviously, on the academic world of Delgado, and she encounters at least two more in the course of this story. All are developed in a way that makes them comprehensible to the reader without slogging the story down in exposition.

Mostly, this book is just a rollicking good story, told well, with an engaging main character and intriguing secondary characters. It's set in a series of interesting cultural contexts, and (for those who have tasted the pleasures of Liaden before), it's clearly a step on the way back to some well-loved characters and their as-yet-unfinished stories.

I was especially struck by some of the deft writing in this book. There are three main veiwpoint characters (and at least one other). Two of them know something that would spoil the story if the reader knew it too early. The authors manage to juggle the viewpoints in such a way that this "secret" is neither heavily hidden nor prematurely revealed, and none of it feels heavy-handed. This is just one example of how well the authors handle the technical issues of the plot, so that they don't get in the way of the story.

I'm a sucker for a good coming-of-age story that avoids cliches, I love academic stories, I wallow happily in science fiction (especially the intelligent kind), and I especially like science fiction that explores culture without making the story somehow secondary to the setting. This book is all these things and more. I have nothing else to say other than "Go! Read it! Now!"

This was the first of two books that Miller and Lee published online in first draft as serials, chapter by chapter, one a week, to raise money when their former publisher went out of business. (A very sad occasion for the SF community as a whole; Meisha Merlin Press published a *lot* of good stuff that might otherwise have never seen print.)

People who read that serialisation may well think that they needn't re-read the book, now that it's out in dead tree form - but, in my opinion, they'd be thinking wrongly.

Some of the original draft's plot shifts seemed a tad confusing; there have been re-writes that clear up most of that.

(For those who have read other Liaden Universe books, Theo Waitley is the young woman in a pilot's jacket who turns up on the last page of "I Dare"...)

Kamele Waitley is a Professor at the University of Delgado, Theo is her fourteen-year-old daughter. (Theo is fourteen in Delgado years; i suspct that the Delgado year may be longer than we're used to, since young women are considered adults at age fifteen there.) Delgado's culture seems weighted in favour of women - there is apparently no institution of marriage, with couples forming and breaking up at the whim of the woman; the male apparently has no voice in the end of the relationship.

Professor Waitley has just received a promotion and has decided to move, with Theo, back into the Wall, the monolithic ceramic structure that makes up most or all of the University. In doing so, she is leaving Jen Sar Kiladi, her "onagrata" of many years (and the only father Theo has ever known, whether or not he is her biological father). The promotion has come to her because a superior in her Department has been detected in the one unforgivable academic offense - faking data. Theo is heartbroken that she and her mother will no longer be living in Jen Sar's house on the outskirts of the University.

Worse - it appears that the miscreant may actually have managed to alter documents considered as primary sources; at least the documents in the Archives do not match copies held by one scholar's family and handed down for years. The only way to determine whether or not this is true is to send a delegation to the worlds from whence the documents came, Melchiza, to research and compare.

Meanwhile, Theo is getting into trouble. The society of Delgado frowns on individuality and Theo is an individual. This is not helped by the fact that Theo is unusually physically inept, even for a fourteen-year-old, and is involved in incidents that are interpreted as dangerous to society. Her mentor (therapist/academic advisor/surveillance operator) recommends drug therapy that will help; Kamele and Jen Sar, having researched the drugs involved years ago when the suggestion was first made, reject it.

Instead Jen Sar arranges for Theo to join a dance class ... and she discovers that she is good at the dance.

Kamele is selected as second-in-command of the delegation to Melchiza, and decides to take Theo along.

On the ship, Theo falls in with a group of pilots. (In Miller and Lee's Liaden universe, pilots must be possessed of reflexes and mathematical abilities just short of superhuman, and are regarded in many circles with a large degree of awe and respect.) She begins to learn "normal" social interaction - though, since the two main pilots are Liaden Scouts, just how "normal" this may be is open to question by some...

Meanwhile, back on Delgado, Jen Sar has begun to suspect that some sort of Dastardly Plot may be afoot.

So we have three separate plotlines - Theo's coming of age and her discovery that she is far from "average" or "normal", Kamele and the delegation's problems and suspicions among the paranoid and xenophobic society of Melchiza, and Jen Sar's investigations back on Delgado.

And the new material added since the serialisation makes up the majority of those three threads, literally introducing important new subplots and going more deeply into what was originally there.

A fun book; if you read "I Dare" and wondered what was up at the end - "Fledgling" won't tell you, nor (unless it's been expanded and revised even more than has "Fledgling" from *its* online serial version) will its sequel (coming in 2010), "Saltation" ... but they'll get you part way there.

This reminds me of some of their short story work in the Liaden universe. A coming of age book with a richness of worlf building that is wondrous to behold. I was fascinated by how each different area had it's own microsystem of culture and governance.

This is well worth the price for lovers of the Tree and Dragon, although you will not see any of the main line characters obviously represented. It also serves a a very accessible entry into a world of Pilots and melant'i.

I don't think there is any need to review this book on behalf of existing Liaden Universe readers - you already will have read the book twice over by now. The response of some new reader reviews demonstrates how difficult it is for writers to bring in a fresh audience once a story-universe is set up. Actually, I think Fledgling in general is a good introduction for that. It's a young adult story suitable for us older adults as well. It is short, complete in itself and with just enough scene-setting, characterization and action for the authors' skill and humor to shine through. I thought the effort of revealing multiple points of view and the new-to-all-readers restrictive society modelled on the more unattractive aspects of academia slowed the action initially, since I prefer the challenge of figuring things out from context, but the story soon hits its stride. Since the action covers two planets and space travel, it's a broad sampler packed in a small box.

While I admit that I am a huge Liaden Universe fan (that's why I read this book on the internet before it was published), I think that anybody who loves sci-fi/fantasy will love this book. It reminds me of "Enchantress from the Stars" and the books that follow by Sylvia Louse Engdahl.

The novel centers around Theo, a young girl, who is finding her place in the universe - and as she learns about the wonderfully constructed, complicated Liaden Universe so do we. The book begins on a world and culture new to the Liaden Universe, where Theo's safe little world is disrupted when academic politics force her father to move out and her mother to take a trip off world. As with all good coming-of-age stories, this book will appeal to both teens and adults.

As I said above, there is no need to read previous Liaden novels to enjoy "Fledgling;" however, for those of you who cannot wait for September 8th to dive into the Liaden Universe, I recommend that you start with "Pilots Choice". This has two great novels ("Local Custom" and "Scout's Progress") - both of which can stand alone. I must admit that I love the romances in both of them, but they also take place on Liad and serve as a good introduction to the culture. If you want to jump right into the adventure, start with "Partners In Necessity" (which contains 3 novels - "Conflict of Honors," "Agent of Change" and "Carpe Diem") and buy "Plan B" and "I Dare" at the same time because you won't want to wait to start the next book.

Be warned that "Pilot's Choice" and "Partners in Necessity" are those huge heavy omnibus editions; however, I cannot find the five novels separately.

This is the first book I've read in the Liaden series but it is so well-written that it makes it seem like it could be real. First of all, the authors keep the main names of things (like animals such as dogs, cats; food such as pizza, salad, soup, tea, coffee; furniture like desk, drawers, etc.) just in plain old English without trying to come with too many futuristic sounding but not "reality" sounding terms.

In this story, Theo Waitley has lived her first 14 years under the care of the Housefather Kiladi and her mother, Kamele. Both of them are professors at the University of Delgado. However, they had lived with Theo at Number Twelve Leafydale Place, Greensward-by-Efraim where they had cats, a yard and Kiladi made food from "scratch". Kiladi had been Kamele's "onagrata" since before Theo was born. However, now Kamele to advance as a professor needs to move to the "Wall" which is a self-contained building with dorms, offices, classrooms and apartments as well as research facilities.

Theo is very sad to leave her many friends and wonders how she will fit in with the new team as she is a bit of a "klutz". This is a very strange world with very strange rules. However, Theo and her mom are caught up in some intrigue and how that is resolved and the adventures they go on make up for a very interesting plot!