Author Topic: Science Fiction / Fantasy (Read 385063 times)

PatH · « **Reply #2840 on:** February 11, 2017, 07:48:30 PM »

Science Fiction / Fantasy

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Welcome to the whole universe! This is where we gather to share our experiences in science fiction and fantasy. We like everything, from Gregory Benford to Stephanie Meyer—hard science to magic and fantasy.

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Discussion Leader: PatH

PatH · « **Reply #2841 on:** February 11, 2017, 07:49:36 PM »

Frybabe, thanks for taking my question seriously. Yes, it's not easy and a lot of people don't realize that just because you liked reading a book doesn't mean it would make a good discussion.

It's not necessary to make a book last a month; we often do shorter discussions.

I read Remnant Population some time ago at your recommendation, and agree that it would make for a good discussion, and people would relate to it well. The only problem is, is it too similar to Velma Wallis' Two Old Women, which we recently did. (Moon acknowledges her debt to Wallis.) What do you think?

Dark is definitely a problem. Except for that, I would gladly lead Octavia Butler's Kindred. Have you read it? A black woman writer living in San Francisco in 1975 keeps getting shifted in time to a Maryland pre-Civil War Maryland farm. She eventually realizes that her role is to keep saving the life of the spoiled son of the owners, who will be her ancestor via one of the slaves. It's very good, very powerful, but also very dark, and, since it describes slavery conditions accurately, very brutal.

Your idea of a classic is a good one. I'll have to think what might fly.

Anyway, thanks. All suggestions are welcome.

Frybabe · « **Reply #2842 on:** February 12, 2017, 06:31:17 AM »

I didn't know about the acknowledgement Moon gave to Wallis, or at least, it didn't register when I read the book.

I am not a time shift fan, so I haven't read any of them, including The Time Machine. My sister read it when we were still teens and thought it was excellent. She was never much of a reader back then so that is saying something. Her only other high recommendation was Ivanhoe.

Looking as some lists of Optimistic SciFi, I see several include le Guin's The Dispossessed.. Well, I suppose some of it was optimistic. We could probably read one of hers or a Margaret Atwood. They always seem to have plenty of social commentary.

Did we do Arthur C. Clark's Childhood's End?

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel looks interesting, but I haven't read it so really can't comment on suitability. It may offer some comment on the value of art and culture.

I'd like to take a look at some international SciFi writers. Cixin Liu's The Three Body Problem may be a bit much for our group in the science area, but I like his writing (which is mostly short stories).

Will look at more later.

PatH · « **Reply #2843 on:** February 13, 2017, 08:31:02 PM »

International sci-fi writers: except for British writers, I haven't read all that many, and I should. I've read some Jules Verne. I've read some of Polish writer Stanislaw Lem. He wrote Solaris, which was made into a movie twice, a Russian movie in 1972, and an American one in 2002. The Russian one is better, even if it doesn't have George Clooney in it, but they both are a lot different from the book, which has a lot of tedious (probably both political and satirical) philosophical speculation. He also wrote a detective story, The Investigation, which is kind of a cross between Kafka and Inspector Maigret.

There's a Russian fantasy writer I like, Sergei Lukyanenko. His trilogy, Night Watch, Day Watch, and Twilight Watch, takes place in post cold war Moscow, and deals with the conflict between good and evil, which has been reduced to a stable bureaucracy. They've got magic, and vampires, and witches, and legendary characters, definitely not playing to our audience.

All that isn't relevant to my problem, but I realized I maybe didn't ever share comments on those writers.

I didn't notice Moon's acknowledgement either, until we read Two Old Women. It reminded meof Moon's book, and I looked at it again and saw her comment.

Frybabe · « **Reply #2844 on:** February 14, 2017, 09:31:04 AM »

Jack Campbell is starting a new series about the founding of the Alliance in the Lost Fleet universe. Vanguard (Genesis Fleet) will be out in May.

Another book discussion thought: Lucas Bale's The Heretic (Beyond the Wall series). This can be read as one because the author changes up to new characters (for the most part) in the second book. The third also introduces new characters and begins to bring the separate stories together. I'll take a look at the ending again to see hat it can be read as a stand alone. Themes are of isolation, repressive government overseers, and religious persecution as I recall, in the first one. Very well done. http://www.lucasbale.com/the-heretic/
It is available through Kindle or as a paperback on Amazon. Unfortunately, I don't see it available elsewhere.

I was going to suggest Mars Endeavor by Peter Cawdron, but I see that both Amazon (which lists the paperback as out of print and the ebook not at all) and B&N have pulled it. It was only just published in 2016. I checked Amazon.au (he is Australian) and .de and it is pulled from them as well. What a shame! Wonder why. Nothing on his website or anywhere else to explain. So far, Amazon has not disappeared my ebook copy. What a shame! It is a good one for anyone interested in a pretty realistic view of survival in a permanent scientific community on Mars and the problems they encounter. Check out the video clip anyway.https://thinkingscifi.wordpress.com/2016/09/13/mars-endeavour/

Frybabe · « **Reply #2845 on:** February 15, 2017, 08:42:25 AM »

I took a look at Kindred; it looks interesting. My library has only one print copy (the 2003 25th Anniversary Edition) which is out until the 27th and one CD.

I can see some similarity in the theme between Two Old Women and Remnant Population. In the first, the two women were cast out, in the other the lone woman chose to stay behind. In the first, the two women ended up teaching their returned tribe some of the old lost skills of survival; in the second, Ophelia introduces new advanced skills into a group of very low tech but intelligent beings. One book looks back for survival, the other looks forward to advance a beginning intelligent civilization.

Frybabe · « **Reply #2846 on:** February 21, 2017, 08:02:08 AM »

Kindred came back early to the library and is now ready for me to pick up.

Meanwhile I am still on book V of the Crimson Worlds series. I may not continue too much farther in the series. The author is padding the books out big-time by many, many repetitious look-backs and "historical" background and of previous events is which is beginning to annoy me. Also, I am not interested in a subplot involving political maneuvering and assassinations, not to mention a super-secret project to grow a clone army (I think that is what he is doing at the point) to go up against the Marines. The meglamaniac, sociopath wants to take over the world and destroy the hated, tough, very capable Marine Corp. which, at the moment is in the middle of saving humanity from a robotic alien force. The author is packing everything he can into this series (overpacking if you ask me) and it is wearing me down just as much as his main characters (those that survive) are being worn down.

PatH · « **Reply #2847 on:** February 24, 2017, 01:51:56 PM »

While we're between book discussions, I thought it might be fun to fill in the gap by reading a science fiction/fantasy short story or two, just for fun. I've put up one; here's the link:

http://seniorlearn.org/forum/index.php?topic=5050.msg305084#msg305084

Frybabe · « **Reply #2848 on:** March 03, 2017, 08:02:22 AM »

Marco Kloos' next in a series of his I am reading was just released on Feb. 28. Naturally, it was my pick from the Lending Library for March. The "Lankies" have made it to Mars and overrun the place. They are also making small incursions onto the Earth. The Earth forces are trying to put together a force large enough to invade Mars and take it back. The Lankies like it warm, humid, and with a high CO2 atmosphere. If they don't kill you outright during an invasion, they eventually get you by terraforming the planets they invade to their liking.

Ken Liu's anthology of new Chinese short stories, Invisible Planets, arrived in time for me to pick it at the library yesterday.

PatH, is the new SciFi Short Story discussion in lieu of the SciFi book discussion you were looking into or in addition to?

Frybabe · « **Reply #2849 on:** March 03, 2017, 08:20:21 AM »

I was just looking at the Table of Contents in Invisible Planet and noted, with interest, that there are three essays on Chinese Science Fiction. The shortest of the three titles is "What Makes Chinese Science Fiction Chinese?" The other two are "The Worst of All Possible Universes and the Best of All Possible Earths: Three-Body and Chinese Science Fiction" and "The Torn Generation: Chinese Science Fiction in a Culture in Transition." I am excited about these enough to read them before the short stories. The 13 short stories "focus on visions of the future from China" per the book cover.

PatH · « **Reply #2850 on:** March 03, 2017, 03:06:57 PM »

Frybabe, the short story discussion was meant to be a fill-in while people figured out what book to discuss next. I have no idea how this will play out. I'm very grateful for your contributions;they keep things going, and besides I like the stories. I emailed the anarchist bee link to daughter Cathy, a sci-fi fan who actually knows something about anarchism.

I have more to say about it when I get a moment. This business in Portland is turning out to be rather time-consuming.

Frybabe · « **Reply #2851 on:** March 06, 2017, 05:59:33 AM »

Sigh, I have finished Marco Kloos' latest in his Frontlines series. Sigh! I guess it will be another year before the next one comes out.

I really like the characters. I like Kloos, too; he likes to write his stories out long-hand, pen to paper. In one of his blogs on his webpage, he says he purposely does not describe the lead character's physical features. He wants people to fill in from their own imaginations. Maybe that is part of the reason I like the series so much. Kloos makes his main character and narrator, Andrew Grayson, feel personal and personable; he could be any one of us ordinary folks, the guy next door, your best buddy, your co-worker, a relative, or you or me in another life. His other characters are similar in that respect.

Frybabe · « **Reply #2852 on:** March 09, 2017, 03:11:43 PM »

I am reading Craig A. Falconer's e-book, Not Alone. Wonder of wonders, it isn't a Military SciFi. Here is a guy who works in a - wait for it - bookstore. He is also a firm believer in extraterrestrials and has been since he was at least eight. He finds a stolen government folder which appears to point to a government cover-up of downed alien space ships (not Roswell, more than one in several countries around the world). He releases the most of the info anonymously, or so he thought, on the net. So begins the denials and accusations and attempts to discredit him by the government, other political figures trying to detour folks who are after their heads for other things, and the instant fame and the attendant new media frenzy. There is a PR person who almost instantly shows up and offers her services (very smart gal, knows people). I'm a little bit suspicious of her. It is a nice story, a nice change of pace.

Frybabe · « **Reply #2853 on:** March 17, 2017, 07:16:14 AM »

http://www.unboundworlds.com/2017/03/remembering-great-french-comic-artist-jean/?cdi=13F0CB1F062E09D7E0534FD66B0A73BA&ref=PRH2028E2388CC9

Unbound Worlds article about Sci-Fi Artist Jean ‘Mœbius’ Giraud who passed away a little over a year ago.

Frybabe · « **Reply #2854 on:** March 21, 2017, 05:52:04 AM »

I made an attempt to read John Wood Campbell's Invaders from the Infinite, giving up after reading about 10 pages. To my mind, it read like a 1950s SciFi movie.

Frybabe · « **Reply #2855 on:** March 24, 2017, 06:55:08 AM »

Interesting article about the consequences of long-term living in an enclosed environment (remember the Biosphere experiments?). http://www.unboundworlds.com/2017/03/meg-howreys-wanderers-americas-first-outer-space-mutiny/?cdi=13F0CB1F062E09D7E0534FD66B0A73BA&ref=PRH2028E2388CC9

Frybabe · « **Reply #2856 on:** April 04, 2017, 10:18:41 PM »

SciFi Book News:

John Scalzi has a new one out called The Collapsing Empire which looks intriguing. The discovery of "The Flow" enables FTL travel and everyone is now dependent on it. That's a problem, because it is changing and, as a result.], interstellar civilization is about to collapse. I've seen several comments that comparing it to Dune, but with the Scalzi touch. Here is Ars Technica's review. https://arstechnica.com/the-multiverse/2017/03/the-collapsing-empire-is-rip-roaring-space-opera-with-a-conscience/

The HUGO Award finalists have been announced. The list is here: http://www.tor.com/2017/04/04/2017-hugo-award-finalists-announced/ Cixin Liu is on the list for best novel for his third in the Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy which is called Death's End. I haven't read it yet.

Yea! Jack Campbell's latest book will be out in May. His new series, The Genesis Fleet, will be in The Lost Fleet universe, but is set in the years leading up to the founding of the Alliance. The title of the book is Vanguard. Can hardly wait.

PatH · « **Reply #2857 on:** April 05, 2017, 02:40:14 PM »

Thanks for the Hugo list, Frybabe. I'm getting awfully behind on the newer writers; most of these are unfamiliar to me. Only Liu in the novels, Bujold (who I like) and Mieville (kind of so-so) in the novellas, none of the novelettes, only Carrie Vaughan in the short stories. (I read a so-so novel about superheroes by her.)

I certainly want to read the LeGuin, and among the screenplays, I thought Rogue One was pretty good, and i haven't seen it, but Hidden Figures is obviously good too.

PatH · « **Reply #2858 on:** April 05, 2017, 02:47:37 PM »

Scalzi seems to like making civilizations collapse. It's touch and go if his Old Men's War universe is going to survive. We didn't settle it in The End of All Things, and there's another four-part End of All Things book coming out.

I'm eager for the new Campbell too.

Frybabe · « **Reply #2859 on:** April 05, 2017, 03:27:02 PM »

Oh, no! I didn't know The End of All Things wasn't actually the end. I was actually a bit disappointed in that one.

The Scifi I am reading right now, is called Corsair by James Cambias. With a title like that, you would think it was a spaceship, but it is not. The action is almost entirely on Earth. Unmanned cargo transports bringing in mined raw materials (in this case, Helium-3) are targets for nefarious types to hijack, via hacking the systems, these vehicles and divert them to another landing site. Big black market business. The hackers and thugs are duking it out via computer (mostly) with the Air Force and NASA contractors. The Air Force has satellites in place to intercept, but oddly, they don't carry weapons because of concerns over weaponizing space, a big fat no-no politically speaking. Although I am not too attached to any of the characters, it is a good, interesting read, if not spectacular.

Cambias has a new book out, only in e-book form, which has two stories in it called Outlaws and Aliens. I think I will take a look at it. He has also written a number of short stories, some published in anthologies and some published in magazines, the only title of which I recognized is Fantasy and Science Fiction Magazine.

Frybabe · « **Reply #2860 on:** April 17, 2017, 06:39:33 AM »

Many Books is featuring some SciFi books with unusual settings. http://manybooks.net/articles/6-books-with-the-most-unusual-settings Aside from the poor editing of this article, there are a several interesting books I might look into. Graham Edwards' Stone Trilogy beginning with Stone & Sky, the Deepscape Codex series beginning with Scar Night (not a very interesting title IMO) by Alan Campbell, and Larry Niven's The Integral Trees. Have you read any of them?

Oh, and maybe, Clive Barker's Weaveworld. I have never read any of Barker's books or seen his movies. I've always associated him with horror works, not something I like much.

PatH · « **Reply #2861 on:** April 17, 2017, 05:35:58 PM »

I haven't read any of those authors except I'm pretty sure I've read something of Larry Niven. He's kind of an old tried and true author.

Frybabe · « **Reply #2862 on:** April 21, 2017, 07:51:41 AM »

This morning I learned that Elizabeth Moon has returned to the SciFi genre with Cold Welcome. Yay! I get the newsletter, Unbound Worlds, from Penguin Random House. In it is an article titled "5 Women Writers Who Have Made Space Opera Their Own" with a link to a 50 page excerpt of the book. https://www.scribd.com/document/343656154/Cold-Welcome-50-Page-Friday#from_embed

Here is a link to the article: http://www.unboundworlds.com/2017/04/5-women-writers-made-space-opera/?cdi=13F0CB1F062E09D7E0534FD66B0A73BA&ref=PRH2028E2388CC9

John Scalzi's new book is now out. It is called The Collapsing Empire. I might have mentioned it earlier.

Patiently (or not so) waiting for the release of Daniel H. Wilson's new novel The Clockwork Dynasty due out in August. Goodreads has pre-publication reviews of it already. Fox has optioned the book, and Dreamworks has his Robopocalypse in development. If either of these see the light of day, I'll be interested in seeing them. They should think about doing his Amped too.

I am a big fan of all three of these authors.

PatH · « **Reply #2863 on:** April 24, 2017, 12:19:14 PM »

Frybabe, your 50 page sample worked, but the link to the 5 women writers didn't. Who are they?

The sample looks good.

Frybabe · « **Reply #2864 on:** April 24, 2017, 01:56:19 PM »

Elizabeth Moon, Lois McMaster Bujold, C. J. Cherryh, Kameron Hurley, Karen Traviss.

Of course there are many more women SciFi writers that just the five that Unbound Worlds featured. Because there are so many, I just never put it together just how many - a lot, I am just showing the google page. It has some lovely portraits of many of our favorites as well as those I never heard of. https://www.google.com/search?q=list+women+Science+Fiction+writers&ie=UTF-8&sa=Search&channel=fe&client=browser-ubuntu&hl=en&gws_rd=ssl

PatH · « **Reply #2865 on:** April 24, 2017, 09:33:56 PM »

Thanks. I like Moon and Bujold a lot. Cherryh is an author I can't seem to get into, but suspect that one day when the mood is right I'll read and enjoy her. My daughter likes her a lot. I never heard of Hurley and Traviss.

Of the Grand Masters, I like Norton, LeGuin, and Willis a lot, went through a McCaffrey phase.

Willis has a series about time-traveling historians. To Say Nothing of the Dog is a lighthearted, funny take-off on Jerome K. Jerome's Three Men in a Boat. In Doomsday Book, a historian accidentally goes to the time of an epidemic of the Black Death. This is contrasted to a present time epidemic of unknown origin. It's very good, but somewhat of a downer.

Lots of books left to read in those lists. I've read 14 out of the hundred and 10 out of the 23. The one book I read by Catherynne Valente, Palimpsest, was disfigured by a number of scenes describing in relentless detail some of the most joyless sex I've ever run across, with, in my opinion, no redeeming features to make it worthwhile putting up with it. I wouldn't have finished it except i was reading it for a discussion.

Frybabe · « **Reply #2866 on:** April 25, 2017, 07:21:06 AM »

I am not surprised that you haven't heard of Karen Traviss. Most of her works are book tie-ins to gaming venues like Star Wars and HALO. She has taken considerable criticism for her focus in both. Mostly, I saw that the hard core gaming fans were unhappy about her interjecting morals and moral consequences into mix, making the heroes look less than heroic and more morally flawed. I don't know about Star Wars, but in HALO there are a lot of moral grey areas, especially regarding the Spartan program. As much as I liked the HALO book series, I stopped reading most of it when I got to her books. They just didn't seem true to the game.

Having said that, I read that the new HALO game (5) is taking a lot of criticism too. It seems that they have taken The Fall of Reach (the first book in the series, but I don't know about the original game) and changed things so much that, as one critic said, the original has been "invalidated". Many long term HALO followers are not happy about recent changes, saying the game developers have lost their focus. I couldn't say, I never played the game. I just like the books and especially Eric Nylund's writing. I am going to see what he is up to now because he is no longer with Microsoft, having migrated to Amazon. Apparently they have a new gaming studio. I didn't know that. I wish he would write more good books rather than mess around so much with gaming.

Oh, back to Karen Traviss, she wrote a six book series called The Wess'har Wars, the first of which made it to the finals of the 2005 Campbell Awards. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_Pearl You can see from the description where her focus lies (morals, environmental issues).

Frybabe · « **Reply #2867 on:** April 28, 2017, 08:03:59 AM »

John Scalzi's new book, The Collapsing Empire, is in the library. In fact, the system has three (I could hardly believe it) copies. Oddly, neither Bosler or New Cumberland have it. Those are the two that have the largest SciFi collection. Our branch, at East Pennsboro, is pathetic. Most of our small collection is fantasy, and Teen fantasy at that.

My sister and I are going shopping next week, and one of the stores we will go to is Barnes and Noble. I am in the process of figuring out what I want to get there. The only thing on my list so far is a Roman history, assuming it is in store, which it probably isn't.

PatH · « **Reply #2868 on:** April 28, 2017, 11:05:54 AM »

Quote from: Frybabe on April 28, 2017, 08:03:59 AM

The only thing on my list so far is a Roman history, assuming it is in store, which it probably isn't.

Alas, that sounds like the Barnes and Noble near me. They're reasonably big, and I try to patronize them, but they always seem to be out of things they think they have.

Frybabe · « **Reply #2869 on:** April 29, 2017, 10:18:51 AM »

Well, that was fast. Scalzi's new book is already waiting for me at the library. It is all I can do to wait until Monday to pick it up. I need to go up to the township building on Monday to order delivery of some compost so I will make one trip instead of two.

Oh, nuts! I will be out shopping with my sister on Monday. Guess I will go up now. Don't want to wait another day.

PatH · « **Reply #2870 on:** April 29, 2017, 10:51:38 AM »

I envy you, Frybabe. Enjoy.

Frybabe · « **Reply #2871 on:** April 29, 2017, 05:17:19 PM »

Olivia E. Butler is featured in this week's Off the Shelf.

http://offtheshelf.com/2017/04/dawn-by-octavia-butler/?cp_type=OfftheShelf&rmid=OFF_THE_SHELF_WEEKLY&rrid=75537362

Frybabe · « **Reply #2872 on:** April 30, 2017, 05:14:54 AM »

PatH, I am disappointed in this new Scalzi to the point that I am not likely to finish it. For one thing, there are a lot of f words in the book. The other is that it just doesn't have the feel of something Scalzi had written. I may give it a couple of days and try to read on, but I am not connecting at all with the characters or the story line. Maybe the younger readers will take to it.

I was somewhat disappointed with his last book, too. That one seemed a bit lackluster. I hope this isn't a trend. In his acknowledgements for this new book, he stated that he was late submitting this book and the last to the publisher. Hmm. This time, he blamed the elections as too distracting. Well, yes, they pretty much distracted everyone. I checked his list of publications and discovered that I've read all but two of his early works.

Question to Mr. Scalzi: How would you like to write a book of short stories?

PatH · « **Reply #2873 on:** April 30, 2017, 08:47:12 AM »

Thanks for the article, Frybabe. I read Octavia Butler's Dawn many years ago, so the memory has dimmed, but it has a strange, weird feel to it. And although it's pretty flawed, it's somehow compelling, so you keep on reading. It didn't have the particular effect on me it did on the reviewer, since i was at a different, more settled, stage in life, and on comfortable terms with my family.

Too bad about the Scalzi; let's hope he recovers from his slump, but not all authors stay good forever. Old Men's War has a lot of f--s in it too, but you put up with them because they are appropriate and the story is good.

Frybabe · « **Reply #2874 on:** April 30, 2017, 12:36:35 PM »

You are probably right about the f word in the Old Man's War series. I must have passed over them because they seemed in character and such. Or, I am just being more sensitive to it lately. Well, I'll give it a few days and then go back to it. Sometimes that helps.

Tomorrow I can borrow another book from the Amazon Lending Library. I am probably going to catch the next installment of the Ember Wars series, if I can remember which book I read last. I am really going to have to write down where I stopped on these things.

Frybabe · « **Reply #2875 on:** April 30, 2017, 04:48:00 PM »

Scalzi's book is another one I had to put down and settle before going back to it. I am getting a better picture of what is going on, now, with the second chapter. BUT, the foul language has not abated. I counted as many as six a page, and there was something on the majority of the pages across three seperate threads. Yes, this is another one that takes several threads and eventually weaves them together. The Scalzi humor is there, but I think understated, perhaps wry or facetious at times.

Frybabe · « **Reply #2876 on:** May 02, 2017, 06:15:40 PM »

Ok, finished the Scalzi. My overall take: His usual sense of humor started to shine through after a few chapters, the foul language didn't slow down much, there were quite a few raunchy bits (most of these last two being generated by one character), the ending is setting up for a sequel which may be worth following.

The end of the Empire is at hand, not due to aliens, but to the impending collapse of a cosmological feature called the Flow which connects far ranging colonies. The Flow is the means of getting to these far apart places. There are a few that are trying to take political and commercial advantage of the not at all general knowledge of this upcoming event. There are those who want to save humanity, or as many as possible,by preparing them for the coming isolation or evacuate them to the only self-sustaining world available. Most of the colonies are not self-sustaining, but depend on commerce with other colonies to sustain their own. And then there are those who are bent on taking advantage of the coming chaos to set themselves up as the next political top dogs as well as for control of commerce. Power and Greed.

Frybabe · « **Reply #2877 on:** May 04, 2017, 06:51:58 AM »

For Dragon lovers, fantasy writer Marie Brennan has a series of dragon novels known as A Memoir by Lady Trent. A Natural History of Dragons is the first in series. http://www.swantower.com/writing/natural-history-dragons/

PatH · « **Reply #2878 on:** May 04, 2017, 12:39:24 PM »

I'm kind of neutral about dragons. The dragon story I mean to read sometime is Jo Walton's Tooth and Claw. It's a family sagainvolving a highly mannered society, only they're dragons, with a few gory customs in addition to their polish.

I've read another of her books: Farthing. It's the first of an alternative history trilogy. Churchill didn't come to power at the beginning of WWII; instead, Britain made peace with Hitler, and sat out the war in an increasingly totalitarian and antisemitic society. There's a murder mystery, and political intrigue, and we're left hanging at the end of the first volume.

Frybabe · « **Reply #2879 on:** May 04, 2017, 02:26:01 PM »

Just released two days ago, I forgot to mention, is the latest Liaden universe novel, The Gathering Edge by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller. It looks like this thread follows Theo Waitley; I think the prequel to this one is Alliance of Equals.