A Liaden Universe Constellation Volume 5
by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller
Sharon Lee & Steve Miller (the latter recently deceased) have been writing a space opera set in their Liaden Universe for 37 years. Think tough, diminutive space elfs with excruciatingly good manners, occasional telepathic powers, and very fast ships they know how to use.
There are so far 27 novels and 33 chapbooks featuring the Tree and Dragon family of Korval and a ton of short stories about Korval and the members of other Liaden clans, most of which have been collected in anthologies of which this is the fifth. Verily, it is a wonder, as Val Con might say. If you are a fan you will meet many characters you have seen before in one of the novels or perhaps even in another short story.
As with the first in this collection, “Fortune’s Favors,” where we meet Mar Tyn eys’Ornstahl, a Luck, something I and many another Korval fan have wondered what that is, exactly? Not only do we get a satisfactory answer we also meet again one Don Eyr, a Low Port chef with a High Port pedigree. Don Eyr was last seen in “Degrees of Separation” as he turned his back on clan to forge his own destiny and definitely needed an ending, which we also get here.
In “Opportunity to Seize” we find a lovely rounding of the Daav/Aelliana/Kamele storyline that felt skipped over in the story of Daav’s renaissance and Aelliana’s rebirth (and the Uncle’s meddling) in Neogenesis and Accepting the Lance. I’m always up for a story about a Scout and in “A Visit to the Galaxy Ballroom” we are afforded insight into why so many of them are leaving Liad for Surebleak.
These stories and others, all Liadens, all the time, all entertaining and all parts of the greater whole. And then the authors save the best for last in a big finish, in what I believe may be their best novella yet, “Dead Men Dream.” We see what happens to Bar Jan chel’Gaiban Clan Rinork after he tries to kill Jethri and fails, and where we discover yet again that we are what our parents make us, as his mother certainly made him. But we don’t have to remain that person, as Jeef Baker can attest. A painful and wonderful tale.
Altogether an unmissable collection for the Korval fan, and it will make you a fan if you aren’t one already.
Book Review Monday Chatter A Liaden Universe Cnstellation Volume 5 Korval Sharon Lee & Steve Miller